Ukrainian court puts an Orthodox leader under house arrest
Kyiv, Ukraine AP A Kyiv court ordered a leading priest to be put under house arrest Saturday after Ukraine’s top security agency said he was suspected of justifying Russian aggression, a criminal offence. It was the latest move in a bitter dispute over a famed Orthodox monastery. Metropolitan Pavel is the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery, Ukraine’s […]
Scuffles at Kyiv monastery as church accused of Russia ties resists eviction
Kyiv, Ukraine Reuters Scuffles broke out outside a Kyiv monastery on Thursday after a Ukrainian branch of the Orthodox Church that the government says has ties with Russia defied an eviction order. Tensions over the presence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at the 980-year-old Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery have risen since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in […]
Kyiv monks accused of Russia links refuse eviction order
Kyiv, Ukraine AP Orthodox monks who’ve been ordered out of a monastery in Kyiv refused to leave on Wednesday, as a deadline to vacate the complex expired. The dispute over the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery, Ukraine’s most revered Orthodox site, is part of a wider religious conflict playing out in parallel with the war. A senior priest of the […]
Orthodox Church accused by Kyiv of Moscow links faces eviction
Kyiv, Ukraine Reuters Eight bishops wearing robes and mitres went to the Ukrainian President’s offices this week to try to stop their historically Russian-aligned wing of the Orthodox Church being evicted from its Kyiv headquarters. They got only as far as a checkpoint, where they were turned back, and their request for a meeting on […]
Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch plans Lithuanian branch, in blow to Moscow
Vilnius, Lithuania Reuters The spiritual head of Orthodox Christians worldwide said on Tuesday he would work with Lithuanian authorities to establish a new branch in the Baltic nation to ensure that believers are no longer under the sole supervision of Moscow. In 2019, Patriarch Bartholomew infuriated Moscow by recognising the newly established Orthodox Church of […]
Pope urges “respect” for Orthodox monastery facing eviction in Kyiv
Vatican City Reuters Pope Francis on Wednesday called for “respect” of religious sites in Ukraine, as he mentioned the monastery from which the Russian-aligned Ukrainian Orthodox Church is facing eviction. Ukrainian authorities have given the UOC a 29th March deadline to vacate its headquarters in the historic Kyiv Pechersk Lavra complex, in the latest move […]
Zelenskiy: Ukraine seeks “spiritual independence”, acts against church
Reuters Ukraine’s punitive actions against a branch of the Orthodox church linked to Russia are part of a drive to achieve “spiritual independence”, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday. Zelenskiy and other Ukrainian leaders have accused the long-established Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of undermining Ukrainian unity and collaborating with Moscow. Orthodox priests of the Orthodox […]
Historic meeting of Orthodox Christian scholars convenes to confront divisions and war
RNS Nearly 400 Orthodox Christian theologians from 44 countries convened in the largest international conference of its kind in Greece on Thursday to discuss “Nicaea-sized” questions facing the Eastern Orthodox Church amid war and bitter division. Some of the most contentious issues at the Mega-Conference of the International Orthodox Theological Association, meeting in Volos, have […]
Christmas joy and anger for rival Orthodox churches in historic Kyiv monastery
Kyiv, Ukraine Reuters Tears of joy streamed down worshippers’ faces as Ukraine’s main church celebrated a “return” to Kyiv’s Cathedral of the Assumption on Orthodox Christmas day, shortly after taking control of it from a rival church with alleged ties to Russia. The golden-domed cathedral, of huge cultural and religious significance, sits on a high […]
Ukraine reclaims Kyiv cathedral amid church dispute
Kyiv, UkraineAP The Ukrainian Government has taken the main cathedral of the revered historic monastery from the church previously affiliated with Moscow’s patriarchate and allowed its Ukrainian rival to use it for Orthodox Christmas services. The move comes as the long-running tensions between the two churches exacerbated amid Russia’s war in Ukraine. A bird flies over […]