Institutional Formation and Development of the Luhansk Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Autocephalous Synodal Church (1922-1936)

Mykola Ruban

doi:10.30560/ch.v1n1p42

Abstract

The article attempts to recreate the process of organizational development of the Luhansk eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Autocephalous Synodal Church of 1922-1936. It was found out that due to the conditions of aggravation of confessional division the representatives of the renewal movement managed to minimize their reformation provisions during 1926-1928. The Synodal Church managed to stabilize the institutional crisis. With the appointment of Bishop Veniamin to a vacant for a long time throne, with the active support of local authorities, the Luhansk diocese has reached its greatest development, covering in its structure about a quarter of the Orthodox communities of the district. It is determined that since the Ukrainian-centric ideological principles of the Synodal Church were not fully embodied in the practical activities of the renewal clergy, the emergence of the Conciliar Episcopal Church as a relatively canonical alternative Reformation denomination of Ukrainian Orthodoxy became relevant in Ukraine. In particular, in the Luhansk region, as a result of the unconstructive methods of Bishop’s Photius (Topiro) governing, it was the local diocese of the UCEC that became a refuge for the renewal communities, almost doubling the number of its own parishes during 1928-1929. It is proved that the development of the Synodal Church in the Luhansk region was marked by the lack of an effective system of government, the low discipline of the clergy, and especially given the change in state policy in the field of religion. The historical circumstances of the confessional division of Ukrainian Orthodoxy in the interwar period on the example of a separate region are highlighted. Further research on this topic requires clarification of a number of ethnocultural, political, linguistic, and canonical issues of local renewal communities, which will expand the understanding of the religious worldview of the local population and propose new conceptual approaches to overcoming church divisions.

Highlights

Historical events surrounding the organizational development of the renewal movement in the Orthodox Church in the Donbas are among the least covered pages of domestic religious historiography
The purpose of the article is to reproduce a holistic picture of the organizational development of the Luhansk diocese of the Renewal Ukrainian Orthodox Autocephalous Synodal Church of 1922 - 1936 on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of historical sources and scientific literature, which provides for the following tasks: first, to explore the preconditions for the institutionalization of the renewal movement in the Luhansk region; secondly, to determine the circumstances and factors of organizational development of the denomination; third, to find out the causes of the defeat of the church reformation in Donbas
As the reform movement of Ukrainian Orthodoxy intensified in the context of the escalation of the confessional division of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the institutional crisis within the denomination was partially limited

Summary

Introduction

Historical events surrounding the organizational development of the renewal movement in the Orthodox Church in the Donbas are among the least covered pages of domestic religious historiography. During 1920s Luhansk was one of the key centers of the renewal movement in the Donbas, and in the early 1990s - the boundary center of the revival of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The urgency of studying the historical experience of organizational formation of Reformation Orthodox denominations in Donbas, circumstances and personalities of this process becomes extremely important in the context of defining new conceptual approaches to the development of the local Orthodox Church in a specific industrial region of the Ukrainian-Russian border. The history of the renewal movement in Ukraine, and especially the problem of regulation of state-church relations in the 1920s and 1930s, are presented in the works of G.

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