Ask faithful members of Eastern Orthodox churches to name the most important day of the Christian year and about 99.9% of them will say this — “Pascha.”
This is the ancient Orthodox term for the feast of the Resurrection of Jesus. As the OrthodoxWiki.org website notes, “Pascha” is “a transliteration of the Greek word, which is itself a transliteration of the Aramaic pascha, from the Hebrew pesach meaning Passover.”
Pascha rites around the world began just before midnight on Saturday and proceeded into the early hours of Sunday, followed by festivities to break the long, intense fast of Great Lent. Folks get home about 4 a.m.
Needless to say, this was not a normal Pascha in Ukraine. I was curious to see how mainstream newsrooms would cover the rites in the Ukraine, where two competing Orthodox bodies are united in their opposition to the Russian invasion of their land, but separated by decades of competing claims of which church represents the future of the faith in Ukraine (see this earlier post-podcast on that topic).
I was curious, as an Orthodox layman (this Pascha marked the 25th anniversary of my family’s conversion), how mainstream news organizations would cover Pascha 2023 in Ukraine — so I ran an online search for the terms Ukraine and “Pascha.” The result — zero 2023 news reports containing “Pascha.”
Ah, but what if journalists ignored Orthodox history, tradition and theology and only referred to this feast day as “Easter,” the Western Christian term?
What if your stories contained zero references to “Pascha” and only said “Easter”? That online search yielded some mainstream reports, which often mentioned “Orthodox Easter,” thus viewing the most important day in Eastern Orthodoxy through a totally Western lens. Try to imagine doing this with any other global faith group of 260 million members, Christianity’s second largest Communion. Imagine changing the name of “Passover,” “Ramadan” or even “Easter” (when covering Rome and Protestantism).
Of course, readers need to be told that “Pascha” is the ancient Christian term for the season that, in the dominant West, is known by the somewhat controversial (for some outsiders) term “Easter.” But shouldn’t coverage of Pascha at least include, you know, the word “Pascha”?
It’s hard to imagine a more fitting metaphor to describe most, if not all, of the warped mainstream press coverage of the role that Orthodox history and faith is playing in Ukraine. I have already written about this several times and I’m about to board an airplane to head to Los Angeles. So let me be as quick as possible.
If reporters had the slightest interest in the historic Ukrainian Orthodox Church — with 1,000 years of shared history with Slavic cultures — they would be paying attention to this church’s (a) ongoing attempts to sever, within the limits of Orthodox canon law, it’s remaining ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, (b) its leaders’ opposition, since Day 1, to the Russian invasion and (c) the criticisms of this church by leaders of the new, competing Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which is supported by the United States, the European Union, the current Ukrainian government and the tiny, but symbolic, Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate in Turkey. These criticisms have escalated into a full-tilt government attempt to crush the older Orthodox body.
For example, Ukrainian leaders have arrested some UOC leaders, citing evidence of collusion with Russia. The press has covered these charges, of course, but with zero material from Ukrainians who would note that decades of vocal opposition to the land’s new Orthodox body is not the same thing as support for Vladimir Putin’s actions to attack Ukraine. Hold that thought.
Dramatic events continue to unfold in Ukrainian Orthodoxy, as you would expect with churches competing — to name one example — the most important monastery in Slavic Orthodox history (the Pechersk Lavra of the Kiev caves). Thousands of worshippers have filled key monastery sanctuaries to prevent a police takeover.
But here is the kind of event that, for the Orthodox, represents the efforts of the historic Ukrainian Orthodox Church to survive both Putin’s invasion and the attacks of its own Ukrainian government.
Is this a theological story? Yes. Is it built on centuries of Orthodox theology and law? Yes.
Should it be ignored by the media? No. That is, it should not be ignored if journalists want to accurately cover the role of Orthodox Christianity in this conflict.
