In this season of politics party slates are filled with an unprecedented number of colorful personalities: journalists, singers, composers, astronauts, and others. There is another unusual category of parliamentary nominees, who also want to have a parliament member’s badge on their lapel: clergymen.
Officially, the church is not actively involved in the affairs of state. However, clerics are not always able to separate the divine from the secular in real life. Church representatives are running for parliament in search of opportunities to promote their own interests, in particular those of a financial and economic nature. The presence of clergymen on the slates of political parties guarantees them support from the electoral resource comprised of the faithful.
As a rule, nominees in cassocks occupy spots on party slates that do not guarantee them a seat in parliament. However, we should not underestimate their role in boosting their party’s chances in the elections. Although priests insist that they are not campaigning for their party, this is not the absolute truth. I witnessed how calendars depicting a famous political figure against the background of church cupolas were circulated after Mass in one church.
Recall what happened with the church during the presidential elections of 2004. Churches turned into the campaign headquarters of certain political forces. Priests circulated party newspapers, actively campaigning for the “Orthodox candidate” and conducting religious processions through city streets. Church premises were used to store political campaign materials, including items that were used in the smear campaign against the main opposition candidate and his supporters, who were depicted as “Satan’s servants.” Moreover, there were cases when priests refused to hear confessions from parishioners who had voted for the “wrong” candidate.
Since the church is actually brainwashing its parishioners and actively campaigning for certain political forces, it is time to pass a new law that would transform Ukrainian legislation on freedom of conscience from a mere declaration into a detailed and effective legal document supported by reliable legal mechanisms. Several religious bills have already been registered in parliament. In the period leading up to the 2006 parliamentary elections it would be good if an appropriate law could effectively rule out the possibility of churches turning into political parties and eliminate any influence on religious organizations on the part of election candidates and the government.
What church servants would like to shed their cassocks in exchange for a parliament mandate or, what is more likely, to combine service to God with a political career? The no. 381 spot on the Party of the Regions’ slate is occupied by Oleh Sleptsov, archpriest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate) who resides in Dnipropetrovsk. No. 387 is occupied by Havrylo Ilhov, lecturer at Petropavlovsk Cathedral in Luhansk.
The president’s party, Our Ukraine People’s Union, also has several men of the cloth on its slate. For example, no. 115 is a current parliamentarian, Yuriy Boiko, who is the head priest of the parish of the Great Martyrs Borys and Hlib and rector of the Collegium of the Sanctifier Petro Mohyla. Spot no. 436 is occupied by Oleksandr Hudyma, who heads the Orthodox Fraternity of the Holy Apostle St. Andrew the First-Called. This fraternity unites believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Kyiv Patriarchate. Yuriy Zbitnev’s party Nova Syla [New Force] has reserved spot no. 134 on its slate for Yevhen Ord, a Chernihiv-based priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Kyiv Patriarchate. Pavlo Starodub, archpriest of the parish of St. John the Baptist of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, is in 39th place on the slate of the Patriots of Ukraine bloc.
Natalia Vitrenko, leader of the Popular Opposition bloc, is also running for parliament hand in hand with representatives of the clergy. Her slate lists Dmytro Sydor, dean of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Cathedral in Uzhhorod. Incidentally, this priest is no stranger to big politics. He is a member of the Zakarpattia Oblast Council, and former president Leonid Kuchma awarded his accomplishments in the socioeconomic and cultural development of Ukraine. Dmytro Maletych, a priest of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church residing in Lviv oblast, is no. 36 on the slate of the Ukrainian Conservative Party, headed by the scandal-ridden rector of the Inter-Regional Academy of Personnel Management, Heorhiy Shchokin. No. 81 in his party is Oleksandr Vlasenko, a Poltava-based missionary, who is a member of the All-Ukrainian Union of Associations of Evangelical Christians and Baptists.
Election slates also list clergymen from nontraditional confessions. No. 33 on the slate of the Borys Oliynyk-Mykhailo Syrota Bloc is Volodymyr Tokarev, archbishop of the Apostolic Christian Church in Ukraine, a former pastor of the Word of Life Church. The Apostolic Christian Church was registered only recently, and Volodymyr Tokarev played a key role in its creation. The National Democratic Party Bloc also has a priest from a nontraditional faith on its slate. The party’s no. 28 is Andriy Tyshchenko, a pastor of a religious community of the New Generation Christian church.
Meanwhile, there is a mini club of “nontraditional” churchmen on the slate of the Yuriy Karmazin Bloc. The fourth spot is occupied by Oleksandr Markov, who heads the executive of the religious Christian brotherhood Road to Truth. No. 82 on the same slate is another representative of this organization, Oleksiy Utkin, who doubles as director of the Dzvin Charitable Society. To put it simply, there are quite a few men of the cloth on the current party slates. In official statements all these nominees of “divine” origin are saying that they do not intend to campaign for their party among their parishioners.
The head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Volodymyr (Sabodan), says: “The episcopate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will not participate in the elections. As for the priests who wish to run for local councils, these issues are resolved by eparchial hierarchs. A priest knows more about the suffering of our people than anybody else. Therefore, in my view, a clergyman is capable of duly representing his parish in representative bodies.”
Meanwhile, Patriarch of Kyiv and all Rus’-Ukraine Filaret says the opposite: “Our church does not bless men of the cloth to run for parliament. To work in parliament one has to be a specialist. Only professionals should become politicians. Priests do not have the required education or knowledge. Their involvement in the work of the legislative body will be rather symbolic and will hardly produce noticeable results for society and the country. Moreover, if a priest is elected to parliament, he will be forced to devote more time to secular concerns than church matters, which are his divine calling. As for local councils, the church permits its clerics to serve as representatives to local self-governing bodies. Work on this level does not distract priests from church matters and enables them to resolve local issues, such as securing a plot of land for the construction of a church, social security, and charitable work. All of this benefits the Orthodox church and society as a whole.”
The church enjoys a great degree of trust among Ukrainians, as evidenced by public opinion polls conducted throughout the years. Iryna Bekeshkina, Director of Scholarly Affairs of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, says that while the government’s popularity ratings are declining, the church still enjoys a high level of trust in Ukrainian society. This past February the number of those who trust the church exceeded the number of those who distrust it by 44 percent.
At the same time, experts of the Razumkov Center insist that the church’s influence on believers’ political decisions is insignificant. However, thinking back to the last presidential elections, I tend to believe otherwise. The religious trump card will be used actively during the upcoming elections.
I can tell you how this is happening from my own experience. On a Sunday morning I attend Mass in a small Orthodox church in Kyiv. The parliamentary elections are less than a month away. Dressed in an unusually long skirt, I put on a headscarf and enter the church. I listen to the prayers attentively, making the Sign of the Cross. I deposit donations into the collection tray with which one of the church staff approached me three times in the space of one hour.
I join the line of people waiting for confession. “I am panicking,” I tell the priest. He asks why. I say that I consider it my duty to vote in the upcoming elections, but I have not decided for whom to vote. Obviously, I have not aroused the priest’s suspicion, and he explains what is “good” and what is “bad” in the Ukrainian political community. He advises me to vote for the political forces that had helped build the priest’s residence and donated money for the church cupola.
He believed that such arguments would imbue me with love for the “good” party. The fact that politicians are helping to build palaces for priests — this is not exaggeration — is undoubtedly a good thing. The problem is that politicians who donate money for church needs may be sinners according to Orthodox canons, and criminal offenders according to secular laws. As we know, the party slates are full of people who are being sought by Interpol. Evidently, this question does concern priests too much. They are joining the political race, choosing struggle over humility, sober calculations over prayer, and stumping for a party over confession.
