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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

How Can We Achieve Interfaith Harmony?

8 June, 1999 - 00:00

By Klara GUDZYK, The Day

We are no longer shocked to watch fist-fights in Verkhovna Rada on our
home screens, regarding them as a sort of entertainment, albeit somewhat
lacking in decency, telling ourselves, well, there is something our legislature
can do, after all. But watching a fist-fight involving clergymen with vestments
and pectoral crosses is an altogether different, hair-raising story. The
incident in Mariupol on Easter is something glaringly at variance with
the context of Christian civilization.

Ukrainian Orthodoxy in its present condition is not a thing in itself,
despite the formal separation of church and state. Foreign and domestic
analysts believe it to be one of the main factors capable of securing stability
(although instability is the word, considering the situation that has developed).
Numerous efforts have been made to correct the situation, specifically
ones aimed at showing examples of goodwill and cooperation between confessions
once polarized and antagonized, as is the case with Germany. Not so long
ago, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation invited a small Ukrainian religious
delegation to attend a colloquium on church and state in that country.

The foundation named for Germany's first postwar President was established
to help the development of democracy the world over, protect human rights,
and support an international cultural dialogue. The foundation has been
at work in Kyiv for the past couple of years, arranging round tables focused
on this topic, inviting clergymen representing different confessions and
churches, trying to find ways to come to terms.

Over the past decade Germany has acquired considerable positive experience
in normalizing relationships between the Church and the State, as well
as between different churches. At present, these relations are based on
the right of every person to freely profess his or her chosen faith. In
this sense the invitation we received was, of course, extremely important
and useful, considering the novelty of religious-political contacts in
Ukraine and the existing rift in Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The Ukrainian delegation
consisted of archbishops, lower-ranking clergy, and scholars representing
all three of Ukraine's Orthodox hierarchies: the UOC (Moscow Patriarchate),
UOC (Kyiv Patriarchate), and Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

Article 137 of the German Constitution separates church and state, meaning
that the country is religiously neutral and does not identify itself with
any one church or religion. Its fundamental law protects all religions,
all believers, and all religious organizations. All churches in Germany
are completely autonomous, yet this status does not prevent them from closely
and steadily cooperating with the state, just as it does not rule out the
possibility of state support, financial and otherwise. In fact, this government
support is also received by a small Ukrainian Orthodox Church community
in Germany. We met with its leader, the Rev. Ostapchuk, and we learned
that his community is also assisted by the Lutheran Church.

One of the special features of the religious situation in Germany is
compulsory religious instruction in the public schools (Article 7 of the
Constitution), with the state reserving the right to supervise its instruction,
specifically imposing rather demanding requirements on the teaching staff.
Every religious instructor must have a university diploma and I might do
well to point out that Catholic teachers have a reputation which has long
persuaded other religious communities, even Moslems, to hire them as instructors,
with atheists being no exception to the rule.

In Ukraine, after enacting the law on public education, there has been
a heated debate underway, focusing on religious instruction in schools.
There are many pros and cons, all with impeccable arguments. Meanwhile,
it is obvious that the stumbling block is the schooling process as such.
Who is to teach in such public schools? How is one to find sufficiently
qualified teaching staff, particularly instructors versed in the religious
domain, immune from all bureaucratic restrictions and obscurantism? We
know that most of our parish priests lack higher religious education, in
many cases they are not even graduates of seminaries. No such problem in
Germany. A student wishing to take up religion must enroll in a seminary,
after finishing school, and spend six years there.

Religious life in Germany basically revolves around two large and traditional
churches involving most of the German believers: Catholic and Evangelical
(Protestant) Church. The historical record of both can hardly be described
as an ideal, cloudless one. At the turn of the sixteenth century, with
the Reformation the Western Church experienced a dramatic schism. The Thirty
Years' War followed in the seventeenth. The country was further divided
between the confessions. It should be stressed, however, that the Western
Church rift was on a much larger scale and its principles ran far deeper
than today's situation with Ukrainian Orthodoxy. Catholics and Protestants
adhere to different dogmas, sacraments, church lifestyles, religious hierarchies,
etc. (By the way, in this sense the Catholics are closer to Orthodoxy.)
After World War II, however, with Germany in ruins (cultural/spiritual
ruin included), the former enemies found themselves united by the common
desire to participate in the process of reviving the nation. Now everyone
agrees that Germany would never have reached its current status without
both churches participating in the process of the nation's revival.

