New Book by Panagiotis Ant. Andriopoulos: “UKRAINIAN ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS – A Chronicle of the War”

VEMA OF THS CHURCH

A new book by Panagiotis Ant. Andriopoulos, entitled UKRAINIAN ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS – A Chronicle of the War (Athens, 2026, 352 pp.), has been published. 

In this new work, theologian and author Panagiotis Ant. Andriopoulos critically records all the ecclesiastical developments that have taken place from the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the present day (2022–2026). 

In the book’s preface, he writes: “Throughout this entire period, I followed and recorded the ecclesiastical upheavals—that is, the repercussions of the war upon the ecclesiastical sphere—with the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine now assuming a different role both within the country and internationally, while the Church in Kyiv that depends upon Moscow attempts to survive by every possible means—with Russia’s wholehearted support, of course—while closing its eyes to the relentless war. 

“The fundamental point is that two Russian constructs have emerged here which also determine the ideological background of the war: the ‘Russian World’ theory, concerning which a group of Orthodox theologians from around the world issued an important declaration of condemnation, and the ‘theology of war’. Both of these Russian ‘products’ tend towards the notion of an ‘indivisible’ world—the Russian world—from which anyone who attempts to ‘escape’, as Ukraine has done, deserves hell. Consequently, every such war, every such invasion, becomes ‘holy’! 

“The war in Ukraine is the longest-lasting war in modern times between Orthodox Christians! The Moscow Patriarchate not only has no difficulty with this situation but, by characterising all dissenters as ‘schismatics’, comfortably serves Putin’s policy. 

“Ukrainian Ecclesiastical Affairs records all the repercussions of the war upon the ecclesiastical question up to the present day. The Autocephalous Church of Ukraine remains a ‘scandal’ for Orthodox Christians, since they are unable to comprehend the spirit of freedom that characterises the Ecumenical Patriarchate and which led it to grant Autocephaly. 

“Most Orthodox Christians remain bound to Russian power in one way or another. Consequently, the stance of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew remains historic: he did not submit to the Russian boot, but chose the difficult path of freedom and of Ukraine’s right, after so much suffering, to have its own Autocephalous Church, completely liberated from Russian domination. 

“At the same time, the circumstances of the war brought about the establishment of the Patriarchal Exarchate in Lithuania, as the Baltic countries look to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for their spiritual freedom from Moscow.” 

The book also includes, as an epilogue, reviews and interviews by Panagiotis Ant. Andriopoulos concerning his book Greek-Russian Affairs, which contains texts dealing with Russian ecclesiastical policy and its penetration into Greece up until the outbreak of the war. 

The author considers that “the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as the invasion by the Moscow Patriarchate into the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, have dramatically altered the landscape of Orthodoxy, and this will become tragically apparent when the war eventually comes to an end. How functional can unity be? The question is whether the Orthodox Churches are prepared for this new reality.”