As February twenty fourth approaches, conversations regarding the place of religion in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine proceed. Proper right here, Lucian N. Leustean analyses the vital factor milestones which have shaped religious mobilisation towards the continued battle.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stays a non secular battle and requires now not handiest political and military options however moreover a non secular decision.
In an op-ed revealed on 3 March 2022, I wrote that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February may also be described as the first religious battle inside the 21st century. So, to what extent is the continued struggle nonetheless a non secular battle and what are the teachings for the religious and political communities 11 months later?
Russia and Ukraine are predominantly Japanese Orthodox Christian worldwide areas, with 3 church buildings actively involved inside the struggle, significantly the Russian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate (which separated from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1990 and stays the most important religious neighborhood in Ukraine) and an unbiased (autocephalous) Ukrainian Orthodox Church (recognised by means of the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate handiest in 2019).
In chronological order, the following events had been milestones in shaping religious mobilisation towards the continued battle:
- On 6 March, Patriarch Kirill gave a sermon inside the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow whereby he outfitted a religious problem for the Russian invasion by means of claiming that the battle was once not something as a substitute of the restoration of ‘human civilisation’. His nation’s troops had been combating the West which tried to impose ‘gay parades’ on the Russian worldwide.
- On 13 March, over 1500 college students signed an open letter of protest decrying the ideology of the ‘Russian worldwide’ which positioned together Japanese Orthodox Christianity, political nationalism, and geopolitical ambitions.
- On 12 April, beneath the administration of former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, religious leaders representing Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu communities in the UK travelled to Chernivtsi in strengthen of Ukrainian refugees.
- On 27 May, Metropolitan Onufriy, head of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate severed ties with the Russian Orthodox Church by means of decreeing ‘total autonomy and independence’.
- On 7 June, the Moscow Patriarchate integrated beneath its full preserve watch over the respectable jurisdiction of Ukrainian dioceses in Crimea. Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), Chairman of the Division of Exterior Church Family members of the Moscow Patriarchate, was once removed from his place and appointed Metropolitan of Budapest and Hungary.
- On 27 July, Metropolitan Epifaniy, head of the unbiased Ukrainian Orthodox Church, despatched a letter on behalf of his Holy Synod to the Ecumenical Patriarchate soliciting for a pan-Orthodox consider of Patriarch Kirill’s imaginative and prescient of a ‘Russian worldwide’, and to ‘[deprive] him of the Patriarchal throne’.
- On 5 August, Pope Francis met Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, the newly-appointed Chairman of the Division for Exterior Church Family members of the Moscow Patriarchate.
- On 21 August, Darya Dugina, daughter of ultranationalist thinker Alexander Dugin, died in a automotive bomb in Moscow. It stays unclear if Dugin himself was once the target, as he was once perceived as being influential to the Kremlin ideology of Russia’s defence of Orthodox values and a Russian-led Eurasian Empire from Dublin to Vladivostok, an issue taught in Russia’s military universities.
- On 26 September, Patriarch Kirill supported military mobilisation by means of mentioning that Russian ‘soldiers demise in Ukraine might be cleansed of their sins’.
- On 17 October, Father Ioan Sauca, showing regular secretary of the World Council of Church buildings, met Patriarch Kirill in Moscow every mentioning that ‘the battle can’t be holy’.
- Between 23 and 25 October, beneath the identify the ‘Cry for Peace’, the Sant’ Egidio Neighborhood organised a worldwide accumulating of religious leaders representing all foremost worldwide religions in Rome, with Pope Francis stating a day of prayer for Ukraine.
- On 9 November, President Putin signed the decree ‘On approving the fundamentals of state protection for the preservation and strengthening of standard Russian religious and moral values’.
- On 23 November, the Ukrainian security companies and merchandise carried out raids at Orthodox monasteries affiliated with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate.
- On 30 November, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and the Rt Revd Dr Robert Innes, the Anglican Bishop in Europe, visited Kyiv in strengthen of the refugees and displaced people.
- On 1 December, President Zelensky proclaimed 5 jail measures geared towards ensuring ‘Ukraine’s religious independence’ from Russia.
- On 25 December, in his Urbi et Orbi, Pope Francis decried the battle by means of mentioning that ‘Our time is experiencing a grave famine of peace’.
