The head of the External Church Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate received an award from Russian President Vladimir Putin for what’s seen as a successful work in defending the “borders of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.”
On February 2, 2022, the President of the aggressor power, Vladimir Putin, awarded the head of the ROC Central Executive Committee, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev), who actively defends the interests of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, the ROCinU.
Welcoming the participants in the ceremony, Putin stressed that “everyone, of course, is united by their desire to work for the good” of Russia and for the benefit of Russians. Officially, the head of the ECRD was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky “for great contribution to the development of international and interfaith relations,” according to the ROC website.
Hilarion stands against OCU autocephaly, for ROCinU’s unity with Russia
It should be recalled that it was Hilarion (Alfeev) who rejoiced over the ROC in Ukraine remaining in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate. “Grieving over the deepening schism in world Orthodoxy, we accept, at the same time, with gratitude to God, the fact that the schism is developing outside the canonical boundaries of the Russian Orthodox Church. Our Church, which unites the Orthodox believers of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and other countries, has not lost its unity and neither has it diminished due to the insidious actions of schismatics and the Patriarch of Constantinople who supported them. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (ROCinU – ed.) … remains united with the Russian Orthodox Church, retaining its self-governing status,” Alfeyev said in early 2022.
Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev) also spoke about “persecution of the ROC in Ukraine.” He also accused the Ukrainian authorities of “Russophobia” and “attempts to rewrite history” and said that thanks to the ROC, the connection between the three nations will never be severed. “… Political circumstances are changing, but the bond between the three fraternal peoples – Russia, Ukraine, Belarus – will be preserved forever, and it is ensured, including through ecclesiastical unity, which no one is allowed to destroy,” Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev) said in August 2021.
In July 2021, Hilarion, head of the ROC’s External Relations Department, said that the ROC did not grant autocephaly to its branch in Ukraine because the hierarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine did not want to separate from Moscow. “Autocephaly, complete ecclesiastical independence, is something that must come from the will of the ecclesiastical people, and we don’t see this in Ukraine… The church people in their entirety, the clergy, the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church do not want to separate from the Russian Orthodox Church,” said the Metropolitan of the ROC. At the same time, Hilarion stated that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine allegedly “exploits the topic of autocephaly to further drive the wedge between Russia and Ukraine at the political level, and at the same time drive the same wedge at the church level.” At the same time, Alfeyev stressed that the ROC in Ukraine, with all its might, constantly seeks to “preserve unity” with the Russian Church.
“In this situation, should we think about some kind of autocephaly, which we do not ask for, which no one in Ukraine wants? Of course not. That is why we will defend our unity, which dates back more than a thousand years,” the Metropolitan of the Russian Church concluded.
The ROCinU itself fully supports their “colleagues” from Russia. Thus, a similar opinion was expressed by Metropolitan Antoniy (Pakanych), the right hand of the ROCinU leader, Onufriy. He asserted that the ROCinU did not need autocephaly.
In May 2021, Alfeyev declared that the struggle against the so-called “UOC” of the Moscow Patriarchate was nothing more than a struggle against the part of the Russian Orthodox Church that they were trying to “reject.” “In the current geopolitical situation, the same forces that are working against Russia are working against the Russian Orthodox Church. They are working to weaken, dismember the Church, to reject those historical parts of it that are inextricably linked to it, in particular, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (ROCinU, – ed.),” said the head of the ECRD, noting that the main events taking place now in the field of inter-Orthodox relations are related to this struggle. Speaking about the protection of the ROC in Ukraine, Hilarion then said: “We are increasingly engaged in defending the sacred boundaries of our Church.”
He reiterated this during the awarding ceremony on February 2: “Our department is sometimes called the Church Foreign Ministry, which is not entirely fair, as we deal not only with foreign affairs but also with interfaith relations in our country (Russia, ed.). And in recent years, we have become more and more like a defense agency, because we have to defend the sacred boundaries of our Church. ”
Thus, despite the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war, a church structure subordinate to Russia, the ROCinU, continues to operate in Ukraine with impunity and is openly defended from Moscow through the Moscow Patriarchate’s “Church Defense Department.” For successful activities, the president of the aggressor power in Moscow awards the head of the “church-defense department” Alfeyev an Order in honor of Russia’s national hero, Alexander Nevsky.
