By now, all Orthodox people have heard of the schism between Moscow and Constantinople over the independence of the church of Ukraine. The Ecumenical Patriarch has accepted the autocephaly of the Ukrainian church, which has angered the Russians beyond measure. The result has been the interruption of communion between the Moscow Patriarch and Constantinople. So far, emotion has controlled the discourse among the parties. The truth is highly complex and requires a painstaking analysis of the conditions that predated the "transference" of "Ukraine" to Moscow in 1686. This broadcast, which is longer than most given the severity of the issue, deals with this complexity from the Cossack rebellions of the 1640s to the conditions of the present day. The two key years are 1686 and 1924, the year where the eastern patriarchates proclaimed the independence of the Church of Poland, which was, de facto, the Church of Ukraine. This proclamation (or tomos) was repudiated by Patriarch Alexei I, as the Red Army entered Poland in 1945. Alexei was one of the bishops Stalin installed to create the "Moscow Patriarchate" in 1944. It would be difficult to imagine a more bizarre and distorted political and religious situation. Presented by Matt Johnson The Orthodox Nationalist: The Origin of the Schism Between Constantinople, Kiev and Moscow – TON 101718