Ukrainian Orthodox Church Research Articles

ТЕРИТОРІАЛЬНА ДОКТРИНА РОСІЙСЬКОЇ ПРАВОСЛАВНОЇ ЦЕРКВИ: СТРАТЕГІЯ ЕКСПАНСІОНІЗМУ

The study is devoted to the analysis of the geopolitical doctrine of the ROC, related in particular to its participation in the political redistribution of the world. The ideological basis for interfering in the internal affairs of independent states is the concept of canonical territory. The object of the study is the ROC as a structural part and organic component of the Kremlin regime, and the subject — its political activities, aimed, in particular, at violating the national interests of Ukraine. The purpose of this study is the problem of the origin and essence of this neologism, filling it with semantic content and use as an ideological narrative in the hybrid war of Russia against Ukraine. The ecclesiastical-legal, historical, ideological and political explication of its content as an integral part of the doctrine of the «Russian world» has been carried out. The foreign policy of the ROC is based on the expansionist ideologies of the «Russian world», aimed at establishing its own hegemony on potential objects of influence, of which Ukraine has traditionally emerged as the main direction of its influence. In the historical dimension, the formation and growth of the network of ROC structures on its territory took place by illegal means, both from the ecclesiastical and political point of view. The liquidation of Ukrainian statehood was accompanied by the simultaneous capture and leveling of its Christian identity: canonical affiliation, church infrastructure, national and cultural identity. In the conditions of the development of independent Ukraine, it became natural for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to acquire the status of a local autocephalous church, which corresponds to the current ecclesiastical and international law, its national interests. As a political trend, the notion of canonical territory was introduced by the ROC in 1989 as a means of preserving its own imperial ambitions. There was a targeted transformation of the idiom «territory of the state for the canonical church» into the ideology «state as the canonical territory of the church», which serves as a basis for the ROC to interfere in the internal affairs of international law. In modern conditions, the ROC is a direct participant in Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine. The dimensions of such participation are various: organizational (formation and support of terrorist organizations), repressive (prohibition of religious freedoms in the occupied territories), property (raider seizure and seizure of church property and territories), psychological (creating an atmosphere of fear and social tension), etc. The focus of the illegal policy of the ROC is its systematic attempts to discredit and oppose the activities of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine as an expression of the spiritual interests of the Ukrainian people. This allows the final conclusions about a number of threats to public harmony and national security of Ukraine, induced by the activities of ROC structures in our country.

Analysis of the Multi-Confessional Religious Situation in Ukraine in the Period from 2000 to 2021

This study summarizes information regarding features of religious and church-religious self-determination of citizens of Ukraine for the period 2000-2021. Ukraine’s Western region is traditionally characterized by a high level of religiosity, while the South and East of Ukraine are the least religious. In recent years, the proportion of citizens who do not identify themselves with any of the religions has increased. There is a significant difference between the level of declared religiosity and identification with a particular religious community. As a result of the military events in the East of Ukraine and the war with Russia, the number of believers and Orthodox churches of the Moscow Patriarchate has significantly decreased, while the number of Orthodox Churches of the Kyiv Patriarchate has increased. After receiving Tomos from the Patriarch of Constantinople on December 15, 2018, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine gained more authority in society. However, relations between the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate are characterized by the great tension and conflict, which is expressed at the level of individual communities. Some problems arose during the creation of a unified Orthodox Church in Ukraine, but they did not become critical and did not affect the religious situation as a whole. Only 10% of citizens regularly attend religious services and meetings. The decline in attendance at religious services during the COVID-19 pandemic is accompanied by an increase in parishioner participation via the Internet. Leading churches have a positive attitude towards the use of the latest technologies and instant messengers. The article presents the results of surveys of focus groups. One of these polls testifies to the desire of believers to have changes in terms of religious rituals, in particular, the reduction of time, the understandable language of services and sermons, the introduction of seating in Orthodox churches, or a more modest decoration of churches. However, it has been established that for the growth of temple attendance, it is important not so much to develop a network of places of worship, but to form the interest and motivation of people to visit temples. Unfortunately, the level of recognition of the moral authority of the Church is lower than the level of trust in it. Citizens believe that the largest Ukrainian Churches in their approach to the problems of LGBT communities and other complex issues often take a conservative position that does not meet the requirements of the time, rather than an active position that contributes to solving social problems. Social service and assistance to people, according to the majority of respondents, should occupy a leading place in the activities of the Church. The greatest demand was for psychological assistance and protection of vulnerable groups. The overwhelming majority support the assertion that the Church should be separated from the state and the school from the Church. There is a high level of tolerance among citizens to the practice of different religions. A negative attitude is present only towards the UOC-MP, but this is a consequence of the military invasion by Russia and the presence of scandals due to provocative statements by the so-called “pro-Russian priests.” The activity of the latter was banned by a number of local councils on the territory of Ukraine due to cooperation with the aggressor country, and after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, it was outlawed. A deterrent to inter-religious, inter-confessional and inter-church conflicts in Ukraine remains the fact that religious and ecclesiastical identity is of little importance to citizens. It was found that in Ukraine during the period of independence a special religious situation has formed, characterized by multi-confessional tolerance and the almost complete absence of tension among the various churches that successfully coexist, and often even cooperate with each other.

