Webinar: Ukraine’s Law Banning Russian Orthodox Church and Affiliated Organizations: Legal and Juridical Aspects

October 29, 2024, 11am – 2:30pm EST / 4pm – 7:30pm CET (Zoom)

Hosted by ICLRS Blog “Talk About: Law and Religion”

and Orthodox Christianity Studies Center – Fordham University

Registration link

The workshop (webinar) will discuss legal aspects of Ukraine’s recent law No 3894 banning the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and religious organizations affiliated with the ROC. The workshop will consist of six units each of which starts with two short inputs (5 minutes), then 20 minutes moderated discussion. After three units, there will be a 20 minutes break.

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FoRB Podcast: The Russian World Narrative and the Russian Aggression in Ukraine

In Episode 3 of The FoRB Podcast, Dmytro Vovk and Merilin Kiviorg invite Catherine Wanner and Thomas Bremer to discuss the Russian world (Russky mir)—a narrative utilized by the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church to justify Russia’s aggressive war in Ukraine and to portray Russia as an “anti-Western civilization.” They touch on the ideological origins and content of the Russia world, the Russian Church’s involvement in the war, political and legal responses to the Russky mir narrative by Russia’s neighboring states (Ukraine and Estonia), and debates over these issue in the United States and Europe. 

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Ukraine’s Church-State Relationship May Be Changed Significantly: Interview with Dmytro Vovk

This interview was initially published by the Forum for Ukrainian Studies, an analytical online platform of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Dmytro Vovk was interviewed by Heather Coleman (University of Alberta).

Heather Coleman: Even before the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, you argued that the war with Russia since 2014 had changed church-state relations in Ukraine. Can you describe that evolution?

Dmytro Vovk: There are two main trends here, which overlap. The first trend is securitization, and the second one is a drift to a more cooperationist model of church-state relations with respect to securitization. Since 2014, religion, and especially inter-Orthodox competition, has become a matter of security concern for Ukraine. Before the war, there were several academics, experts, and some politicians promoting this sort of “spiritual security” approach, but it was never a matter of urgent high political priority or comprehensive state policies.

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