Randy Fermo
22-03-2005, 10:11 PM
Aloha,
What do you think what will happen with the Two Orthodox Church in Ukrain? What are their future? should there be an independent Orthodox Church in Ukrain or should remain under the Patriarhate of Russia? Should Ukrain Orthodox remain under Russian or Constantinople? just wondering....I think whether we are in communion with Ukrain or not... we really need to pray for them that Democracy succeed.... and that thier churches remain free... freedom to worship and choose.
/b{Ukraine seen as model for post-Soviet religious policy}
Mar. 16 (Forum 18/CWNews.com) - The policy of neutrality toward religion adopted by the new Ukrainian government under President Viktor Yushchenko could be a model for the independent states of the old Soviet empire, writes a prominent Ukrainian Catholic and former political prisoner.
In a commentary that appears on the Forum 18 web site, Myroslav Marynovych argues that other countries should take their cue from Ukraine, and "end their meddling in religious life." But he adds that the other former Soviet republics will probably not abandon their efforts to control religion until they undergo the sort of democratic renewal that shook Ukraine last year.
Marynovych, who is now vice-rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University, welcomes the announcement by President Yushchenko that the State Committee for Religious Affairs will be abolished. "It is not our goal to create deliberate obstacles for one or another faith or church," Yushchenko said.
In Ukraine, the government ousted by last year's "Orange Revolution" was heavily backed by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church allied with the Moscow Patriarchate. Yushchenko's electoral victory, supported by other Orthodox groups as well as Catholics and members of other Ukrainian churches, ended a long period in which state authorities offered preferential treatment for one faith, in exchange for the support of that denomination's leaders, Marynovych writes.
However, the Ukrainian analyst observes, the pattern of state control over religious affairs is not likely to be broken in other post-Soviet countries until those societies, too, make a break from the authoritarian political model that still dominated Ukrainian life up until the Orange Revolution.
This article was published by F18News on: 16 March 2005
/b{COMMENTARY: No religious freedom without democracy: a lesson from "Orange Ukraine" }
By Myroslav Marynovych, Ukrainian Catholic University http://www.ucu.edu.ua
In this personal commentary for Forum 18 News Service http://www.forum18.org, former Soviet political prisoner Professor Myroslav Marynovych, who is now vice-rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University http://www.ucu.edu.ua in Lviv, argues that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's surprise announcement last month of the abolition of the State Committee for Religious Affairs is a powerful signal to the rest of the region that governments should end their meddling in religious life. He regards the feeling in Ukraine that the communist model of controlling religion is now dead as the greatest gain of the "Orange Revolution" in the sphere of religion. Yet he warns that other countries will find it hard to learn from the proclaimed end of Ukranian government interference in religious matters, without wider respect for human rights and accountable government. Without democratic change – which should bring in its wake greater freedom for religious communities from state control and meddling - it is unlikely that religious communities will escape from government efforts to control them.
Within weeks of becoming president in what was dubbed the "Orange Revolution", Viktor Yushchenko took a bold move in church-state relations. Surprising his listeners on a visit to Zhytomyr in central Ukraine on 8 February, he announced that among a whole sweep of government agencies to be abolished was the State Committee for Religious Affairs, including its local offices. More than 150 officials employed on religious affairs will thus be axed. "The government will work with every religion openly," Yushchenko pledged, promising the equal treatment of all faiths and an end to state interference in the internal life of religious communities. "It is not our goal to create deliberate obstacles for one or another faith or church." He stressed that it is "the business of the individual" to choose which faith to follow.
READ MORE:
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=526
What do you think what will happen with the Two Orthodox Church in Ukrain? What are their future? should there be an independent Orthodox Church in Ukrain or should remain under the Patriarhate of Russia? Should Ukrain Orthodox remain under Russian or Constantinople? just wondering....I think whether we are in communion with Ukrain or not... we really need to pray for them that Democracy succeed.... and that thier churches remain free... freedom to worship and choose.
/b{Ukraine seen as model for post-Soviet religious policy}
Mar. 16 (Forum 18/CWNews.com) - The policy of neutrality toward religion adopted by the new Ukrainian government under President Viktor Yushchenko could be a model for the independent states of the old Soviet empire, writes a prominent Ukrainian Catholic and former political prisoner.
In a commentary that appears on the Forum 18 web site, Myroslav Marynovych argues that other countries should take their cue from Ukraine, and "end their meddling in religious life." But he adds that the other former Soviet republics will probably not abandon their efforts to control religion until they undergo the sort of democratic renewal that shook Ukraine last year.
Marynovych, who is now vice-rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University, welcomes the announcement by President Yushchenko that the State Committee for Religious Affairs will be abolished. "It is not our goal to create deliberate obstacles for one or another faith or church," Yushchenko said.
In Ukraine, the government ousted by last year's "Orange Revolution" was heavily backed by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church allied with the Moscow Patriarchate. Yushchenko's electoral victory, supported by other Orthodox groups as well as Catholics and members of other Ukrainian churches, ended a long period in which state authorities offered preferential treatment for one faith, in exchange for the support of that denomination's leaders, Marynovych writes.
However, the Ukrainian analyst observes, the pattern of state control over religious affairs is not likely to be broken in other post-Soviet countries until those societies, too, make a break from the authoritarian political model that still dominated Ukrainian life up until the Orange Revolution.
This article was published by F18News on: 16 March 2005
/b{COMMENTARY: No religious freedom without democracy: a lesson from "Orange Ukraine" }
By Myroslav Marynovych, Ukrainian Catholic University http://www.ucu.edu.ua
In this personal commentary for Forum 18 News Service http://www.forum18.org, former Soviet political prisoner Professor Myroslav Marynovych, who is now vice-rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University http://www.ucu.edu.ua in Lviv, argues that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's surprise announcement last month of the abolition of the State Committee for Religious Affairs is a powerful signal to the rest of the region that governments should end their meddling in religious life. He regards the feeling in Ukraine that the communist model of controlling religion is now dead as the greatest gain of the "Orange Revolution" in the sphere of religion. Yet he warns that other countries will find it hard to learn from the proclaimed end of Ukranian government interference in religious matters, without wider respect for human rights and accountable government. Without democratic change – which should bring in its wake greater freedom for religious communities from state control and meddling - it is unlikely that religious communities will escape from government efforts to control them.
Within weeks of becoming president in what was dubbed the "Orange Revolution", Viktor Yushchenko took a bold move in church-state relations. Surprising his listeners on a visit to Zhytomyr in central Ukraine on 8 February, he announced that among a whole sweep of government agencies to be abolished was the State Committee for Religious Affairs, including its local offices. More than 150 officials employed on religious affairs will thus be axed. "The government will work with every religion openly," Yushchenko pledged, promising the equal treatment of all faiths and an end to state interference in the internal life of religious communities. "It is not our goal to create deliberate obstacles for one or another faith or church." He stressed that it is "the business of the individual" to choose which faith to follow.
READ MORE:
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=526