Orthodox Reflections

By Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America

Globally, it is estimated that more than 365 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith. That is 1 in 7 of all Christians. In 2023, an estimated 5,621 Christians were killed just for being followers of Christ. An average of 13 Christian martyrs per day. The same year, 14,766 churches and Christian properties were attacked. Nigerian Christians bear the heaviest burden, but over the past couple of years, Orthodox Christians in Ukraine and the Middle East have seen their lives become increasingly difficult and dangerous.

In Ukraine, the Zelensky regime has coordinated the intelligence services, police, militant thugs, and the courts to try and completely eradicate the existence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Ukrainian authorities are responsible for raiding and seizing churches and monasteries, launching twenty-three baseless criminal cases against UOC clergy, and imposing sanctions on several members of the clergy in Crimea and the Donbas. Clergy and laity alike have been beaten, arrested, shot, and locked out of their own houses of worship. The Ukrainian Government even took control of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Ukraine’s holiest site and the seat of the UOC. In August of 2024, Zelensky went so far as to sign into law Bill 8371 “On Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Field of Activities of Religious Organizations” (better known as the “Law Banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church”) which, supporters and critics alike, acknowledge could be used to completely shut down the Ukrainian Orthodox Church:

This creates legal grounds to prosecute and dissolve parishes and dioceses of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate solely because of their canonical communion with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), even though the Council of the UOC proclaimed the “full autonomy and independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church” on May 27, 2022. The law does not directly mandate the dissolution of the UOC, but only because it does not exist as a single legal entity under Ukrainian law; only its components (dioceses, parishes, monasteries and educational institutions) are legally recognized. Their future will be decided in nine months through court proceedings initiated by state bodies for religious expertise.

President Trump bears a heavy, heavy responsibility for the ongoing persecution in Ukraine. Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was instrumental in creating the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine”. This fake church, created with the enthusiastic assistance of U.S. asset Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, was literally adopted by the Zelensky Government as a state church, even though doing so violated Ukraine’s constitution, European law, and modern Western practice. It is the existence of this political abomination that justifies and facilitates the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The birth of the OCU as a result of Trump’s Ukrainian policy, as executed by Mike Pompeo, was explained in The American Conservative article entitled Zelensky vs. the Ukrainian Orthodox Church:

The State Department and politicians of both parties carried out work to promote the new church. Two months before the creation of the OCU in 2018, Filaret and Epifaniy met in the United States with Joe Biden, who declared his gratitude for their work. State Department Ambassador for Religious Freedom Samuel Brownback, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and special representative for Ukraine Ambassador Kurt Volker declared their support for this project.

 

Immediately after its creation, the OCU received its first official congratulations from the State Department and the U.S. Embassy. At the same time, Ambassador Brownback and the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey Pyatt—who was also ambassador to Ukraine from 2013 to 2016—visited church leaders and Mount Athos to urge them to recognize the OCU. Both Ambassador Volker and Secretary Pompeo met with Epifaniy many times. All facts indicate that the promotion of the OCU was part of U.S. policy in Ukraine.

So, has Trump learned his lesson on Ukraine? Is the incoming President going to support freedom for the persecuted Christians in Ukraine, even though their suffering is directly linked to his own former policies?

Maybe.

Unlike Biden or Harris, under whom no hope would exist, Trump has at least staffed his incoming administration with individuals who have expressed sympathy for the plight of the Orthodox Church. Prior to the election, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance spoke out about the persecution of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine. Ukrainian prisoners of conscience wrote to Vance (among other lawmakers). Vance highlighted those letters when speaking against Christian persecution on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Click here to see a video covering the letters and some of Vance’s Senate speech.

As a presidential candidate, Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy decried the atrocities committed against innocent Armenians by Azerbaijan and the banning of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Zelensky Regime.

Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick to be Director of National Intelligence, took to her Instagram account back in 2023 to denounce Zelensky’s descent into authoritarianism, including his attempt at the time to outlaw the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The closest media persona to Donald Trump is Tucker Carlson. Carlson has brought up the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church multiple times, even challenging former Vice President Mike Pence on the subject during an interview.

Here’s part of the Carlson / Pence exchange below:

“I’m confused on this question. It’s very clear that the Zelenskyy government has arrested priests for having views they disagree with. That’s not consistent with religious liberty, it’s an attack on it and we’re funding it. And I’m just wondering how, and I don’t mean to be disrespectful at all, but I sincerely wonder how a Christian leader could support the arrest of Christian leaders for having different views,” Carlson began.

 

“The problem is that you don’t accept my answer,” an exasperated Pence responded. “I just told you I asked a religious leader in Kyiv if it was happening. You asked me if I raised the issue and I did. I also raised it with the Ukrainians and I was told that there are religious leaders who are working with the Russian military who is murdering people by the thousands.

 

“No, you spoke to one person who’s clearly on one side of it and there are many, many news reports that are not disputed by anybody that clergy are being arrested in Ukraine and I’m merely saying I might not agree with it, I’m not Russian Orthodox, but you can’t arrest clergy for having different views. Period,” Carlson said.