The following is from an Orthodox news source online, one sympathetic to the historic Ukrainian church: “Ukrainian Church Consecrates its own Chrism for First Time.”
Please read this carefully, while knowing that “chrism” is a holy oil used in sacramental rites.
In November, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church resolved that the Church would begin making and consecrating its own Chrism.
This decision followed on the heels of the Local Council held in May at which the UOC separated itself from the Moscow Patriarchate. At that time, the hierarchs had discussed the possibility of making Chrism, but without a firm decision either way.
In the modern Russian understanding, making Chrism is a sign of autocephaly … and is done only in Moscow. Historically, however, Chrism was made in several locations throughout the Moscow Patriarchate. Chrism-making in the Kiev Archdiocese began in the mid-15th century, and was later made specifically in the Kiev Caves Lavra. This tradition was interrupted by the revolutionary events of 1917.
And today, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine celebrated the rite of consecration of Chrism for the first time since the Synodal decision. The rite followed the Divine Liturgy celebrated in the St. Panteleimon Convent in the Feofania neighborhood of Kiev — the same place where the Local Council was held in May. The primate was concelebrated by a host of bishops and clerics, the Ukrainian Church reports.
Just theological mumbo-jumbo, right?
Only if one believes that the rites and theology of Eastern Orthodox Christianity have nothing to do with life in Eastern Orthodox churches.
Why would reporters ignore this story?
Well, most Western journalists wouldn’t even know that this happened, because they do not care about history and theology, and also because they are not listening to the leaders of the historic Orthodox church of Ukraine. They are only listening to the current Ukrainian government and, to a lesser degree, the leaders of the new competing Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Here is a block of background material from an earlier post:
With Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, journalists now care about the state of Orthodoxy in this war. … The church conflict is linked, of course, to the February 24, 2022, invasion — but also to earlier actions by leaders in the United States, the European Union, the current Ukrainian government and, last but not least, a strategic 2019 move by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul.
Note: All of these events took place before the Russian invasion. The Orthodox schism in Ukraine predates the war — by decades. …
In my opinion, as an Eastern Orthodox believer, the key fact that journalists need to understand is that Slavic Orthodoxy is older than the creation of the modern nations that are involved in this war. Also, the Holy Dormition-Kiev Caves Lavra plays a major role in this narrative.
If you want to see this material mangled in a totally unprofessional manner, please refer back to that recent New York Times photo essay and text that ran with this headline: “The Monks in the Middle of Russia’s War in Ukraine.”
That feature contained a blitz of errors, which I covered earlier — glaring errors that remain uncorrected.
This error-stricken Times sort-of article is an embarrassment, serving basically as a press release for the current Ukrainian government, the U.S. State Department, the European Union and NATO. The late, great [Times] editor and foreign correspondent Abe Rosenthal — who knew a thing or two about post-Communist puzzles — would be appalled.
Oh, and there is one other player in this tragic drama who would be pleased with the obvious bias in this Times report — Vladimir Putin. It serves his purposes, from the first line to the last, mistake after mistake.
So, what happened in the 2023 coverage of “Easter” in Ukraine?
More of the same, of course. Consider this Yahoo! News report: “Both Ukrainian and Russian-controlled churches hold Easter services in Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.”
Who says that older Ukrainian church remains “Russian controlled”? This is the rare statement of alleged fact on which President Joe Biden would agree with Putin. Who would disagree with that simplistic statement? Most of the world’s Orthodox leaders.
Count the Russian references — ignoring the UOC’s ongoing attempts to cut all Moscow ties and its appeals to Orthodoxy worldwide for help — in the following.
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Moscow Patriarchate on April 16 held Easter services in the same iconic Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, but in different churches and at different times.
At the entrance to the territory of the Lavra, the police checked visitors' documents and belongings as tensions between the Ukrainian and Russian-backed churches run high.
It was the first time when an Easter service was held in Ukrainian by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the Lavra, Ukraine's most important Orthodox monastery.
