Does the UOC-MP want to become a Russian church again

Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

Ukrainian Orthodox Church
, a self-governing Church with rights of broad autonomy within the Moscow Patriarchate

Official sites:
Canonical territory: Ukraine and the Republic of Crimea
Liturgical language: main Church Slavonic
Calendar: Julian
Cathedrals: Anthony-Feodosievsky in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (also in the Lavra the residence of the Metropolitan and the institution of the Metropolis), Resurrection in Kiev (under construction)
Primate: His Beatitude Onuphry, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine
Composition: 110 bishops; 53 dioceses; 12,409 clergy (2019) [1], 12,069 parishes (2017), 258 monasteries (2019) [1]; 17 religious educational institutions (2017) [2]; 30 million members (2009) [3]
On the map: Yandex.Map, Google map

Map of dioceses in Ukraine as of July 20 and August 25, 2012. From the website of the Synodal Department for Monasteries and Monasticism monasterium.ru

Dioceses

Kyiv
Alexandria
Baltskaya
Belotserkovskaya
Berdyansk
Borispolskaya
Vinnytsia
Vladimir-Volynskaya
Voznesenskaya
Volynskaya
Gorlovskaya
Dzhankoyskaya
Dnepropetrovsk
Donetsk
Zhytomyr
Zaporozhye
Ivano-Frankivsk
Izyumskaya
Kamenets-Podilskaya
Kamenskaya
Kirovogradskaya
Konotopskaya
Kremenchugskaya
Krivorozhskaya
Lugansk
Lvovskaya
Mogilev-Podolsk
Mukachevo
Nezhinskaya
Nikolaevskaya
Novokakhovskaya
Ovruchskaya
Odessa
Polesskaya
Poltavskaya
Rivne
Rovenkovskaya
Romenskaya
Severodonetsk
Simferopol
Sumskaya
Ternopil
Tulchinskaya
Umanskaya
Feodosiyskaya
Kharkovskaya
Kherson
Khmelnitskaya
Khustskaya
Cherkasy
Chernigovskaya
Chernivtsi
Shepetovskaya

“They have a completely different point of view.”

Arina Kontonistova , journalist, parishioner of the temple in honor of John of Kronstadt, Vinnitsa:

“There was a family and it split. Someone has gone in the other direction, says the same prayers, but thinks completely differently. But God is love, and everyone must make peace. A split has occurred: they read prayers in Ukrainian, they have a completely different point of view about today's events in Ukraine. They are for Europe, they are for the fact that everyone is to blame. In our churches they didn’t give blessings to go to the Maidan, but there, on the contrary, everyone lived by the Maidan.

And my point of view: if there is a dispute, then both sides did something wrong. I was told many times about the split from our side, but I can never remember this essence, the reason for it all. It seems that Filaret wanted to create a Ukrainian Church, but they didn’t let him. And not one of the Local Orthodox Churches in the world recognized the “Kiev Patriarchate”. But for me the most important thing is when all people live peacefully, amicably and fruitfully.”

The amazing story of Onuphrius the Great

The Metropolitan noted that God chose Onuphrius the Great even when he was in his mother’s womb. However, the devil tried in various ways to prevent his birth, knowing that a servant of God would be born.

So, the devil lied to the Great’s father that the child would be born not from him, but from his servants. Therefore, when a child is born, he must be thrown into the oven - if the child survives, then the words of the devil were not true. Unfortunately, the father believed this and threw the little boy into the fire. At the same time, the flames parted and did not harm God's child.

After the Lord’s miracle, an angel appeared to the father, ordered him to name the child Onuphrius, and told him where to give his son so that his destiny would come true. The father did not want to take Onufriy anywhere and left him at home, but the boy refused to drink his mother’s milk or any other milk. Fearing that the child would die of hunger, the man took him in his arms and carried him wherever his eyes looked.

Later on their way they met a desert doe, which gave Onuphry her milk. Surprisingly, the child drank it, and the father decided to go after the animal. As a result, the doe led them to the monastery, and then the man realized where he should leave his son.

For ten years, Onuphrius lived in a monastery, but later decided to go into the desert to clear his mind. Then an angel appeared to him and said that he would show him the way. God's messenger led a 10-year-old boy to a cave, where he met an old man who taught the Great One how to live in such conditions.

Onuphry lived there for about 60 years, without seeing or hearing a single person.

Onuphrius the Great

“The service was conducted in a language I understood”

Evgeny Frolov , editor-in-chief of the RIA weekly:

“What I noticed for myself during the baptism of my niece in the Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate was that the service was conducted in a language I understood. Unlike the service in the “Moscow Patriarchate”, where they speak Church Slavonic, which to me sounds exactly the same as Latin or any other language unfamiliar to me.

