The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has now broken with Patriarch Kirill and the Russian Orthodox Church over Kirill's unabashed support for Putin's war.
May not seem like much but a schism such as this is profound. The UOC has been a part of the Moscow patriarchate for many centuries and the Moscow patriarchate views itself as the "Third Rome", the inheritor of the mantle of the leader of Christendom after Rome then Byzantium fell. It is also part of Putin's Russky Mir, or Russian World, a Pan Slavic empire that Russia has been working on for centuries in one form or another. This makes that narrative a lot harder to sustain and will lead to a lot of questions about the justification of the war with various Russians, i.e., how can Russia claim it is protecting Orthodox Slavs when Orthodox Slavs are breaking with Moscow?
In a Monty Python-like twist, though, we have "splitters"!!! Some time ago, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the leader of all Eastern Orthodox churches, granted a splinter church in Ukraine autocephalous status, meaning it could choose its own leader. These people chose to break from Moscow at that time. They are the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. So the UOC and the OCU may now get back together to oppose the ROC.
Can't tell the players without a scorecard!
Quote:
(Brian is a member of the People's Front for Judea)
Brian: “Brothers, brothers…We mustn’t fight each other! Surely we should be united against the common enemy!
Insurgents: “The Judean People’s Front?!”
Brian: “No, no! The Romans!”
Insurgents: “Oh, yeah. Yeah.”
Reg: “Right. You’re in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the f**king Judean People’s Front.”
Stan: “Yeah, the Judean People’s Front.”
Reg: “Yeah. Splitters.”
Stan: “And the Popular Front of Judea.”
Reg: “Yeah. Splitters.”
Stan: “And the People’s Front of Judea.”
Reg: “Yea… what?”
Stan: “The People’s Front of Judea. Splitters.”
Reg: “We’re the People’s Front of Judea!”
Stan: “Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.”
Reg: “People’s Front!”
Francis: “Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?”
Reg: “He’s over there.” [points to a lone man]
Reg, Stan, Francis, Judith: “SPLITTER!”
