Metropolitan Onufry, the caretaker of the Ukrainian branch of the Russian Orthodox Church, was elected the church's leader by a congress of bishops in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The choice could have a significant impact on both the Moscow Patriarchate’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church itself. The church’s future development largely depends on the metropolitan, who could potentially choose to pursue a strategy for unification with other Orthodox churches in Ukraine – a potential headache for the mother church in Moscow. The Ukrainian branch accounts for about a half of the Moscow Patriarchate’s parishes worldwide. But the new leader is unlikely to take this path, analysts say.
Onufry, metropolitan of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna in western Ukraine since 1990, was elected locum tenens in February after Volodymyr, metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine, fell seriously ill. Volodymyr died last month.
Onufry is taking office as speculation is growing about the Ukrainian church’s possible separation from the Moscow Patriarchate. Calls for separating the church have intensified since Russian-Ukrainian relations took a nosedive after the overthrow of pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych in February and Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March.
Onufry has been described by analysts as a pro-Russian candidate, however.
Nationalist activists assembled near the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery on Wednesday, where the election of the metropolitan was held, to protest against the Kremlin’s influence on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. They held posters saying “Down with Muscovite priests!”, “Ukrainians are against spiritual occupation!” and “The Moscow Patriarchate is a branch of (Russia’s) Federal Security Service, not a Christian church.”
President Petro Poroshenko, who is seen as a key figure who can influence the church’s fate, addressed the bishops before the election and urged them to be responsible.
“Today a historic event is taking place at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra – the election of the head of the independent and self-governing Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” he said. “You have a special responsibility to elect a worthy bishop for the ancient Kyiv diocese who will properly continue the good work of his grace late Metropolitan Volodymyr.”
The Rev. Serhiy, head of the social work department at the rival Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, said by phone that all candidates, including Onufry, who is 61, toed Moscow’s line and there were no pro-Kyiv bishops.
The Rev. Serhiy, a key participant of the EuroMaidan movement in the city of Kherson, used to be a priest of the Moscow Patriarchate but switched to the Kyiv Patriarchate earlier this year because of his disagreement with the Russian Orthodox Church’s policies.
“Onufry is a man of the old system and he chose to stay in the Russian Orthodox Church after the Soviet Union’s collapse,” Serhiy said. “He has pursued pro-Moscow policies and will continue to do so.”
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s separation from Moscow and its unification with the Kyiv Patriarchate are only possible if a third party intervenes – for instance, the president or the Patriarch of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, he said, adding that pressure by civil society could also be a factor.
“A church that does not side with its own people is destined to emigrate,” he said.
The Kyiv Patriarchate has repeatedly called for unifying the two churches. While the Kyiv Patriarchate has vehemently opposed Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Moscow Patriarchate’s Ukrainian branch has been ambiguous about the issue. Some Moscow Patriarchate priests have backed pro-Russian separatists, while others have supported Ukraine, and the church’s leadership itself is officially neutral.
Serhiy predicted that some parishes would leave the Moscow Patriarchate and join the Kyiv Patriarchate because it would become “a church for Russians.”
Currently, the Moscow Patriarchate’s Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine enjoys wide autonomy and has a right to appoint bishops without authorization from Moscow. But the Ukrainian church is often seen as a major tool of Russian influence in the country.
The Moscow Patriarchate’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the country’s largest religious organization and has 11,358 parishes. The more nationalist Kyiv Patriarchate, which split from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 1992, has 2,781 parishes. There is also a smaller Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church operating in Ukraine.
Apart from Russian-Ukrainian relations, another issue at stake at the Moscow Patriarchate is the preservation of morality among the clergy.
Deacon Andrei Kurayev, a liberal priest and theologian of the Russian Orthodox Church living in Moscow, has repeatedly said that Onufry was pious and represented a threat for an influential group of priests and bishops known for their corruption and lewd behavior.
“Onufry is the bishop of Bukovyna on the Romanian border, a man of true monastic life who lived in the Trinity Lavra near Moscow for many years, a defender of rules and traditions,” Kurayev wrote on LiveJournal blog in March. “It is this good reputation that makes him a lethal threat for a numerous group of lewd and corrupt people among the Ukrainian bishops.”
