The religious theme, in particular, the differences and contradictions between the UOC-MP and UOC-KP, are a traditional irritant for Ukrainian society. The most acute issue is the creation of an independent local church in Ukraine. It is in this area that the Russian Orthodox Church uses all available resources to "protect its interests".

The practice of preaching, debating, and absolutely untypical for them, for example, such as the use of a political resource, is being used in practice - the Russian Foreign Ministry actively defends the interests of the Moscow Patriarchate. Why? On the one hand, the answer is simple, on the other hand, it is somewhat wider than the desire / unwillingness of a powerful Ukrainian church.

CHURCH. ORTHODOX. What is the Russian Orthodox Church today?. If you look at available resources, starting with the Russian version of Wikipedia (forgive me for sending me to this source) and ending with the official website of the Patriarchate, we read about the most massive, powerful local church, which, in its geographical scope, is more international if not universal.

But in fact everything turns out not quite true. More precisely, not at all. Let's start with the parishes. Patriarch Kirill, speaking at the Bishops' Council of the ROC in late November and early December last year, mentioned some statistics. Among other things, he said that "in the Russian Orthodox Church, 36 878 churches or other premises in which the Divine Liturgy is celebrated".

At first glance, the impressive figure. But notice - instead of the word "parish", "community" mentioned buildings and structures. The usual substitution of concepts is the fact that the Orthodox Churches (as well as others) operate with data on the number of priests and the number of parishioners. And only the Russian Orthodox until the last day was "measured" by the parishes. But this was not enough - it is better to consider "temples and premises". Why?.

Have you ever seen a lonely standing chapel in the middle of a field (or even on a river)? There, once a year, divine services are performed - and this is enough that it should be "taken into account" in the total amount.

But let's try not to carp, but to check the words of the Patriarch. For the base we take the figure 36 878 (whether parishes or buildings) as of 2017. But this number includes 900 ROCA parishes, 13 in China, 118 in Latvia, 1231 in Moldova, 11 393 in Ukraine, 31 in Estonia, 150 in Japan, 1437 in Belarus, 100 in Kazakhstan, 102 in Central Asia. Total remains 21. At the same time, the ROC believes, for example, the Polish Church (which received autocephaly first from Constantinople, and in 1948 from Moscow). The Finnish church, which also received autocephaly from Constantinople. In total, this is another 500 parishes. There are 20 600.

20 600 - a structure where at least once a year something happens, the parish may have several such structures. A typical example is a chapel in a cemetery. Now we take the data for comparison. In the Romanian Orthodox Church there are about 15 thousand parishes, in the UAOC and UOC-KP together taken - more than 6 thousand.

That is, so far the number of "buildings" of the ROC ahead of the entire planet and is building more. But the trouble is, on the Ecumenical (all-Orthodox) cathedral, where the Moscow servants of God decided not to go, they discussed also the questions of "accounting for parafies". And here we have a problem.

On average, in Orthodox churches, there are three priests for two parishes. Thus, if it is "drafted" to throw back the "houses," we get an ugly figure for Moscow of 13,733 parafia - that is, the community. Russian statistics provide a slightly larger figure - 14960 parishes. That is, the amount of Orthodox common in Russia actually taken into account according to Russian legislation is already less than the parafies in the Romanian Orthodox Church.

THE CHURCH OF BELIEVERS IS STRONG!.

"The church is not buildings, the church is people," - approximately so I can object to the defenders of the ROC and cite as an example the data of Russian sociology, which speaks of 79% of Orthodox in this country. The figure is impressive. I agree, especially since in 2007 the ROC claimed that in Russia it had more than 120 million believers.

But let's understand.

If one talks about percentages, sociology, then sociologists should also turn to. As a base, I will take the data that Medusa submitted with reference to the research of the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center, the Public Opinion Foundation and the 2016 surveys conducted by the Levada Center,. One service is recognized in the Russian Federation as a "foreign agent", the second is respected by the authorities, but the data is the same.

Orthodox - is, in theory, a person who professes Orthodoxy. That is, the Christianity of the Eastern Rite. Confess = believe. And then the first surprise arises. Confess = participate in the life of the church, take part in the sacraments.

