Zelenskyy did not deign to meet with UOC Synodals: What happens to the Church?
Zelenskyy ignored the Primate and members of the Synod of the UOC. Photo: UOJ
On March 20, 2023, an event occurred that will go down in history as a shame in the relationship of power to the Church. Members of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church waited for almost three hours near the Office of President Volodymyr Zelensky, but to no avail. The reason was more than serious – the expulsion of the Church from the Kyiv Caves Lavra. However, the president ignored the synodals.
Of course, the head of the warring country has a very tight schedule. He is not obliged to accept everyone who wants to suddenly communicate with the president. But the question is not at all that Zelensky did not accept the synodals, the problem is how it was done.
The primate and hierarchs of the country's largest denomination were demonstratively kept outdoors near the checkpoint for several hours, and then they were driven away with a siren. And this despite the fact that Zelensky was in place and could have certainly found at least a few minutes. The bishops were not invited to wait inside, they were not even offered to sit down. In short, the situation can be described in two words: "Demonstrative humiliation." This humiliation is not just His Beatitude’s and that of top hierarchs. This is a demonstrative humiliation of millions of believers of the UOC, humiliation of millions of voters, citizens of Ukraine. That's the tragedy.
Is it possible to imagine that the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, the head of the Uniates, or Serhiy Dumenko would be kept on the street in the same way? We all know the answer.
On the morning of that day, a meeting of the Synod of the UOC was held in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. It took place in a critical situation for the Church. On March 10, the authorities announced that the UOC was obliged to leave the Lavra by the 29th. More than 200 monks, the Kyiv Metropolis, theological schools: seminary and academy, icon-painting and sewing workshops, etc. The authorities did not name any intelligible reasons for such an act. Allegedly, some kind of interdepartmental commission discovered some illegal buildings on the territory of the Lower Lavra. No one says which ones. The Ministry of Culture classified the information. But everyone understands perfectly well that all this is just a clumsy pretext. The Church is expelled from its ancient shrine simply because it is the will of the leadership, or rather, the president.
Dmytro Korchynsky, head of the Brotherhood radical organization: “Zelensky put pressure on Tkachenko. That is, it was a direct order of Zelensky. Zelensky told Tkachenko to break this agreement.”
MP Poturayev and Minister of Culture Tkachenko called the relics of the Kyiv Caves reverends as "museum exhibits" and demanded that the UOC "return them to the state." The police stand at the exit of the monastery and search every car and every monk.
Poturayev promised that on March 29th, the patriotic community would come to “liberate” the Lavra, while the radical Korchynsky, who had already seized the Lavra in 1992, said that if the monks did not leave voluntarily, they would “crawl out” of the monastery.
Under these circumstances, the members of the Synod, headed by His Beatitude Onuphry, decided to speak directly with Zelensky and find out why such repressions are being taken against the Church. After all, the UOC did nothing the authorities could blame it for.
The bishops arrived at the President's Office at 12:40. Almost immediately, a certain clerk came out to them and offered to hand an appeal to Zelensky.
A clerk from the Office of the President: "I came to you on instructions to take an appeal." The bishops refused and began to wait for Zelensky.
Half an hour later, a woman came out to them with the same proposal.
A female clerk from the Office of the President: "I came to take and hand an appeal." The bishops refused and began to wait for Zelensky.
They waited an hour, another hour, and another hour. Standing outside in cool March weather. The UOC synodals are mostly elderly people in their late 70-s. The Office of the President did not invite them to wait inside, nor did they even take out the chairs. When the assistants to the hierarchs brought pieces of foam plastic so that the bishops could sit at least on the concrete blocks, the policemen immediately jumped up and demanded that everything be removed.
Absolutely shameful and boorish attitude of the authorities towards the hierarchs of the Church, to which millions of Ukrainians belong, whose members defend the country on the front line, which in the first hours of the war condemned the aggression of the Russian Federation, which provides enormous support to the army and those in need.
But what should Zelensky do when all the clerks have already been sent, when the elderly bishops are ready to wait for him on their feet for many hours, but meeting with them is below presidential dignity? When the situation become simply indecent for him. The siren button comes to the rescue.
