When President Donald Trump’s government Works in the direction of a diplomatic end of the war in Ukraine, warn the leaders of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) that the Russia of Vladimir Putin believes that it actually fights a “holy war” against the West.
A delegation from the OCU was recently in the United States for the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, DC The group was led by his Beatitude Metropolitan Epiphany, leader of Kiev and all of Ukraine.
His translator spoke with Fox News about the spiritual war that raged between Russia and Ukraine, who played a major role in why the struggle started and continues to escalate.
Head of Eastern orthodoxy condemns Putin, Russian invasion of Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends Easter Orthodox Service at the Christ The Saviour Cathedral, April 16, 2023 in Moscow. (Contributor/Getty images)
His eminence of metropolitan Yevstratiy, the deputy head of the Orthodox Church of the external church relationships of Ukraine, says about Russia: “From the point of religious view, this is a liberation of Ukrainians from (the) godless West, of evil and Russia brings Brings the light and the truth to Ukraine.
Yevstratiy, and other Church Guards such as Catholic Intellectual George Weigel, have accused the Russian -Orthodox Church of nothing more than an arm of the Kremlin, dressed in religious robes but offering Putin.
Writing in the magazine First Things, Weigel noted: “… Ukraine set up and has a strong resistance that Russia denied the rapid victory that Putin expected in February 2022, the Russian justifications before the war began to get a new coloring: the War was now a crusade in the defense of Christian civilization.
On Lighthouse Faith PodcastYevstratiy remembered how at the start of the war the Patriarch Kirill from Moscow to Russian soldiers fighting against Ukraine, that they would go to paradise in the battle, they would immediately go to paradise … All sins forgive. Even for an outsider who looks at the complexity of Orthodox Christianity, that sounds more like ‘political jihad’ than on the gospel.
In 2019, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was given independent of the Russian Orthodox Church by the ecumenical patriarch in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey). It caused a stir in Moscow. Kirill and Putin refused to recognize the authority of Patriarch Bartholomew.
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Metropolitan Epiphanius conducts the liturgical service and the church of St. Andrew the first joint dedication on 25 August 2024 in Bucha, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. (Andrii Nesterenko/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Yevstratiy also revealed a narrower version of the war in Ukraine. He says that Putin’s ultimate goal is more than the reunification of the Soviet Union, or the defense of Christian civilization. It is actually more apocalyptic. He is aimed at heralding the third and last Rome …. in Moscow, which means that the rest of Christianity, Catholics and Protestants label … as heretical and Gentiles.
Describing the inner functioning of the orthodox churches may seem a bit like ‘in baseball’. But these are the oldest churches of Christianity. They stem from the five old churches led by the apostles who knew Jesus personally.
The Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill is conducting the Easter service in the Christ The Saviour Cathedral in Moscow on Saturday 23 April. (Sergei Hair, Russian Orthodox Church Press Service via AP)
The Apostle Andrew went east in Constantinople; Mark to Alexandria (Egypt); Peter to Antioch (Rome); James to Jerusalem and Barnabas to Cyprus. Of these men, together with the traveling apostle Paul, Christianity spread all over the world. So this conflict between Russia and Ukraine has deep spiritual roots. And Putin knows.
Yestratiy and Epiphany were present at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC and heard President Trump explain his wish to be a peacemaker.
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Vestratiy said, “We pray and we ask God the Almighty to bless this very good and Christian desire.”
Adding: “May God bless Ukraine. May God bless America.”
The full interview is on Lauren Green’s Lighthouse Faith Podcast, available on Apple, Spotify and here.