In fact, everything is not so simple. According to the "Medusa" data, 80% of Orthodox Christians in Russia have never communed in their lives, 55% have never been in the church service (!). 27% do not know any of the 10 commandments. And only 42% of believers believe that there is life after death.

It's just "flowers", berries will be ahead. 60% of Orthodox in Russia do not consider themselves "religious", and 20% of "Orthodox" claim that there is no God.

Now let's move on to a very complex topic - Dogmas, which are the basis of faith. In particular, to the perception of the basic dogma, which, like a litmus test, says to which church the believer belongs - about the "Holy Trinity". Let me remind you that Catholicism and Orthodoxy were divided more than 1000 years ago, without finding a general answer to the question "from whom the Holy Spirit proceeds". Catholics believed that from the Father and the Son, the Orthodox only from the Father.

As a result, due to one issue, not only the churches were divided, but dozens of different scales of wars passed, which sent to the light a few several hundred million believers and not so.

But we know from the media that Russian Orthodoxy stands on the protection of true faith!.

By no means - 67% of the "Orthodox" to the main question Dogmatists answered that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son. That is, they perceive the Catholic version. This, I repeat, the key difference between the two branches of Christianity - all the other differences are nothing but the traditions of the cult, which have nothing to do with the basics of faith.

And, the final touch - the number of those who regularly attend churches (at least several times a month and not necessarily for services) is according to different data from 4 to 6%.

Thus, if we consider "orthodox" those who visit the church on a regular basis, there are about 4.5 - 6 million people in the Russian Federation. If we consider "Orthodox" all those who once in their lives went to worship in church, then the figure grows to 54 million. And if as a basis to take the answer to the main question of the dogmatics of Orthodoxy, then "Orthodox Russians" will be typed only 44 million. Agree, unpleasant figures for those who say about the "stronghold of spirituality".

WHAT WILL IF IF.

Now let's try to simulate the situation when the UOC-KP receives the status of an autocephalous church or its "dioceses" entry into the Constantinople Patriarchate. The process of transition of parishes and so goes quite actively, if you believe the data of Ukrainian statistics. If we talk about sociology, the UOC-MP lost after 2014 a significant part of the flock and can not be called the largest (by the number of believers) church in Ukraine.

The creation of the Ukrainian local church (recognized by the rest of the Orthodox world) will lead to the fact that for several years the process of uniting Ukrainian Orthodoxy. And then on the territory of the country there will be from 14 to 17 thousand parishes.

Such events will cause a chain reaction. In Moldova, the dispute over the ownership of local communities will end: another ROC will take up - the Romanian. In Belarus, Lukashenko said a few years ago about the need for an independent church, and part of the episcopate clearly does not accept the Russian protege of Metropolitan Paul. That is, the Russian Orthodox Church runs the risk of encountering a parade of branches. In this case, she loses too much:.

The ROC ceases to be the largest in terms of the number of parishes - we recall that already in the Romanian church (before the accession of 1200 Moldovan communities) there are more parafies than the Russian church in Russia.

In second place in terms of the number of parishes. Ukrainian Church. Or, if it is included in the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the first place will be Constantinople, the second - Romania. The third place is the best option for the Russian Federation, but here it can be pressed by the Serbian or Bulgarian Church.

Deprivation of the status of the "largest" will automatically shake the position of the ROC in the Orthodox world. Before the last All-Orthodox Council, which took place in June 2016, already part of the more ancient churches (Georgian, Romanian, Serbian) raised the question of the too high position of the Russian Church in the diptych (the list of importance) of Orthodox churches.

In addition to intra-Orthodox disputes "for status," the contradictions will also affect the influence of the ROC on other churches, particularly in the Balkans and the Caucasus. And this is already a political resource of the Russian Federation, which actively uses the thesis of "defending Orthodox coreligionists". That is, the Russian Federation risks losing some of the political influence.

That is why, and also for the sake of preserving the religious essence (remember the number of true believers in the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia), Ukrainian parishes are vital for the Moscow Patriarchate. And, as a consequence, Ukrainian parishes are vital for the Russian political elite. That is why they will stop at nothing to preserve the existing situation. Alas.

Join also the TSN group. Blogs on facebook and follow the updates of the section!.