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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Sunday, December 16, 2018 5C
Ukraine leaders create own church
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, center left, and
Metropolitan Emmanuel, center right, talk to each other as they
attend a closed-door synod of three Ukrainian Orthodox churches
to approve the charter for a unified church and to elect leadership
in the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 15.
BY YURAS KARMANAU AND
EFREM LUKATSKY
Associated Press
KIEV, Ukraine - Ukrai
nian Orthodox leaders on Sat
urday approved the creation of
a unified church independent
of the Moscow Patriarchate
and elected a leader to head
that new church — a move that
could exponentially raise ten
sions with neighboring Russia.
The vote, held at a closed-
door synod in Kiev’s St. Sophia
Cathedral, is the latest in a
series of confrontations between
Ukraine and authorities in Rus
sia, including President Vladi
mir Putin’s government. Ahead
of the vote, the Russian Ortho
dox Church called on the United
Nations, the leaders of Ger
many and France, the pope and
other spiritual leaders to protect
Orthodox believers in Ukraine.
The leader of the new auto
cephalous Ukrainian Orthodox
Church will be Metropolitan
Epiphanius, a 39-year-old bishop
from the Kiev Patriarchate.
“God heard our appeals and
gave us this anticipated unity,”
Epiphanius told a crowd of thou
sands who had gathered outside
the cathedral on Saturday to
hear the news. He stressed that
the new church’s doors would
be open to all, and encouraged
Ukrainians to rally behind it.
Still spiritual leaders attend
ing Saturday’s synod couched
their efforts to create an inde
pendent church in patriotic
rhetoric. Father Sergei Dmi
triev said — given Ukraine’s
ongoing conflicts with Russia
— “we should have our own
church, not an agent of the
Kremlin in Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Petro
Poroshenko, who has made the
creation of a new church a key
campaign issue, attended the
synod Saturday as a non-voting
observer.
“Ukraine was not, is not, and
will not be the canonical ter
ritory of the Russian church,”
Poroshenko told the gathering,
adding that creating an inde
pendent Ukrainian Orthodox
Church was now a matter of
national security.
“This is a question of Ukrai
nian statehood,” Poroshenko
said. “We are seizing spiritual
independence, which can be lik
ened to political independence.
We are breaking the chains that
tie us to the (Russian) empire.”
MYKHAILO MARKIV I Associated Press
Representatives of Ukraine’s
three Orthodox Churches
attended the synod in Kiev, but
only two from the branch loyal
to Moscow showed up. One Rus
sian bishop — Metropolitan
Hilarion in Volokolamsk — on
Saturday compared those two
representatives of the Moscow-
backed church to Judas, the bib
lical betrayer of Jesus.
The newly formed commu
nity is expected to receive inde
pendence from the Ecumenical
Patriarchate of Constantinople,
the Istanbul-based institution
considered the so-called “first
among equals” of leaders of the
world’s Orthodox Churches.
Relations between Ukraine
and Russia have been damaged
by Russia’s 2014 annexation
of the Black Sea peninsula of
Crimea and its support for sepa
ratists fighting the government
in eastern Ukraine. The church
schism and a Nov. 25 naval
clash in the Black Sea in which
Russia seized three Ukrainian
ships and detained 24 Ukrainian
crewmen have caused them to
deteriorate further.
Saturday’s religious rupture
from the Russian Orthodox
Church is a potent mix of poli
tics, faith and national identity.
Since the late 1600s, the
Orthodox Church in Ukraine
had been a wing of the Russian
Orthodox Church rather than
being ecclesiastically indepen
dent. Many Ukrainians, how
ever, resented the implication
Ukraine was a vassal of Russia.
The move Saturday raises
deep concerns about what will
happen to the approximately
12,000 churches in Ukraine
under the Moscow Patriarchate.
Recently, about 50 churches
in Ukraine under the Moscow
Patriarchate have been seized
and transferred to the Kiev
Patriarchate, according to Met
ropolitan Antony Pakanich.
Poroshenko said Saturday he
would travel with Epiphanius to
Istanbul in January to receive
a Tomos — an official docu
ment — from the head of global
Orthodoxy that grants the new
church independence.
The Ukrainian leader
promised “to respect those
who decide, for one reason or
another,” to remain with the
Ukrainian branch of the Rus
sian Orthodox Church — and
to protect those who choose to
leave the Moscow Patriarchate
and join the new church.
