Moscow patriarch Kirill Archives

3 minute read

Latest news Ukraine

Zelenskyy hints at the upcoming decision to limit Moscow’s influence in Ukraine through Kremlin-controlled church

The decision should balance security issues and freedom of religion, while several oppositional MPs in Ukraine demand the adoption of the law banning the Moscow church in Ukraine.

byBohdan Ben

Russian world ideology kirill blesses soldiers

6 minute read

Russian Aggression

Getting killed in Ukraine washes away all sins, Russian patriarch tells invading army

Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill has de-facto blessed Russian soldiers to die in Ukraine, promising them…

byAlya Shandra

9 minute read

Moscow Patriarchate should be sanctioned for blessing the war

On 13 March, Patriarch Kirill blessed the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Guard Viktor Zolotov and bestowed him with the…

byEuromaidan Press Contributor

12 minute read

How the Russian Orthodox Church enabled Putin’s war against Ukraine

Religion and primary Eastern Orthodoxy has been one of the most sensitive issues in Russian-Ukrainian relations, even amid…

byEuromaidan Press Contributor

Diomid, former Russian Orthodox Church bishop in Chukotka before being stripped of that rank by the Moscow Patriarchate. The dissident churchman formed what he claimed is the true Orthodox Church of Russia in 2008.

3 minute read

Bishop Diomid, who led church opposition to ROC MP, dies in car accident on Patriarch Kirill’s birthday

Diomid, who was Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) bishop in Chukotka before being stripped of that rank by the…

byPaul A. Goble

Gold mosaic of the Holy Mother at the Cathedral of the Holy Mother of Iberia of Zugdidi, Georgia. Photo by Giorgi Abdaladze, Communications Department of the Administration of the President of Georgia, via Wikimedia.

5 minute read

Georgian Church’s recognition of Ukrainian autocephaly ‘only a question of time,’ Horyevoy says

The Georgian Orthodox Church has not yet recognized the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church because it is…

byPaul A. Goble

The Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, Bartholomew I of Constantinople (R) receiving Moscow Patriarch Kirill (L). Istanbul, Turkey. August 2018 (Photo: orthodoxia.info)

3 minute read

Moscow Patriarch lays groundwork for challenging primacy of Ecumenical Patriarchate

At a meeting of a Moscow conference on “World Orthodoxy: Primacy and Collegiality in the Light of Orthodox…

byPaul A. Goble

4 minute read

Moscow laying groundwork for alternative patriarchate in Muslim Turkey

The Moscow Patriarchate is taking its battle against the Universal Patriarchate over Ukrainian autocephaly to a new level:…

byPaul A. Goble

The head of the Soviet Communist party and state Leonid Brezhnev with hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate then-Metropolitan Alexy II and Patriarch Pimen, and the head of the Moscow Choral Synagogue Rabbi Jakov Fishman at the reception celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Communist Revolution of 1917 on October 7, 1977 (Photo: Wikipedia)

3 minute read

More fallout from Ukrainian autocephaly: Russians learn Moscow Orthodox hierarchs were KGB officers

Specialists on religion in the Soviet Union have known for decades that many of the most senior hierarchs…

byPaul A. Goble

Archbishop Job of Telmessos, Permanent Representative of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to the World Council of Churches (Photo: bbc.com)

4 minute read

Constantinople: Moscow could be stripped of autocephaly, while Belarus could gain it

If Moscow continues to interfere with the march of Ukraine’s Orthodox to autocephaly, it could lose not only…

byPaul A. Goble

5 minute read

Chekist Operation Trust — model for Putin’s approach to Russian Church and Russian nationalism, Khazanov-Pashkovsky says

The Trust, as a Chekist operation directed at and designed to disorder the anti-Bolshevik White emigration at the…

byPaul A. Goble

7 minute read

Constantinople decision on Ukrainian Church truly has global consequences

Although the Universal Patriarch in Constantinople has not yet given the tomos of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox…

byPaul A. Goble

6 minute read

Moscow having failed to block Ukrainian autocephaly now attempting to exploit it

The Kremlin and the Moscow Patriarchate remain totally opposed to autocephaly for the Ukrainian church, but in recognition…

byPaul A. Goble

5 minute read

Constantinople could grant autocephaly to Belarusian Orthodox Church next, Gorbik says

Ukrainian Archpriest Sergey Gorbik says that Constantinople could grant autocephaly to the Belarusian Orthodox Church in the near…

byPaul A. Goble

Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch (Image: Patriarchate.org)

2 minute read

Constantinople moves to grant autocephaly to Ukrainian Church, outraging Moscow

Yesterday, the Ecumenical Patriarchate announced that it has appointed as its exarchs in Kyiv an archbishop from the…

byPaul A. Goble

3 minute read

Three signs Moscow Patriarch Kirill knows he’s lost on Ukrainian autocephaly

The Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC MP) continues to assert that it will be able…

byPaul A. Goble

3 minute read

Moscow Patriarchate takes lead in prisoner exchange to its benefit in Ukraine

The Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, virtually “the last acceptable mediator between Moscow and Kyiv,” played…

byPaul A. Goble

Metropolitan Onufriy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in his office standing next to the photograph of Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate. (Image: UNIAN)

5 minute read

Moscow Patriarchate hasn’t ‘freed’ Ukrainian Orthodox Church but rather imposed new limits

The amendments to the rules governing the Russian Orthodox Church have been presented as giving the Ukrainian Orthodox…

byPaul A. Goble

This political cartoon by an anonymous Russian artist accurately represents Russia of Putin's rule. It is a post-communist "prison of nations" which replaced the cult of the Party with the cult of Putin and uses the Russian Orthodox church as a major propaganda and manipulation tool and a convenient cover for Russian spy services abroad.

3 minute read

Moscow Patriarchate taking control over property of its parishes in Ukraine to block them from leaving

Faced with a rising tide of parishes in Ukraine whose members have voted to transfer their allegiance to…

byPaul A. Goble

Russian soldiers line up to kiss an “icon” of Putin, while a Russian Orthodox priest of the Moscow Patriarchate blesses them. (Image: Social media)

5 minute read

Scholar: Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate supports repressions, militarism

It would be comforting to believe that Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin was speaking only for himself when he suggested…

byPaul A. Goble