Following Patriarch Kiril’s visit, Ukraine Orthodox to part ways with Moscow

“Moscow believes the Russian church should become the main cementing factor of the so-called Eastern Orthodox unity and Orthodox civilization. Kiril’s visit is a manifestation of this political concept. All the earlier statements that Patriarch Kiril’s visit is beyond politics are absolutely hypocritical, and this is understood both in Moscow and in Kyiv,”Yurash maintains.

That Moscow tries to give the visit a high profile is Russia’s reaction to the attempts by Ukraine Orthodox to put their church on the Ukrainian footing, something which the last several conventions of Ukrainian archbishops have reaffirmed.

Moscow cannot go on sitting on its hands while the situation in Ukraine is getting out of its control and pro-Ukrainian feeling among the Ukrainian clergy becoming stronger, the expert notes.

There may be two opposing results of Kiril’s visit to Ukraine, Yurash believes. On the one hand, his visit will strengthen pro-Moscow believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), which has special relations with Moscow. The telling examples of such patronage is the appointment of Donetsk Metropolitan Ilarion to the board of the ROC, open support of Odesa Metropolitan Agafangel, flirtations with some of UOC prominent bishops and unwillingness to accept the growing independence of UOC (Kyiv Patriarchate).

On the other hand, Kiril’s visit may spur pro-Ukrainian clergy within the UOC into assessing more realistically their future and see for themselves that Moscow will never recognize the autonomy of the UOC.