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Why did Moscow's church break with Constantinople?
Summary
A retrospective on the Russian Orthodox Church's 15 October 2018 decision to sever communion, and what it added to the rift between Russia and Ukraine.
What did it mean when the Russian Orthodox Church announced, on 15 October 2018, that it would break communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople? It was a formal rupture within Eastern Orthodoxy, and it was tied directly to Ukraine.
The trigger
On 11 October 2018, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople announced plans to recognise the autocephaly of two Ukrainian Orthodox Churches. Ukrainian leaders welcomed the move. The Russian Orthodox Church denounced it as "catastrophic".
Moscow's response
Four days later, on 15 October 2018, the Russian Orthodox Church said it would break communion with Constantinople over the plans. At the same time, Moscow said it hoped Constantinople would change its mind so that the schism could be avoided. The announcement therefore combined a concrete step with an appeal to reverse course.
Why it mattered
As reported at the time, the decision marked an important new aspect in the rift between Russia and Ukraine. The dispute was no longer only a matter of politics and diplomacy between two states; it now ran through the structure of the Orthodox world itself, with Constantinople on one side and the Russian Orthodox Church on the other, and Ukrainian leaders welcoming the Constantinople plans.
The sequence over those few days, from the Constantinople announcement on 11 October to the Moscow response on 15 October, shows how quickly the question of Ukrainian church autocephaly escalated into a break in communion between two of Orthodoxy's institutions.
