Open AccessTHE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN UKRAINE: FROM THE COLONIAL STAGE TO AUTOCEPHALY
Author(s) -
Svitlana Kahamlyk
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
ukraïnoznavčij alʹmanah
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2520-2626
DOI - 10.17721/2520-2626/2018.23.9
Subject(s) - ukrainian , elite , secularization , law , political science , subordination (linguistics) , jurisdiction , centralized government , church history , sociology , history , classics , philosophy , politics , linguistics
The article analyzes the major milestones in history of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. The main attention is pay to the first century of colonial state of the Church, from the time when the Kyiv Metropolitanate was subordinated to the Moscow Patriarchate in 1686 until the act of secularization of church lands in 1786. During that time the Ukrainian church elite defended her rights and interests in the conditions of Russian centralism. In particular, the attempts of higher clergy to preserve the traditional canonical jurisdiction of Church in Constantinople patriarchy as so as the actions of elite in protecting the interests of church institutions in the conditions of subordination to the Moscow Patriarchate (1686-1720) and advocacy of legal rights and property of the Orthodox Church in Synodal period (1721-1786) are considered in the abstract form. It is concluded that the century in Ukrainian history since the subordination of the Kyiv Metropolitanate of Moscow Patriarchate in 1686 to the act of secularization of church lands in 1786 marked the opposition of the Ukrainian ecclesiastical elite to Russian centralism and the attempt to defend traditional rights and interests of the Orthodox Church in various forms. The success of the struggle of the Ukrainian church elite for its rights directly depended on the interests and tastes of the Russian ruling circles, as well as on the support of the secular elite and the heads of the Hetmanate. It is noted that since the independence of Ukraine, a negotiation process between the three branches of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine - the UOC-MP, the UOC-KP, and the UAOC, has begun which was held with varying success. The lack of effective agreements on the creation of a single Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church was associated with different views of each of the parties of the principles of the unification process and their different understanding of canonicality. The significance of the agreement reached by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko on the provision by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Tomos of autocephaly and the creation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Local Church are stressed. This will begin a new stage in the history of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine - a return to free developmentof the Stavropig of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.