Tangle of church and state splits Ukrainian Orthodox
Across Ukraine congregations are debating whether to join the recently created, independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine—or remain affiliated with the Moscow patriarch.
(The Christian Science Monitor) Boris Kovalchuk arrived 19 years ago in the small agricultural village of Pylypovychi. Since then, he has ministered to the needs of Orthodox believers as the local priest, maintaining a spiritual tradition that has held sway in this land for centuries.
In recent months, a debate has divided the village’s 1,500 people: Should its little onion-domed church—its first since the Bolsheviks destroyed the previous one in 1932—retain its traditional affiliation with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which owes spiritual allegiance to the patriarch in Moscow? Or should it shift to the recently created Orthodox Church of Ukraine?
Communities across Ukraine often discuss such questions in the language of geopolitics and national aspirations, exacerbated over the past five years by Ukraine’s conflict with Russia.
