Abstract
Thomas Bremer outlines the development of religious communities in Ukraine leading up to the Euromaidan of 2013–2014. After reviewing the sequence of political environments which shaped Ukraine’s religious history—Poland, Russia, Austria, Germany and the USSR—he introduces the key players in the contemporary Ukrainian religious scene: the Orthodox Churches of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Kyivan Patriarchate and the Autocephalous Church; as well as the Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic, and Protestant Churches. In post-Soviet Ukraine, the majority Orthodox jurisdiction (of the Moscow Patriarchate) experienced significant departures by its members—first to the Greek Catholic Church and then to the Patriarchate of Kyiv.
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Notes
- 1.
The Razumkov Center has conducted several opinion polls on religiosity in Ukraine. See http://www.razumkov.org.ua/additional/article_bychenko_dudar_NSD34_eng.pdf and www.razumkov.org.ua/eng/journal.php?y=2011&cat=166. In the first report (also in National Security and Defence 10 [2002]), the authors argue that religion has become more important for Ukrainians, but at the same time also more individual (“a tendency towards bringing faith from the sphere of its public manifestations and turning it into a person’s private matter”), a statement which seems to be contradicted by the latest events. The latter document constitutes a detailed survey from 2010 (also in National Security and Defence 1–2 [2011]).
- 2.
Bohdan R. Bociurkiw, “The Rise of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, 1919–1922,” in: Church, Nation and State in Russia and Ukraine, Geoffrey A. Hosking, ed. (Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 1990), 228–249.
- 3.
John-Paul Himka, Religion and Nationality in Western Ukraine. The Greek Catholic Church and the Ruthenian National Movement in Galicia 1870–1900 (Montreal–Kingston: Queen’s University Press, 1999).
- 4.
Bohdan R. Bociurkiw, “The Suppression of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Postwar Soviet Union and Poland,” in: Religion and Nationalism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Dennis J. Dunn ed. (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1987), 97–119; Bohdan R. Bociurkiw, The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Soviet State (1939–1950) (Toronto: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 1996).
- 5.
The UGCC is a Major-Archbishopric within the Catholic Church. However, recent Archbishops Major have claimed the status of a patriarchate. Quite often, the head of the church is referred to as patriarch, and the church is administered by a “Patriarchal Curia.” But the Roman Church has acknowledged neither the status of a patriarchate nor the title of patriarch.
- 6.
Sophia Senyk, “The Ukrainian Church and Latinization,” Orientalia Christiana Periodica 56 (1990), 165–187.
- 7.
On the historical and canonical arguments for the involvement of Constantinople, see the contributions of Brüning and Brusanowski in this volume.
- 8.
For details, see: Andrii Krawchuk, “Constructing Interreligious Consensus in the Post-Soviet Space: The Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations,” in: Eastern Orthodox Encounters of Identity and Otherness. Values, Self-Reflection, Dialogue, Andrii Krawchuk and Thomas Bremer, eds. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 273–300.
- 9.
According to Razumkov Center polls, in 2010 more than 25% of the population said they were “just Christian,” without declaring that they belonged to any specific church. In 2000, the figure was even higher, with more than 40% who were “just Christian” or who did not know to which church they belonged. See www.razumkov.org.ua/eng/journal.php?y=2011&cat=166.
- 10.
The data are as of 1 January 2015. For the Muslims of Crimea, data reflect the state of affairs on 1 January 2014. The number of parishes refers to those, which are registered. In all religious communities, the number of existing parishes is the same or slightly higher. Only among the Crimean Muslims is the number of unregistered communities much higher: 928 communities, of which 353 are registered.
This table provides a general overview of only the largest denominations. For more detail on these, as well as on smaller Orthodox and Protestant denominations not included here, see the cited source.
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Bremer, T. (2016). Religion in Ukraine: Historical Background and the Present Situation. In: Krawchuk, A., Bremer, T. (eds) Churches in the Ukrainian Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34144-6_1
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