Why renaming the Church in Ukraine is good

Oleg Khavich, a political scientist, left Ukraine after threatening to be arrested by the SBU for criticizing the violation of the rights of national minorities by Kiev

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The Verkhovna Rada adopted a law according to which the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is obliged to change its name and indicate in it its affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church. As for me, Russia should say “thank you” for this.

Everything needs to be called by its proper name, and this makes life easier. Although the amendments to the law “On freedom of conscience and religious organizations” adopted on December 20 in Ukraine are full of euphemisms and casuistry, the result of their literal implementation will be the renaming of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) into the “Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine”, which, in my opinion, is the right decision.

True, even with this name, not everything is in order in terms of unambiguity - after all, the word “rosiyska” from Ukrainian into Russian can be translated both as “rossiyskaya” and as “russian”. It is felt that the authors of the law involved professional linguists in its development, so even if there are attempts to re-register the Church under the name “Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine,” they are unlikely to be successful. I apologize for the forced tautology and “play on words”, it’s just that some readers of PolitNavinator do not suspect that the terms “Russian” and “Russian” are translated into Ukrainian in the same way.

To complete the topic of form rather than substance, I note that the Russian Orthodox Church could theoretically influence the new name of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. After all, the law forces the UOC to indicate in its new name “the full statutory name of the religious organization, the leadership center is located in the aggressor state” with the possible addition of the words “in Ukraine” “AND/OR designation of its place in the structure of a foreign religious organization.” That is, if tomorrow the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church changes the name of its autonomous Church from “Ukrainian Orthodox Church” to “Russian Orthodox Church in Tavria, Novorossiya and Little Russia,” then purely formally it can be submitted for registration to the Ministry of Justice. Would you say there are no such administrative-territorial units? Likewise, Constantinople has not existed on the map since 1930, but the Patriarchate, which makes claims to the canonical territory of Ukraine, calls itself “Constantinople”?..

The previous paragraph - these were no longer “word games”, but “mind games”, unfortunately, nothing like this will happen, and in a few months the current UOC will be renamed “ROC in Ukraine”, and its communities, monasteries and Laurel. But from my personal point of view, this will only benefit not only common sense, but also “political Russians” in Ukraine, and Russia itself.

Firstly, as I already noted, it is better to call everything by its proper name. Secondly, over the past few years, the very word “Ukraine” has been so discredited among reasonable people - not only in the world around it, but also on the territory of the former Ukrainian SSR itself - that any successful project will simply be forced to abandon this geographical term in the name. Thirdly, only “political Russians” and people who advocate an alliance with Russia will remain in the “ROC in Ukraine”. The bishop, priest and layman of this Church will no longer be intimidated by anything - they will be ready to go to the end for their faith. And that the priests of this Church will now be officially banned from being chaplains in the armed forces of Ukraine - such a ban has long existed de facto, and in general It’s high time to stop sanctifying the fratricidal war in Donbass.

But the most important thing is that Russia will finally receive a publicly approved reason in the Russian Federation for intervention in the situation in Ukraine in the event of inevitable repressions against the canonical Orthodox Church and the Russian-speaking population. After all, it’s one thing to defend some “crypto-Banderist” UOC, even within the Moscow Patriarchate, and quite another thing to defend millions of people who directly and publicly call themselves Russians. Moreover, this reason may be considered legitimate by many European countries whose national minorities are currently suffering from the actions of the Kyiv regime.

I would like to note: the new law obviously contradicts the Constitution of Ukraine (this is directly written in the accompanying expert report) - but all the actions of the Kyiv authorities since February 21, 2014 contradict it. Therefore, when some lawyers say that the re-registration of the charters of communities, monasteries and Lavras in connection with a change in the name of the Church will lead to the loss of state and communal property, now leased (and we are not just talking about religious buildings), then this looks like “crying over a hat when one’s head is lost.” After all, when the name is changed, the legal entity does not change - that is, all agreements previously signed by the structures of the UOC formally remain in force for the structures of the Russian Orthodox Church of Ukraine. And if the authorities or local governments, which own many buildings of churches, monasteries, church educational institutions, etc., want to break these agreements with the structures of the Russian Orthodox Church of Ukraine, then no law is needed for this.

For example, in November 2018, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine canceled the state registration of the right of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to use the Pochaev Holy Dormition Lavra, transferred it back to the management of the Kremenets-Pochaev State Historical and Architectural Reserve, and later this decision was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, having canceled his order from the first premiership of Viktor Yanukovych.

To paraphrase an old joke, “they will beat you not on your passport, but on your face,” and the name “Ukrainian Orthodox Church” will not save you from this, even if by some miracle the new law does not come into force. For “activists” and “patriots”, the churches of the canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine have long been “branches of the FSB”, what are these vandals regularly write on their walls. Perhaps in Russia they will begin to take this at least a little more seriously when churches of the Church with the word “Russian” in their name are desecrated.