Orthodox competition

The procession of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in Kyiv

On July 27, on the eve of the Day of the Baptism of Rus', in Kyiv on the Vladimir hill, the prayer male "for peace and love" should end with the procession organized by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC -MP). Two columns of believers, each number of several hundred (according to other sources - more than a thousand) people participate in it. One came out on July 3 from eastern Ukraine, from the Donetsk region where hostilities continues, the other moved to Kyiv on the 9th from the west, from the Ternopil region. The authorities are afraid of provocations on Tuesday, the 26th, decided to ban the passage of believers in Kiev streets -they will be delivered to the destination with buses.

The procession "For Peace and Love" in Kyiv is a direct video broadcast:

Participants in the procession from the east and west of the country met on the European square in the center of the Ukrainian capital and climbed to the Vladimir Gorka. The governors of the Svyatogorsk, Pochaev and Pechersk Lavr went to the head of the columns. Part of the pilgrims from the east of Ukraine, who previously blocked the nationalists, brought to the European Square by buses. Now near the monument to Prince Vladimir is a moleben, in which about 6 thousand people participate.

On a prayer service near the monument to Prince Vladimir, as well as only citizens of Ukraine on the European Square. At the entrance there were about 20 frames with metal detectors, passport and individual control with inspection of bags and personal things.

From the Vladimir slide, pilgrims are sent to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. The authorities are afraid of provocations during this procession. Nationalists and other radicals threatened to prevent the procession along the metropolitan streets, calling it "the separatist march of the Russian Orthodox Church."

The Ministry of Internal Affairs called for "patriots, in no case do not enter into any confrontations and do not become the initiators of possible conflicts with the participants in the action." This is in the hand only to the Kremlin-all the external and internal enemies of Ukraine, "said the adviser to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Zoryan Shkiryak .

The traffic along the central streets of Kyiv is blocked. Metal fences are installed in front of the Vladimir Gorka Park, as well as on the roadway and on the sidewalk near the Maidan of Independence opposite the building of the Kyiv City Council of Trade Unions in Khreshchatyk.

Participants in the procession on Vladimir Gorka

To protect order in the center of the Ukrainian capital, about 6 thousand fighters of the National Guard and National Police officers were involved. Some of them are in body armor, in their hands hold protective helmets. The central highways also patrol self -defense cars. All hospitals of the city are transferred to an enhanced mode of operation.

Along the roads and in arches on the central roads, including not far from Square-on the way to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, there are several people in groups of order in groups. From 13:00 and 20:00, the Arsenalnaya metro station is closed to the laurel.

The causes of increased security measureswere reported on Facebook by the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov : “Having received corresponding information, in the order of preventing possible terrorist threats and provocations around the procession of the Orthodox Church (MP), I instructed to intervene in the order by the organizers of the city of Kiev and real combat layings with grenades - according The planned route - we have no doubt in the reality of threats and provocations.

Safety of citizens - above religious rituals

P-1 grenades and mulyazhi mines were, according to the minister, found on the alleged procession route on Tuesday morning. Advisor to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko said that "professionals who laid a laying of dummies tried to distract the attention of police officers from real combat grenades." According to Gerashchenko, the subsequent proposal of the authorities to put believers on buses "is not a desire to insult their religious feelings, but only a measure of ensuring their safety."

KIIV GOT TO THE WHAT IS WORLD HTTPS://t.co/JM7OZ5gPrs pic.twitter.com/3YM9IG9HBF

- 24 Channel (@24tvua) July 27, 2016

Despite this, some of the participants in the procession, coming from the east of the country, nevertheless passed through the center of Kyiv, including through Independence Square.

Khreshchatyk #Reference Cross #Cross Pic.twitter.com/md8xlxnmgy

- Olena Dub (@olenadub) July 27, 2016

The passage of the participants in the procession by the surroundings of Kyiv was also not easy - unlike the part of the route that came to the east of Ukraine and where they often expressed sympathies. The City Council of Borispol, Kyiv region, decided not to allow the procession to the territory subordinate to it. On the way of columns, Ukrainian nationalist organizations exhibited pickets and even impromptu checkpoints. In the village of Aleksandrovka near Kiev, one of the activists of the Avtomaydan movement brought the picture reminiscent of the icon with the image of Russian President Vladimir Putin and turned to the participants of the procession with the words: "Here is your god, you pray to him."

Cross in Ukraine

The opinions expressed regarding the Promotion of the UOC MP by its organizers and representatives of the Ukrainian authorities are exactly the opposite. Metropolitan Borispolsky and Brovarsky Anthony , managing the affairs of the UOC MP: "Those forces that are in vain try to find a political component here must remember that the church is not a political institution." The head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasily Gritsak : "Those forces who do not want Ukraine do not want, we need Franz Ferdinand , which caused the beginning of the First World War."

The political and religious component of the current procession of Radio Liberty was told by the historian-religious, an employee of the Center for Research at Eastern Europe at the University of Bremen (Germany) Nikolai Mitrokhin .

-Nikolai, let's start with the main issue, which is discussed in connection with the procession in Ukraine: what is more-politicians or is it still some kind of church phenomenon, spiritual?

