Church Slavonic or Ukrainian? Liturgical language, tradition and politics

Church Slavonic is the traditional liturgical language in the Orthodox Church in Ukraine as well as in Russia. Today, the language's hegemonic state has been questioned in both countries, but partly for different reasons. The language is often perceived as difficult to understand and outdated, and in the new independent Ukraine it is considered to be a manifestation of Russian imperialism. The newly founded Orthodox Church of Ukraine subordinated to the Ecumenical Patriarch uses primarily Ukrainian, which is viewed as a national language, while the Ukrainian Orthodox Church subject to the patriarch of Moscow increasingly rejects the use of the vernacular and regards Church Slavonic as a common and sacred language for Slavia orthodoxa.

As in many other areas, there is polarization in today's Ukraine, but the front lines are somewhat different and mirror different aspects of Slavic language history. The translation of liturgical texts into Ukrainian originated partly in interwar Poland, but also historically in various initiatives to translate the Bible into the vernacular during the 16th and 17th centuries in Ruthenia. Ukrainian is used today in the Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine as a result of the Second Vatican Council, so that its use today is also associated with a Western European and Catholic identity. Furthermore, the choice of language means a weakening of the historical connection with the legacy of the Kiev state, where Church Slavonic was first introduced in the East Slavic region. The paper analyses the complicated and ambiguous relationship between Slavonic and Ukrainian in today’s Ukraine from a linguistic, ecclesiastical, identity-making and political perspective.

Per-Arne Bodin is professor of Slavic literatures at Stockholm University. His main research interests are Russian poetry, Russian cultural history (especially the importance of the Russian orthodox tradition) and Polish literature after the Second World War. His most recent book are Language, Canonization and Holy Foolishness: Studies in Postsoviet Russian Culture and the Orthodox Tradition, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, Stockholm 2009 and Från Bysans till Putin: Historier om Ryssland, Norma, Skellefteå 2016.

Religious resurections in Ukraine, 1991-2018: national narratives, social insecurities, and church competition

In my presentation I review religious revival in Ukraine from its independence till 2018. Following the collapse of the USSR traditional religious groups resurrected (e.g. Orthodox and Greek Catholics) and new ones entered the stage (e.g. various Protestant and Evangelistic organizations). In contrast to many post-Communist societies, Ukrainian religious landscape became extremely diverse. Three Orthodox jurisdictions, Greek and Roman Catholics, traditional minorities of Jews and Muslim Tatars together with new Protestant and Evangelistic groups have contributed to the pallet. I religious market framework to discuss religious consumption (respondents) and supply (religious organizations). Novel data about religious communities registered at regional level suggest that religious pluralism and the competition between the Ukrainian Orthodox jurisdictions have been a pivotal facet of religious revival in Ukraine.

Tymofii Brik is PhD in Social Science (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid). Before moving to Spain, Tymofii obtained a research master degree in Sociology and Social Research in Utrecht (the Netherlands) and a master degree in Sociology in Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University (Ukraine). His research interests include sociology of religion, social stratification and mobility, and economic history.

Suffering for and against the church. Memory of suffering and repression in the Mukachevo Greek Catholic Eparchy

In the presentation I analyse the significance of martyrdom and suffering in struggles over collective memory in contemporary Transcarpathian Ukraine and beyond. Through an analysis of the discourses of suffering that developed around the canonisation process of the so-called priests-martyrs-votaries of faith (sviashchenniki-muchenniky-ispovidnyki viry), I show that the notion of suffering under the Soviet regime is mobilised to strengthen the moral authority of the Greek Catholic Church in Transcarpathia, either as a whole or with regard to particular factions within this organisation. Suffering is instrumentalised in the internal politics of this church and it can be used both to legitimise and to challenge the church’s authority. Moreover, the experience of suffering forms a part of autobiographical memory among Transcarpathian believers; at the same time, it quickly becomes apart of collective memory in Maurice Halbwachs’ sense (see Olick and Robbins 1998, 111). In my presentation, I address the following questions: how do present collective and autobiographical memory, as well as Greek Catholic commemoration practices referring to religious activities from the Soviet times, shape and are shaped by internal church politics in Transcarpathia? Which survival strategy in times of repression is nowadays seen as crucial for con-temporary Eastern Catholicism in this region?

Antisemitism and Ukraine in The Jerusalem Post since the annexation of the Crimea

The presentation discusses how The Jerusalem Post describes the changing attitudes towards the Jews in Ukraine (and Russia) due to the annexation of the Crimea and the escalation of war in Eastern Ukraine. I map out, what is said about the Jews, who is speaking and to whom, and for what purpose.

Teuvo Laitila have studied comparative religion, cultural anthropology and (Orthodox) church history. Currently he teaches Orthodox church history and comparative religion at the University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu. Most of his publications are in Finnish. His current interest includes history of Jews, particularly the Holocaust, in the Eastern Europe; religion and politics in Eastern Europe and the Balkans; and folk religion in Karelia (Finnish and Russian).

A new President of Ukraine in the Spotlight: How Collective Memory and Religion Intertwined with Politics

In my presentation, I focus on coverage of the elections of a new President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, in the most influential international newspapers. These elections provoked a splash of international interest to Ukraine, and one of the reasons was the background of Volodymyr Zelensky. Specifically, he is a Russian-speaking professional comedian who was born in a Jewish family in Eastern Ukraine. His main rival, ex-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, used the message: „Army! Language! Faith!” as his main slogan during the campaign. Moreover, questions of integrity and independence of Ukrainian Orthodox Christianity, as well as „de-Communization” in memory politics have become particularly important during the presidency of Petro Poroshenko.