Frankly, it is hard to believe that all those Catholic-Protestant confrontations
have been completedly erased from people's minds, that there are no Germans
left with prejudices against Catholicism or Protestantism. It is also likely
that both churches still have to resolve interdenominational problems,
yet the functionaries and adherents on both sides are governed by higher
imperatives. Rev. Rauscher, a ranking executive of the German Catholic
Central Committee, told us, "We know our church's individuality, yet we
are making every effort to uphold effective cooperation in order to be
able to solve important social problems like aiding the poor, refugees,
providing religious education, and helping countries with newly established
freedom of conscience." Indeed, interdenominational problems have turned
into a thing in itself, a private matter to be settled by the church as
it sees fit, something no one else can tamper with from outside. It was
thus the German Christians succeeded in surmounting their inner-church
isolation barrier, finding a way out of their confessional ghetto.

I hate moralizing, yet I do wish we could follow the German example
in Ukraine. Our churches are divided not by dogma, sacraments, or hierarchic
distinctions, not the way the Catholics and Protestants have to reckon
with them in any case. Why not let all the Ukrainian churches resolve all
their internal problems in their own way? Why constantly remind the people
that this or that church belongs to the Moscow Patriarchate or that it
adheres to dogmas recognized as not canonical - or even acting contrary
to His Grace - by the others? Why not forget such theological intricacies
and combine efforts to revive the nation state? Why not follow the German
example? The Germans call this the social work of the Church.

The German churches are assigned a social mission, and its scope is
such that they implement most of the federal budget social expenditures.
Churches and religious organizations, such as Caritas, Deacon's Service,
and Renowabis, do what is considered one of the bureaucratic prerogatives
in many countries. The Catholic and Evangelical Churches work shoulder
to shoulder (in fact, the Catholic Caritas and Protestant Deacon's Service
share premises). They are given federal budget subsidies, but they add
to them, substantially, with charity proceeds. And the federal authorities
are happy to be spared the burden of all this painstaking social work,
the more so that the bureaucratic apparatus is unable to respond to social
needs and concerns as quickly and efficiently as church social services
can, meaning that parish priests hear complaints from their congregations
and notify the appropriate church services. In such cases aid is provided
quickly, without discrimination on confessional grounds.

Visiting Bonn, the Ukrainian delegation attended a Deacon's Service
at an Evangelical church. The head priest, the Rev. Rauscher gave us some
statistics evidencing the scope of that organization's social work. Its
annual budget is over DM 25 billion. It has a staff of 450,000 social workers
assisted by some 400,000 volunteers. They do not work 38 hours a week as
the civil servants do, but as long as they feel necessary. Both churches
operate a developed educational network to train adherents for social,
specifically charitable jobs. This network includes institutions of higher
learning. Czech President Vaclav Havel, after familiarizing himself with
this system, suggested that it be effected all over Europe. Remarkably,
this system has not existed in Germany as a stable entity. Back in the
nineteenth century churches could count only on their adherents' donations
to survive, while hospitals, asylums, and invalids had to rely on government
subsidies.

Another important detail is that smaller churches, including so-called
sects, are being actively involved in such charitable endeavors, thus adding
to the number of social workers and distracting certain "non-standard"
religious communities from acting contrary to set public principles and
concepts.

We were told a great deal about social work in Germany during the colloquium.
This work currently involves practically every German Christian church.
Regrettably, not all delegation members seemed interested. Few questions
were posed in practical institutional terms, social work training, etc.
Most seemed more interested to learn that charitable donations are tax-exempt
in Germany.

At the colloquium we could actually see how Catholics and Protestants
worked hand in hand. The Ukrainian delegation met with clergymen, adherents,
theologians, and public figures representing both major religions, a team
made up of individuals abiding by different religious rites but serving
a common goal. Some of us trying to learn more about their internal church
matters received only diplomatic silence. In the words of Archbishop Augustine
of Lviv and Drohobych (UOC, Moscow Patriarchate), "What we saw was a case
study in tolerance, diplomatic approaches, and Christian love." Archbishop
Ihor of Kharkiv and Poltava (Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church) echoed
this impression, in his own words.

 

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