Russia Ukrainian parliament bans Moscow Orthodox Church
Ukraine's parliament has voted to ban the Orthodox Church, which is affiliated with Russia. According to MPs, the controversial bill received a broad majority in the Rada in Kiev in the second reading. Of 322 MPs present, 265 voted in favor of the law.
20.08.2024, 12:36
20.08.2024, 13:01
SDA
The ban is justified by the Moscow Patriarchate's support for the war of aggression against Ukraine. The offshoot of this church in Ukraine had justified the crimes against its own people. Officially, the law serves to protect national security and religious freedom. President Volodymyr Selenskyj must countersign laws.
In Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova sharply criticized the ban. "The aim is to destroy the deeply canonical, true Orthodoxy," she said.
The law will come into force 30 days after its publication, said MP Jaroslaw Schelesnjak. The individual parishes would then have nine months to break away from Moscow. In the fragmented Ukrainian church landscape, around 10,000 parishes are still subject to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Orthodox Church of Russia.
Church as an "agent network of the Kremlin"
"Today we have embarked on the inevitable path of cleaning up the Kremlin's network of agents, which has been hiding behind the mask of a religious organization for decades, from the inside out," wrote MP Roman Losynskyj on Facebook.
While the law was being discussed, there were also warnings from Ukraine's Western partners not to deepen the religious divide in Ukraine through the ban.
For centuries, Russia and large parts of Ukraine formed a unified church area that belonged to the Moscow Patriarchate. However, since gaining independence as a state, Ukraine has also been trying to gain its ecclesiastical independence.
In 2018, World Patriarch Bartholomew in Constantinople recognized an Orthodox Church of Ukraine that is no longer subject to Moscow. In May 2022, following the Russian invasion, the church in Ukraine loyal to Moscow declared its formal separation from Russia, but continues to recognize the Moscow Patriarch.
There are priests and bishops in this church who represent Moscow's interests, but there are also many priests, congregations and ordinary church members who clearly support Ukraine.
