On July 14, 2021, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’, the Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, delivered a report at a session of the International Religious Freedom Summit held in Washington (USA).
The participants included political, civic and religious figures from around the world, including representatives of the Local Orthodox Churches, the Roman Catholic Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches and various Protestant denominations.
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk was introduced to the participants by David Curry, president of the Christian human rights organization Open Doors USA, who noted the DECR chairman’s many efforts in defense of Christians.
Thanking the organizers of the summit and the leadership of Open Doors for the invitation, Metropolitan Hilarion noted: “Today in many countries freedom of religion is violated to one degree or another. In some regions of the world Christians are killed, driven from their homes, and their churches and holy places are desecrated. This situation causes us extreme concern.”
In his address the DECR chairman touched in particular on the situation in the Middle East: “The rapid decline of the Christian population is noticeable even in those Middle Eastern countries where Christians and Muslims have lived together for centuries, such as Lebanon. In Syria, in the regions seized by extremists, Christians were subjected to the most brutal persecution. Similar processes are taking place in Iraq, where over the past 18 years the number of Christians has fallen from one and a half million to fewer than one hundred fifty thousand. The Christian population of Libya has also almost completely disappeared,” the archpastor stated.
Metropolitan Hilarion noted that such a situation is characteristic of those countries of the Middle East where the centuries-old balance between religious communities was disrupted. “In some of these states the existing regimes were overthrown with the use of outside forces, after which the establishment of democracy was promised. Yet there is still no democracy either in Iraq or in Libya. This situation is extremely difficult for Christians, since they were the first victims of politically engineered upheavals organized from outside,” the archpastor said.
In his address, Metropolitan Hilarion stated that the center of persecution of Christians is gradually shifting to some countries of Africa, in particular Nigeria and Ethiopia, where adherents of the Christian religion are killed and churches destroyed. “I would like to express the hope that the religious and human rights organizations represented here today will be able to form a united front to provide protection and assistance to the persecuted Christians of the Middle East and North Africa,” the hierarch noted.
Continuing his address, the DECR chairman told the summit participants about the situation in Ukraine, where two religious groups with similar names both call themselves Orthodox: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine.” Metropolitan Hilarion told those present that former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had tried to unite these two structures into one, but for a number of canonical and internal church reasons this proved impossible. Meanwhile, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk stated, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the largest Christian community in Ukraine. “Having a canonical and spiritual connection with the Russian Orthodox Church, it is an autonomous and self-governing structure — both administratively and financially. Now this Church is effectively being deprived of its rights. In particular, its churches are being forcibly seized and transferred to another jurisdiction: more than 500 churches have been seized or illegally re-registered. Often this is done by force. In some localities church communities are forced to pray in the open air, sometimes knee-deep in snow, while the churches that rightfully belong to them remain under lock and key. These communities go to court. The courts rule in their favor, but these rulings are not enforced,” the archpastor said.
The DECR chairman dwelt on the laws adopted under President Poroshenko: “A law was adopted according to which the Ukrainian Orthodox Church must be renamed the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, as if it were some foreign organization representing the Russian Federation, whereas the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the largest confession in Ukraine, includes millions of believers, more than 12,000 parishes and more than 250 monasteries. It includes the largest monastic communities, such as the Kiev Caves Lavra. This Church consists of Ukrainians: its episcopate, clergy and parishioners were born in Ukraine and have Ukrainian citizenship. They are patriots of their country.”
Metropolitan Hilarion also spoke about another law providing for the re-registration of religious communities from one jurisdiction to another, noting that Orthodox communities do not have registered membership, so in practice any group can come to a town or village and demand a change of jurisdiction of the church there.
Concluding his address, the DECR chairman called for the creation of a common front in defense of the rights of believers in all countries of the world where these rights are violated.
