Why did His Beatitude Onuphry not become the head of OCU?

His Beatitude Onuphry. Photo: Bishop Victor Kotsaba’s Facebook page

August 17, 2020 marks six years since the enthronement of His Beatitude Onuphry. This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, celebrations of this event are held exclusively within the UOC. And in 2019, bishops from 11 Local Churches came to the anniversary of his Name Day. Interestingly, almost all of them, speaking of the Beatitude, said one phrase: "Metropolitan Onuphry is a true monk."

But what do these words mean? Are other bishops, archimandrites, hegumens, etc. not true monks? After all, each of them, in monastic vows, renounces the world to attach to God, taking in their hearts the Gospel words: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness” (Luke 12:31) and “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).

In other words, a person who has become a monk must check every day, every minute with a “heavenly” compass rather than think in terms of the benefits of earthly life. However, does it always happen with everyone?

And why is it His Beatitude Onuphry that everyone unanimously calls a true monk?

To understand this better, let's allow ourselves to fantasize about an "alternative" scenario.

His Beatitude Onuphry as the head of the autocephalous OCU?

As we remember, on the eve of the Tomos bestowal, Patriarch Bartholomew initiated the so-called “Unification Council”, which was to elect the Primate of the new “Orthodox Church of Ukraine”. According to the idea of the Phanar’s head, the Church of Constantinople returned the Kiev Metropolis to its subordination 330 years later. All church structures in Ukraine were disbanded by it, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church allegedly ceased to exist. All the schismatic "hierarchs", as well as the bishops of the UOC, received invitations from Patriarch Bartholomew to the "Unification Council", where they were to elect a leader. His Beatitude was invited, too. In that letter, the head of the Phanar warned Metropolitan Onuphry that if he failed to appear at the “Council”, the Church of Constantinople would no longer consider him the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

His Beatitude sent that letter back to Turkey unopened. But could he have done otherwise? Quite possible.

His Beatitude could have convened the Synod in December 2018 and declared that the Phanar was right: the UOC was gone, and the bishops had to go together with the schismatics to the “Council” in order to form a new single “Local Church”. And such a decision was politically fully justified – the number of UOC hierarchs was twice as high as the number of “hierarchs” from the UOC-KP and the UAOC, and Metropolitan Onuphry could have received a guaranteed victory in the election.

In the event of such a scenario, the then government in the person of Petro Poroshenko would have instantly changed the rhetoric both in relation to His Beatitude and the entire hierarchy of the UOC. They would have turned immediately from "traitors" into heroes. There would have been no interrogations by the SBU, no criminal cases, no persecution by activists, and no harassment in the media. Panegyrics, glorification and full support of the authorities. Solid benefits.

And there is no doubt that Patriarch Bartholomew himself, as well as any of the "episcopate" of the current OCU and the UOC-KP, would have done so in the place of His Beatitude Onuphry.

The Primate of the UOC chose a different path. But why? After all, participation in the "autocephalous" project of the Constantinople Church freed him from any doubts and obligations regarding the legality of what was happening. Moreover, political expediency did not just suggest but literally shouted – obey and do as you were told. Besides, isn't “healing the schism” a noble goal?

Indeed, the assertions that the schismatics had to repent to return to the Church were mercilessly criticized not only by the schismatics themselves and by the secular society. They were ignored even by the Church calling itself "Ecumenical".

However, let's imagine what would have happened next in this alternative church history of Ukraine. After kisses by the authorities and mass media, a different period would have come.

Mechanical unification with schismatics would have caused fermentation among the believers of the UOC. But the main problem of such a homunculus would not have be at all in them.

Even Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan), commenting in 2005 on the possibility of a mechanical unification of the Church with schismatics, compared it to an attempt to mix oil and water: “What kind of unification can we talk about? It is impossible to get a unique mass from oil and water."

In any case, any mechanical mixture of the canonical Church and schismatics would be doomed.

Recall that as soon as Poroshenko lost power, Filaret immediately split the OCU. There is no doubt that if a common church structure with the UOC had been created and if he had not received the desired power at the “Unification Council”, Filaret (or someone else) would have done the same. Bishops and priests from the canonical Church would still have been declared "pro-Moscow" and insufficiently patriotic. There would have been a global division of Orthodoxy in Ukraine. Only it would have been extremely difficult to understand who had the purity of faith in such a structure and who did not.

Such a high priest truly meets our need 

Moreover, all these scenarios and the calculation of the logic of events are the lot of analysts. It is quite obvious that His Beatitude Onuphry, making decisions in the most difficult days of the "tomos" trials for the Church, did not think about that at all.

He thought and acted as a monk and the Primate of the Church should act, guided not by considerations of profit and expediency, but exclusively by the words of Christ: "Seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness."

Let us recall his words: “The whole history is imbued with the fact that there are people among us who consider themselves wise, worthy, but try to measure water with a tape, to measure air with a bucket, that is, they confuse notions and forget that their measures are earthly measures, and they cannot measure the spiritual, the heavenly, the Divine."

Let’s be honest, there are enough such “wise men” among the priests and hierarchs of the Church, not to mention thу schism environment.

But His Beatitude Onuphry is a person who measures earthly events exclusively with Heavenly measures. He does not sit down with the opponents of the Church at a virtual chessboard and does not play grandmaster games, catching the opponents on mistakes and calculating his own moves.

He knows that he is placed at the head of the Church, and therefore must think and act as a conductor of the Divine will: “We have no hard feelings against those politicians who say that supposedly the Church needs to be rebuilt, but we tell them that Christ created the Church and Christ rules the Church ... Christ is God, He is perfect, and what God created does not require correction. Therefore, we believe that the Church should not yield to human weakness, adapt to the sinful person. This is a sinful person who should be in tune with the Church. This is the right thing to do. Then the Church will benefit. If the Church serves my passions, then it will not be the Church, it will be some kind of institution, which is only called a “church” but does not serve to save the human soul.”

***

Each of us knows the phrase of St. Seraphim of Sarov: “Attain a peaceful spirit and thousands will be saved around you”.

Let's try to remember – have we ever heard a word of condemnation from His Beatitude, seen him angry or aggressive?

In 2019, the spokesperson for the UOC, Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich, said the following: “It happens that many criticize His Beatitude – why he is silent when it is necessary to say something about some problems. But time passes, and that problem dissolves by itself. People and we, the whole Church, following His Beatitude, not only hear his voice, but we even hear his silence. And this silence speaks louder than other words. He speaks, but he speaks in this silence with God."

The Ukrainian Church and the entire Ukrainian society have been undergoing serious trials in recent years. But God never leaves His faithful. On August 17, 2014, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry was enthroned. Could the episcopate of the UOC have made a more worthy choice? Hardly.

The Apostle Paul once said a phrase that became a yardstick in relation to the hierarchy of the Church: “Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.” (Heb. 7: 26-27).

You must admit hardly anything can be added to the portrait of His Beatitude.

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