copyright James R Carlson
With war in the Ukraine, renewed Religious Freedom is on the horizon. Such was the case when the United States fought the Revolutionary War against the British invasion of the colonies in 1776. As the State of England attacked the sovereignty of the colonies that would become the United States of America, the State Church of England was dismantled in favor of Religious Freedom. This is the history of the U.S. and is becoming the history of Ukraine.
As the Russian State is at war with Ukraine, the State Church of Russia (Russian Orthodox Church) has given tacit approval to the Russian State to regain the former glory of the Russian Empire under the Czars (a new combination of Clergy and Throne). Sadly, the State Church of Russia has not condemned the war of aggression against the State of Ukraine, which is connect to the Patriarchate of Russia via the Orthodox Church. For this, there is a split between the Orthodox Church in Russia and Ukraine. According to an article in, 2020 Report on International Religious Freedom: Ukraine (May 12 2021) from the Office of International Religious Freedom and information from the International Center for Law and Religious Studies, the government of Ukraine…
… at times [Ukraine] continued to try to balance tensions between the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) – granted autocephaly by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in 2019 – and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), which competed for members and congregations. According to the Orthodox Times and other media, Russia continued to use a disinformation campaign to fuel further conflict between the two churches. Whereas in the past the government of then-President Petro Poroshenko promoted the OCU by encouraging local governments to facilitate parish reregistration from the UOC-MP to the OCU, Serhiy Trofimov, first deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, reportedly discouraged local governments from such reregistration.
While there is nothing wrong with a state sponsored church working to serve God and the people of Ukraine, it has become a political arm of the State, which should lead to a separation of church and state. The freedom of the Christian Church in the Ukraine (and Russia) should allow for churches to be established and grow apart from State control and State Church limitations. Religious freedom will provide for more than the education and enlightenment of the Ukrainian people, it will provide for relief to countless millions through renewed and strengthened charitable relief programs sponsor by independent churches.
Clearly, there is no religious freedom in Russia, due to some degree to the Patriarchate of Moscow. And if Czar Putin has control of Ukraine, religious freedom will die there. We can ask for religious freedom for both the people of Russia and Ukraine but it is likely to fall on deaf ears as the established Church in Russia cannot respond to the cries of their own laity in Ukraine.
In December last year, before the war began, I published a report on the Reformation of Russian showing how the Greek Orthodox Church underwent a natural, Eastern, Reformation without Western influence. Today, the same may occur. As the official State Church of Russia and Ukraine have separated politically, the Ukrainian government can provide for renewed religious freedom for both the Orthodox and Independent Churches in Ukraine. This is Heaven’s call upon a nation in crisis as they cry out to God for relief from war. And there is no telling what Blessings from Heaven are available to the People of Ukraine as the State of Ukraine reaches out to invite the Kingdom of Heaven into their midst.