Had Mike Pence been elected president, or any of the other “establishment” candidates, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church would have little hope. However, Pence didn’t win. The incoming president is Donald J Trump, and his victory has given the people and hierarchy of the UOC at least some hope for an end to the persecution. Metropolitan Agafangel of Odesa of Izmail, permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, has published a letter written to President-elect Donald Trump in which His Eminence expresses his prayerful aspirations for a better future:

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which I represent, is the largest religious institution in Ukraine. We have got with great joy the news of your election as one of the most distinguished statesmen of the United States. At all Ukrainian holy sites, we pray for your health and your esteemed wife, Melania.

 

We believe that with your election as President of the great nation of the United States, peace will come not only to the long-suffering land of Ukraine but to the entire world. We also believe it will improve the treatment of the suffering millions within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which today endures great trials and tribulations while remaining steadfast in its devotion to its people and the Ukrainian State. Our Church clearly understands that peace is a blessing, while war is a grave evil. We hope the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will rise again and, as before, continue its timeless mission alongside other denominations within Ukraine, fostering interfaith and civilians’ peace for the good of the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian State. In unity lies our strength!

 

I sincerely believe and hold good hope that, through dialogue, we can resolve issues related to harmonious interaction and a cooperative model of lawful relations between our State and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which takes its rightful place in the public life of Ukraine.

 

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church comprises millions of Ukrainian citizens, filling our churches today and yearning for victory and a just peace. Thus, the voice of the Church must be heard, and its faithful has the right, guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine, to protect rights and freedoms.

Metropolitan Agafangel. Photo: Odesa Eparchy Facebook page

From His Eminence’s lips to God’s ears! We can only pray that the people around President Trump will keep this issue at the forefront of the policy agenda.

There are some additional pragmatic reasons to think the second Trump Administration will do things differently than Trump I and the outgoing Biden fiasco. President Trump has committed himself to ending the war in Ukraine, though the details of how he will accomplish that remain extremely vague. Regardless of the final details of any peace deal, however, Russia is almost certain to demand an end to what Russian officials have called the “satanic” crackdown on the UOC. As the grinding war of attrition shifts more and more decisively towards Russian victory, freedom for the UOC could easily be a price Kiev is willing to pay to maintain any kind of independence. Even if radicals in Kiev were to insist on continuing to persecute the UOC, given Trump’s desire to pivot away from confronting Russia and towards focusing on the “China threat”, the U.S. is unlikely to tolerate losing a peace deal over it.

In addition, the persecution of the UOC is extremely unpopular on the global stage, and not supported by most Americans who are knowledgeable of the situation. The vast majority of Orthodox Christians around the world still recognize the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, under her saintly ruling primate Metropolitan Onuphry, as the true canonical Orthodox Church on the territory of Ukraine. Multiple international organizations have explicitly condemned the persecution, including the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the World Council of Churches. Orthodox Reflections was able to gather almost 6,000 signatures on a petition condemning the persecution and demanding its immediate cessation. (To see the list of signatures, please click here. To sign the petition, click here. To read the petition verbiage, click here.)

The world knows that Ukraine is wholly dependent on U.S. financial and military support. The persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, therefore, could not be happening without at least tacit U.S. approval. Supporting continued Christian persecution would generate headaches the Trump II team neither wants nor needs.

So for Ukraine, there are valid reasons to hope that a second Trump Administration may significantly improve the lives of Orthodox Christians.

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But what about the Middle East, particularly Syria?

The new “rulers” in Damascus are very concerning, not just for Christians, but for all minorities (religious and otherwise). The militants who toppled the regime of dictator Bashar Assad in Syria are “al-Qaeda and ISIS hiding who they really are” and their rule “will be a disaster for Christians,” predicted Jeff King, the president of International Christian Concern (ICC), in remarks to Breitbart News.

The new man in charge in Damascus, Mohammed al-Jolani, fought against the U.S. in Iraq. He was head of the al-Nusrah Front (an offshoot of al-Qaeda) and merged it with other organizations to create the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Al-Jolani once worked directly under Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the now deceased ISIS “caliph.” Recently al-Jolani, with the help of Western media and Intelligence services (same thing really), has been undergoing an extensive public relations makeover. He now wears suits, wants to be referred to by his real name of Ahmed al-Sharaa, and insists in recent interviews he does not intend to persecute any minority groups in Syria.

However, there are more than a few who doubt the sincerity of his pledge to respect minority rights. The U.S. Department of State designated him, as leader of the al-Nusrah Front in 2013, a “global terrorist”. At the time, the U.S. State Department said, “He has stated in videos that his ultimate goal is the overthrow of the Syrian regime and the institution of Islamist shari’a law throughout the country. Under al-Jolani’s leadership, al-Nusrah Front has carried out multiple suicide attacks throughout Syria.”

So a man who has been designated a global terrorist (including having a bounty on his head), leading an organization cobbled together through merging known Islamic terror groups, is now running the show in Damascus. What could go wrong?