Putin says rap
music dangerous
Associated Press
MOSCOW — Alarmed by the growing popu
larity of rap among Russian youth, President
Vladimir Putin wants cultural leaders to
devise a means of controlling, rather than ban
ning, the popular music.
Putin says “if it is impossible to stop, then we
must lead it and direct it.”
But Putin said at a St. Petersburg meeting
with cultural advisers Saturday that attempts
to ban artists from performing will only bol
ster their popularity.
Putin noted “rap is based on three pillars:
sex, drugs and protest.” But he is particularly
concerned with drug themes prevalent in rap,
saying “this is a path to the degradation of the
nation.” He said “drug propaganda” is worse
than cursing.
Putin’s comments come amid a crackdown
on contemporary music that evoked Soviet-
era censorship of the arts.
Last month, rapper Husky, whose vid
eos have garnered over 6 million views on
YouTube, was arrested after he staged an
impromptu performance when his show was
shut down in the southern city of Krasnodar.
The 25-year-old rapper, known for his lyr
ics about poverty, corruption and police bru
tality, was preparing to take to the stage Nov.
21 when prosecutors warned the venue his act
had elements of “extremism.”
Husky climbed onto a car, surrounded by
hundreds of fans, and chanted “I will sing my
music, the most honest music!” before he was
taken away by police.
On Nov. 30, rapper Gone.Fludd announced
two concert cancellations, citing pressure
from “every police agency you can imagine,”
while the popular hip hop artist Allj cancelled
his show in the Arctic city of Yakutsk after
receiving threats of violence.
Other artists have been affected as well —
pop sensation Monetochka and punk band
Friendzona were among those whose concerts
were shut down by the authorities last month.
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7 killed as
BY AIJAZ HUSSAIN
Associated Press
SRINAGAR, India - At
least seven civilians were
killed and more than three
dozen injured Saturday when
government forces fired at
anti-India protesters in dis
puted Kashmir following a
gunbattle that left three reb
els and a soldier dead, police
and residents said.
Indian troops surrounded
a village in the southern
Pulwama area on a tip that
militants were hiding there,
said Muneer Ahmed Khan, a
top police officer. As the sol
diers began a search opera
tion, militants jumped out
of a civilian home and took
positions in an apple orchard
while firing at soldiers and
counterinsurgency police,
Khan said.
Three rebels and a soldier
were killed in the exchange
of gunfire, and one soldier
was wounded, he said.
The gunbattle sparked
protests, with hundreds of
people chanting pro-militant
slogans and calling for an
end to Indian rule over the
Himalayan region. The pro
testers threw stones at troops
to help the militants escape
while government forces
fired bullets, shotgun pellets
and tear gas to stop them,
killing seven and injuring at
least 40 others, nine of them
critically, police said.
Khan said large crowds
came from multiple direc
tions while attacking secu
rity deployments in the area.
Police said in a statement
later Saturday that they
regretted the killings, and
that the protesters had come
“dangerously close” to the
gunbattle site.
Residents accused troops
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Indian forces fire on protesters
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of directly spraying gunfire
into the crowds.
“They (Indian troops) fired
at us as if they were practic
ing their guns,” said Shabir
Ahmed, a local resident who
accompanied injured taken
to a hospital in Srinagar, the
region’s main city.
Two police officials, speak
ing on condition of anonym
ity because they were not
authorized to talk to the
media, said the civilians died
in the anti-India protests.
However, residents said at
least two civilians, including
a teenage boy, were killed
away from the gunbattle site.
Soldiers in an armored
vehicle fired at civilians
away from the battle site,
and as the vehicle got stuck
on a roadside, the troops
fatally shot one of them, said
resident Ubaid Ahmed.
Separatists who challenge
India’s sovereignty over
Kashmir said the killings
were part of India’s state pol
icy and called for three days
of mourning and a general
DAR YASIN I Associated Press
Kashmiri villagers shout freedom slogans during the funeral
procession in Indian controlled Kashmir, Saturday, Dec. 15.
shutdown in Kashmir. Mir-
waiz Umar Farooq, a sepa
ratist leader, said in a tweet
that India’s government
should “stop this inhumanity
as it will not achieve anything
except further rebellion and
hatred.”
Saturday’s killings trig
gered more anti-India pro
tests and clashes in the
region, including Srinagar.
No one was reported injured
in the clashes.
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