How the Putin Stole Christmas
The invasion of Ukraine is driving the first major schism in Orthodoxy since Catholicism split away a thousand years ago
For many in the Eastern Orthodox Church, today is Christmas. Until now, that included the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, but a law signed in 2023 moved the official date to December 25th, putting the bank holiday in line with the date used by the country’s small collection of Catholics and even smaller handful of Protestants, as well as with the Greek, Romanian, Bulgarian and most other Orthodox branches globally (not to mention the Ukrainian Orthodox that celebrated unofficially on the 25th the year before). As for the Russian Orthodox Church (which insists on using the Julian calendar), today is still Christmas.
While the reason to switch away from the date used by Russia to the one used by the West seems fairly obvious, this is actually a significant shift in an almost hidden religious war that most in the West don’t know about.
It’s been almost two years since this war started, and while Putin outlined his reasoning in an emotionally charged speech at the outset (the U.S. oversees an “empire of lies” and Ukraine is aggressive and NATO is expanding and the Soviet Union should never have collapsed etc. etc. etc.), he has also frequently alluded to heavy religious justifications, linking this war to a major internal conflict in the Eastern Orthodox Church. A conflict that is, in fact, the first major schism in Orthodoxy since Catholicism split away a thousand years ago.
First a (very) brief review of Orthodox history. The legalization of Christianity by Constantine and his relocation of the Roman capitol to Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) set the stage for that city to become the seat of the religion. Rome remained a fairly important site to the religion as well, but despite a doctrinal dispute in 484 CE and a fight over whether or not a Byzantine emperor can depose a church patriarch in 863 CE, Christianity remained more or less unified until 1054 CE, when Catholicism split off permanently.
There’s an important structural difference between Catholicism and Orthodoxy to consider. While Catholicism is essentially all united under the Pope, Orthodoxy is a collection of autonomous, independent branches called “autocephalous churches” or patriarchates. There are 17 official patriarchates (recognized by each other) and a collection of branches not yet recognized by those 17, with the Patriarchate of Constantinople being “first among equals” (think of it like a president whereas the Pope is a king.)
The next major event for the purposes of this article occurred shortly before the 1054 schism. In 988 CE, Prince Volodymyr I of Kyiv embraced Christianity, creating an Orthodox ancestor country to both modern day Ukraine and Russia. As you might imagine, this historical fact has been exploited by Putin and the current Russian Patriarch Kirill to justify the war in Ukraine.
Quickly back to history, though. The next significant event was in 1453, when Constantinople was captured by the Ottoman Empire. Since then, the Moscow Patriarchate, AKA the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), has been calling itself the true seat of Orthodoxy, and has maintained a traditional rivalry with Constantinople. Admittedly, with the largest share of Orthodox Christians living in the country of Russia (about 40%), it’s not the wildest claim, but importantly, the overall majority of Orthodox Christians have crucial differences in philosophy and social morals. To put it bluntly: led by Bartholomew, Patriarch of Constantinople, the majority of Eastern Orthodoxy has been openly aligning itself with the West’s social-moral values (freedom, equality, rejecting nationalism and racism, etc.), while the ROC, led by Patriarch Kirill, has been stampeding in the opposite direction. Crucially, Kirill has been focused on strengthening the relationship between the ROC and American Christian fundamentalists, making common cause with them on multiple social issues, particularly so gender and sexuality.
So you should see what’s going on here. The Eastern Orthodox Church as a whole is aligning itself with the West on the big issues (liberal democracy), but the ROC is aligning with American fundamentalists (theocratic autocracy). Considering that the loudest voices against funding Ukraine are fundamentalist Christians, it is impossible to disentangle the religious elements from the political.
In 2018, Bartholomew of Constantinople granted autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, officially making it the newest autonomous branch. The ROC immediately “broke communion” with Constantinople — the same terminology used to describe the schism between Orthodoxy as a whole and Catholicism — and there is good reason to suspect that this break may end up being permanent, too. That may be a question to answer on the scale of centuries, however. As far as decades go, though, it’s clear that this is schism adds a new religious flavor to the Cold War, which Putin (and increasingly many in the West) say never ended.
As we all know, there’s nothing quite like a Holy War.