Moscow Patriarchate’s Church in Ukraine will survive autocephaly, but as marginal force, Yurash says

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP) will remain in existence after Ukraine forms its own autocephalous national church, but the Russian church will be “marginalized, reduced in size and cease to be influential in the Orthodox world,” according to Andriy Yurash, a specialist on the politics of religion at Lviv University.

Organizationally, he says, “the UOC MP will gradually split apart, with all the more active bishops and priests leaving it because they share the ideology of Ukrainian Orthodoxy.” Some have already signaled their intentions.

“I am convinced that there are several dozen hierarchs who under the circumstances will be ready to join the majority of their priesthood to the movement toward autocephaly.”

That will change the face of religious life in Ukraine far more quickly than many now assume.

At the same time, however, he says that the UOC MP “as a structure in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate will be preserved.” No one should have any doubts about that as 14 to 19 percent of the Ukrainian population remains “conscious supporters of the Moscow jurisdiction” and they will be given all the necessary conditions to continue to follow its lead.

But with time, that church “will be marginalized, reduced in side and not occupy the niche it does now of the most numerous and influential single canonical structure in the Orthodox milieu. All elements of its identity with the creation of a national church will be destroyed. [And] it will lose the independent organic unity” it has had for the las 25 years.

Further Reading:

• Moscow laying groundwork for alternative patriarchate in Muslim Türkiye
• Putin’s ‘Russian world’ rapidly contracting in Ukraine and elsewhere, Sokolov says
• More fallout from Ukrainian autocephaly: Russians learn Moscow Orthodox hierarchs were KGB officers
• Constantinople: Moscow could be stripped of autocephaly, while Belarus could gain it
• Ukrainian mufti puts a Russian one in his place over Orthodox autocephaly
• Tomos ante portas: a short guide to Ukrainian church independence
• Constantinople decision on Ukrainian Church truly has global consequences
• The next domino – Belarusian Orthodox hope for autocephaly
• Moscow having failed to block Ukrainian autocephaly now attempting to exploit it
• Constantinople could grant autocephaly to Belarusian Orthodox Church next, Gorbik says
• Constantinople moves to grant autocephaly to Ukrainian Church, outraging Moscow
• Three signs Moscow Patriarch Kirill knows he’s lost on Ukrainian autocephaly
• Ecumenical Patriarch to grant Ukrainian Orthodox autocephaly, Greek Church source says
• Waiting for Constantinople’s historical decision on Church autocephaly in Ukraine
• Implicitly conceding Ukrainian autocephaly, Moscow makes plans to split Orthodoxy and dominate one part of it, analysts say