“What is Crimea? What was Crimea in ancient Greece, in Byzantium? Kolyma! It is Kolyma,” said Tikhon, referring to a region of far-Eastern Russia that was a major hub of the Stalinist prison labor system. “For us, it is Crimea, but for them it was a place where people did not live normal lives.”
Tikhon recalled that Pope Clement, the first-century saint and bishop of Rome, was exiled to the peninsula by the Roman Emperor Trajan. “To Kolyma! And now I am being sent there, too, to the resorts of Kolyma,” Tikhon said.
For most of its history, Crimea, whose Christian community dates to the Roman period, had not been considered a single metropolitanate by the Orthodox Church. The Russian Church controversially created the authority only in June of last year, a few months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Crimea’s multiple dioceses in Crimea previously fell under the authority of the Metropolitan of Kyiv. But that metropolitan separated from the Russian church when the Ukrainian church declared independence from the Moscow patriarchate and was recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 2018.
Looking to cement its ecclesiastical influence over the province to match its political takeover, Putin put Crimea directly under the purview of the Moscow patriarch. It appointed as its head Metropolitan Lazar, a priest from the Ukrainian city of Ternopil, who had joined the Russian Orthodox Church in Soviet times and spent his early career in South America.
Now, just over a year into the role, Lazar is being replaced. “His Grace Metropolitan Lazar of Simferopol and Crimea is to be retired with an expression of gratitude for the archpastoral labors he has endured over the course of 43 years,” the Russian Orthodox Church announced in a statement.
The appointment of Tikhon over Crimea comes as Russian Orthodox clergy who break from the Russian government’s position on the war are facing increasing hostility from their own hierarchy, according to a recent report by Deutsche Welle.
At the same time, the Ukrainian Parliament is considering a bill this week that would fully ban the Russian Orthodox Church from operating in the country.
This article originally appeared here.
