On the tenth anniversary of the Revolution of Dignity, the German-language magazine “Religion and Society in the East and West” prepared a specialized issue dedicated to Ukraine. Sergii Bortnyk became one of the authors of the issue, his material was published under the title “At a crossroads. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church ten years after the Maidan”.
Among the authors of the issue there are religious scholars, political scientists and civil experts. In particular, these are Viktor Stepanenko from the Institute of Sociology, political scientists Volodymyr Fesenko and Olexiy Haran and some others. In addition to Sergii Bortnyk, the church perspective was presented by Myroslav Marynovytsch, Andriy Dudchenko and Lidiya Lozova.
In his material, Sergii Bortnyk drew a line from the Orange revolution of 2004 to the current phase of the full-scale war, emphasizing that over these twenty years Ukraine has passed from internal confrontation through the additional external factor to the active phase of the war with the external enemy. For the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at the national level, this period was determined by a significant dependence on influence from the Donetsk region, which was manifested in various forms.
At the same time, Sergii Bortnyk showed that in a number of official addresses since the beginning of the full-scale war, the UOC leaders have expressed a completely pro-Ukrainian patriotic position, which, however, often remained little noticed in the wave of criticism from activists that represent civil society. He specially emphasized the actual lack of readiness for dialogue from different sides of the Orthodox church environment as well as the need for unity of the society in order to prevent the defeat of Ukraine in the current war.
Here you can find link to the content of the magazine and the editorial – https://rgow.eu/pdf/inhaltsverzeichnisse/2024/RGOW_2024-0304_edi.pdf and the text of Sergii Bortnyk – https://rgow.eu/zeitschrift/2024/3/am-scheideweg-die-ukrainische-orthodoxe-kirche-zehn-jahre-nach-dem-majdan.
