This book consists of essays based on contributions to a conference on ‘The Churches in the Ukrainian Crisis’ held in November 2014. But the ground covered is far more extensive than the question of how the Churches in Ukraine responded to the demonstrations at the Maidan in Kviv, and what they have done during the crisis sparked off by the Russian annexation of Crimea and the Russian-backed war in Eastern Ukraine. It begins with a lot of background information. This is reasonable, because many people will be unfamiliar with the Ukrainian religious situation. Ukraine has a high proportion of believers (Katrin Boeckh quotes a 2013 survey by the Kviv-based Razumkov Centre according to which 88 per cent of the population declared that they were believers, and only 11 per cent declared no religious affiliation). As Natalia Kochan points out, ‘the Ukrainian public's trust towards the churches (60–70 per cent) has surpassed by far its trust for any other institution’ (admittedly the competition is not strong). And, as Thomas Bremer explains, ‘of all the successor states of the former Soviet Union, Ukraine is probably the country with the most complicated and difficult religious situation’. The Orthodox Church is split in three (the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), the Orthodox Church of the Kviv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC). In addition, mainly in the west, there is the Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), which follows the Orthodox rite, but accepts papal primacy. There are also Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches, the Crimean Tatars form a significant Muslim presence (though many have had to flee following the Russian annexation), and there is a Jewish community.

But there is too much background here. It takes up the first two out of five parts, and quite a lot of the rest of the book. One essay, by Paul Brusanowski on ‘Autocephaly in Ukraine: the canonical dimension’, could have been omitted. The reader needs to know that only the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is recognised by other Orthodox Churches, and that a generally accepted Ukrainian autocephalous Church is unlikely to be achieved without Moscow's agreement. But Brusanowski spends a lot of time on, for example, the Council of Chalcedon, and does not actually mention Ukraine until right at the end of his essay.

Some information is repeated several times – perhaps inevitable in a book of essays by different writers. But there are also contradictions. Katrin Boeckh says that the denominations in Ukraine established the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations. In fact, as Thomas Bremer correctly tells us, the Council was initiated by the state. Thomas Bremer gives the date of establishment of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv as 1994, whereas Yury Avvakumov says correctly that it was 2002. Alfons Bruening writes that ‘Greek Catholic historians emphasise the conciliatory function of their church, of building a bridge between the Latin West and the Orthodox East’, while Yury Avvakumov says that ‘Ukrainian Greek Catholics are not a means for constructing diplomatic relations between ecclesiastical actors outside of Ukraine; they do not wish to be instrumentalised.’

The most interesting parts of the book are those dealing with the crisis and its aftermath. From the start, the Maidan had a strong religious dimension. Katrin Boeckh quotes a description of the scene at the Maidan: ‘The Orthodox Church of Kyiv is very active, but so are priests from the Autocephalous Church and the Moscow Patriarchate … All the priests are serving, especially praying at night, the Jesus prayer, the Rosary … Every night from the stage you hear the national anthem, then a prayer, holy Scripture, a prayer.’ I would have liked to read much more about all this. I found fascinating Lidiya Lozova's chapter on the experience of her own Moscow Patriarchate parish during in the crisis. Most parish members supported the Maidan demonstrations, and some went to Kviv to take part. But the attitude of others was negative. The parish priest, Archimandrite Filaret, managed to hold them all together in prayer. He himself went to the Maidan to pray and to deliver humanitarian aid, and the parish subsequently helped people who were displaced from the east by the Russian-sponsored military action.

This is a Moscow Patriarchate parish, which is a reminder of the strain put on the UOC-MP by the crisis – a major theme of the book. As Mikhail Suslov points out, some 40 per cent of the parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church are located in Ukraine. But because of the crisis, between spring 2013 and April 2014, the UOC-MP's flock shrank from 28 per cent to 25 per cent of Ukrainians, while that of the UOC-KP increased from 26 per cent to 32 per cent. Some fifty parishes moved from the UOC-MP to the UOC-KP, and in a number of UOC-MP parishes, prayers ceased to be said for the Patriarch of Moscow. Andrii Krawchuk quotes a number of voices from within the UOC-MP supporting the protesters, and concludes that ‘the ideas that reshaped a nation and provoked Russian military intervention had also inspired a radical rethinking of Orthodox identity in Ukraine’. However, as both Krawchuk and Katrin Boeckh note, the tone of the leadership of the UOC-MP soon changed, and criticism of Russia from the top level largely ceased.

This book was published in 2016, but the material goes only up to late 2014, which may explain why a number of essays tend to exaggerate the change in the UOC-MP. However, many things remain unresolved. Despite Russia's annexation of Crimea, the Orthodox churches in the peninsula remain under the jurisdiction of the UOC-MP, not of Moscow. Beyond dispute, however, and very sad, is that both in Crimea and in Eastern Ukraine, all religious communities other than the UOC-MP have been severely repressed.

Although I have expressed some reservations, this book nevertheless offers a wealth of information and insight. It is sad to think that, priced at £70, it will probably sell very few copies.