The Orthodox Church also plays a role in the war in Ukraine

• Wessel de Young

  journalist, now in Ukraine

President Zelensky wants to ban all churches that still maintain ties to the Moscow Patriarchate. The law regulating this was discussed for the first time in the Ukrainian parliament last Thursday. The proposal is set to be expedited through parliament.

The planned ban is not unexpected. Between rocket attacks and front reports, at the end of November, completely different news suddenly arrived from Ukraine: “The secret services invade the Pesjersk Lavra monastery.” Dozens of church officials were arrested, weapons were allegedly searched in the church.

Pechersk Lavra Monastery, also known as the Cave Monastery, is the dazzling centerpiece of Kiev. Driving to the capital, on the other side of the Dnieper, the golden domes shine on you. It is a whole complex, including the seminary and pilgrimage site. In the dungeons, in the caves, all possible relics can be found. Winter, summer – it is always full of believers.

The news of the raids and arrests, 33 in total, mainly raised questions. It has long been clear that the Church is a source of great tension with Russia. If only because President Putin has cited the so-called unity of all Orthodox believers as one of many reasons for invading Ukraine. Therefore, a furious reaction from Moscow to the action of the SBOe, the Ukrainian secret service, was not long in coming.

The arrests and raid are directly linked to the February 24 Russian invasion. “Among the priests and monks were several people of Russian nationality with ties to the security services of the Russian Federation,” said Viktor Yagun, a former general of the Ukrainian security services.

He says there was a fear that those people were supporting the Russian military vanguard, who wanted to reach the government center as quickly as possible to depose Zelensky. The Lavra complex is located a few hundred meters from the presidential buildings.

He was immediately placed under stricter supervision, Jagoen says. “Russian world supporters so close to the center of power are not desirable.”

The priests together with the secret agents were supposed to make contact with the Russian paratroopers heading for the center of Ukrainian power. Only: those paratroopers never went that far. They had planned to take the three airfields around Kiev but never succeeded due to fierce Ukrainian resistance.

It is unclear why those advanced clergymen were not captured immediately. With the arrests, President Zelensky now seems to be responding above all to a growing popular anger, aroused by prayers in the Lavra where the Patriarch of Moscow is said to still be venerated. Most Ukrainians think it is not possible. “Zelensky had to intervene, otherwise there would have been lynchings in churches,” thinks Jagoen. That popular anger would also be the primary backdrop for the new law.

Jagoen believes that a total ban on parishes still loyal to the patriarch of Moscow is not feasible. There are still more than 12,000. According to the former general, every church needs to look at what predecessors are spreading by message. Action should be taken only if Ukraine’s right to exist is denied from the pulpit and there is active propaganda for the Russian world, that is, Russia and Ukraine united.

The head of the Lavra seminary neither denied nor confirmed the presence of secret agents in the monastery. “We don’t check passports at the entrance,” says Father Mytrofan. “It could very well be that they were seen here, that they lit a candle here. The services never showed any evidence.”

He thinks there should be an independent investigation. “And not by people who can’t tell the Koran from the Bible,” she says laughing, but also angrily.

Father Mytrofan and other clergymen of his Orthodox Church firmly oppose appearances. Only in May were ties with the Moscow patriarch Kirill severed, who fully supports the war. Kirill called the Russian soldiers who died in Ukraine martyrs.

The break with him occurred about three months after the war broke out and was not experienced by Ukrainians as an act of patriotism, but rather as a move to salvage what still could be salvaged from damaged reputations.

In 2019 part of the church had already split. Since then, more and more parishes have defected to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. About 10 percent of the 12,000 Orthodox denominations are now affiliated with that independent Ukrainian church.

One of those religious communities that have defected is in the town of Zazimje, just outside Kiev. The Church of the Resurrection of Christ has 800 believers. “You have to fight for everything,” says one woman after attending her church’s transition mass.

“It’s so nice to pray in your language.” And not in Russian. “It is a farce that there are still churches in Ukraine belonging to the Moscow Patriarchate, which is linked to a terrorist state that is killing our fathers and children.”