THE EPISTOLAR LEGACY OF HETMAN IVAN MAZEPA AS A SOURCE FOR THE STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE AUTHORITIES AND THE ORTHODOX CLERGY

The purposes of this article are to highlight on the basis of the epistolary legacy of Hetman Ivan Mazepa his relationship with the Ukrainian Orthodox clergy, the main directions, ways and methods of helping the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, to follow determine certain directions of Hetman I. Mazepa's activity in relation to the Orthodox Church in the Ukrainian lands, on the basis of his epistolary heritage, which was aimed at comprehensive assistance to the church; to establish the main directions of his help and the ways in which Hetman helped the Ukrainian Orthodox clergy. The article analyzes a certain part of the epistolary heritage of Hetman I. Mazepa. The set of letters used in the study makes it possible to trace the main trends in the relations of Hetman I. Mazepa with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church during his reign. It was found that most of the studied and analyzed letters of Hetman I. Mazepa to various representatives of the Orthodox clergy and some representatives of the Cossack officers speak of comprehensive support of the Orthodox Church in Ukrainian lands (benefits, material assistance, protection of Ukrainian Orthodox clergy at the political level, etc. e.). The letters also clearly show the tendency that Hetman I. Mazepa tried to make the Orthodox Church one of his main pillars for consolidating his power (it is clearly traced in the letters dated to the first years of his reign).

HABEMUS PAPAM: РЕЦЕПЦІЯ ПРИЇЗДУ В УКРАЇНУ ПАПИ РИМСЬКОГО ІВАНА ПАВЛА ІІ У ЗАСОБАХ МАСОВОЇ ІНФОРМАЦІЇ

The article analyzes the main means at the micro and macro level, which were used by the media to cover the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ukraine in 2001. The study has been based on the daily broadsheet newspaper “Den’” [Eng. literally Day], the online newspaper “Ukrajins’ka Pravda” [Eng. literally Ukrainian Truth], and “Radio Svoboda” [Eng. Radio Liberty]. The methods of systematization and generalization, discourse analysis (van Dijk) as well as elements of content analysis have been applied. The paper establishes that the clear authors position, which consisted in a positive image of the Pontiff arrival, can be traced both in explicit statements and in positively connoted epithets, metaphors, comparisons. On the other hand, the opinions of the Moscow Patriarchate representatives as well as the leader of the Communist Party Petro Symonenko, who were against Pope arrival, have been also presented for the objectivity. In addition, abstract and confessional vocabulary in the aforementioned media has been analyzed. Therefore, this paper opens a discussion about religious themes in modern media. In our further investigations, we would concentrate on how Tomos on the Autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been presented in different discourses and genres (TV news, printed media, interviews, social media texts, etc.).

