Canonization, Obedience, and Defiance

Strategies for Survival of the Orthodox Communities in Transnistria, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia

Author(s): Kimitaka Matsuzato
Editor(s): Iris Kempe, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Lili Di Puppo
Series: Caucasus Analytical Digest (CAD)
Issue: 20
Pages: 10-12
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Jefferson Institute, Washington D.C.; Heinrich Böll Foundation, Tbilisi; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen
Publication Year: 2010

Against a background in which the Russian Orthodox Church refuses to support schismatics, the churches of Transnistria, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia have taken different approaches in establishing themselves in the Orthodox community. The Transnistrian Orthodox community today enjoys canonical status in the unrecognized state of Transnistria because the Transnistrian conflict was a conflict within the Russian Orthodox Church and its Chisinau-Moldovan Metropolitanate. Abkhazia's church leaders initially pursued a path of obedience, but in 2009 switched instead to defiance but nevertheless seek to maintain ties with both the official Russian and Georgian churches. The South Ossetian church has, by contrast, pursued a more aggressive strategy in setting up an independent church and seeking support for an official status.

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