Paper short abstract:

“Flying Community” can be seen as an example of the fuzzing national boundaries in Europe for a community formation caused by cultural flow. The community formed in a conflict circumstance breaks several patterns typical for structure and denominational variety of religious organization.

Paper long abstract:

“Flying Community” is a group that unites Orthodox and Catholic Christians from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and Italy of different ages and ethnic origin, with its epicenter in Ukraine. It has been formed in the circumstances of the evolving political conflict, in 2012-2015, and the group breaks several patterns typical for structure, denominational variety, and stable geographical affiliation of religious organization in both Catholicism and Orthodoxy. “Flying Community” driven by lay members that are active socially and politically and engaged in reappraisal of the Soviet past in the post-Soviet spaces.

Jose Casanova suggests that globalization of Western secularism leads to a paradox: instead of being eliminated from the public sphere, religion manifests itself in a variety of forms in different parts of the world, and Ukraine is one of recent examples of what he calls de-privatization of religion. The ongoing armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine followed the anti-governmental protests of 2013-2014 in Ukraine, and fueled religious tension in the country and the Orthodoxy worldwide.

The group can be seen as an example of the fuzzing national boundaries in Europe for a community formation caused by cultural flow. In my paper, I will review the main points of unusual patterns for an Orthodox lay organization and “Flying Community” response to a situation in turmoil in post-Soviet space, and their contribution to the idea of liquid modernity.