Previously the Lavra was completely controlled by the Russian-affiliated church, which is officially known as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
The Russian-controlled church's lease on a part of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra — called the Upper Lavra — expired on Jan. 1, and the Ukrainian government decided not to extend the lease. Later the Ukrainian authorities said they would also terminate the Russian-affiliated church's indefinite lease on the remaining part, the Lower Lavra, starting from March 29, accusing it of violating the terms of the lease.
And so forth and so on, concluding with:
Since January, the Ukrainian government has allowed the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which is independent from Russia, to hold several church services in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. There is speculation that the authorities may permanently transfer the Lavra to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Do readers need to know anything about the origins and standing of this new church or the controversies, at the level of global Orthodoxy, swirling around its birth?
Of course not. Like I said: The mainstream American press, ironically, has the same view of this conflict as Putin. Why cover religious details when there are governments dropping bombs on believers?
Need more?
This is from The Guardian: “Joy and tension as Kyiv marks Orthodox Easter without Moscow clergy.” Who are the “Moscow clergy”? That would be the Ukrainians from the older Ukrainian church.
This long feature is trying to give a historical overview of the Lavra rites, and tensions, but with zero input from actual believers representing one side — let me repeat this — of this long-standing conflict that began long before the invasion.
Easter has been celebrated on this spot since the 11th century, when monks from Mount Athos first hollowed out the rocky hillside to form their cells and shrines, establishing the lavra as the spiritual heart of eastern Orthodoxy.
But this year, change was afoot. For the first time since the 17th century, the Easter service was being conducted by clergy independent of the Moscow patriarchate. Or to put it another way, it was the Orthodox church of Ukraine (OCU) rather than the Ukrainian Orthodox church (UOC) presiding over the service.
From the outside, the difference between the two may seem a fine distinction. But in the Orthodox communion’s dizzying history of schisms, disputes over authority, and declarations of autocephaly (or self-governing status), politics has never been far away.
Why do so many Ukrainians still support the historic church? Are they secretly pro-Putin?
This story does include a tiny bit of language such as this:
… This year’s Easter morning service was led by Archimandrite Avraamiy, the acting vicar of the lavra from the OCU — which itself was born in 2018 out of two previously separate Ukrainian Orthodox churches.
Amid the joy of the service, there were tensions. A large police cordon stood before the narrow gates of the lavra, inspecting visitors’ documents.
Before the service began, a young man, who did not give his name, said: “I just came here to look at this circus. They’ve taken it away from the true church. OK, it technically belongs to the state, but they never did anything to look after it.” He added: “Why are they checking people’s documents? They never did that before.”
On the other side:
Denys Bitukov, originally from Sumy in north-east Ukraine and now a trooper in a reconnaissance unit, shared a brief kiss with his partner after the blessing — albeit a damp one after the priest’s energetic spraying of holy water.
Bitukov had a point to make by being here. “The churches of the Moscow patriarchate blessed the war, and approved the killing of our children,” he said, referring to the close association of Vladimir Putin with Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox church. “In my soul I cannot go to Moscow churches. I am a warrior.”
Did the journalist realize that the lavra contains many sanctuaries?
Did the journalist realize that other Ukrainian believers were worshipping elsewhere in this gigantic complex? Or, if they were not being allowed to worship, that armed troops were preventing them from worshipping?
Did the journalist know that Pope Francis and many other world religious leaders are concerned about the damage being done in this armed stand-off, with the current Ukrainian government trying to settle an issue of Orthodox Christian law and history?
Did the journalist know that this was “Pascha”?
Apparently not. Why start asking questions that the leaders at the extremes — Putin on one side, and the United States and the European Union on the other — do not want asked.
FIRST IMAGE, also used in body of the post: Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev during the historic 2023 rite to consecrate Holy Chrism. Official Ukrainian Orthodox Church photo, circulated by the Orthodox Christianity website.