In general, I don’t go to church. But when I hear the service of the “Moscow Patriarchate,” I don’t understand a word—I rarely catch any words. At the services of the “Kyiv Patriarchate” everything is clear. This is a defining moment for me."

“This is not a Church, but a gathering of mummers”

Sergei Baranchuk , journalist, parishioner of St. Nicholas Church, town. Strizhavka, Vinnytsia district:

“The so-called UOC-KP differs in that it is not a Church, but a gathering of mummers - a fake “church.” There is no grace there, because it is self-made - it did not receive legal autocephaly from the Mother Church of the Russian Orthodox Church. Therefore, this is a schism, an arbitrary gathering of mummers, for whom it is not Christ who is God, but the personal ambitions of the false patriarch Denisenko and “nationalist itch.” This is a sect - this pseudo-church is not recognized by the entire Orthodox world. For in this so-called “church” of the UOC-KP, pride and lust for power rule the roost, there is a graceless desert, there salvation is impossible. All the Sacraments there are invalid: people who were baptized there were not actually baptized, those who got married there were not married, those who confessed there did not receive absolution, etc.”

“I am very far from all this”

Oksana Nestorovich , art critic:

“I can’t answer this question, because I don’t follow the life of either church. I am very far from all this. Of course, there is probably some difference, but I don’t know what it is. In addition, one church belongs to the Moscow Patriarchate, and the other to the Kyiv Patriarchate. Well, probably, there is the Kyiv Patriarchate. Doesn’t Kyiv have its own patriarchy?!”

“I don’t have any blatant stereotypes”

Olga Yurkova , journalist, magazine “Kraina”, Kiev:

“The UOC, after all, is strongly influenced by Russia. The UOC-KP has a clearly pro-Ukrainian position on issues of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. The UOC often conducts services and sermons in Russian. The UOC is intolerant of other faiths (I don’t know if this is actually true, but there is such a stereotype). I, after all, am a parishioner of the UOC, so I don’t have any blatant stereotypes.”

Stauropegia

Kiev-Pechersk Dormition Lavra (male)
Pochaev Dormition Lavra (male)
Glinskaya Mother of God-Nativity Hermitage (men's)
Gorodnensky Alexander Nevsky Monastery (since December 20, 2012 [14], female)
Gorodnitsky St. George Monastery (male)
Zhitomir Anastasievsky Monastery (women)
Zimnensky Svyatogorsky Assumption Monastery (women)
Nemirovsky Trinity Monastery (women's)
Sevastopol Paisievsky Monastery (male)
Chopovichi Athos Monastery (women)

Formerly stauropegial

Kagarlyk Varvara Monastery (March 15, 2013 - April 1, 2015 [15], female, now under the jurisdiction of the Belotserkovskaya diocese)

“For me there is no difference, but the “Kiev Patriarchate” is closer”

Natalya Tarnopolskaya , PR specialist, Kiev:

“The Ukrainian patriarchy is closer to me. I understand that according to the canonical laws of the Church they are not recognized anywhere, but who wrote the laws is not clear to me. Because there is the Bible, and I, as a believer and student of the Bible, can use it to guide my faith and actions. And the laws written somewhere there by priests are incomprehensible to me. Moreover, in the Bible Jesus says that the assembly of priests is becoming obsolete, because there are a lot of sins among the priests. Faith and God are one, and the assembly of priests needs to be liquidated. This is not accurate, this is how I understood it, I read the Bible in the Ukrainian version - the way I see it for myself. For me, as a believer, there is a law - this is the Bible. But I consider the non-recognition of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to be wrong - for me it is recognized. Because if Kirill and the Synod gather there and argue, for me this is not an indicator of whether it is legal or illegal.

I come to the Orthodox Church of the Kyiv or Moscow Patriarchate - for me there is no difference. I come to a prayed place and pray. And all these rules are unacceptable to me. But it’s unpleasant for me when in the church of the Moscow Patriarchate at the end of the service they praise Kirill. Because I listen to his various statements and it’s unpleasant for me. And the “Kiev Patriarchate” is closer to me, because when I stand at the service, I understand what is being said, I hear the speech and understand the meaning of the prayer.

Of course, I have no knowledge, and I myself cannot understand where it is better and where it is worse. So it would be interesting to read what priests have to say about these differences.”

Primates

Anthony (Khrapovitsky) (1918 - 1919 (1921))
Alexy (Hromadsky) (July 19, 1941 - May 7, 1943)
Damascene (Malyuta) (June 6, 1943 - 1944)
Panteleimon (Rudyk) (April 1944 - April 5, 1946), archbishop. Kyiv and Galitsky
[13]
Filaret (Denisenko) (October 25-27, 1990 - April 1992)
Nikodim (Rusnak) (April - May 27, 1992) acting primate, Metropolitan. Kharkovsky.

