Eastern European Geopolitics and Ecclesial Autocephaly for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church: A Hard Way for Ukraine

This article presents an analysis of the complex interdependencies between the nature of regional confl icts, broader geopolitical projections and their implications for religious institutions in Ukraine, especially for the majority church in the country, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. After a general introduction, the fi rst part analyzes certain Ukrainian and broader Eastern European geopolitical variables with the scope to demonstrate coercive mechanisms aimed to projecting power at regional levels. The fi rst chapter of part I presents some general geopolitical facts related with the Ukrainian confl ict. The second chapter deals with more specifi c geopolitical facts. It presents two examples of how big global actors play with geopolitical complexities. The third chapter presents a recent incident between Russia and Ukraine, which shows that the struggle for controlling the region of the Black Sea is ongoing. The second part deals with the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its immediate ecclesial and geopolitical implications. The fi rst chapter is aimed to provide evidence of interest for the problems we deal with in this article. The second chapter proves the important place and role played by religion in Ukraine. The third chapter explains the “Ukrainian issue” from an ecclesial perspective. The fourth chapter offers a short historical overview of six facts which determine the “Ukrainian issue” today. The fi fth chapter presents the recent events related to the granting of autocephaly to the newly established Ukrainian Orthodox Church which unites together two already existing Orthodox Churches in Ukraine (the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church.) Chapter six presents and analyzes the fi rst reactions of some Orthodox Churches to this decision. This article is concluded with some remarks.