It’s of course not strange that Kyiv sought to distance itself from Moscow. Old habits are hard to break, and within the Orthodox Church, unity between the various churches is a very highly regarded value. The reality however was, and is, that clerics can and do act as intelligence assets. Church networks can be activated to aid enemy activity, especially in times of war. During the initial schism between Moscow and Kyiv, a number of churches in Ukraine decided to stay loyal to Moscow. And there have apparently been cases in which Moscow loyalist priests have aided the invaders. Largely, however, the tide is turning against Moscow and Kirill’s rhetoric.
Now, even the Moscow Ukrainian Church is seeking to distance itself from them. The almost 13000 churches under its umbrella are already taking steps to do so. These moves also have far-reaching consequences within Russia and in the diaspora. 300 members of a group called Russian Priests for Peace signed a petition against Russia’s “murderous acts”. An Orthodox parish in Amsterdam, became the first to formally sever ties with the Moscow patriarchate. And now, a movement to exclude Moscow from the World Congress of Churches is underway. The former Archbishop of the Church Of England, Rowan Williams, who is himself a Russian speaker and expert on Orthodoxy, chimed in a few days ago: “The case for expelling is a strong one, and I have a suspicion that some other Orthodox Churches would take the same view. Many in the Orthodox world feel that Orthodoxy itself is compromised,” Lord Williams told Radio 4’s Sunday programme.
“The riot act has to be read. When a Church is actively supporting a war of aggression, failing to condemn nakedly obvious breaches in any kind of ethical conduct in wartime, then other Churches have the right to raise the question and challenge it — to say, unless you can say something effective about this, something recognisably Christian, we have to look again at your membership.”