Vladimir (Sabodan) (May 27, 1992 - July 5, 2014)

Onufriy (Berezovsky) (February 24 - August 13, 2014), locum tenens of the metropolitan see, metr. Chernivtsi

Onufriy (Berezovsky) (since August 13, 2014)

“There is no grace of the Holy Spirit and no apostolic succession”

Priest Alexander Lapko , rector of the temple in honor of the High Priest Martyr Stephen, p. Chernyatyn, Vinnytsia region:

“The Church in society does not take on any particular role as a charitable organization or body providing assistance. The Church is guided by the Holy Spirit and governed through the Holy Sacraments.

The Church is the Body of Christ the Savior, and the head of the Church is Jesus Christ Himself, and we are living members of this organism. In addition, there is apostolic succession in the Church, and grace was transmitted from Christ to the apostles, and from the apostles to their disciples, bishops and priests, who are followers.

Christ said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven; on whomever you leave it, it will remain on him.” And again: “And I say to you: you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it; And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

According to the definition of the Ecumenical Councils, which through apostolic succession have the grace of the Holy Spirit, everyone who rejects the unity of the Church through schism, through disobedience to a higher hierarchy, becomes excommunicated from the unity of the Ecumenical Church.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is one of 15 canonical Churches. And whoever leaves unity with the Universal Church completely loses the grace of the Holy Spirit, which guides all service and the performance of the Sacraments. The sacraments lose their power because there is no grace on them. Therefore, the services of schismatics are graceless and blasphemous.

This is the main difference between the so-called. “Kyiv Patriarchate” from the canonical churches - they do not have the grace of the Holy Spirit, and there is no apostolic succession. This is the most basic thing. Apparently it looks like a church-wide service - there are even schismatic communities in which they serve in Church Slavonic, but they commemorate not the Patriarch, but schismatic hierarchs. These services are not valid, canonical, because these churches are not in communion with the Universal Church. There are Apostolic Canons that regulate these concepts. For an ordinary person who has never come into contact with church laws, this can be very difficult.

Therefore, it is important to understand that there is a canonical Church, legally inherited from Christ the Savior, and there are churches that have taken the path of schism and disagreement.”

Does the UOC-MP want to become a Russian church again?

Exactly one hundred years after the start of the adventure with Ukrainian autocephaly, this story, designed to finally fragment the single Russian civilizational space, is repeating itself again. But if then the spiritual separatists had little success, now they have every chance of success: both canonical Kyiv and spiritual Moscow, either ideologically or for political reasons, recognize and even defend Ukrainian independence. Thus, in essence, betraying their predecessors, who spoke out against the backdrop of the civil war for the unity of the Russian church and the Russian people.

Every kingdom divided against itself is desolate;

and every city or house divided against itself will not stand

Gospel of Matthew

If you believe in God and in the sacred signs that the Almighty sends to people, then Lugansk was simply destined to become the center of the Russian Fronde of Novorossiya. If only because opposite the SBU building, with the capture of which, in fact, the formation of the LPR began, there is a small wooden church in honor of the holy martyrs Gury, Simon and Aviv. This temple is the only one on the former territory of Ukraine that belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church. Exclusively thanks to the principled position of its abbot, Father Pavel Batarchukov , at one time, during the era of the collapse of the USSR, who refused to come under the jurisdiction of the UOC MP.

“I then objected, why should I, a Russian person who speaks, thinks in Russian, who received a spiritual education in Russia, leave the Russian church? — the priest later recalled. “After all, there are churches of the Russian Orthodox Church in Italy, Argentina, and wherever there are none, why shouldn’t there be such churches in Ukraine?”

And the persistent priest finally achieved his goal, the only one in all of Ukraine. And it is no coincidence that when the militants of the Ukrainian “Alpha” late at night tried to seize the tent camp of the rebels near the very building of the Luhansk SBU, he began to ring the bells and foiled the plan of the attackers. The rest of his colleagues resignedly transferred to the UOC-MP, did not ring the bells, and now, when the Kiev junta invites them to re-register as “ROC in Ukraine,” they unanimously refuse, and many are even indignant that their patriotism and loyalty to the Ukrainian state is not appreciated.

