The situation in Ukraine is such that almost every event or social process needs to be considered both through the prism of the actual launch of the presidential election campaign, and through the prism of global processes taking place in the world, in particular, the Russian-Ukrainian war.
One of these processes, which is reaching its culmination point, is the process of creation of the Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church (working title).
The tension in the Ukrainian society is growing, and so is Russia's active counteracting Ukraine's getting independence in church issues. All stakeholders have their own expectations from the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which will take place on November 27–29, 2018. The main questions are whether Tomos will be granted to Ukraine and whether the date of holding the Unifying Sobor (Council) of Ukrainian Orthodox Churches will be scheduled.
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Note: Tomos (Greek — τόμος) — an order, a decree, a message from the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church about some important issues of the church system. Granting tomos to some part of the “maternal” church officially declares autonomy in management or autocephaly. |
As we mentioned in previous publications, there are no grounds for religious war in Ukraine, and the processes that are taking place today are the components of the most difficult kind of war — ideological and spiritual.
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Types of the war according to the level of efficiency — from the least effective to the most effective First — a hot (technological, arms) war. Under present circumstances it is the least effective, because it rarely leads to one hundred percent victory and is accompanied by considerable losses. Second — an economic war. However, it is also counterproductive today. Third — a humanitarian war or as it is also called — “hidden genocide”. Its weapon is cultivation among the population of destructive values: drinking alcohol, smoking, using genetically modified food and any other consumer inclinations that lead to degradation and degeneration of the population. Fourth — an information warfare. It is also called network-political warfare. It does not have a definite front line, but is based on creation in a certain society of a network of organizations, groups of activists, capable of influencing politics, shaping socio-political processes, implementing information campaigns and lobbying to achieve their goals. Fifth — an information-psychological war. It can be noticed in our sense of internal demoralization, hopelessness, in a bad emotional mood. Information-psychological war has two subtypes. Cyber war, which aims to physically interfere with the flow of information: blocking internet sites, disrupting the work of broadcast and television companies, creating any obstacles to the flow of information. The second subtype is much more dangerous — it is a semantic war or a war of meanings, where concepts are played with. Sixth — a chronological war. It does not lead to very rapid results, but its consequence is undermining the viability of the society, people and nation. The chronological war means that the history is changing, dates and events are erased, or their perceptions change. G. Orwell: “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present, controls the past” (“1984”). Seventh — the most effective and least visible — a spiritual/intellectual world-view war. It means imposing on the society certain ideas and stereotypes, tastes, moral or cultural dimensions, which separate the society from its roots and lead in a completely wrong direction. The peculiarity of modern wars is their being total. They cover all spheres. He who wins the world-view and spiritual war will ultimately win other forms of war, regardless of all his past defeats. |
As of today, we have several main scenarios for the development of events:
Desired. November 27–29, the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate grants Tomos to Ukraine and schedules the Unifying Sobor of Ukrainian Orthodox Churches for the second half of December 2018. A symbolic date for such an event could be December 25 — Christmas (one of the decisions of such a Sobor may be the change of calendar of church holidays). Many bishops of the UOC-MP takes part in the Sobor. As the Supreme Head of the unified church is elected a compromise figure from among the bishops of the smallest of the Orthodox churches — the UAOC. The society approves such a result of the Sobor.
Unwanted. Russia activates its influence agents to organize protest actions and conflicts. Granting Tomos is postponed, and the Unifying Sobor ends to a zero result.
Acceptable. The Unifying Sobor is scheduled for January–February 2019. Tomos is granted after the current leaders of the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches declare that they will not nominate their candidacies for the post of the future head of the renewed Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The pro-Russian forces are trying to prevent these processes, but the consolidated actions of the Ukrainian authorities, Ukrainian society and church communities neutralize the dangerous development of events.
Of course, there may be more versions of the scenario, but they would be variations of these three.
As of today, the likelihood of the unwanted scenario is rather low. But this should not relax any of those interested who want to achieve the desired scenario, because today we are making world-view spiritual-civilization choice of the Ukrainian future.