The crisis of international Orthodoxy in the global world

In the article, the author explores the problems of modern Orthodox Churches, which many call as the crisis of modern world Orthodoxy. First of all, it is a violation of the unity of world Orthodoxy. At the beginning of the article, the position of the UOC and the position of the previous Ukrainian government on this issue are examined. Also, some anti-church laws proposed by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine are analyzed. The questions of the history of Phanar in connection with the Vatican, as well as the creation of the universal ecumenical church and the role of Patriarch Bartholomew in strengthening the schism of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are touched upon. Further the latest developments in Montenegro in connection with the adoption of new laws against the Serbian Orthodox Church are outlined, as well as the relationship in these events is traced. In addition, there are made assessments of the situation in the UOC and the SOC by the first hierarchs of the Orthodox Churches. At the end of the article, it is concluded that all the described events once again testify to plans to create a corresponding global church in the global world, which will no longer have any relation to Christianity

Persecuting Orthodoxy in the Soviet Union as an Attempt of Destroying the Russia’s Eurasian Mission: An Example of Grigory Dolya and St Transfiguration Temple in Lednoe

In 1920s there was a split in Russian Orthodoxy initiated by the Soviet government. Traditionalists and “renovationists” appeared, with the latter being artificially created with Bolsheviks’ approval to undermine the Eurasian role of the former Russian Empire. Traditionalists who became supporters of newly elected Patriarch Tikhon were severely persecuted by Soviet officials. In the paper, I study the crisis of Russia’s Eurasian mission with example of priest Grigory Dolya, Dean of St Transfiguration Temple in Lednoe, Kharkov, Ukraine, who is currently being considered to be glorified as a new Orthodox saint martyr by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

ARCHITECTURAL AND CONSTRUCTIVE FEATURES OF ORTHODOX CHURCHES OF THE WESTERN UKRAINIAN DIASPORA

As the title implies the paper deals with the architectural and design features of the Orthodox Churches of the Western Ukrainian Diaspora, the principles of their placement in the development of cities and towns. The purpose of the publication is to study the Orthodox architecture of the Ukrainian diaspora, to determine the main stages of formation, development of Orthodox Church building outside Ukraine.
 The article spotlights a number of political, economic and social circumstances that have forced many Ukrainians to travel to other countries. The four largest waves of immigration have been identified. The importance of religion in the formation of the Ukrainian diaspora, which united immigrants, helped to organize their cultural and artistic aspects of life; revive traditions; to study the native Ukrainian language and be in the circle of like-minded people. Thus, Ukrainian Orthodox church architecture developed and became outside the ethnic Ukrainian lands.
 At the moment, there is a lack of sufficient scientific base that covers the sacred development of the Ukrainian diaspora, especially Orthodox church architecture. The article presents scholars who have studied the architecture, art, culture and Orthodox shrines of the Ukrainian diaspora.
 The article examines countries such as Canada, the United States, Australia and Western Europe. The author identifies architectural and design features and urban planning principles based on four architectural and spatial types.
 Such stylistic trends as: eclectic were common; "Citation" of a certain style of architecture or "stylization"; creative reworking of historical styles of Ukrainian architecture "stylization"; modernist-abstract, which is characterized by geometrization and continuous simplification of form. To illustrate these statements, the author of the article developed diagrams and tables.
 In conclusion, the purpose and objectives of the publication based on the studied temples were revealed. About 180 Orthodox churches in Canada, 60 churches in the United States, 12 Orthodox churches in Australia and sacred buildings in Western Europe of the Ukrainian diaspora were analyzed.

South Slavic culture and its influence on the formation of liturgical collections of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The purpose of the article is to analyze the influence of the South Slavic spiritual culture on the formation and development of hymnography in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the 16th-17th centuries. The methodology includes a systematic analysis, which made it possible to analyze and study the influence of the South Slavic spiritual culture on the formation of hymnography in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. To determine the temporal and quantitative characteristics of the analyzed material, statistical and chronological methods were used, which contributed to the identification of spelling and stylistic changes in Ukrainian liturgical collections. The scientific novelty lies in the determination of the characteristic features of the development of Ukrainian church singing under the influence of South Slavic spiritual culture. Establishing the difference in the formation of the two main directions of church singing in the Ukrainian territory, namely in big cities and peripheral spiritual centers. Conclusions. South Slavic influence manifested itself in certain spelling and stylistic changes that took place in Ukrainian liturgical collections. This process contributed to the intensification of the development of Ukrainian musical and hymnographic art. On the model of South Slavic graphics, a new style of writing was formed, which was called the "junior half-stav". Together with the change in spelling and literary language, the "weaving of words" was transferred - a special literary style that arose in Bulgaria during the time of Patriarch Euthymius. In Ukraine-Rus, the variety of translations of instructive and ascetic works of Byzantine and South Slavic writers in the spirit of "hesychasm" has increased. The restrained and austere tone of the previous era of Ukrainian Orthodox worship was filled with major Balkan-Slavic tunes. In the Notolinian Irmologions, polyeleos psalms and glorifications spread mainly in the form of Bulgarian and Serbian tunes, on the basis of which regional variants arose in the spiritual centers of Ukraine.

