Massacre of the Filik Eteria allies in Bucharest, 1821. Wikicommons/ Unknown German source. Some rights reserved.
In one of the most important social institutions in eastern Europe there is a major split happening in world Orthodoxy on the basis of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Tensions in the Ukrainian wing of the Russian Orthodox Church have been high since the dissolution of the USSR in 1992. The Moscow Patriarchate excommunicated Metropolitan Philaret Denisenko who was once seen as a rising star in the church. Philaret managed to split with a few parishes forming a social base for the new Kiev Patriarchate. Since 1997, the Kiev Patriarchate’s lobbying effort for recognition has caused ire between the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Moscow.
