False shepherds and the Gospel: Do people pick figs from thistles?

Where do the pastors of the OCU lead their flock? Photo: UOJ

Several years ago, even before the creation of the OCU, I had a chance to hear one story. One friend told me how he wanted to invite a priest to serve a requiem at the cemetery. The cleric answered the following on the phone: if you are going to pray, then I will go, if you just want to arrange a commemoration at the grave with drinks and snacks – look for someone else. This "father" was from the UOC-KP ...

And after a while there was news that one "priest" returned from the UOC-KP to the Church of Christ in the Ovruch Eparchy.

“I, Anatoly Stanislavovich Vasilenko, realized my grave schismatic sin, being a ‘priest’ in the so-called ‘Kyiv Patriarchate’ Church,” he wrote in a letter of repentance addressed to Metropolitan Vissarion of Ovruch and Korosten. “I ask Your Eminence to accept my sincere repentance for this. I want to be a humble servant in God's Holy Church."

There is no exact data that the same person figured in these two stories, but the spiritual state of the first must inevitably lead to the act of the second.

If a person is looking for Christ, then he must necessarily think about whether he is on the right path. If a person leads a spiritual life, he must certainly ask himself the question: is it correct? If a person has the experience of any mystical experiences, he certainly doubts: is he not in delusion? “We are all in delusion. Knowing this is the greatest protection against delusion. The greatest delusion is to admit oneself free from delusion" (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov).

If a person is looking for Christ, then he must necessarily think about whether he is on the right path. If a person leads a spiritual life, he must certainly ask himself the question: is it correct?

Will those who followed the false shepherds be justified?

When studying various religions and religious denominations, one interesting thing can be noticed – the holistic doctrine of delusion is contained only in Orthodoxy. Moreover, in the practice of correct spiritual care, it, in one form or another, is taught to those who desire the salvation of the soul at the very beginning. And this is quite understandable, "... even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light..." (2 Cor. 11:14). Once having embarked on the wrong path, it is very difficult to get off it.

Just as a believer should think about whether he is going the right way in his spiritual life, he should also ask himself the question: Are he and other people led in the right direction by their pastors. Our Lord Jesus Christ warned his followers that shepherds can be false shepherds: “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves” (Matt. 7:15). A person who follows such false shepherds will not be able to justify himself by the fact that he went where he was led, and, accordingly, all the blame for the fact that a person came to the wrong place lies with such false prophets. After all, the Lord also gave us signs of how we can distinguish a true shepherd from a false one: “By their fruit, you shall know them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit” (Matthew 7: 16-18).

Here are some recent examples. Here is the fruit of the spiritual life of the “bishop” of the OCU, Adrian Kulik: “It is advisable for everyone who lives in Ukraine and does not love it to attach a plastic number to their ear, as is done with rootless dogs. For Ukrainians to see who is in front of them” (from a comment on Facebook).

And let's ask the Ukrainians – who is in front of them in this photo? Who is this man who poses in a T-shirt, without a cross (!)? And not just posing but uploading this photo to the network on the eve of Lent as a weight loss challenge (!). This is the “bishop” of the OCU, Adrian Kulik. For him, the meaning of the Lenten season is to become lighter and slimmer.

However, let's return to his words about “rootless dogs”. As an answer to them, one can cite an excerpt from the teachings of Abba Dorotheos: “Humiliation is when a person not only condemns another one but despises him, that is, he disdains his neighbour and turns away from him as from some abomination: this is worse than condemnation and much more harmful. Those who want to be saved do not pay attention to the shortcomings of their neighbours but always look at their own and succeed."

And here is the fruit of the spiritual life of one of the most famous "priests" of the OCU, Alexander Dediukhin.