Ukrainian patriots of the Moscow Patriarchate

“We have facts that the military unit chose our priest, sent a request, and in response received a request from above to convince the military to change their decision in favor of another more “patriotic” confession. I would like to know, among other things, by what method these people determine the degree of patriotism!” A text of similar content was posted on the official website of the UOC-MP signed by the chairman of the department for interaction with the armed forces and other military formations, Metropolitan of Belotserkov and Boguslav Augustin Markevich . Why was this illustrious bishop so indignant? And the fact that by order of the post-Maidan head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov , representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate were no longer allowed to serve as chaplains in the National Guard and other units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs participating in the punitive operation against the people of Donbass - as representatives of an organization whose spiritual center is in the “aggressor country.” Only the Uniates and schismatics of the Kyiv Patriarchate were left. Well, how can you not be offended?

But the bishop was not indignant or saddened by the very fact of the punitive operation against Russian “separatists,” whose spiritual interests the Moscow Patriarchate should, in theory, represent. And this is not surprising - he is not the only one there.

Recently, in the Zhytomyr region, local authorities at the legislative level banned the public use of the Russian language. And, in fact, the Russian language itself was banned. That is, of course, it is still possible to speak Russian in the Zhitomir region, but in government bodies, in public places, in schools and universities, from the stage of theaters and television screens, Russian speech should no longer be heard. The surest move if you want that in a couple of generations there will be nothing Russian left on this once Russian land. And how did, for example, the same local representative of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan of Zhitomir and Novograd-Volynsk Nikodim Gorenko , who, as is customary in most Russian churches, react in Church Slavonic, and not in Ukrainian, react to this? No way. The pride of the Zhytomyr ruler are completely different things. For example, caring for the “defenders of Edina Krajina,” the so-called ATO veterans:

Sergei Beloshitsky shared his secret with one of the Ukrainian periodicals “cyborg” . — From now on, I am a parishioner of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, a truly canonical church that is recognized throughout the world. First of all, we must think about how to build our country, how to develop, because God gave us everything so that we could live prosperously. But we do not pay attention to this, but are fixated on how to expel the Orthodox Church from the country. This is nonsense."

Indeed, God gave everything to these Ukrainians. There remain, however, not fully identified quilted jackets, and even the damned separatists in the east, so let’s clean them out and live! Therefore, remove everything Russian and leave the Orthodox Church; after all, it will be recognized all over the world!

And if only some “cyborg” thought in this way. But no, Pan Gorenko himself, dressed in the metropolitan mantle, thinks in this vein. Back in January of this year, he proudly told another Ukrainian publication how bravely and principled he was in not meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Equally, however, like the entire delegation of the UOC MP:

“When we were at the Council, we immediately unanimously said that if there are meetings in the Kremlin or invitations from the President of the Russian Federation, the UOC will not accept them,” the bishop said. “We understood that we had to make a decisive statement, and this was a kind of ultimatum, proof of our attitude towards the policies of the Russian Federation. And when it became known that the President of the Russian Federation was arriving, we stood up and did not come to this meeting, all the bishops together with His Beatitude. We waited in other rooms of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior while the meeting took place. The media did not write about this. For the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, this act of ours was incomprehensible, but we again emphasized that we are autonomous in our decisions.”

There are no Russians in Ukraine!

And here an episode from the period of the Parade of Sovereignties comes to mind, when empty railway cars without goods arrived in Kazan from one of the regions of Russia, on which it was written in paint: “Free Tatarstan - free cars!” So the generous Ukrainian bishops, who for some unknown reason arrived in the capital of the “aggressor country”, but openly disregarded the norms of diplomacy, fully deserved such an attitude towards themselves. However, no, they were carried around with them then, and continue to be carried around to this day, although in their minds they should have acted as in the famous Internet meme: “these are broken, carry others.” And those who are “broken” can be included in autokephilia, why does the Russian Church need “broken”?

But instead, the Russian Orthodox Church continues to act within the framework of a policy begun during the collapse of the USSR, when, contrary to the instructions of the pillars of Orthodoxy at the beginning of the 20th century, who forbade splitting up the once unified body of the Russian Church, later glorified as saints, the UOC was literally concocted on the knee and, in fact, they released her to free bread, as long as she was nominally registered with Moscow and commemorated the Moscow Patriarch. So the right hand of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the department for external church relations of the MP, Metropolitan of Volokolamsk Illarion Alfeev, gave the following to the mountain: “This is the Ukrainian church,” he said about the UOC MP. “And the believers of this church consider themselves Ukrainians, they are patriots of their country.”

He said that he gave his blessing - for the continuation of the planting of spiritual, ethnic and political Ukrainianism on the historical lands of the South-West of Rus', which today a number of modern experts do not call anything other than “political heresy”. But in the Moscow Patriarchate, it turns out, they have been thinking differently since 1991, and this sentiment is clearly heard locally.

