In early March, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholemew, the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, complained he was subject to hostility and targeting by Russia. The tensions arose in 2019, when Bartholemew made the weighty decision to grant ecclesiastical independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Not long after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Russian Orthodox Church rose as a rival with the patriarch in Istanbul. Eventually, Moscow came to fancy itself as the Third Rome–the true keeper of the Christian Faith. Over the centuries, centralized power devolved, with Istanbul granting an autocephalous–independent or semi-independent–status to more than a dozen church bodies. This left the patriarch in the weakened position of primus inter pares, and even that status is disputed in Russia.

Granting of autocephalous status to the Ukrainian church was therefore not only an affront to Moscow but also a power Moscow didn’t believe Bartholomew had the authority to exercise. Once the war in Ukraine began, Bartholemew stated that it justified his decision.

The patriarch’s decision to recognize the Ukrainian Church’s independence from Russia was a huge blow to Moscow’s spiritual authority in the Orthodox world.

“Today we see how right we were to do so … We would like, however, that the Russian state and church do not show us so much animosity, to me and to the patriarchy, and that they accept this decision,” said Bartholomew.

“But they don’t,” he said.

The patriarch visited Kyiv’s consulate in Istanbul in a show of solidarity and spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“He asked us to pray and we will do it with pleasure,” Bartholomew said.

“He gives such an example to his people. They don’t want to surrender and they are right. Why give up their freedom to the occupier?”

By contrast, Jeanne Whelan of the Washington Post reports that Patriarch Kirill of Moscow is very actively supporting the Russian war effort.

Whether warning about the “external enemies” attempting to divide the “united people” of Russia and Ukraine, or very publicly blessing the generals leading soldiers in the field, Patriarch Kirill has become one of the war’s most prominent backers. His sermons echo, and in some cases even supply, the rhetoric that President Vladimir Putin has used to justify the assault on cities and civilians.

“Let this image inspire young soldiers who take the oath, who embark on the path of defending the fatherland,” Kirill intoned as he gave a gilded icon to Gen. Viktor Zolotov during a service at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in mid-March. The precious gift, the general responded, would protect the troops in their battles against Ukrainian “Nazis.”

Kirill’s dishonest and bellicose behavior isn’t sitting well with many within his church.

In the process, Kirill has caused deep schisms in the global Orthodox Church, with priests in Ukraine, elsewhere in Europe and the United States condemning his support. Even dozens of lower-ranking clergy in Russia have broken with the 75-year-old patriarch, adding their signatures to an open letter decrying the invasion.

It’s a sign of the spiritual health of a church when priests follow their conscience and call for peace. We should see a healthy amount of this kind of dissent even in situations where perhaps the use of force is necessary and justified. It’s consistent with the broader and more elevated principles of religious life. Conversely, we should be concerned when the the most exalted religious leaders are engaged in cheerleading for bloodshed.

Ultimately, I don’t care about power disputes within the Eastern Orthodox faith. As much as possible, however, I’d like to see the Church, just like any other major branch of religion, be a force for good rather than a sower of division and violence. Patriarch Kirill is probably afraid of Vladimir Putin but it’s also possible that Putin is actually influenced by Kirill and following his guidance. Either way, I’d like to see Kirill instruct Russian troops not to steal, rape, torture, and murder civilians. Instead, he’s telling them that they’re fighting Nazis, which is a lie. The Ukrainian president is a Jew, and outside of the Azov regiment–currently clinging to life in the Mariupol steel factory–the Russians are not fighting anyone resembling a Nazi in Ukraine.

Despite a church-building boom in Russia, only about 6 percent of the population attends weekly services. This apathy is largely a byproduct of communism’s official hostility to organized religion, but it’s also a response to the naked politicization of the Moscow patriarchy. Cheering on Putin’s war is a very consequential decision for the Russian Orthodox Church. For centuries, they have had a plausible case for supremacy–or, at least, first-among-equals status–among the Orthodox Christian community. Now they’re totally isolated, and on the wrong side of a genocidal war of aggression. Their influence is gone and their internal unity is in tatters.

The myth that Moscow is the great defender of Christendom is dead.