The following report represents a refreshing instance of Ukraine charting a better course for itself than Russia with regard to human rights in general and protections for women and children in particular. For contrast with Russia see, for instance, On “Orthodox” Wife-Beating and Decriminalisation of Domestic Violence in Russia Leads to Fall in Reported Cases. The Russian Orthodox Church supports the weakening of women’s protections in Russia.

Note also Mr. Sukhov’s reasons for leaving Russia in his bio below.

Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council, Ukraine’s Parliament). Kyiv.

Legislation that redefines rape as sex without consent came into effect in Ukraine on Jan. 11. The punishment for the crime remains unchanged: three to five years in jail.

Previously, Ukrainian legislation defined rape as sex by force, by threat, or one where perpetrator used the victim’s helpless state. Under the new legislation, seen as more progressive, consent to sex must be given.

The law specifies that consent must be “given by a person out of free will” and adds that “circumstances must be taken into account.”

The same legislation also introduces an increased punishment of five to 10 years for non-consensual sex when the victim and perpetrator are spouses, ex-spouses, or when they are or used to be in any close relationship. Read More

In a report late in the evening of January 7 (the Nativity of Christ on the Julian calendar), the pro-Russian Union of Orthodox Journalists confirmed the inclusion of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in the diptychs chanted by Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv at the Great Entrance during the Primatial Divine Liturgy. This begins at 1:04 in the video above.

Although the UOJ used scare quotes around several key words in a juvenile effort to delegitimize everything pertaining to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine—including the “Nativity Liturgy”—their report and accompanying video attest very movingly to the fact that the newly autocephalous Church of Ukraine considers herself in communion with the Moscow Patriarchate and the entire Russian Orthodox Church. Read More

St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, Kyiv. See of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

Two very brief reports relevant to the newly recognized autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) appeared earlier today at UkrInform. 

In the first, Archbishop Daniel (Zelinsky) of Pamphilon, one of two exarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to Ukraine and a hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the United States of America, summarizes the manner in which the Orthodox Church of Ukraine could be designated a Patriarchate, with a Primate styled “Patriarch.”

In the second, we read that—in one region alone—seventeen Ukrainian parishes have already left the Moscow Patriarchate (MP) for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. These rapidly growing numbers suggest that, appropriately, canonicity matters as much to Ukrainian Orthodox believers as their political and ecclesiastical independence from Moscow. Read More

With extreme gratitude to all of you (and in near disbelief!) we announce the news of this amazing milestone: ¼-million views in the seventeen short months since we set out as virtual unknowns in service to the Holy Orthodox Church of Christ.

This would have been impossible without the hard work of some 240 talented writers and tens and tens of thousands of loyal readers from nearly every country on the planet.

We thank you for your support, your kind words, your sincere criticisms, your harsh condemnations (these are spiritually beneficial, too), your engagement in debates far and wide, your prayers, and especially your forgiveness for the many ways in which we err both knowingly and unknowingly. 

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