04541
December 10, 2004

Churches in Ukraine swirl in political turmoil 

by Jonathan Luxmoore
Ecumenical News International 

WARSAW — The political turmoil in Ukraine has not only got the masses onto the streets but it has also mobilized members of the country’s religious communities, with many churches criticizing the way recently contested elections were conducted.

            Foreign ministers from NATO and Russia on Dec. 9 jointly called for a free and fair election in Ukraine, after weeks of tension about a presidential poll that has polarized the country and mobilized churches. 

            Demonstrations have gripped Ukraine since Nov. 21 when Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, who favors closer ties with Russia, was declared to have beaten pro-Western opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko in an election criticized by international monitors. 

“The spread of popular protests testifies that the rights of persons were truly brutally violated,” said Roman and Greek Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal, and Evangelical leaders, as well as the heads of two of Ukraine’s Orthodox denominations in a Nov. 29 open letter.  

Thousands of opposition supporters have been demonstrating in the capital Kiev and other cities, calling for the election to be annulled, while followers of the prime minister have mounted rallies in support of the declared winner of the poll, whose victory was overturned on Dec. 3 by Ukraine’s supreme court.

            “It would be impossible for the people of Ukraine to take such action only for the personal interests of one candidate, and the entire world has understood this,” the church leaders said in the letter addressed to Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma. It was, however, not signed by Ukraine’s biggest Orthodox denomination, which is linked to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church.  

            In a Nov. 29 statement posted on its Web site, the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church urged clergy to disregard statements, mostly supporting Prime Minister Yanukovich, by independent Orthodox groups within the church.  

“In recent days, attempts to politicize groups of the faithful have increased,” the Ukrainian Orthodox Church said.  

            “All orders and resolutions by the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Holy Synod are made public only through the chancellery of the Kiev metropolitanate. All other independent statements by brotherhoods, sisterhoods and civic organizations in its name have no legal force and need not be carried out.” 

            Monks at the church’s monastery at the Caves in Kiev said they would ask visitors to remove political symbols so as not to disrupt the “prayerful atmosphere,” adding, political choices by Orthodox Christians should depend on “their civic conscience and personal understanding of what is happening.” 

            However, local newspapers said members of the Moscow-linked Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods had pledged support for Yanukovich at a Kiev prayer meeting on Nov. 28, and had called on Orthodox Christians to defend “general Slavic unity.” 

            In a further statement after a meeting on Dec. 2, the Moscow-linked church’s governing holy synod called for an end to “conflicts shattering the country” in the run-up to Christmas. 

            “Today as always, our church is with its people,” the synod stated. “Nor is the church dividing people into ‘orange’ or ‘blue-and-white’ — all are children of God,” it added, referring to the rival colors of opposition and government supporters.