Peace and strengthening of UOC will hinder development of OCU, - religious expert

Scottish journalist and religious expert of Macedonian origin Andrea Bogdanovski expressed his opinion on the future of the Ukrainian religious sphere in the event of peace in Ukraine, through agreements between the United States and Russia. Bogdanovski is convinced that if peace is achieved according to Donald Trump’s scenario, Russia will install a “puppet government” in Ukraine and will be able to take the Ukrainian Orthodox Church out of harm’s way, which will hinder the development of the OCU. He wrote about this in a publication on the Premier Christianity website.

“If the Europeans, including the United Kingdom (and the previous Biden administration), sought to ensure the strongest possible position for Ukraine in negotiations with Russia, Trump’s approach has completely changed this situation. As the United States has so far given in to Putin’s demands, discussions around the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are bound to arise, leading to major changes in the dynamics of faith in the country. The Kremlin has consistently argued that Zelenskyy is persecuting Christians and supporters of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) with the intention of dismantling Orthodoxy. It has historically claimed that Ukraine belongs to its canonical domains, and now it is seeking to regain its former Russian control,” — the expert said.

Andriy Bohdanovsky added that the peace plan, which includes territorial concessions that Ukraine will be forced to make, will affect the religious atmosphere of the country, strengthen the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church and negatively affect the development of the OCU.

“If Trump, who is in a hurry to win a quick victory, manages to force Ukraine to obedience under the pretext of ‘peace talks’ and Moscow takes the opportunity to establish its own puppet regime in Kyiv, the first thing to do will be to return the UOC-MP to the Ukrainian religious mainstream. As a result, the first priority would be to lift any current restrictions on the UOC-MP, which has traditionally been under the rule of the Russian Orthodox Church. Moscow could demand the adoption of new legislation that would guarantee the rights of its believers and consolidate its position in Ukrainian society. […] Under the leadership of Metropolitan Epifaniy, the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) will be vulnerable to the ambitions of the next political government. The growing presence of the UOC-MP in Ukrainian society is likely to hinder the development of the OCU, as the transfer of local parishes may come to a standstill and international recognition of its autocephaly is unlikely to move forward. Moscow is likely to insist on repealing any legislation that allows the transfer of parishes from the UOC-MP to the OCU, a process that intensified in 2019 after Ukraine received autocephaly. Metropolitan Epifaniy and the independent OCU are in danger of being pushed to the sidelines,” — Bogdanovsky added.

Earlier we reported that the Secretary General of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Professor Jerry Pillay, called for an end to the fighting in Ukraine. Pillay noted that the war continues without any signs of its immediate cessation, while people are senselessly dying and civilian infrastructure is being destroyed.