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The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which didn’t recognize the authority of the Russian church and had been regarded as schismatic, was granted full recognition in 2019 by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Orthodoxy’s top authority.

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which didn’t recognize the authority of the Russian church and had been regarded as schismatic, was granted full recognition in 2018 by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Orthodoxy’s top authority.

“Until that step was taken, Kirill and everyone else could always refer to the various Ukrainian churches as schismatic,” Wanner said.

The former is seen as a “schismatic” group by the Moscow church, which is closely aligned with Mr. Putin.

Among them, she said, was her own denomination, the 16 million member Southern Baptist Convention, which last June was wracked by a bitter, potentially schismatic debate over whether to pass a resolution condemning CRT.