The Transformation of

the “Eastern Lung”

 

Myroslav Marynovych: When Communism fell, many expected Slavs, long forced to remain silent, would finally be free and Christian. That may now be happening. 

Though almost no one in the West has taken notice, there has been a recent development important for all of global Christianity. A new Autocephalous Church of Ukraine was created during the Kyiv Orthodox Church Synod on November 15, 2018 – a move that has been welcomed by the Ukrainian Catholic Church. 

            Is this just another outbreak of “Ukrainian nationalism” at a time when Russia has become increasingly active? Or the result of rivalry between Constantinople and Moscow for influence over Ukraine? And what does this event mean for the Orthodox as well as the Catholic Church?

          In reality, it is a continental shift in the Church. St. John Paul II often urged Europe to breathe with two “lungs” – Western and Eastern. The “Western lung” is generally well understood. But what is the “Eastern lung”? 

            From the 11^th to the 14^th centuries, the answer was unequivocal: the Christian East was organized around two centers: the Church of Constantinople (including Greece and Athens) and its “daughter” Church, the Church of Kyiv, from which Christianity spread to other eastern lands. 

            Between the 15^th and 18^th centuries, a spectacular “continental” drift occurred, and Moscow displaced Kyiv. From then on, the Christian East was centered in Constantinople and Moscow. Muscovy incorporated into itself both the territory of ancient Kyivan Rus’ and the ecclesiastic Kyiv Metropoly, becoming the Russian Empire. 

             The distinctive features of ancient Kyiv spirituality were rigorously whittled down to conform to the interests of the Moscow model of caesaropapism. “Suspicious” church books were burned. Dissident church figures were repressed. 

Click here to read the rest of Professor Marynovych’s column . . .https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/02/02/the-transformation-of-the-eastern-lung/?utm_source=The+Catholic+Thing+Daily&utm_campaign=650484e8a0-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_07_01_02_COPY_04&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_769a14e16a-650484e8a0-244213773