Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew opposes the war in Ukraine. The Patriarchs of Alexandria, Jerusalem, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Georgia have spoken out as well. The Archbishop of the Czeck Lands and Slovakia has spoken out. Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens has also spoken out. I may inadvertently have left other leaders out. In one form or another Orthodox leaders have raised their voices either to condemn the war outright or to urge President Putin to cease all military actions.
The voices of such a large portion of the Church cannot and should not be ignored. The most important plea for an end to the invasion of Ukraine came from Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev who is the spiritual leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This is the canonical Church under the Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia.
Patriarch Kyril of Moscow has been widely criticized for making a vague statement regarding the war. At this point, it is too early to judge and criticize. Patriarch Kyril made a statement very early on when it was unclear what was happening and why. Why should there be criticism for a a statement that was carefully guarded and restrained before all the facts were out?
As the war has progressed it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify Russian actions. Especially when Orthodox Christians are suffering. The religion of people in a war should not make a difference since we are all people. As it stands there are still many uncertainties and unknown factors.
Morally, Orthodox Christians should oppose the war. Not just this war but wars in general. Politics is clouding the issues here because factually the “international community” hates Russia. To bring about an end to the hostilities diplomacy must be given a chance to work.
The Orthodox Church could have the most significant influence on ending the war and its voice should be considered welcome by the world. President Putin is a churchgoer who has made pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Mount Athos. There are reports that two hundred Russian priests are calling on the President to stop bombing Ukraine.
During the winter of 1996 there were pro democracy demonstrations in Belgrade, Serbia against the rule of President Slobodon Milosovic. The demonstrators were blessed by the late Serbian Patriarch Pavle. The Serbian Orthodox Church and other Serbian groups wanted peace in the former Yugoslavia and were willing to help remove Milosovic.
What the Church and the Serbs wanted was to ensure that Kosovo would remain part of Serbia. The United States and its leaders such as Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Richard Holbrooke, and Wesley Clarke preferred to destroy Serbia. Before the beginning of hostilities in 1999, Undersecretary of State Holbrooke presented the Serbs with a plan for “peace”. The plan would have required the Serbs to give up Kosovo after three years.
They knew the Serbs would not sign such a plan. They wanted to destroy Serbia. There are important similarities between Serbia and Russia. Kosovo was the spiritual center of Orthodox Serbia with its glorious Churches and Monasteries. Kiev is the birthplace of Orthodox Russia.
It is of extreme importance that the voice of the Orthodox Church be heard by all sides. As a son of the Church, President Putin should demonstrate his piety by ending the war. The west should cease and desist its hostile propaganda and military actions (NATO) against Russia.
Even more importantly, the west should give up trying to export LGBT to Orthodox countries. A member of British intelligence has said the campaign against Russia is about gay and transgender rights! People like this should have nothing to do with the sensitive issue of the war.
Just as President Putin should grant the requests of the Orthodox Churches and stop the war, the west should respect and acknowledge the Orthodox Churches. For decades western culture has promoted secularism in the name of pushing faith into private life.
The power and influence of Orthodoxy in Russia and Ukraine may very well be the key to restoring peace in the Russian and Ukrainian lands. This is assuming that the west has better intentions toward Russia than it had for Serbia.
2 replies on “The Orthodox Churches On The War”
It is time for all Orthodox Church leadership to call for an immediate cease fire and discussions without delay to end this conflict. I’m truly disappointed in Putin, it needn’t have come to this. The west’s hands are not clean in Ukraine and the promise not to extend NATO that was issued in 1994 was like so many promises coming out of Washington DC-subject to political considerations. Discussion to allow Ukraine to join NATO should have been terminated in the beginning, that’s all Putin needed to go all paranoid. But Russia could have done other things to support their interests in that region. They should not have given unquestioning support to the Yanukovych regime which was massively corrupt, but should have supported reform efforts. Putin exhibited an inability to think outside of the box and has fallen back on militaristic foreign policy of the 19th and 20th century, this will be very costly to Russia and to Putin himself-he badly miscalculated. At any rate, the Churches need to get behind a full Court pressure to end the conflict and commence discussions. Too many innocents have already died.
I think America and the media would have been wise to empasize and publicize the opposition to this war by virtually all Orthodox Churches. Very important is the fact the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under Moscow has condemned the invasion and many bishops have turned against the Russian Patriarch.
Publicizing Orthodox opposition to the war might very well compel Putin the Churchgoer to reflect. Maybe not but it will put a little pressure on him. But the western media and governments have not thought of this because they know nothing about Russia and Orthodox culture. That ignorance is what allowed this tension to exist and to surface in the deadly way that it has.