The Religious Freedom in Crimea During the Russian Occupation

The article deals with the problem of religious freedom in Crimea after the occupation of the Peninsula by Russian military forces in February 2014 and the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. The subject matter of the study is religious freedom in Crimea during the Russian occupation since 2014. The systematic and the structural approach allow the authors to see the entire picture of religious freedoms violation on the Peninsula. The study hypothesizes that with the occupation and annexation of Crimea, Russia brought the collapse of the religious pluralism and freedom that Ukrainians had experienced since 1991. In this paper, the authors cover a wide range of issues such as torture of religious activists, destruction and the illegal seizure of religious property, persecution of Ukrainians on political and religious grounds, deportation of Crimea’s population to the mainland of Ukraine. The research establishes that the occupiers created unbearable conditions for religious freedom, the lives of many clergymen and believers appeared to be in great danger. Different religious communities, especially the representatives of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (the OCU), Crimean Muslim Tatars, suffered significantly from applying Russia’s severe criminal and administrative requirements. The analysis allows seeing the complete picture of religious discrimination of different denominations and cruel religious persecution in the annexed Crimea beginning from February 2014 till nowadays.

The Role of Political and Electoral Technologies in Continuing the Church and Civilization Schism in Ukraine

This article examines the impact of the church schism in 2018 on the change in the civilizational identity of modern Ukrainians. Modern Ukraine is in the zone of the conflict of Russian and Western civilizations, openly expressed since 2014. One of the strategies for resolving the conflict appears to be changing the civilizational identity of the enemy by transforming the cultural core of civilization, which also includes religion and religious practices. The transformation of the civilizational core in Ukraine occurs through the instrumentalization of religion, which turns into a way to solve the internal and foreign policy problems of the modern Ukrainian government. This article studies the history of the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in 2018, the reception of tomos from the Constantinople Patriarchate and the confrontation between the OCU and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), which acts as a conductor of the Russian civilization's influence. The internal goals of the Ukrainian government, achieved through a church schism, include reducing the consolidation of society and strengthening its own position in a fractured society. Their foreign policy objectives involve reducing the cultural influence of Russia, excluding the Russian part of the Ukrainian society from receiving the Russian civilization's values and changing the civilizational identity of Ukrainians. One way to change the civilizational identity of Russians in Ukraine while formally preserving the Orthodox religion in the country involves promoting eucharistic ecclesiology, which is not historically rooted in the Orthodox Church and has been developing since the mid-20th century as an alternative to the universal ecclesiology. The latter assumes that the universal church is not reduced to the sum of its parts, that the criterion for correct faith is the unity of the episcopate, and that maintaining the integrity of the empirical church is one of the values of church communion. Eucharistic ecclesiology presumes that the fullness of grace is contained in each experiential community united by the common Eucharist. Eucharistic ecclesiology aids in instrumentalizing the church and turning it into the spokesperson for the secular interests of communities, which is already happening in Ukraine. This article shows that despite the church schism itself does not remove Ukrainians from the Russian civilizational space, it includes church communication into the foreign policy of reducing the Russian cultural influence in Ukraine and changing the civilizational identity of its inhabitants.

