world religions

War in Ukraine: The Divided Orthodox Church

The Dormition of the Mother of God of Sviatohirsk Lavra in Donetsk, a famous Orthodox monastery, (pictured here on December 24, 2021), is among many religious buildings that have been hit by shelling.

© Andriy Andriyenko/AP

By: Véronique Gaymard Follow

1 min

The war in Ukraine has been going on for more than 5 months.

What Russia calls a “special operation” launched against its Ukrainian neighbor on February 24, 2022, leads to ever more destruction, abuses, deaths, displacement.

The Orthodox faithful find themselves deeply divided.

While the Patriarch of Moscow, Cyril, has openly supported this war and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the unity of the Orthodox Church is cracking.

Certain churches which depended on the patriarchate of Moscow detach themselves from it and approach the patriarchate of Constantinople, others declare themselves independent.

This division is palpable even in the diaspora.

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Monsignor Jean de Dubna, the archbishop of the Orthodox churches of Russian tradition in Western Europe, has been attached to the Moscow Patriarchate since 2019. From Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on rue Daru in Paris, he addressed an open letter to Patriarch Cyril of Moscow to ask him to intercede with the political power to stop the war.

Speakers:

  • Monsignor John of Dubna,

    Archbishop of the Orthodox Churches of Russian Tradition in Western Europe

  • Antoine Arjakovsky,

    director of research at the Collège des Bernardins, specialist in Orthodoxy and ecumenism (author of " 

    What is Orthodoxy?

     ", Folio Essay editions; " 

    What is ecumenism?

     », Editions du Cerf)

  • Oleg Kobtzeff,

    Lecturer at the American University of Paris, Visiting Professor of History at the St Serge Institute of Orthodox Theology

  • Orthodox faithful met at the Saint-Alexandre-Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral (rue Daru in Paris), or at the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic cathedral Saint Volodymyr le Grand (rue des Saints Pères in Paris).

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