He described the conflict as part a struggle against sin, and he was under pressure from liberal foreigners, to hold “gay marches” as a condition for their admission.
Kirill, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin for many years, has already resisted criticisms of the Russian invasion. This alienated many from the Ukrainian Orthodox churches that had previously remained loyal to the Moscow patriarch in times when there was a schism within their country. Many of these former loyalists now ignore Kirill in public prayers. Some even demand independence from the Moscow Church, even though their country’s political independence has been threatened.
In a sermon preached Sunday before Orthodox Lent began, Kirill repeated Putin’s unverbunten claims that Ukraine was involved in the “extermination of Russian loyalists” in Donbas. This is the separatist region in Ukraine, which has been held since 2014. Kirill spoke almost exclusively about the war in Donbas, with no mention whatsoever of Russia’s invasion of other countries and bombardment of civilian targets.
On Sunday, Kirill described the war in spiritual terms.
He said, “We have entered into an struggle that has no physical, but a spiritual significance.”
He claimed that Donbas separatists were being punished for their “fundamental reject of so-called values that are today offered by those who claim to be world leaders.”
He claimed that the unnamed global power is asking countries to hold gay pride parades in order to be a part of a global club with its own ideas about freedom and excessive consumption.
Many Orthodox Christians in Ukraine are shocked by Kirill’s position on the Ukraine war. For centuries, the Moscow patriarch claimed the supreme loyalty of the Ukrainian Orthodox church, despite the fact that the latter had a lot of autonomy. Many priests, monks, and faithful remained loyal to Kirill, even though a Kyiv-based Orthodox Church of Ukraine was formed in 2018 and 2019.
However, some people are losing their loyalty to the war.
Numerous Ukrainian Orthodox Church bishops have given permission to their priests not commemorate Patriarch Kirill during their public worship services. This is a symbolically important statement in Orthodox tradition which places a premium on faithful being in communion their divinely ordained hierarchy.
According to the Union of Orthodox Journalists (a news site that provides positive information about the Moscow-leaning Orthodox Church of Ukraine), 15 dioceses of Orthodox Church of Ukraine have authorized the omission of patriarch’s name since the start of war.
The Rev. Mykola Danilevich has been a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Orthodox church and confirmed via Telegram that many of his priests had stopped using the Moscow Patriarch as a basis for worship services.
“And the reason it is obvious,” Danilech wrote March 1 before Kirill’s latest Sunday sermon. Russia’s treacherous invasion of Ukraine was a big mistake. … The patriarch did not give a clear assessment of the war and his appeal to end it.
Clergy in at least two dioceses — Lviv and Volodymyr-Volynskaare — are calling for independence from the Moscow church, according to their Facebook pages.
Many Ukrainian Orthodox are shocked by Kirill’s “condemning evil in the broadest possible terms, but said nothing about war, let alone its initiation, Russia,” stated Catherine Wanner, a Pennsylvania State University professor.
Wanner, who studies the region, said that despite the violence, deaths, and terror in Ukraine, no one is concerned about specific jurisdictions. “But this will bring about a sea shift.”
The Rev. Cyril Hovorun is Professor of Ecclesiology and International Relations at University College Stockholm. He said that Kirill’s recent comments showed him in a “golden box.”
He stated that Kirill had helped to “supply the ideology” used by Putin to justify Russian hegemony in the region. In return, the church has enjoyed strong government support.
“Even though he (Kirill), understands what is happening in Ukraine with war, even if it’s his desire to speak up and call things by their proper names, he cannot,” Hovorun, author several books on Orthodoxy in Ukraine, and beyond, said. He is an unfree figure and must follow the official narrative.
Archbishop Daniel of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA stated that Patriarch Kirill’s recent comments were “incomprehensible.”
He stated that “Regardless of what our beliefs are and regardless of how we feel about moral and social issues, it is impossible to use this propaganda tool to justify Russia’s invasion and the killing of innocent people.”
The Rev. stated that Kirill’s views on sexual ethics are shared by many Orthodox and other religious conservatives, as well as those in Ukraine. John Burgess is a professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and the author of “Holy Rus’ : The Rebirth Orthodoxy in New Russia.”
Burgess stated that the Ukrainian Orthodox and Ukrainian Christians are under attack, suffering, and are worried about the future of the country. The sermon does not reflect that. It seems strange that the patriarch is talking about gay parades when rockets fall on Kharkiv or Kyiv.
Burgess stated that the practice of not remembrance a patriarch in prayer is not new. Russian Orthodox priests were persecuted by communist rule because they refused to commemorate a patriarch that they considered too compromise with the Bolshevik government.
Burgess stated that the clerics who are currently distancing from Kirill could be “risking there very future.”
He said, “If President Putin and Russia truly win in Ukraine, what will happen? They’ll either be removed or forced to enter the underground.