The Constantinople Patriarchate and Orthodoxy in the US Politics: From Roosevelt to Biden

This article studies the US administration's policy towards the Orthodox Church, its historical genesis and the factors influencing the current situation in the Orthodox world. The key role in this direction of the US politics belongs to the Constantinople Patriarchate as a tool for confronting Russia and dividing the Orthodox world. The author examines the connections of the new US President Joe Biden with the Constantinople Patriarchate, including the facts of Constantinople's support of Biden's political course. Constantinople's latest social document and hierarchical actions demonstrate loyalty to the US Administration's policy and globalist ideas, in addition to Constantinople's attempts to politicize the religious factor in promoting “democracy”. The cooperation between the Constantinople Patriarchate and US Administration, which began in 1940s, resulted in high dependence of this church structure upon the US political interests. The author states that Fener and Washington support each other and coordinate their actions: they have attempted open aggression against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church as a whole, which resulted in destroying the unity of the Orthodox world. The Constantinople Patriarchate's affiliation with the political interests of the United States and the Democratic Party leads them to avoid criticizing abortion and LGBT ideology and preventing the development of modernist tendencies within their Church. This causes discontent among priests and laymen, as well as their departure for other jurisdictions, including the Russian Orthodox Church. In the coming years, the dramatic events in the Orthodox world will most likely continue, and the US will proceed using one of the oldest local churches in its political interests.

What Is God’s and What Is Caesar’s? Autocephaly, Schism and the Clash of Political Theologies in Ukrainian Orthodoxy

ABSTRACT The article offers a general overview of the conflicting political theologies developed by rivaling churches and religious movements in Ukrainian Orthodoxy with the view to protecting their ideological agendas and institutional interests under different socio-political circumstances. It explores the dynamics of politicization and depoliticization of autocephaly and the perspectives on the proper church-state relations in the works of the key representatives of Ukrainian autocephalism in the first half of the 20th c. Based on this, the study analyses how these theological frameworks were further interpreted and employed in the post-Soviet period in the discourses of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate and its successor the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Finally, the article outlines an alternative political theology of autocephaly advanced by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in order to justify its unity with the Russian Orthodox Church despite the proclamation of Ukrainian independence in 1991.

ANALYSIS OF THF SACRAL-TURISTIC POTENTIAL OF SOUTH UKRAINE

This article is devoted to the analysis of the sacral and tourist potential of the Southern Ukraine and the prospects for the chain of spiritual and educational centers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, capable of combining a wide range of functions, provide a spiritual and educational and recreational environment that would satisfy the needs of Christian youth, parishioners, pilgrims and tourists, as well as contribute to the formation of a deep religious awareness and spirituality of the society. Spiritual-educational center is an important social institution, which has a full range of spiritual-educational, social-cultural and recreational functions with the aim of the most satisfying the needs of modern society. Based on an analysis of statistical data analyzed the current state of the sacred-spiritual infrastructure and spiritual and educational centers, and also revealed their features, strengths and weaknesses with the aim of formulating recommendations for the improvement of the system and the design of specific types of spiritual and educational centers on the territory of South Ukraine. The above statistical data show that the institutional structure of confessional-church organizations that serve to meet the religious needs of believers has already been actually formed. However, there is still a lack of developed institutions for the implementation of all social processes of the Church - educational and enlightening, permissive, recreational. An analysis of the current state of sacred and spiritual infrastructure of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church spiritual and educational centers was carried out, and its features, strengths and weaknesses were revealed with the purpose of forming recommendations for the improvement of the system and the design of certain types of Ukrainian Orthodox Church of spiritual and educational centers in the territory of South Ukraine. The given statistical data testify to the already formed institutional network of confessional-church organizations, which serve for satisfaction of religious needs of believers.

Церковнослов’янська лексика зі семантикою ‘Бог; Божа особа’ у староукраїнських текстах