This is a purely political action, and I believe, I believe, not in Ukraine, but in Moscow

- No, this is a purely political action, and I believe, I believe, not in Ukraine, but in Moscow. Since stylistically this repeats the "Easter marches of the world" accurately organized by pro-Soviet supporters of pacifism in Europe in the 1960–80s. The memory of such events could only be preserved in the heads of people who somehow participated in this, and in particular, they are former employees of the department of external church relations (VPS) of the Moscow Patriarchate, including Cyril (Gundyaev), the current Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus'. In Ukraine, there was no similar tradition, as far as I know. The processions themselves were on their own, but that they pass with clearly marked political goals, that is, for example, for the world - this is a new phenomenon for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It is unlikely that this kind of action could be initiated by Metropolitan Onufry , who currently heads the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, since he is a conservative monk, for him a more natural state - to take a position in which he sits more or less or does not do anything, as it has happened so far. But do not organize some political processions from all over Ukraine. The idea, I think, was expressed by Patriarch Kirill, and it is implemented with the support of pro -Russian structures that exist in Ukraine.

Nikolai Mitrokhin

- How strong are these structures, for example, in the western part of Ukraine? Because part of the procession goes, as you know, from the Ternopolshchina, from the Pochaev Lavra . What positions did the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate have?

- The Pochaevskaya Lavra itself is a large monastery in which there is a sufficient number of monks, and a large number of people around this laurel are supported by the Moscow Patriarchate. There, in the Ternopil region, until 2014 there were about 120 Orthodox communities associated with Pochaev in two surrounding areas. Now there are fewer of them. There is the most serious conflict zone associated with the split of the communities and the transition of the units of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UOC -KP) . In general, there is a huge Orthodox community from the regions of Western Ukraine-this is primarily the Rivne and Lutsk region, also Chernivtsi, maybe someone from Transcarpathia is. That is, to dial a rather large column in Pochaev in principle, in my opinion, is not a question.

- Let's try to more widely evaluate the balance of power. It is known that the Ukrainian Orthodox flock is divided between several churches. In recent years, the balance of power has somehow changed-the Moscow Patriarchate, the Kiev Patriarchate, the Autocephalous Church?

The Ukrainian political class considers it necessary to initiate the creation of autocephalous, regardless of Moscow

- I was engaged in field research last year in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, this year again mainly in the southern ones, and I can say that, with many public statements about the transition of a significant number of people to the Kiev Patriarchate, the priests of either the Kyiv Patriarchate or Moscow are not confirmed by this. Yes, they increased somewhat by a quarter, the community of the Kyiv Patriarchate in southern and eastern Ukraine. But since they are a rather marginal phenomenon there, no more than a third of the number of parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate, and in some regions, such as the Kharkov region or Odessa, even less, then, respectively, this does not have much practical significance. But for the Ukrainian state, the situation looks different.

- Namely?

- The Ukrainian political class, state official considers it necessary to initiate the creation of an autocephalous church, regardless of Moscow. Previously, the idea was that it is created mainly on the basis of the Kyiv Patriarchate, now this concept has been modified. But in any case, in Kyiv there is a conviction that such a large church of the Moscow Patriarchate is not needed. At the same time, the Ukrainian political class focuses on the calculations of sociologists who show that two -thirds of the Ukrainian Orthodox say that they are believers of the Kyiv Patriarchate, and no more than a third say that they recognize Moscow. In practice, I dispute these data because there is such an indicator as the number of registered communities, according to which Moscow is in the jurisdiction of three times more communities than that of the Kyiv Patriarchate. Moreover, according to my data, the number of registered parishioners of the Kyiv Patriarchate is artificially overestimated, which was directly told to me, including key figures at the regional level - in the Kiev Patriarchate itself.

Filaret, Patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate

-The very fact is that the procession, its eastern column comes from the Donbass, from the Donetsk region, and prays for Ukraine, although its participants are assessed mostly Ukrainian society as pro-Russian people, nevertheless, it can be considered a certain attempt to show that Ukraine is still united? What, in your opinion, hopes to get the organizers of the procession from this action?

- I think that the main goal of prayer for the unity of Ukraine is completely different. The main goal is to demonstrate that the population of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Moscow Orthodox Church is more supported by the population than they think in Kyiv. The more the UOC -MP leads to the streets, the more a serious political application for the right of its own, it makes it. Since in Kyiv, for example, people who make political decisions, or political journalists are absolutely firmly convinced that the Kiev Patriarchate is many times higher than the UOC -MP. Therefore, the state presses the Universal Patriarchate of Constantinople to recognize the UOC -KP by an independent church or recognize the unification of churches, raises the question of the foundation of the new Ukrainian autocephalous church. In this regard, the main task of the UOC -MP is to show that it is early to write off from accounts, that it can withdraw a large crowd of people, and the UOC -KP cannot do this. Now there are interesting events, because the procession of the UOC-MP should end on the 27th, and on July 28. The UOC -KP has appointed its procession, but within Kyiv. Apparently, it will show another crowd, demonstrate that there are also a lot of them.

The main task of the UOC -MP is to show that it is early to write off the accounts

- A suggestive question: will they measure by forces, but the result of this Orthodox competition is even a greater separation of believers? What can all this conflict lead to?

- The usual Orthodox believers for the most part anyway to which patriarchate their priest belongs to. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, in fact in the churches of the Moscow Patriarchate there are more people. Therefore, I do not think that there will be any clash. This is rather an attempt by the UOC -MP to fight a little from the standpoint of strength with the Ukrainian state. I do not believe that all the steps of the Ukrainian state in this regard are correct, but the position occupied by Metropolitan Onufry and Patriarch Kirill is to act from the standpoint of force is absolutely unconstructive. The demonstration of this through the procession is well read by the Ukrainian state. As a result, the conflict will not exacerbate between the UOC -KP and the UOC -MP, the relations there are very complex, ambiguous, and this is not the point, but between the Ukrainian state and the Ukrainian church of the Moscow Patriarchate. I think that nothing good UOC MP does not bode.