Charting A Distinctive Course: The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Religious Pluralism, and Church-State Relations

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has a chance to be an outlier in a region otherwise inhospitable to religious diversity. Less than two years after gaining autonomy in the Orthodox community, signs are promising that church elites are neither frightened by religious choice or inclined toward state sponsorship. Such a posture would contrast glaringly with the ethos of its once overseer, the Russian Orthodox Church. I argue that, although the church’s development is still embryonic, several factors suggest a more tolerant attitude toward the operations of other nontraditional may prove durable. Hopefully, the approach is not simply a matter of the church conforming to pro-democracy sentiments in Kyiv, but rather is rooted in experience and deep-seeded beliefs. If this proves to be the case, religious pluralism and constructive church-state relations has the chance to be irrevocably engrained in the country. Such a development would dispel the notion that Eastern Orthodoxy and authoritarianism are somehow inextricably connected. Even more importantly for Ukraine’s future, a modern and transparent national church may help anchor Kyiv to its current democratizing orientation, preventing a cyclical return to autocracy.