In September 2020, he called the representatives of the unrecognized DPR and LPR, who, together with the OSCE commission, were supposed to visit the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Shumy, “biowaste”: “I read about the inspection of Ukrainian positions by biowaste. That’s crazy." Alexander Dediukhin "became famous" for his other statements: about the benefits of legal prostitution or about the fact that one should not seek salvation in the church. By the way, Dediukhin's activities were highly appreciated by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, in 2018 he received a pectoral cross from the hands of Patriarch Bartholomew.

This is no longer even humiliation of people. It is a refusal to recognize a person as a person. This is the opinion of Dediukhin, but here is the opinion of the Monk Macarius the Great: “Man is more precious than all creatures, even, I dare say, not only visible but invisible creatures, that is, service spirits. For God did not say about the Archangels Michael and Gabriel: let us make in our image and likeness (Genesis 1:26), but He spoke about an intelligent human being, meaning an immortal soul."

Another example of the fruit of spiritual life. On the eve of the 2019 presidential election, OCU "priest" Petro Zinich said that those who vote for Vladimir Zelensky in the presidential election would burn in hell.

According to the Gospel, there is no such sin as voting for Zelensky. In the same way, a person who calls himself a bishop should not determine who loves Ukraine and who does not, and the latter should not be chipped like dogs. By sending others “to hell”, a person delights in what belongs to God alone. “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left” (Matt. 25: 31-33).

We also read from Abba Dorotheos about a case from his teaching about not judging one's neighbour: “Why do we delight ourselves with the judgment of God? What do we want from His creation? Shouldn't we tremble when we hear what happened to this great elder, who, having learnt about a certain brother that he had fallen into fornication, said: ‘Oh, he did something bad!’ Or do you not know what terrible event is told about him in the Patericon? The Holy Angel brought to him the soul of the one who had sinned and said to him: ‘Look, the one you condemned has died; where will you command to place him, in the kingdom or in torments?’ Is there anything worse than this burden? For what else is the meaning of the words of the Angel to the elder, if not this: since you are the judge of the righteous and sinful, then tell me what you will command about this humble soul? Will you have mercy on it, or will you give it over to torment? The holy elder, amazed by this, spent the rest of his life in groaning, tears and immense labours, praying to God that He would forgive him that sin."

St. Dorotheos says that this elder repented of the sin of condemnation for the rest of his life. From the aforementioned “pastors” of the OCU, we have not heard not only repentance in their words but even a hint that they regret what was said. There was also no condemnation of these statements, clearly contrary to the Gospel, by the leadership of the OCU. Neither the head of the OCU, Sergey (Epiphany) Dumenko, nor the spokesperson Ivan (Eustratiy) Zoria put their clergy in their place and said that their religious organization did not support these statements. In other words, they expressed their tacit support.

We will not give more examples of similar fruits, we will not talk about how both Zoria and Dumenko insult their father and mentor Filaret Denisenko, we will not talk about the behaviour of such "hierarchs" of the OCU as Vladislav (Anthony) Makhota or Timofey (Mikhail) Zinkevich. We will also not mention the recent scandal disclosed by blogger A. Shariy about the very shameful acts of Alexander (Drabinko). There are many similar examples.

What are the good fruits in the OCU?

Are there any fruits in the life of the OCU, at least outwardly good? Probably yes. The news feed of the official website of the OCU contains, in addition to the news that Sergey (Epiphany) Dumenko met with one of the politicians (Ukrainian or foreign) and once again expressed his hope for the recognition of his organization, the news that he conducts "services” or rewards someone. But all this should be evaluated according to the words of the Apostle Paul: “The fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, mercy, faith, meekness, abstinence…” (Gal 5: 22,23). Does the activity of the OCU meet this criterion? The seizure of temples, humiliation and insults of believers, beatings, the promise to mark people like stray dogs speak for themselves. The issue of the availability of monastics in the OCU is also very indicative. They probably exist, but there are so few of them that the OCU is even afraid to voice this figure. Let us recall the well-known patristic quotation: the light to men is the monks, and the light to the monks is the angels. What "light" shines in the OCU?