“The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has nothing to do with the concept of the Russian World,” Archbishop Kliment Vechera, . “We stated this openly, including in official documents.”

After this, is it any wonder that the head of the Severodonetsk Metropolis, located in the part of the Luhansk region occupied by the Ukrainian army, Archbishop Nikodim Baranovsky, recently blessed the next batch of local conscripts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine sent to war with their neighbors and fellow LPR countrymen. And for priests who had sympathies for the people's republic and the Russian world, he has one recipe - being sent out of state with the impossibility of serving God and earning a living by their direct work. With the public disclosure on the diocesan website of the personal data of such “negligent” shepherds, today there are already eighteen of them.

Or should one be surprised that, according to the order of the Metropolitan of Donetsk and Mariupol Illarion Shukalo , Donetsk at first did not accept the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, which arrived from Russia, which has the name “Militia” among the Orthodox Russian people. And then, following his unspoken instructions, they did not spiritually nourish the DPR militia. Moreover, in many Donetsk churches, militiamen who came to the liturgy in uniform are not allowed to confess and receive communion.

When they don't hear God

On the contrary, Donbass priests who initially supported the Russian Spring and suffered for this, ending up in torture chambers of the SBU, such as Feofan Kratirov, Vladimir Maretsky, Oleg Trofimov, were sent out of state by the local hierarchy. And, what should be especially noted, some of them were re-deployed already in Russia. An interesting episode: one of the Luhansk priests wanted to tell at a conference in Russia, organized by the Russian Orthodox Church and dedicated to the interaction of the church and education, that this interaction finally appeared in his small homeland, as soon as power passed to the people's republic, and in Ukraine this would have been simply impossible . But the priest was forbidden to read the report, as well as to oppose himself to Ukraine in any way.

How strikingly this differs from the attitude towards spiritual and ethnic schisms of other Orthodox churches! Thus, the Serbian Orthodox Church fundamentally does not recognize the schismatic and self-proclaimed Montenegrin and Croatian churches, not to mention granting them autonomy. And it doesn’t even recognize the Macedonian Orthodox Church, although, in all honesty, this issue should be left to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, which is related to the Macedonians at least ethnically and civilizationally. But the most important thing is how different this is from the attitude of the pillars of Russian Orthodoxy during the revolution and civil war not only to the idea of Ukrainian autocephaly, but also to the possibility of some kind of church autonomy for the parishes of Southwestern Rus'. Vladimir Bogoyavlensky , Anthony Khrapovitsky , and Lavrenty Chernigov , who was brutally murdered by the Bolsheviks, spoke out sharply and authoritatively against this . The latter, in fact, stood to the last, not recognizing the attempts of the aggressively minded Little Russian fathers, led by the self-saint Lipkovsky, “ordained” by ordinary Ukrainian laity (he will be the first to begin serving in Ukrainian), for any kind of autonomy.

“All false teachings will come out together with demons and secret atheists (Catholics, Uniates, Ukrainians - self-saints and others) and will strongly take up arms in Ukraine against the Orthodox Russian Church, its unity and conciliarity,” Lavrenty of Chernigov later prophesied. “These heretics will be supported by the godless government, and therefore they will take away churches from the Orthodox and beat the faithful. Then the Kiev Metropolitan (unworthy of this title), together with his like-minded bishops and priests, will greatly shake the Russian Church. The whole world will be surprised at his lawlessness and will be afraid. He himself will go into eternal destruction, just like Judas. But all these slander of the evil one and false teaching in Russia will disappear, and there will be a United Russian Orthodox Church.”

Now God is giving the Russian Church a chance to become united again, having overcome the consequences of the criminal mistake made after the collapse of the USSR in favor of political expediency. By the hands of the persecutors of the church - the Phanar, who had fallen into Caesar-papism, the schismatics, the Kyiv junta and its overseas curators, who officially welcomed Ukrainian autocephaly. A chance, after which everything superficial and deceitful, in the company of a broad Ukrainian patriot and homosexual - Metropolitan of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky and Vishnevsky Alexander Drabinko , who has already declared that he submits to Constantinople, will go to Phanar. And in Ukraine the Russian Orthodox Church will shine again, with confessional feat and strength of spirit. But so far, it seems, neither canonical Moscow, which is more preoccupied with the issue of inviting or not inviting the Pope to the Russian capital (as the aforementioned head of the DECR of the Russian Orthodox Church Illarion Alfeev stated in an interview with the Italian Il Messaggero), nor canonical Kyiv, independent of it, represented by the UOC MP, have matured before. Although a second chance is unlikely to present itself.

Alexey Toporov