Another schism - barely avoided this week in Kiev where Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox clerics gathered to celebrate the 1020th anniversary of the conversion of Kievan Rus to Christianity - underlined just how vulnerable the Orthodox Church remains to geopolitical ploys. Amid Russia's economic and political stability, the Church is at the forefront of what some public figures are already calling a spiritual renaissance.
Russia's Constitution separates church and state, stipulating independence of one from the other.
It recognizes four "traditional" confessions in Russia: Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism.
But despite the legal separation, the Orthodox Church, which was a partner to the state under the Tsar and then a victim under Communism, continues to occupy a precarious role as "traditional" religion, a force of civil society, and, at times, a political pawn all at once.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's attempt to use the anniversary to get Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople to recognize the local Ukrainian church's independence from Moscow highlights both the tragic political legacy of the Church and how it struggles at the same time to cater to the needs of an increasingly religious population both at home and abroad.
A little over a year after its historic reunion with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, a New York-based breakaway arm, the Moscow Patriarchate, as the Russian Church is often called, was on the verge of another schism over whether Ukraine's 35 million Orthodox Christians should belong to a patriarchate that answers to Moscow or one that is recognized as independent.
The arrival of Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, was a tempting occasion for Ukraine's leaders. By Tuesday, Moscow's Church officials were saying that a schism had been avoided.
"Immediately after the breakup of the Soviet Union, under the influence of particular political forces in Ukraine, a schism was formed that tried to legalize itself all these years," Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's external relations department told news agencies Tuesday. "There was danger that it could happen in connection with the 1020th anniversary of the christening of Russia. By God's mercy, this terrible event did not take place."
Metropolitan Kirill was speaking of Bartholomew, to whom President Yushchenko had appealed on Saturday to allow the creation of a Ukrainian Church. There was no clear statement from Bartholomew, and his comments on the matter were interpreted by the Ukrainian side that he was ready to consider. Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Alexy II, who flew to Kiev for a two-day visit over the weekend, called on unity.
"We must cherish the unity of our Slavic brotherhood. It's more important than any political aims," he said in televised comments. Alexy II met with Bartholomew on Sunday and took part in religious ceremonies marking the anniversary.
But with both Ukrainian and Russian officials involved in the tug of war, the Kiev spat underlined that politicians were still prone to using the Church to serve their political interests - in Ukraine's case, staking out an identity separate from Russia.
"There are two paths to independence for the Church - one is earthly, the other is heavenly," says Father Andrei Kurayev, a deacon and professor at the Moscow Spiritual Academy, who visited Kiev for the celebrations.
"The earthly path involves reducing the mechanisms of dependence on state officials. Primarily, this is creating a viable, independent church economy. In Europe, church leaders have introduced an obligatory tithe for church members, making the church more independent from the government."
Father Andrei also cited what he called the European model, where the Pope, who is in a different state altogether, is literally beyond reach of any government.
"But there is another, spiritual path towards independence," he said in a telephone interview with The Moscow News.
"This is the spiritual freedom of the Christian. And it is easier for a monk to obtain this freedom than it is for a bishop or a patriarch, who answer not only for their own souls, but for the souls of millions of other people."
A History of Schisms
The origins of the Russian Orthodox Church go beyond the 988 Christianization of Kievan Rus. But its conservative structure has at once served to preserve a unique and separate legacy as one of Christianity's oldest churches, and at the same time made it vulnerable to schism.
The official birthday of the Church marks the year that Prince Vladimir I of Kiev officially adopted Byzantine Rite Christianity, the religion of the Eastern Roman Empire, setting up for an irrevocable schism with the Catholic Church, which occurred in 1054.
The most notable attempt to reunite the two Churches - one that traces its apostolic succession through the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Catholic Church, which traces its succession to Apostle Peter - was the Council of Florence in 1439, but it failed when the Russian Prince Basil II of Moscow rejected a compromise with the Catholic Church.
The major internal schism in the Russian Orthodox Church - the Raskol - occurred in the mid 17th century.
In 1653 Patriarch Nikon attempted to launch a series of reforms aimed to modernize the Church and bring its practices in accordance with modern Greek counterparts. Notably, this meant using three fingers to cross oneself instead of two, but the reforms also involved centralization of the Church.
These "innovations" triggered a fervent opposition led by Archpriest Avvakum, but were nevertheless adopted as canonical law. Avvakum and other leaders of the opposition were executed in 1682, while the reforms themselves spawned the Raskol movement of anathemized "old believers" who scattered across Russia and the world.
The Revolution of 1917 dealt such a serious blow to the Orthodox Church that disputes about the succession of the current structure live on to this day. Within two decades, the Bolsheviks wiped out all but a handful of churches across the country, leaving less than 500, and executing nearly 100,000 priests.
In an effort to survive in an increasingly hostile state, Metropolitan Sergy declared the Church's acceptance of Soviet authority. But some decendents of exiled clerics refuse to recognize this declaration, and hence the legitimacy of the current Church.
The Revolution thus led to a schism that at first seemed as irrevocable as the Raskol nearly 300 years before. But this time it was geopolitical instead of internal, pitting the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia against the Orthodox Church within the Soviet Union.
It ended after decades of talks in May 2007, with the signing of the reunification pact, titled "The Canonical Communion Act" and a ceremony at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior attended by then President Vladimir Putin.
Towards a Renaissance?
While the 1990s saw something of a rebirth among Russian Orthodox Christians and the number of renovated churches surged, current statistics do not suggest that there are very many regular churchgoers in Russia. Instead, religion, while indeed beginning to play an important role in people's lives, does so without outside evidence.
A 2000 poll by the Foundation for Public Opinion found that just 6 percent of Russians attend church at least once a month, while 18 percent attended church less than once a year.
According to a January 2007 poll by the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Research, 63 percent of Russians consider themselves Orthodox, while only 118,000 Muscovites attended church services for Easter in 2006, according to the Moscow police.
But religious feeling is notoriously difficult to measure. Church spokesmen dispute these numbers, saying it is impossible to count the people who attended church for Easter because people attend at different times.
Meanwhile, some public figures believe that spirituality is playing a much larger role in the lives of Russians than it used to.
"We are witnessing a rebirth of the Orthodox faith and spirituality in general across the country," Yelena Zelinskaya, one of the chairs of the Public Chamber's Cultural and Spiritual Preservation Commission, told The Moscow News.
Religious organizations are sprouting across the nation, some trying to ban offensive or violent content on television. And while at times it goes too far, Zelinskaya acknowledges this as a positive tendency of increased religious awareness.
"The interest in our historical and spiritual past and present - the interest in the meaning of life - is back after being lost for the last century," she says.
"At one point families simply tried to survive, but now spirituality has become an aspect of our lives."
But as for the Kiev spat, Zelinskaya doubted that such controversies would meaningfully affect individuals and their religions.
"It's a news event and it will be forgotten," she says.
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