On February 6, 2024, the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations had a meeting with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and his accompanying persons. Sergii Bortnyk represented the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at this meeting. Below we publish an English original of his speech.
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I am glad to be at this meeting and am grateful to Archbishop Justin Welby for his interest to Ukraine and his desire to understand and help in the twists of our church policy and church-state relationships.
In the current situation of the war, the side of the Ukrainian state traditionally emphasizes that the issue of restriction and certain pressure on religious organizations in Ukraine is a matter of national security. I quite agree with this thesis. However, I suppose that it is fair to add two more aspects to it. They are directly connected to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which I represent here.
First, it is the competition between church and state for which of them has a priority place in the perspective of history. This issue was important for the history of church-state relations in Western Europe and less important in Eastern Europe. One of the notable examples was Anselm of Canterbury. He was an interesting theologian at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries, and his life and work “Cur Deus Homo” is learned in our academy.
Besides, he was your predecessor at the chair of the head of the Church of England. It is known that the issue of appointing clergy and determining church policy as a whole was an important issue for Anselm, because of which he was twice forced to leave Britain and live in Italy. The reason for such complex relations with the state is in the awareness of the unique role of the local Church authority in the prospect of Divine support of the people of God.
I believe that today the issue of pressure on the UOC and its resistance lies in this awareness of the role of the Church in the prospect of history. For our hierarchs, this is not only a matter of pragmatic interaction in the situation of a brutal war against Russia. This is also confidence that Christ is the Head of the Church and the church itself is not just one of many social institutions, but is the Body of Christ. I am sure that realizing importance of this understanding for church people can help to improve relationship within Ukraine.
The second issue, which I would like to emphasize, concerns the relationship between the churches of Russia and Ukraine. This is a well-known thesis about inequality in these relationships. The Ukrainian side expects partnerships and equal relations in this matter in order to protect the unity of the Orthodox Church. It was also in the situation of the connection of Hetman’s Ukraine and Russia in the middle of the 17th century. It determined the fate of Ukraine for next decades and even centuries. Today the situation looks like this again.
Both then and now, the Russian side expects not a free union, but accession of Ukraine as a dependent part. Our church leadership seeks to end the bloody war and reconciliation of the people. It comes from the proximity of peoples in Russia and Ukraine and their common Orthodox faith.
However, in Russia, the common faith is a reason for aggression. I can give you an example when a priest in a prayer prescribed by the patriarch changed only one word – he prayed not for “victory”, but for “peace” and reconciliation. For this, he was deprived of priest dignity and was forced to leave Russia.
I suppose that these two aspects are important in the current difficult situation. The Ukrainian state should not underestimate the awareness of the unique self-understanding of the Church as a community of the faithful who believe in God as the ruler of history. And the Ukrainian Orthodox Church should realize the inequality of expectations on the Russian and Ukrainian sides of the current military conflict. The Russian side uses the common Orthodox faith for its imperialistic purposes, and this cannot be accepted in Ukraine. Here positions of the Ukrainian churches and the Ukrainian state should coincide.
Thank you for your attention!
