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9 July 2024

Orthodox In Kazakhstan Seeking Autocephaly Find Half-Way House In Ukrainian Uniate Congregation Subordinate To Rome – OpEd

Paul Goble

Even before Putin launched his expanded invasion of Ukraine and the Moscow Patriarchate blessed that action, some churchmen in Kazakhstan hoped to obtain autocephaly for their church. But the war has increased the urgency and number of such calls for independence from the Moscow church.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople has not yet come out in direct support of this effort, although judging from its actions in Ukraine, Lithuania and elsewhere, Fanar (the name of the region in Istanbul where the headquarters of that church is located) is very much on the side of the Orthodox in Kazakhstan who are pursuing autocephaly.

But now, according to Father Yakov Vorontsov, one of the leaders of this drive in Kazakhstan, Orthodox believers in that country have found a half-way house in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Almaty where they can worship according to the principles of Orthodoxy but in a community not subordinate to Moscow (sibreal.org/a/smenit-moskvu-na-konstantinopol/33004030.html).

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