A separate topic about the fruits by which one can distinguish wolves in sheep's clothing from real shepherds is the seizure of UOC temples. Can a person seeking the salvation of his soul break into churches, cut locks, beat other people and even priests? Can a true pastor encourage and even call for such actions, as, for example, the Chernivtsi "bishop" of the OCU does? The answer is obvious.

What do these and similar fruits indicate? Do we not recognize by them exactly those false prophets about whom the Scripture speaks? Shouldn't these people look at themselves in the mirror of the Gospel and draw a conclusion about their extremely dangerous spiritual condition? You can certainly brush it off and say that the entire religious organization can be judged by individual people and that there are unworthy pastors everywhere.

But if you look at the situation with an open mind, you can see that:

• firstly, the number of such scandals in the OCU is very large, more precisely, enormous. There is no such thing in the UOC;
• secondly, both the leadership of the OCU and ordinary members do not express their disagreement with the above statements, do not criticize them, let alone impose any canonical bans;
• thirdly, the frankness with which the “clergy” of the OCU broadcasts clearly anti-Christian messages may indicate that they do not hide the fact that they are not leading their flock to Christ.

Undoubtedly, Dediukhin, Kulik, Drabinko, and many others will find such supporters who will want to follow them. But there are also people who want to follow Christ. For them, the choice remains open.

The UOC is often reproached that it does not want to compromise, does not want to look for common ground with schismatics, and ultimately does not want to unite all Ukrainian Orthodox confessions. But how can you unite with those who consider people to be biowaste, call upon them to be chipped as stray dogs, send those who voted for another candidate in the presidential election to hell? The Apostle Paul asked in the letter to the Corinthians: “… For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?" (2 Cor. 6: 14-16).

But how can you unite with those who consider people to be biowaste, call upon them to be chipped as stray dogs, send those who voted for another candidate in the presidential election to hell?

Believers of the OCU, where are your pastors leading you?

There can be no communication, there can be no union or compromise. But there can be repentance, in Greek – metanoia, a change of mind. And reunification with the Church. Repentance can work miracles with a person. The Apostle Paul from a cruel persecutor of the Church turned into Her apostle. The Holy Prince Vladimir the Great turned from a depraved despot into a humble and chaste ruler of Rus’. St. Moses Murin was a bloody robber, St. Mary of Egypt was a harlot, the Holy Martyr Cyprian was a magician, and so on. What will Kulik, Dediukhin, Drabinko and others become? The history of the Church shows that people who are at the head of heresies or schisms are the least inclined to repentance. But the doors of repentance are open for them, too.

As for the flock of the OCU, those of them who really want to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven and not to establish the independence of Ukraine, national identity, etc. should think about the question: where are their pastors leading them? Is this path in line with the Gospel? There is nothing reprehensible in such a doubt. As already mentioned, all believers should ponder such questions. This is fully consistent with both the apostolic instructions: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world”(1 John 4: 1), and the patristic teaching.

I would like to conclude these considerations with the words by St. Athanasius the Great:

“The Lord said: ‘Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their fruit.’ If you see, brother, someone who has a decent appearance, does not look at whether he is dressed in sheep's clothing, whether he bears the name of a priest, bishop, deacon or ascetic but try to find out about his deeds, whether he is chaste, whether he is hospitable, merciful, loving, persistent in prayer, patient. If his womb is God, his throat is hell, if he is greedy for money and trades in piety, leave him – he is not a wise shepherd, but a ravening wolf. If you know how to know trees by their fruit – what sort, taste, quality they are – all the more you must know Christ-sellers by their deeds, since they, wearing the guise of reverence, have a devilish soul. You do not pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles, then why do you think that you can hear something good from criminals or learn something useful from traitors? So, shy away from them as from the wolves of Arabia, as from the thorns of disobedience, the thistles of injustice and the evil tree."

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