The most difficult period that the Polish Autocephalous Church of the 2ⁿ^d Polish Republic experienced was in 1938 when, by the decision of administrative authorities, over 127 sacral buildings in Khelm region and Podlachia were pulled down. The third transfer stage took place from 1937 to 1939 and, for the most part, took the form of demolishing Orthodox churches. (It should be noted that the demolition of Orthodox churches happened throughout the whole period of the existence of the Second Polish Republic.) The churches which were destroyed were those which were the symbols of the Russian Tsar’s reign. Over thirty Orthodox churches were destroyed, including the cathedral in Saski Square in Warsaw, the Sts. Cyril and Methodius cathedral in Khelm and the Resurrection cathedral in Bialystok. The demolition of these Orthodox churches – regarded as symbols of Russian rule – was spontaneous and often irrational. Nevertheless, it never happened on a massive scale. Only in 1938 did a programme of destroying Orthodox churches emerge as a distinct element of the Polonisation effort. This programme was initiated by the government itself. The official reason was that those churches were not needed, dilapidated, or had been built as a result of Russifi cation in the past. However, it appears that the reason was to weaken the Belarusian and Ukrainian national minority movement through closing parishes and active Orthodox churches. The “pacifi cation: of parishes in 1937 started in the Lublin region. First, a kind of social movement for the “propagation of Polish values and traditions” was created by the polish local authority. Then the army and police persecuted the Orthodox Church and people in order to convert them to Roman Catholicism. The demolition of Orthodox churches was conducted from the second half of May until the first half of July 1938. The actions were taken up by the local administration and co-ordination committees with help from the army and police in a hostile, anti-Orthodox atmosphere. To this end, the government used youth, army sappers, worker brigades, and even prisoners. Administrative and material measures were used to pressure the Orthodox who were blackmailed and threatened while their churches, which often served thousands of faithful, were destroyed. In most cases, the Orthodox community made no attempt to actively resist the demolitions. They prayed and protested, but were unable to oppose such an officially organised action.

Zimno, the seat of the Uniate parish of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, dates back to 1388. Originally, this tiny country village belonged to the Duchy of Belz, which was incorporated into the administrative structure of Poland as the Belz Voivodeship in 1462. After the first partition of Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth, this land was annexed by the Habsburg Empire, then it became part of the Duchy of Warsaw and following the joint resolutions of the Congress of Vienna it was given to Russia.

Such location meant that this land was the area of influences of two dioceses of Chelm, both Eastern Orthodox and Latin, therefore, its dwellers were both Eastern Orthodox (then Uniates) and Roman Catholic as well. The parish established here was an Eastern Orthodox parish, which, after the Union of Brest, became a Uniate parish. The parish constituted a one-village community which administratively belonged to the Deanery of Tyszowce. It functioned this way until the end of the eighteenth century, i.e. the first partition, when this land was annexed by the Habsburg Austria. Due to the Josephine administrative reform imposed by the Habsburg Austria, the parish in Zimno was liquidated and incorporated into the St. Michael the Archangel Uniate parish in Zerniki, while the church in Zimno was demoted to the rank of a branch church. The parish functioned that way until the liquidation of the Union of Brest.

On April 26, 1948, the Provisional Governing Council of PAKP was formed on the basis of minister of public administration Edward Osóbka- Morawski’s directive. The decision was a consequence of the removal of Metropolitan Dionizy (Waledyński) from his position as the head of the Orthodox Church. It left the de facto function of the board of trustees in charge of the Orthodox Church. Provisional Governing Council had de facto the function of the receivership management in charge of the Orthodox Church. It took over all matters and documents of the Warsaw Orthodox Theological Consistory and the entire property of the Church in Poland. The state authorities appointed the Provisional Governing Council two main tasks to solve. They concerned: the problem of autocephaly and election of a new superior. The Council was also to solve the problem of deposed Metropolitan Dionizy (the expulsion outside Warsaw) and the reorganization of the administrative structure of the Church. Until July 1951, these tasks were completed.

Organizational structure of the Orthodox Church in the countries of Central Asia

In the following article the author aims to track the changes occurring in the structure and functioning of the Orthodox Church in Turkestan (present-day region of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan), which was a part of the Russian Empire, and later – the Soviet Union. For this purpose, the author uses the geographical and historical background of the events that infl uenced the shape of the local Church, and also presents its most important leaders.

Orthodox Palestinians – between Muslims, Jews and Greeks

Palestinians are not a homogeneous group. One of the minority groups are Christians, the majority of whom is Orthodox. Although relatively few have stayed in their homeland, they still play an important role there. The Orthodox Palestinians have a strong feeling of identity, both ethnically, as Arabs, and religiously as Orthodox Christians. They face problems in three main domains. First, they are exposed to the same forms of discrimination from the Israeli regime as the rest of Palestinians – they are deprived of the opportunity to create and be part of their own, fully independent state. Second, they are a minority living among the Sunni majority nation. Thirdly, despite being a majority in their Church – Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem – they are under Greek domination in various areas. All these factors render the situation of Orthodox Palestinians very complex. The aim of this article is to show this situation and its potential influence on the Palestinian question and the Orthodox Church issues.

After regaining independence, the state authorities of Ukraine undertook actions aimed at obtaining the autocephaly by the local Orthodox Church. This process was difficult due to the existing divisions in Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The most numerous Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, with autonomous status, did not show any aspirations for independence from the Russian Orthodox Church. The political activities undertaken in 2018, supported by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate, led to the acquisition of the tomos from the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The participation of the Catholic Church in the systemic changes in Poland is unquestionable. The significant role of church hierarchs, middle- and lower-level pastors in accelerating the erosion of the communist dictatorship in Poland over the years, and especially in the last decade of the Polish People’s Republic, is unquestionable. Analogous processes of political, social, economic and cultural changes taking place in neighboring countries where Catholicism was the dominant religion were also stimulated to a large extent by representatives of the clergy. However, the issue of the importance of the Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union for the systemic changes at the end of the 1980s remains slightly more complicated. Therefore, the article compares two powerful Churches, Catholic and Orthodox, from the point of view of analogy and diff erences in the role, influence and importance of these institutions for the collapse of both authoritarian systems.

Throughout the period of the People’s Republic of Poland, the PAKP was part of the trend of religious loyalty to the state promoted by the communist authorities. In many respects, it declared support for the political, social and economic changes taking place after 1945. This was due to both its own organizational weaknesses and theological assumptions. It also supported the actions of the communist authorities against the emerging “Solidarity” and the introduction of martial law in Poland.