The present paper is based on materials of different genres and different styles of Ukrai- nian written monuments of the 16th and the 17th centuries (acts, court documents, wills, deeds, documents of church and school fraternities, chronicles, works of religious, polemi- cal and fiction, memos of scientific and educational literature, liturgical literature, episto- lary heritage, etc.) which are included in the source database of the Dictionary of Ukrainian language of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century and its unique lexical card index, which is stored at the Ukrainian Language Department in the I. Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Lviv). The composition and structural organization of Church Slavonic lexemes meaning ‘God; God’s face’ as well as their origin and history are studied.It was found that the register of this vocabulary included more than fifty phonetic and graphic Church Slavonic elements expressing the concept of ‘God; God’s face’ different in word-forming structure. The main attention is paid to the etymological analysis of the studied tokens, which was primarily to clarify their semantic etymon. It is established that the analyzed Church Slavonicisms are mostly semantic loans from the Greek language, which preserved their semantics from ancient times to the Old Ukrainian period.It is observed that some studied tokens often act as core components of various two-, three-, or four-membered lexicalized phrases. The most active multifunctional core com- ponent was the token Lord. It is established that fixed phrases and phraseologisms are of different types in structure, mostly two-component noun + adjective phrases (sporadically, there are other lexical-grammatical models, too: “noun + noun”, “preposition + adjective”). Much less observable are three-component formations (“noun + verb + pronoun“, “verb + pronoun + noun“) and four-component models (“verb + preposition + pronoun + noun”).It was found that the Church Slavonic words attested in the Ukrainian memos of the 16th and the 17th centuries did not undergo significant semantic changes in the process of formation of religious vocabulary. Some Church Slavonicisms have gone through a partial semantic modification, and some have acquired new semantics due to fixed phrases. Some words that point to God’s face are characterized by polysemy and synonymy.The evolution of the analyzed Church Slavonicisms is different. Some of them have survived to our time and are actively used in the Ukrainian literary language or dialects, while others function only in a special area: in the church practice of the Byzantine rite (Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church).

Публічна релігія як боротьба за публічний простір

The phenomenon of religion in public space is nowadays complemented by symbolic and informational factors that, through certain mechanisms, play a significant role in political processes. This is related to the formation of the political identity of the nation, in which the religious component becomes a certain marker that splits or unites society. Even though politics and religion have their own public fields, there is a struggle for influence and expansion of their public field between politics and religion in most European countries of the East. With the aim to engage citizens in the discourse of political or religious, the political and ecclesiastical elite mentally forces individuals to balance on the verge of the political and religious and turns them into participants of political processes. At least, exactly this takes place in the modern history of Ukraine. The loss of state territories and military events in the East have given rise to the Ukrainian discourse of Tomos, which, through the context of the war, established a new marker of Ukrainian identity. Perceiving public religion as a field for public dissent, Ukrainian society has found itself in internal and external confrontation: between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) and the official policy of the power during Petro Poroshenko’s presidency – the level of the conflict was "power-church"; internal conflict between Ukrainian Orthodox denominations when, due to the signed Tomos, they united to form a unified Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) – the level of the conflict was "churchchurch"; between the official policy of Russia, which supports the activities of the UOC-MP and is recognized by official Ukrainian authorities as the military aggressor of Ukraine (mostly during P. Poroshenko’s presidency and less during V. Zelensky’s presidency) – the level of the conflict is "power-power". The discourse of Tomos in Ukraine has provoked not only interconfessional and political confrontation. It influenced confidence in the church as a moral institute because, on the one hand, we’ve had a “church of the aggressor state” (UOC-MP) and an “illegal church” (OCU), and on the other hand, there were “Orthodox” and “schismatics”. This has mentally widened the gap between the East and the West of Ukraine. An analysis held based on data from the Razumkov Center, official statistics of religious organizations in Ukraine, as well as judicial acts, testifies that this gap is formed along a territorial line. Therefore, S. Huntington’s theory of a global policy developed along the cultural line finds support.

ЦЕРКВА В УКРАЇНІ В УМОВАХ СУЧАСНИХ ЗАГРОЗ: РЕАКЦІЯ НА РОСІЙСЬКУ ВІЙСЬКОВУ АГРЕСІЮ

The aim of the article is to try to find out the attitude of Christian denominations in Ukraine to the Russian-Ukrainian war in eastern Ukraine as a manifestation of their religious and national identity. External risks for modern Ukrainian society require in-depth scientific analysis of this issue, in particular in sphere of religious relations. Russia's military and ideological aggression has become a marker of the social identity and civilizational choice of Christian denominations. It clearly revealed the position of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate as a structural part of the Russian Orthodox Church and a powerful tool for implementing the policy and ideology of the "Russian world" in Ukraine. Factually, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate represents the interests of the Russian Orthodox Church as it adheres to its guidelines for Ukraine to be in the sphere of Russian geo-confessional interests. This is evidenced by the dominance of the Russian language in worship, sermons, educational institutions, publishing. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has not even formally condemned the Russian intervention so far, nor has it recognized Russia as an aggressor. On the contrary, some priests of the Church openly promote Russian aggression and call for the violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity. The temples of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in Donbas serve as weapons depots for Russian troops, and Russian terrorists openly serve the Moscow Patriarchate. The attitude of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate / Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and other Ukrainian Churches to Russian aggression determines their patriotic pro- Ukrainian position. This is most eloquently characterized by the institute of chaplaincy, which thіs Churches actively supply with their staff.

