So what, I should like Hitler because Stalin was worse? Hitler was also a complex figure, who probably really cared about Germany. Yet he still was a brutish dictator who was responsible for the torturing and killing of millions of people.
Yeah, Hitler was brutish dictator. By contrast, Bandera led a resistance movement. I'm not a big fan of him, but c'mon, distinction is not even subtle.
(Yes, his paramilitary did war crimes. So did Red Army. Also, Hiroshima.)
This is not even the point I was making. Forget Stalin; Russian regime is an invading murderous terrorist-sponsoring lying fake-news election-meddling font of corruption right now. Do you get why they'd rather talk about 1943?
Ah. So there's been no legislation which has prevented Russian from being a school language, no legislation which has banned Russian in the media, and no other active policy efforts to try to make illegal the native tongue of almost half the population of Ukraine?
And again, I'm one of "almost half the population" raised Russophone. Ukraine have a single official language, for a good reason; speculating on "abuses" *I* supposedly suffer is not a good reason NOT to have official-language protection laws that are actually milder than in supposedly multinational Russia. What people unable to learn an official language in 28 years want is not equality; they want continuation of privilege. Also, prop up results of centuries of ethnic-cleansing policies.
You clearly mean "not okay". Okay.
The Church doesn't get to vote via poll numbers whether a Bishop should have autocephaly or not. Quite frankly, if the Church did, the Church probably wouldn't have the first primate have jurisdiction over 4000 people in Turkey and then have multiple Churches it owns abroad, nor would it have multiple jurisdictions in non-Orthodox countries.
The OCA doesn't have autocephaly recognized by the EP, and it was a painful and tiring process for an autonomous American Church even then.
I feel for you.
Don't argue with me. Read Kirill Hovorun's essay on the pastoral case for OCU's establishment, and THEN argue.
Can you cite what "Russian historical record" you are talking about?
And if you give up your territory, you can't invade it claiming it's yours. That's not how Orthodoxy works.
Don't have to cite what's common knowledge. There was a detailed account in Dn. Andrei's blog (the guy is a MP critic but equally bashes EP, so not like there's any bias. Andrei Kuraev was ROC MP's chief apologist for decades). Seriously, they almost brag about it.
How kind of the EP to lend out for free Ukraine to Moscow for 4 centuries, while not actually telling the MP at any point that they were lending it out, but rather giving the clear, documentary indications that they actually gave it to Moscow.
...so clear, in fact, that MP has to strain to read them into the single document.
And yes, ROC benefited immensely from Metropolis of Kyiv's resources, over the centuries. Materially and intellectually.
So what changed in Filaret's life and spirituality that let Patriarch Bartholomew realize that the sanctions were worth lifting? What circumstances changed where Patriarch Bartholomew felt it expedient to lift the sanctions?
Really should ask Patriarch Bartholomew about that. Bottom line, lifting an anathema from someone who's not actually a heretic is a "good thing not a bad thing", no matter how disagreeable the person. ESPECIALLY when it relieves millions in canonical void with him (seriously, Prof. Hovorun's essay). A circumstance that changed, and I'm guessing, was the chance that Filaret's boundless ambition could be somewhat contained this time. Which worked out fairly well, if not without some fireworks. Met. Epiphany proved to be much better Primate, at least in present circumstances.
And Jerusalem always considered the world its territory.
That might be. Ukraine, OTOH, WAS the EP's territory. Until he voluntarily gave it up earlier this year.
Just like this song.
