How Can We Achieve Interfaith Harmony?

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.