Kyiv channels wrote about an “atypical” air raid alarm, which was sounded only in the capital and lasted for only 14 minutes. However, during this time, the police drove the bishops out of the territory of the President's Office. The situation was resolved. Already a few hours later, the Lavra receives information to be quialified as the President's response to an attempted meeting from the Synods of the UOC: since March 21, access to the relics of the Kyiv Caves Venerable Fathers, as well as three temples of the Lavra is closed for believers.
Metropolitan Clement, Chairman of the Synodal Information and Education Department of the UOC: “From tomorrow, from the very morning, access to the Near and Far Caves for prayerful veneration of the relics of the Kyiv Caves saints will be terminated, limited by the museum. Our believers will not be able to visit the caves, as well as the churches of Exaltation of the Cross, St. Anna Conception and the Warm Church.”
Emotional people have states that are popularly referred to as “biting the bit,” when hostility towards someone they consider an enemy compels them to do very strange things. It seems that for Zelensky now in relations with the Church, the expression “the worse, the better” is best suited. But can the head of state allow this to himself? Zelensky – strange as it sounds – is a servant of the people and is obliged to act for their benefit. Including for the benefit of those millions of believers who voted for him in the elections.
After all, Zelensky treated religion in a completely different way before the elections. True though, it was Islam not to Orthodoxy. Then he could even apologize to Kadyrov for hurting religious feelings of the latter.
Volodymyr Zelensky (interview with D. Gordon, 2018): “If we have offended at least one of the representatives of the Muslim world at the level of religion, I am sorry... Because religion is a very sensitive issue, there is a very subtle line. It's not nice and necessary to offend other religious interests. This is wrong. This is what I said in front of the entire Muslim world: if our guys (from Quarter 95 – Ed.) may not be known in the CIS, then I want to apologize for them.”
Today, Zelensky does not ask for forgiveness for his ex-colleagues. well, they did not offend Muslims, only Orthodox, who can be showered with foul language, and whose temples can be insolently raided. The temples that these very Orthodox restored with their own hands, in which they invested huge personal savings, time and effort after the Soviet desolation. Let's take a look at the pictures of the Lavra, when the state returned it to believers in 1988, and the one that we see now. The difference is remarkable, isn't it? But instead of abolishing thuggish nationalization of church property, which the Bolsheviks did 100 years ago, Zelensky clones their actions. He likewise robs believers of the relics restored by them. What for? To give them to the “correct” confession led by Serhiy Dumenko.
There's just a problem. Dumenko has no one to fill the Lavra, he has about 240 monks for the entire OCU. Therefore, with the assistance of the authorities, he persuades the brethren to simply recognize his authority and not leave anywhere.
Serhiy Dumenko, head of the OCU: “I testify to the brethren that all of you who follow the requirements of the canons and tomos will cast off the lawless power of Moscow and continue your service in the Lavra. As the Holy Archimandrite of the Lavra, I am open to dialogue and communication. Our goal is to preserve and renew the monastery, to cleanse it of the Russian world. We are ready to cooperate with everyone who shares these aspirations.”
And now let’s compare it with the appeal of the fake Renovationist Metropolitan Innokentiy Pustynsky, to whom the Bolsheviks gave the Lavra 99 years ago, in 1924: “Brothers and sisters, inhabitants of the Kyiv monasteries!... You see how it is getting more and more difficult for you. The cloisters one after another pass into the jurisdiction of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Church or closed. The main shrine of Ukraine, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, was transferred to my jurisdiction. Stop being persistent, leave aside your political game and show that your cloisters are dear to you. Do not be embarrassed by their transfer to my jurisdiction and stay where you are.”
As you can see, only 100 years have passed, and history repeats itself one to one. The authorities act in the same way, the false bishops speak almost the same sly words. The communists soon became disillusioned with the renovationists and stopped supporting them. The reason is simple – their temples were empty, people did not go to them. The Renovationists were expelled from the Lavra, Innokentiy Pustynsky was exiled, and all of them were shot in the end. The power of the communists also ended. But the Church was reborn.
Today the state is expelling the Church from the Lavra and letting new renovationists there. It is logical to assume that the end of current developments will be similar. The Church of Christ will be purified and reborn. And now there is a choice before us like 100 years ago: to be with the Church or to join its persecutors. Beware making a mistake.
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