An Unlikely Reconciliation: The Path of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia toward Canonical Union with the Moscow Patriarchate
An Unlikely Reconciliation: The Path of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia toward Canonical Union with the Moscow Patriarchate

Summary/Abstract: In late 2018/early 2019, the global Eastern Orthodox community was rocked by what appeared to be a seismic schism, between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, over the question of whether the Ukrainian Orthodox Church should be autocephalous (and if so, who has the power to grant that autocephaly). This event was cataclysmic enough to catch the attention of mass media that rarely, if ever, pay attention to the internal problems of the Orthodox ecumene. The emerging narrative placed the schism within the broader context of the post-Soviet legacy, in which Russia’s post-imperial pangs found themselves at odds with Ukraine’s need to consolidate a strong national identity that would allow the still-fledgling state to survive on its own footing vis-à-vis the hostile eastern neighbor. Within the Orthodox community itself, the situation raised the perennially painful question of “why can’t we all just get along,” as the world’s second largest Christian community received further proof of its tendency to splinter into competing jurisdictions, often for reasons more of (geo)politics than doctrinal disagreement.

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