- On 25 December, numerous religious congregations beneath the unbiased Ukrainian Orthodox Church celebrated Christmas. The Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church decreed that the model new date should be imposed due to the ‘need to implement calendar changes inside the near long term.’ Metropolitan Epifaniy, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and Metropolitan Svyatoslav, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, decided to fulfill and discuss calendar changes across the nation.
- On 28 December, 13 clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate had their citizenship revoked.
- On 5 January 2023, an enchantment to ‘ceasefire’ appears on the respectable website of the Moscow Patriarchate. A few hours later, President Putin issued a equivalent comment. The Ukrainian political authorities rejected the statements as examples of ‘hypocrisy’.
- On 7 January, for the first time, Metropolitan Epifaniy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church celebrated Christmas at Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a few of the important religious web sites in Ukraine. The Lavra was once divided into two, with the Greater part handed over to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church while the Lower Lavra remained beneath the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate.
- On 9 January, in his cope with to members of the diplomatic corps, Pope Francis made reference to Ukraine by means of reiterating the 1965 Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes which talked about that ‘every act of battle directed [at] the indiscriminate destruction of total cities or big areas with their inhabitants is towards the legislation in opposition to God and humanity which deserves firm and unequivocal condemnation’.
- On 18 January, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Division for Exterior Church Family members of the Moscow Patriarchate, joined remotely a gathering of the UN Security Council to draw consideration of ‘the unlawful actions of the Ukrainian state authorities close to the most important confession of the country’.
- On 25 January, Pope Francis welcomed a delegation of the All-Ukrainian Council of Church buildings and Religious Organisations, representing Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities. For the first time, Pope Francis met Metropolitan Epifaniy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Onufriy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate refused to attend the meeting and despatched instead a lower rating clergy to represent his Church.
- On 27 January, the State Provider of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Ethical sense revealed a map with 307 religious constructions destroyed or damaged by means of Russia’s invasion since February 2022.
This itemizing is non-exhaustive and does now not include the struggling and trauma caused by means of the battle to the lives of so many people. Change of parishes between the two Ukrainian church buildings, changes in religious jurisdiction, the work of military chaplains on all sides of the struggle, the bombing of church buildings and religious web sites, and the humanitarian actions of religious communities towards refugees and displaced individuals are most likely probably the most missing examples from the whole picture.
What are the teachings for determining the religious measurement of the continued battle? 3 key points stand out:
First, religion has been an inexorably vigorous part of the battle and its security strategies in advancing political power. The longer the battle continues the additional superior the religious mobilisation will become. In Russia, Patriarch Kirill’s statements handiest toughen the militarisation of Russian society in strengthen of the battle, a discourse adopted by means of Putin’s inside circle and the security tools. In Ukraine, inside the legislative technique of implementing religious freedom and ‘religious independence’ from Russia, political authorities need strengthen from world organisations to ensure that religion isn’t used as a tool leading to extra military escalation.
2nd, the politicisation of religion has demonstrated that the shifting frontline between Russian and Ukrainian troops may also be noticed as a non secular border. Military chaplains combating alongside Russian troops don’t hesitate to clarify the struggle as a veritable ‘religious battle’. Ukrainian troops protect now not handiest their nation nevertheless your entire secular West and the liberal Japanese Orthodox worldwide while the Russians battle for the security of standard Orthodox Christianity.
third, political creativeness and determining a diplomatic and military methodology to ending the struggle must take the multifaceted place of religion into consideration. Religious worldwide relations, informal faith-based networks of nationwide and world dialogue, religious symbolism, and religious aura might present results the place political and military avenues will not be in a position to take motion.
The social and political mobilisation of religious communities in Russia and Ukraine will handiest proceed to intensify inside the months ahead and may keep key to determining what motivates people and states.
Religion, in its institutionalised form and as a lived neighborhood, can construct up struggle nevertheless can also provide the method of discovering peaceful solutions.
This op-ed was once supported by means of the author’s participation as Senior Fellow inside the ‘Orthodoxy and Human Rights’ enterprise, backed by means of Fordham Faculty’s Orthodox Christian Analysis Coronary heart, and generously funded by means of the Henry Luce Foundation and Administration 100.
Discover: This piece provides the views of the author, and now not the location of the LSE Religion and Worldwide Society weblog, nor of the London Faculty of Economics.
Image by means of Viktor Hesse on Unsplash