The Fight of Ukraine for the Autocephal Church in the context of politicization of Religion

Abstract

The article analyzes the process of the movement of the Ukrainian authorities and certain church circles for receiving Tomos (ecclesiastical permission) for the creation of a single Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has now unfolded. The authors point out the extreme politicization of this process, which concerns, above all, the affairs of the Church and believers. The methodological basis of the research was the recently developed philosophy of schism, which allows one to see the consequences of splits, primarily in the polarization of society. For the analysis, the authors also used the method of textological analysis of the statements of the participants of the marked events. In the course of the study, the authors concluded that the facts and events taking place in connection with the unfolding process of Ukraine’s struggle for obtaining Tomos in Ukraine point to the politicization at the present time of not only religion, but also state-confessional and inter-church relations. The materials of the research allow us to conclude that the claims of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the right to solely extradite Tomos to autocephaly alone are unreasonable, since there is no source under them except for one’s own will and the cathedral of the Constantinople Church. And also the authors point out the lack of consensus of other autocephalous Churches that would grant such a right to the Ecumenical Patriarch.

Keywords

• religion
• church
• church schism
• orthodoxy in ukraine
• ethnophilia
• tomos
• philosophy of schism
• patriarch