But, all that is being swept under the rug as Western nations now queue up to aid HTS. Even though no one has cancelled the $10 million bounty on his head, or rescinded his “global terrorist” designation, Western officials are posing for pictures with him in Damascus as they seek influence in the new Syria. This is hardly surprising. Going back to at least the 70’s, Western governments have been remarkably comfortable working with, funding, and training Islamic terror groups. Cozying up to a murderous, Islamist terrorist seems remarkably on brand.

Put a wanted terrorist in a suit, and suddenly he is a diversity-loving statesmen! 

Our Western penchant for funding and training Islamic militants never works out well for the Christians in the Middle East. One just needs examine the absolute destruction of the Assyrian Christian community in Iraq to understand what the Syrian Christians (and other minorities) are likely to face in the coming days. Reports indicate that murder, looting, and desecration have already started.

Assaults and murders of individual Christians have been reported. The Iraqi Christian Foundation, a charity campaigning for Middle Eastern Christians, claimed on 10 December that jihadis had driven through Christian neighborhoods in Damascus “waiving the ISIS flag, shooting bullets, and trying to intimidate the ancient Syrian Christian community.” There is also footage circulating that allegedly shows Islamists firing in the air to celebrate their recent takeover of Krak des Chevaliers, an 11th-century Crusader castle located in the Valley of the Christians (Wadi al-Nasara), an overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian area close to the Lebanese border. Churches have been attacked. According to a video published on 11 December, militants of HTS desecrated the Greek Orthodox Church of Holy Sophia in the town of Suqaylabiyah in Syria’s Hama province. The same church was attacked by militants using drones during its opening just a year ago. One wonders if any more Christian Churches will ever be built in Syria, and whether the historic Churches currently there will even survive?

So all this looks like it could be the beginnings of a very bad time. A bad time that Western powers seem anxious, at least at this initial stage, to white wash and ignore.

Besides the so-called Syrian rebel groups (many of whose militants are not Syrian or even Arab, but recruited mercenaries from as far away as China), there is real concern over Turkey’s role in the region. Turkey appears to have been a primary force behind the fall of the Assad Regime, and is currently occupying parts of Northern Syria.

Since WWII, there has been so much focus on the Jewish “Holocaust”, that Westerners have completely forgotten that modern genocide was actually pioneered by the Turks. They were so good at it, it is said that Hitler himself drew inspiration from their example. At the conclusion of his Obersalzberg Speech on 22 August 1939, Adolf Hitler reportedly said, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

The Turks are not guilty, by the way, of just one genocide of Christians. The Turks are guilty of multiple:

• Between 1915 and 1916, the Turks bathed in the blood of somewhere between 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million Armenians.
• Between 1914 and 1923, Turkish mass slaughters and forced deportations may have killed as many as 900,000 Orthodox Greeks.
• Between 250,000 and 500,000 Assyrian Christians were massacred over the same timeframe.

Those are just the Christian victims. The Kurds have long wanted an independent state, and have fought hard at times to bring one about by carving it out of Turkish territory. The Turks have punished their failure to win independence with extreme brutality. The British consul at Trebizond, during one Kurdish uprising in the 1920’s, spoke of brutal and indiscriminate acts of violence committed by Turkish forces. The diplomat and eyewitness explicitly compared Turkish behavior to the 1915 Armenian genocide. “Thousands of Kurds,” he wrote, “including women and children, were slain; others, mostly children, were thrown into the Euphrates; while thousands of others in less hostile areas, who had first been deprived of their cattle and other belongings, were deported to vilayets (provinces) in Central Anatolia. It is now stated that the Kurdish question no longer exists in Turkey.”

Turkey is an ally of the United States through NATO. An ally that not only occupies parts of Northern Syria, but is also using its air power to back Syrian rebel attacks on Kurdish forces who are actually also U.S. allies.

As Americans, is this really the kind of ally we want? Is this the kind of ally that our government would be willing to stand up to in order to demand protection for Christians and other Syrian minorities? One has to seriously doubt it. Given the obsession our National Security State has with opposing Russia, Iran, and BRICs while backing Israel (with whom Turkish President Erdogan seems quite comfortable, despite periodic tough, but meaningless, rhetoric), it is difficult to see the U.S. doing anything to reign in Turkish excesses in the region.

But Turkey is not the only foreign actor posing a threat in Syria. Israel has seized the opportunity afforded by the fall of Assad to occupy huge swaths of Syrian territory. Pursuant to a well-known expansionist agenda, the Israeli military took control of Mount Hermon, which abuts the Golan Heights and lies within what had been a buffer zone previously separating Israeli and Syrian troops. At the same time Israeli troops were claiming control over Syrian territory estimated to be twice the size of Gaza, Prime Minister Netanyahu declared that the Golan Heights (formerly Syrian territory seized in 1967) will be a part of the State of Israel “for eternity.” This was followed shortly by an announcement that the Netanyahu Government plans to double the Israeli population there.

The Israeli Government has said that the occupation of Syrian territory is a “temporary measure”. That is difficult to believe. The current Israeli Government is comprised of the most radically messianic extremists to ever control the Zionist State. Given the commitment of so many religiously conservative Jews to the idea of occupying all the lands of “Greater Israel”, it is not difficult to foresee Israeli troops not only continuing their occupation indefinitely, but also expanding it.