CHRISTMAS СANON : PRESERVATION OF THE EDITION OF THE CHURCH SLAVONIC CHANT TEXTS OF THE 16TH–20TH CENTURIES

This article represents a chant Church Slavonict texts of Christmas сanons. It was reveal that the Ukrainian music manuscripts has preserving translations of byzantine hymnography texts from Kyievan Rus time (12th–19th cent.). Instead from the 2nd half of the 18th century into Old music print was entered Patriarch Nikon’s translation (in Moscow). This translation had the linguistic changes. It has influenced also in music text of chant. This music differences is represented in this article. An attempt to compare these translations has shown that the new edition has linguistic changes caused, on the one hand, by Greek texts and, on the other, by adaptations to the northern variant of the Church Slavonic language. This somehow influenced the change in the musical text of the songs. These differences are considered in the article. Melodic changes are related to the semantic transmission of the liturgical word, and Ukrainian sources more accurately convey its meaning. It was also found that the text in the sung sources had variants of individual words, because in the older translation from Greek texts there was a preservation of the metrics of songs. In modern church singing practice, the first canon is widespread and translated into several editions. Nevertheless, the melody of these songs needs to be returned to the performer – a church singer, because it has been replaced by recited singing. Therefore, the task of the article was to consider the musical editions that have been preserved in handwritten and old printed books to compare them and convey to the modern church. The objectives of this study is to return Church Slavоnic chant of ukrainian redaction in modern practice of Ukrainian Orthodox and Uniate Churches. And this is basis for saving and transmision of church chant by ukrainian heritage.

Activities of The First Ukrainian Representation in Istanbul: State Mission of Diplomats

The article offers an insight into the foundations and main directions of work of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Istanbul through the prism of the personalities of its leaders. The author paid particular attention to the problems that Ukrainians had to face at the first stage of the formation of Ukrainian-Turkish diplomatic relations. The article was prepared on the basis of archival information contained in documents, which are mainly stored in the Central State Archives of the High Authorities and Administration of Ukraine. The results of studies of Ukrainian and Turkish scientists are taken into account. Based on the documents revealed and historiography, it was stated that the activity of the first Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Turkey lasted more than three years. During April 1918 – June 1922, there were five heads of the diplomatic mission, namely Mykola Levytskyi, Mykhailo Sukovkin, Oleksandr Lototskyi, Jan Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz, Lev Lisniak, each of whom exerted best of their strengths, intelligence and devotion to the national idea to implement the state mission. Mykhailo Sukovkin inflicted harm on the image of Ukraine maintaining contacts within the White Guard and demonstrating a non-Ukrainian position. The author states that the main areas of activity of the diplomatic mission were to establish political and economic relations, disseminate truthful information about Ukraine, achieve recognition of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, popularize and institutionalise the idea of the Black Sea Union, organise aid to Ukrainian prisoners of war and refugees in Istanbul, form them into Ukrainian army units. The termination of the activities of the Embassy of the UPR was the result of the signing of interstate treaties between Turkey and the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR in 1922. The mutual diplomatic presence of the UPR and the Ottoman Empire in 1918 and the extension of the stay of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Istanbul in June 1922 give grounds to suggest that after the restoration of Ukraine’s state independence in 1991, the Ukrainian-Turkish diplomatic relations were not established but restored. Keywords: Ukrainian People’s Republic, Ukrainian State, Embassy of the UPR in the Ottoman Empire, Brest Peace Treaty.