I look for answers to such questions: how did international media touch the topics of collective memory and religion in representing the outcomes of the elections? What argumentation was used in providing information about ethnic and/or religious background of Volodymyr Zelensky, and what place did it occupy among other aspects of his background? I have used content analysis and critical discourse analysis as main research methods.

I have selected materials from March-May 2019, as this period corresponded to both rounds of the presidential elections in Ukraine (March 31 and April 21, 2019) and inauguration of Volodymyr Zelensky as the President of Ukraine (20 May 2019), provoking reflections in mass-media. I have chosen „The Guardian”, „The New York Times”, „The Wall Street Journal” and ”The Washington Post” for my analysis, as well as the most influential media resources provided by two neighboring countries – „Russia Today” in Russia and „Gazeta Wyborcza” in Poland. With such a selection, I analyze the country differences in providing information about Volodymyr Zelensky, and their possible factors.

Alla Marchenko is a sociologist. She got her Candidate’s Degree (equivalent to Ph.D. degree in Sociology) from Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University (Ukraine). Since 2017, she has been a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw). The topic of her doctoral thesis is “Comparative analysis of the Hasidic pilgrimage effects upon the local frames of memory in Poland and Ukraine.” She is a researcher in the project “ReHerit: Common Responsibility for Shared Heritage”, implemented by the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe (Ukraine).

Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and Politics in the Post-Soviet Ukraine

At the beginning of my presentation I would like to make some remarks about the place of religion in social reality on the eve of the Soviet Union’s dissolution. I am going to argue that Soviet communism became a kind of political religion and did not sever itself from the eschatological patterns of legitimising the ‘new’ social order. Thus the Leninist version of Marxism perpetuated demand for the eschatological justification of social reality – or rather the presence of eschatological phraseology in the manner of describing and method of justifying this reality. This was a favourable precondition for the future involvement of religion in political issues after the collapse of the USSR and the “Leninist extinction”.

Furthermore I am going to focus on the situation of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church at the period of the fall of the Soviet Union. This religious community was an anti-systemic force due to its firm stance against communism and because it had attracted dissident groups during the Soviet period. The anti-systemic nature of the Greek Catholic Church was reflected not only on the doctrinal level, but also on the institutional level. It was in no way connected with the operative nomenklatura system.

Thus the UGCC had some important assets at the starting point of the post-Soviet Ukraine’s contemporary history. In fact, it was the largest and best institutionalized NGO in Ukraine. Moreover it was able to protect its autonomy against emerging neopatrimonial social order. Also the UGCC owned symbolic capital which was very important in terms of the process of nation and state building in Ukraine. Additionally it is worth noting the transborder character of this entity. UGCC has also coped with some challenges which have limited its ability to have an impact on the social and political life on an All-Ukrainian stage. First of all, this community has needed to escape from the stigma of the “Galician ghetto”. Secondly UGCC has had to combat the negative stereotypes which had been diffused and carefully fostered by Soviet propaganda. Another important issue has been the relations of this community with the Orthodox churches.

UGCC actively took part in social protests during the Orange Revolution. It proved then its capability to provide a necessary institutional, moral and ideological support for pro-democratic transformation in Ukraine. I am going to argue that during the events related to the Revolution of Dignity UGCC solidified its position as a crucial institution of the growing civil society in Ukraine. At the end of my presentation I am going to try to analyze the challenges which UGCC has to tackle as an agent in current social life in Ukraine.

Bio

Michał Wawrzonek, professor in Jesuit University in Cracow, graduated in the Ukrainian philology (1997) and political science (2000) from the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. PhD form the same university in 2003 on the basis of dissertation on Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky ecumenical activity in Ukraine and Russia (published in Rome in 2006 in Ukrainian). Habilitation conferred in 2016 for the thesis “Religion and Politics in Ukraine: The Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches as Elements of Ukraine’s Political System” (published in 2014 by Cambridge Scholars Publishing). Co-author of the book Orthodoxy Versus Post-Communism? Belarus, Serbia, Ukraine and the Russkiy Mir (with Nelly Bekus and Mirella Korzeniewska-Wiszniewska) published in 2016. Currently works on project “Commemoration of the person of metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi as the element of the process of development of the symbolic capital under the conditions of a post-communist society in Ukraine” (grant financed by the National Science Center Poland 2016-2020).

Workshop organised within the framework of conferences and workshops supported by CBEES conference grants.

09:00 - 09:15: Gathering, coffee

09:45 - 10:00: Welcoming words, Yuliya Yurchuk

10:00 - 11:00: Agnieszka Halemba, Polish Academy of Sciences: “Suffering for and against the church. Memory of suffering and repression in the Mukachevo Greek Catholic Eparchy”.

11:00 - 12:00: Michal Wawrzonek, Jesuit University Ignatianum in Kraków: “Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and Politics in the Post-Soviet Ukraine”.

12:00 - 13:00: Lunch

13:00 - 14:00: Per-Arne Bodin, Stockholm University: “Church Slavonic or Ukrainian? Liturgical language, tradition and politics”.

14:00 - 15:00: Tymofii Brik, Kyiv School of Economics: “Religious resurections in Ukraine, 1991-2018: national narratives, social insecurities, and church competition”.

15:00 – 15:30: Coffee break

15:30 - 16:30: Alla Marchenko, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw): “A new President of Ukraine in the Spotlight: How Collective Memory and Religion Intertwined with Politics.”

16:30: Teuvo Laitila, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu: “Antisemitism and Ukraine in The Jerusalem Post since the annexation of the Crimea”.

19:00: Dinner (for participants of the workshop)