Moscow patriarchate fuels war in Ukraine
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Scherba, a Ukrainian resident, reflects on how religious faith has changed since childhood in Kyiv, then part of the Soviet Union, to the present day amidst the Russian invasion.
During the Soviet era, both Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches existed, though with varying degrees of tolerance. Following Ukraine’s independence, numerous evangelical denominations emerged, creating a diverse religious landscape. The Russian invasion of Ukraine dramatically altered this spiritual environment.
Scherba describes the horrors of war, bombardments, loss of life, and the destruction of cities, leading to a crisis of faith. While acknowledging the intellectual understanding of hardship as a test, Scherba expresses the spiritual anguish of witnessing such suffering. However, Scherba argues that the war wasn’t simply a result of circumstance. The author contends the Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate actively fostered the conflict by twisting Christian teachings.
In 2010, Patriarch Kirill referred to Kyiv as “our Jerusalem”, a statement Scherba believes foreshadowed the religious justification the patriarch would later provide for war against Ukraine. The author notes that very few of Russia’s tens of thousands of priests have publicly opposed the war or its religious justifications. Scherba closes by calling on the global religious community to reject the Moscow Patriarchate’s distortion of the commandment to “Love thy neighbour”, and to uphold the original message of peace.
