Church schism: Communities torn as Ukraine turns its back on Moscow-linked church
MAX HUNDER, of Reuters, reports on the impact on communities as authorities crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church…
Church accused of Moscow ties expelled from two parishes in western Ukraine
Kyiv, Ukraine Reuters A Ukrainian branch of the Orthodox church accused of ties with Russia was expelled from the premises of two places of worship on Wednesday amid rising public anger against the organisation 14 months into Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian police officers stand next to St George’s Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, […]
Russia says US behind Ukraine’s pressure on Moscow-linked Orthodox church
Reuters Russia’s Foreign Ministry said late on Sunday that the US was behind the pressure that Ukrainian authorities have been exerting on the Russian-aligned wing of the Orthodox Church in Kyiv. Believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, accused of being linked to Moscow, pray while they block an entrance to a church at a compound […]
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 […]
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 […]
Russian Orthodox head appeals against eviction of church from Kyiv
Reuters Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, on Saturday asked Pope Francis and other religious leaders to persuade Ukraine to stop a crackdown against a historically Russian-aligned wing of the church. Kyiv on Friday ordered the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to leave a monastery complex where it is based, the latest move against a […]
Ukraine orders Russian-aligned Orthodox church to leave Kyiv monastery
Reuters Ukrainian officials on Friday ordered a historically Russian-aligned wing of the Orthodox Church to leave a monastery complex in Kyiv where it is based, the latest move against a denomination regarded with deep suspicion by the government. Kyiv is cracking down on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – which accepted the authority of the Patriarch […]