Ukraine Orthodox church breaks with Russia’s

The Ukrainian Orthodox church has joined a political struggle by Kiev against Russia, declaring “independence” from the Russian Orthodox Church.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced the development on Saturday, after a council of Orthodox bishops held an official gathering in the capital, Kiev, to establish an “independent” Orthodox church.

“This day will go down in history as a sacred day... the day of the final independence from Russia,” a fiercely anti-Russia Poroshenko told supporters outside Kiev’s Saint Sophia Cathedral, claiming that an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church was now a “matter of national security.”

“This is a question of Ukrainian statehood,”' he said. “We are seizing spiritual independence, which can be likened to political independence. We are breaking the chains that tie us to the [Russian] empire.”

Poroshenko often speaks of a “Russian empire,” in what is generally seen as an attempt to drum up anti-Russia sentiments inside Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate for centuries, but tensions within the church mounted after Ukraine became independent in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The drive for the establishment of an independent church intensified in 2014, when the Crimean Peninsula chose to join Russia following a referendum.

The Ukrainian president also announced on Saturday the election of 39-year-old Metropolitan Epifaniy of the Kiev Patriarchate as the head of the new church.

Epifaniy’s regular name is Sergiy Dumenko.

The new church leader is expected to visit Turkey, alongside Poroshenko, in January to receive an official decree of independence from the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, an Istanbul-based institution considered the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians worldwide.

Russia declares Ukrainian church move ‘void’

The Russian Orthodox Church has long objected to Kiev’s attempts to create an “independent” church.

The Saturday gathering of Ukrainian bishops was swiftly denounced by the Russian Orthodox Church, which branded the decision to be “void.”

“The non-canonical gathering… under the general guidance of a layman and the country’s head, as well as a foreigner, who doesn’t know the local language, has picked a non-canonical ‘bishop’ to become an equally non-canonical ‘primate,’” deputy head of the Moscow Patriarchate, Protoiereus Nikolay Balashov, said, adding that the whole event meant “nothing” to the Church.

A spokesman for Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, also said the Moscow Patriarchate will continue to work in Ukraine despite the creation of the new independent church.

The Orthodox Church in Ukraine is divided between two main branches, one of which pledges loyalty to Moscow and the other is overseen by the Kiev-based Patriarch Filaret that Moscow does not recognize.

In a decision in October, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople agreed to recognize the Ukrainian Church’s “independence” from Moscow. The Russian Church announced it would break ties with the Constantinople Patriarchate in protest.

The Russian Orthodox Church has repeatedly voiced fears that Ukraine will use legal moves or even force to take control of the churches and monasteries under its control.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian police raided three Orthodox churches aligned with Russia amid mounting political and religious tensions between the two countries.

PressTV-Ukraine raids three Russia-linked Orthodox churches

Ukraine has raided three churches aligned to Russia amid mounting tensions between the two countries.

Kiev-Moscow tensions have hit a record high since Russia’s naval forces intercepted and seized three Ukrainian vessels for illegally entering Russian waters off the coast of Crimea in the Sea of Azov on November 25.

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