“I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”
1 Corinthians 1:10
2023 may go down in history as a milestone in another major schism in the Christian world. The conflict between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (Istanbul), which has been developing for several years, has rapidly escalated from serious-but-resolvable disagreements to open accusations of heresy. The underlying cause is the political conflict between Russia and the West, with Ukraine at its center.
A turning point in the dispute occurred in the previous decade, in 2018, when the Patriarchate of Constantinople granted Kiev a tomos of autocephaly, meaning it backed its independence from the Moscow Patriarchate. At that time, the Russian Orthodox Church severed ties with Constantinople. However, in 2022, following the start of the Russian military offensive, the situation naturally worsened.