Full Description
This volume explores the churches of Ukraine and their involvement in the recent movement for social justice and dignity within the country. In November of 2013, citizens of Ukraine gathered on Kyiv's central square (Maidan) to protest against a government that had reneged on its promise to sign a trade agreement with Europe. The Euromaidan protest included members of various Christian churches in Ukraine, who stood together and demanded government accountability and closer ties with Europe. In response, state forces massacred over one hundred unarmed civilians. The atrocity precipitated a rapid sequence of events: the president fled the country, a provisional government was put in place, and Russia annexed Crimea and intervened militarily in eastern Ukraine. An examination of Ukrainian churches' involvement in this protest and the fall-out that it inspired opens up other questions and discussions about the churches' identity and role in the country's culture and its social and political history. Volume contributors examine Ukrainian churches' historical development and singularity; their quest for autonomy; their active involvement in identity formation; their interpretations of the war and its causes; and the paths they have charted toward peace and unity.
Contents
Introduction.- Part I. Historical Background.- 1. Religion in Ukraine: Historical Background and the Present Situation; Thomas Bremer.- 2. Ukrainian Greco-Catholics: Past and Present; Yury Avvakumov.- Part II. Orthodox Autocephaly in Ukraine.- 3. Autocephaly in Ukraine: the Canonical Dimension; Paul Brusanowski.- 4. Orthodox Autocephaly in Ukraine: the Historical Dimension; Alfons Brüning.- Part III. Orthodox Identity in Ukraine.- 5. Shaping Ukrainian Identity: the Churches in the Socio-Political Crisis; Natalia Kochan.- 6. The Role of the Church in the Ukrainian Crisis: The Experience of One Parish; Lidiya Lozova.- Part IV. Interpreting the Nature and the Causes of the War.- 7. The Russian Orthodox Church and the Crisis in Ukraine; Mikhail Suslov.- 8. Interpreting the "Russian World"; Cyril Hovorun.- Part V. Paths to Unity, Co-operation, and Peace.- 9. Redefining Orthodox Identity in Ukraine after the Euromaidan; Andrii Krawchuk.- 10. Ukraine After the Euromaidan: Ecumenism vs. Religious Repression; Katrin Boeckh.
