The schism within the Orthodox Church and the Russian-Ukrainian neo jurisdictionalism

The statement by the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of UkraineOleksiy Danilov, broadcast on "Radio NV" on Tuesday 28 March 2023, uses peremptory tones towards the inhabitants of the Pechersk Lavra, a complex of Orthodox rock monasteries located in the heart of Kiev, linked to the Ukrainian Orthodox Autocephalous Church (OUC born in 2018), whose history dates back to the 11th century, when monks and missionaries obtained permission to settle in caves along the banks of the Dnipro River from the rulers of the then Rus' of Kiev, a royalist dynasty descended from the Vikings. The statement continues: «There will be no Moscow church in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra», a museum complex that has belonged to the Ukrainian State since 1961, so all issues concerning it will be decided by the State itself. The expulsions are technically motivated by the resolution, set for March 29 2023, of a ten-year agreement on the free In reality, the unquestionable choice to expel the monks to claim the spiritual independence of a single Ukrainian church seems to have a predominantly political nature, as the religious are suspected by the secret services, SBU, of collaborating with the invaders, despite already last in May Metropolitan Onufriy publicly condemned the invasion, and distanced himself from the patriarch of Moscow who is a supporter of the invader Putin. The head of the Ukrainian security specifies that the highest spiritual authority of Moscow Kirill Gundyaev, through the control of the Monastery, would have decided internal issues in the Ukrainian territory. According to Danilov, the fact that the question of the pro-Russian Orthodox church was not «resolved» in 1991 was a serious mistake, because the representatives of the top leadership of this church and many clergymen «were not related to God», but maintained contact with the Soviet secret services. The news aroused the immediate worried reaction of those who wondered how the provision, certainly subversive of a long-established order, would be implemented. he NSDC secretary reassured that there would be no forced cleaning and that «everything would be done according to the law». The goal of the Ukrainian government is, therefore, on the one hand to continue guaranteeing the functioning of the churches and services offered on the territory of the Lavra, on the other to enforce national laws without exceptions and, therefore, to prohibit «entities artificial, which were once created outside the laws of Ukraine», can continue to act freely because they are considered a danger to the government, given their proximity to the Moscow church which supports the invader. Also Oleksandr Tkachenko, Minister of Culture of Ukraine, has long ordered the monks of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to leave all the premises of the Lavra, offering the peaceful solution of transferring his allegiance to the self-proclaimed Orthodox Church. The 78-year-old Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Church (UOC) Onufriy, who in any case proclaimed the schism from the Moscow Patriarchate on 28 May 2022, has launched several appeals to President Zelensky to stop the eviction, which, however, remained unheard. On the established day, the Ukrainian public security forces physically removed the inhabitants of the Lavra, those few who did not want to leave spontaneously and who, without violence, opposed the decision of Kiev, preventing the commission of the Ministry of Culture from carry out an inventory of the properties and report the illegitimacy of the provision to the Court.f Ukraine (OCU), to which now the jurisdiction of the Monastery will be entrusted. Metropolitan Pavlo Lebid of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra Cave Monastery was placed under house arrest. The general prosecutor's office of Kiev, using telephone and environmental interceptions collected by the SSU (Ukrainian Security Service), announces that the OCU cleric is suspected of «violating the equality of citizens according to their race, nationality, regional affiliation, beliefs religious beliefs and justification-denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and glorification of its participants», ex artt. 161 and 436.2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Accusations from which he defends himself by claiming the political nature of the issue and his extraneousness to the aggression suffered by his country, without, however, ever expressly mentioning Moscow's responsibilities. At the same time, the Metropolitan of the UOC (Ukrainian Orthodox Church near Moscow) Epifanio, appointed interim abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Monastery, archimandrite Avraamii of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), with the immediate task of praying for President Zelensky by revoking the effectiveness of the curses pronounced by his pro- Russian predecessor Pavlo and specify the nature of the eviction measures, which are not a «confrontation between State and religion» and not a «violation of freedom», but rather a «liberation of our sanctuary from influence of the hostile Russian State», an act of defense against «Russkiy mir, literally 'Russian world' or 'Russian order', (that is) the concept of the total domination of Russian culture over other cultures».

Sources:

 https://www.rnbo.gov.ua/en/Diialnist/6212.html (sito ufficiale del Governo Ucraino)

https://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/mondo/2023/04/01/metropolita-monastero-kiev-ucraini- mi-hanno-arrestato_44e37aa0-ad62-4c7e-b338-c0bb93d2c5

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/04/1/7395993/

Cristiana Maria Pettinato