ВПЛИВ РЕВАНШИСТСЬКОЇ ПОЛІТИКИ КРЕМЛЯ НА РЕЛІГІЙНІ КОНФЛІКТИ В СУЧАСНІЙ УКРАЇНІ

The article analyzes the influence of the Kremlin's revanchist policy on religious conflicts in modern Ukraine. It is revealed that the Russian state has existed for three centuries in the format of an empire (feudalcapitalist, totalitarian-Soviet, and autocratic), during which time Ukraine and Ukrainians were an important component of these imperial state formations. It was found that almost a quarter of a century of inactivity of the domestic authorities and active anti-Ukrainian and anti-state actions of the Russian Orthodox Church and its Little Russia branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate contributed to their introduction into the Ukrainian humanitarian space. later led to the so-called "Russian spring" in 2014. It is proved that the armed and information aggression of the Russian Federation in early 2014, intensified by the anti-Ukrainian activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, called into question the very existence of Ukrainian statehood and the Ukrainian nation, but thanks to the all-Ukrainian The enemy was stopped by the Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate. It is shown that the combination of efforts of the Ukrainian authorities, civil society and believers is extremely important for the development of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. It was revealed that for the final victory over the Russian aggressor, in addition to military, geopolitical, diplomatic, political, economic, ethnocultural factors, it will be necessary to use the sacred-spiritual factor - the unification of Ukrainian Orthodoxy into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and its national-patriotic state activity to overcome the Kremlin's revanchist policy towards the Ukrainian nation and eliminate religious conflicts in modern Ukraine.

SERHIY MIZETSKYI’S, THE RURAL PRIEST-INTELLECTUAL, REFLECTIONS ON THE SOCIO-POLITICAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE SOVIET UKRAINE DURING IN THE 1920-IES.

The aim of the research is to elucidate the reflections of the parish priest Mizetskyi Serhiy Andriyovych, who lived in the countryside of Katerynoslav, according to the social and political transformations in Ukraine during the 1920-ies, based on the analysis of his epistolary heritage. The research methodology is based on the methodological techniques of the priest’s external and internal letters’ criticism; the biographical method has been applied in order to study the life path and determine the influence of events in his life on the reflections’ formulation; the comparative and historical method has been used for the comparison of the clergyman’s assessments presented in the letters with the scientific interpretations of the social and political transformations during the 1920-ies; the combination of macro- and microhistorical approaches for the priest’s assessments of the clergy place reconstruction in the Soviet society. The scientific novelty of the article is to reproduce the reflections of priest S. Mizetskyi on the social and political transformations in the Soviet Ukraine during the post-revolutionary decade, based on the analysis of the priest’s private correspondence first introduced into the scientific circulation. S. Mizetskyi’s assessments of the clergy place in the Soviet society have been characterized, and his strategies for survival have been outlined. The Conclusions. The coverage of the priest’s reflections on the socio-political and economic transformations in Ukraine during the 1920-ies suggests that centuries-old cultural and ideological stereotypes of the clergy collided with the Soviet experiments. The people with high social status faced with the new challenges became part of the world of “non-labor elements”, were deprived of the right to vote. As a result, those changes happened quite rapid for the priest, morally and physically painful. S. Mizetskyi carried on keeping to the pre-revolutionary times’ ethical norms, which did not correspond to the ideas of vulgar materialism, the new government’s policy of double standards. Hence, the ethical norms’ conflict manifested itself at various levels of communication between the priest and the authorities – from reading the monopoly press to defending their interests in the village council. Due to the letters’ analysis, which provides pieces of evidence and gives the opportunity to claim that there was a huge ideological gap between the authorities and S. Mizetskyi, a typical representative of the clergy in the south of Ukraine. It was felt more acutely than that of the former nobles and peasants, as the latter were free to perform their duties (as farmers) or, as former nobles, to adapt and seek their place in the new social structure. Because of the aloofness in the circle of people close to the church, conducting a “monologue of the heart” in letters to brother and father became almost the only strategies for survival, consolation in the new socio-political environment. In his reflections, he indirectly predicted the usurpation of power by the Bolshevik Party, the establishment of its monopoly in the socio-political life and control over human thought, pointed to the transformation of the educated intelligentsia into laborers, noting that experiments in the countryside did not meet healthy agricultural pragmatism and productivity. The priest’s reflections on the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches activities development depicted the church Ukrainianization issue, which was too harsh and uncompromising. It showed a high degree of conservatism and Russification of the clergy in southern Ukraine