The root cause of the current conflict between the UOC and the state is that society in Ukraine is very mixed, has a limited range of common themes for unity and at the same time consists of many groups with different interests. Religious scholar and sociologist Nikolai Mitrokhin said this in an interview with Dialog.TUT.
“I traveled a lot in Ukraine, in different regions. If you look at what people (not necessarily supporters of the UOC; I had several projects related to political stability in Ukraine, and talked to different political and public figures) really say and think, it differs from what the Ukrainian media write, very much. Even in the Ukrainian media themselves, the situation is like this: it is one thing when a journalist does an interview with you, and quite another when you talk privately. These will be two different people with completely different confessions,” he said.
According to Mitrokhin, Ukraine’s state machine is driven by “certain ideological rails that define its statehood. These are the narratives that the Ukrainian press is so fond of talking about, the purpose of which is to establish and promote a pan-Ukrainian ideology. And the UOC refuses to participate in this, which, in my opinion, is not only strange, but even harmful. The idea that it is necessary to be “the Church for all” and therefore should not participate in any national political and cultural program (even the Holodomor fixation as a national tragedy) might still have made sense in 2013. But in the current climate of war and Ukraine’s gravitation toward a more pro-national sentiment, this idea is illogical.”
“More than once I have asked the representatives of the Kyiv Metropolitan Church a question: why does the UOC not participate in memorial days related to the Ukrainian war? Why are there no services in honor of the UNR, the Secherners, for example? After all, in any state it is perfectly normal for the Church to participate in such national celebrations. I asked: will the UOC ever have such services? The answer I heard was: “Absolutely not.” Why not? What ecclesiastical and political grounds are there for this? This all suggests that the modern leadership of the UOC has a “block” on this issue. And I do not think that this block is dictated by conditional Moscow (which is much more tolerant of the “local specifics” than it seems, and services in honor of victims of the Holodomor or the Sechevik Streltsy would “not notice” easily, as evidenced by the position of its bishops in Europe and the Baltic states). So, it is directly the position of the UOC leadership,” the religious scholar is convinced.
He also added that “everyone is entitled to political views. But it is one thing to have personal convictions, and quite another when you lead a large nationwide church that still has to give the Caesar’s to the Caesar’s.”
Mitrokhin noted that now the level of mutual hatred between Ukrainians and Russians is very high. And the actions of the AFU and the people of Ukraine to protect their country have the support and approval of the leadership of the UOC.
“Why not extend the same approach to the forces that have been defending Ukraine from the Russians over the last century – the way they understood it: at the turn of the 1910s and 20s, in the 1940s? Why are the services for the soldiers of the UPR and the UPA completely given to the clergy of the PCU or the UGCC, while many of those soldiers (at least in Volyn, Podolia and the Podniprovie) were baptized in the Russian Greek Catholic Church – the predecessor of the UOC in organizational terms? Why does nothing prevent the east and south of the country from holding memorial services for soldiers of the Red and Soviet armies, many of whom were atheists or generally carried to Ukraine the ideas of Stalin’s persecution for the faith? Where is the logic here – not only politically, but also from the Church’s point of view?” – noted the religious scholar.
He is convinced that “going on the defensive (“we won’t explain to anyone what all this means, including members of our own Church”) leads to a huge number of problems. First of all with the state authorities. If until a certain time the state turned a blind eye to this, now, in a situation of general crisis, it turns out that the UOC can only endure attacks of state propaganda – yes, unjust, but the UOC cannot counteract them, except for courage and faith of ordinary believers, who defend churches”.
“I talk a lot with believers and priests in western Ukraine and I see that their patience is running out. How long can we “stand in faith” without receiving adequate support from Kiev? It is there, but it is clearly not enough. And most importantly, there is no explanation as to why all of this is happening,” Mitrokhin stressed.
