Clash of Orthodoxies

Fire of Liberty

Zeyno Baran & Emmet Tuohy of the Nixon Center, have an interesting article over at National Review Online on the distinctive difference between the Eastern Orthodox Church and The Russian Orthodox. Baran & Tuohy reveal that while the Eastern church has played an active role in promoting freedom throughout Eastern Europe, the Russian Church has pegged its future with the Russian Bear and its desire for stability in the status quo. Both scholars noted how a continued cold-shoulder towards democracy will only push the Russian Bear further and further away from the West, which is a long way from where the nation needs to go. Here's a small sampling of this interesting article:

Though not widely known, the structure of the Orthodox Church is highly conducive to local, responsive decision-making. Since the famous 1054 split with Roman Catholicism, the Ecumenical Patriarch (who has continued to reside in Constantinople/Istanbul over the intervening millennium) enjoys only a primus inter pares relationship with the autonomous patriarchs of individual countries. Over time, each national Orthodox Church thus became closely tied to the needs and desires of their people. However, as Ottoman political control receded over the 19th century, the influence of the Russian Patriarchate grew in keeping with the expansion of Tsarist and later Soviet power. While many churches were able to regain effective independence during the widespread clamoring for freedom that accompanied the fall of the Berlin Wall, pro-Russian elements have resisted such efforts.

In contrast, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, based in Istanbul, has acted as the leading voice in favor of freedom and democracy in the Orthodox world. A prominent promoter of interfaith ties and environmental issues (he has, somewhat unusually, been labeled “the green patriarch”), Bartholomew I has taken a special interest in the anti-authoritarian movement that has steadily gained steam in Orthodox countries over the last two decades. Standing at the center of coordination among all the Orthodox, he strongly supported the independence of the church in Estonia, which led to a major split within the Orthodox Church (between Russian and Greek churches). Today he is the key to the independence of the Georgian and Ukrainian churches, as well.

This "clash of orthodoxies" might not send shivers down most people's spine but It does have a major impact on the Russian people. With the ever-increasing heavy handedness of Putin and his party on the Russian state and the Russian Orthodox Church following the same sheet music, we could see the continued evaporation of the freedoms the Russian people gained with the collapse of the Soviet system. I wished the Church leaders in Russia would open their eyes to the dangers of appeasing the Russian state and other dictators, don't they remember any of their history. I think they might discover how dangerous it is to appease a KGB agent like Putin in Russia. God save them all.