An acclaimed theologian, Archimandrite Kyrylo Hovorun, spoke at a conference on state-church relations organized by the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience. The event took place on December 19. On his Telegram channel, Father Kyrylo shared the key thoughts expressed during the conference.
He was invited to Kyiv to participate in the event, which was also attended by civil servants responsible for regulating state-church relations at various levels.
The Archimandrite expressed several important ideas:
In the context of relations between different Ukrainian churches and their interaction with the socio-political space of Ukraine, a hierarchy of values can be distinguished:
The highest value is the common good for all citizens of Ukraine.
The important issue of the second tier is the value that reflects the essence and nature of the Church as an institution.
The third-tier is the corporate good of individual churches.
According to Father Kyrylo, for both largest Orthodox churches in Ukraine, corporate interests often dominate other values. Although both churches publicly declare their support for Ukraine and the Church as a whole, they, in his opinion, are inclined to sacrifice these values for the sake of achieving their own corporate goals. It is this tendency, according to the archimandrite, that leads to internal conflicts in Ukraine, which can be exploited by Russia in its interests.
He emphasized the need for the state, first of all, to protect the common good of all Ukrainians. From this point of view, the role of the state in regulating the religious area should be proactive and decisive, similar to the description of Leviathan in Thomas Hobbes. Father Kyrylo believes that the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience should perform the function of a kind of “Leviathan” in relation to churches that, in the fight for their own corporate interests, can harm public good and provoke conflicts.
Earlier, the theologian expressed the opinion that the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church considers himself more important than Putin.
