Religion in Ukraine - with Cyril Hovorun

What role does religion play in Ukraine? How pluralistic is the country’s religious landscape? Which Christian denominations are the most influential, and how does Christianity coexist with Islam and Judaism? Why is Ukrainian Orthodoxy divided, and what is the story behind the emergence of an autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine? And how does Russia use its branch of Orthodoxy in Ukraine as an instrument of political influence and propaganda?

*** Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher, editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, and president of PEN Ukraine. Guest: Archimandrite Cyril Hovorun, a prominent Ukrainian theologian.

*** Explaining Ukraine is a podcast by UkraineWorld, an English-language media outlet about Ukraine brought to you by Internews Ukraine. We thank the Ukrainian History Global Initiative for helping us to organize this conversation.

*** Listen on various platforms: https://li.sten.to/explaining-ukraine UkraineWorld: https://ukraineworld.org/en

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*** CONTENTS: 00:04 Introduction. Support UkraineWorld: https://www.patreon.com/c/ukraineworld 01:57 What are the fundamental characteristics of religion in Ukraine today? 04:12 How does Ukraine challenge the simplified view of Eastern Orthodoxy being aligned with Moscow? 07:44 Beyond Orthodoxy, how diverse is Ukraine's religious landscape, and what makes its interfaith relations unique? 09:29 How did Ukrainian Orthodoxy, originally tied to Constantinople, become dominated by the Russian Church, and what has been the recent movement for autocephaly? 15:08 What is the fundamental difference in church-state relations between Western Christianity and Russian Orthodoxy, and how did the Orthodox "symphony" play out in Russia? 19:04 How does Ukrainian Orthodoxy's emphasis on "synodality" (conciliarity) offer a unique and horizontal model compared to the centralized Russian model? 24:27 Why does Ukrainian Orthodoxy remain tragically divided into two main parts despite the establishment of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine? 27:38 What specific reasons prevent many members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate-aligned) from transitioning to the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine? 29:15 What are the ideal and realistic future scenarios for unity within Ukrainian Orthodoxy? 31:59 How does Russian propaganda weaponize the presence of the Greek Catholic Church, and what is the ironic outcome of Russia's "protection" of Orthodoxy in Ukraine? 35:52 How should misleading claims of “religious persecution” in Ukraine, particularly regarding the Russian Church, be understood in the context of propaganda and national security?