On 9 April 2025, a webinar entitled ‘Myths and Prejudices Hindering the Unity of Ukrainian Orthodoxy’ was held. It was organized by the NGO “Sophia Brotherhood”, whose activities are primarily aimed at reconciling Orthodox believers from different jurisdictions in Ukraine. On the invitation of the organizers, at the webinar took part the head of the “Academic Initiative” Foundation, Sergii Bortnyk.
In his report “Belief in the ‘One Church’: Myth or Reality?” he tried to reconstruct the general image of the conservative position currently held by the leadership and a significant number of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He also cited a number of biblical quotations that substantiate this position. In addition, he emphasized the possibility of a fundamentally positive perception of the “mythical” in the religious worldview.
As a way out of the difficult situation of confrontation, Sergii Bortnyk proposed to develop two directions. On the one hand, this is the difference between the canonical and sacramental boundaries of the Church (when, along with the faithful of “our” church structure, members of other jurisdictions can also belong to the “one Church” founded by Christ). On the other hand, it is the distinction between the divine and the human in one’s own jurisdiction (which implies the recognition of possible mistakes in the actions of one’s own hierarchy and faithful).
The webinar was also attended by well-known theologians and religious scholars, including Archimandrite Cyril Hovorun from the United States, Natallia Vasilevich from Germany, and a number of religious scholars and experts from Ukraine. In the near future, the Sophia Brotherhood plans to hold other public events aimed at searching for ways of reconciliation between the Orthodox of Ukraine.
You can watch a video of the webinar on the Sophia Brotherhood channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JSsosjWi0c (part 1) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMewkmiuw8E&t=2269s (part 2).
On our website, we publish the written version of Sergii Bortnyk’s report – https://www.academic-initiative.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/webinar_09_04_2025_SB.pdf
