Prayers as toilet paper: the critical mass of sacrilege

In the OCU, liturgical instructions were used for hygienic purposes. Photo: UOJ

Throughout the years of existence of non-canonical denominations in Ukraine, in all contacts and negotiations about possible reunification, representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) insisted on one condition – the repentance of those outside the Church. After all, without repentance, reunification with the Church is impossible. Opponents of the UOC, in response, claimed that these were just idle “wishes” from the UOC, an attempt to humiliate the opponent and excuses aimed at covering up the unwillingness to unite. In dealings with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, UOC representatives also repeatedly explained: both the Gospel, the teachings of the Church Fathers, and the entire history of the Church testify that without repentance, salvation is impossible, and so is reunification with the Church of Christ: “He who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber…” (John 10:1).

In this context, the gate is repentance. Whoever does not enter by it but tries to sneak in another way is a thief and a robber. Ignoring this has always led to bad consequences. But the Phanariots did not heed this simple truth and wanted to drag representatives of schismatic denominations “in some other way”. If repentance changes a person, cleansing them from sin, then the absence of repentance results in a person remaining as they were, infected by sin. And this sin will inevitably come to the surface.

This is exactly what we see today in the actions of OCU supporters. It has been written many times that true believers, Christ’s followers, cannot seize other people’s churches and property, as the supporters of the OCU do. But there is another phenomenon that clearly demonstrates the true face of the OCU. This is the sacrilegious attitude towards sacred objects, texts and images. Unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents; they have accumulated enough for us to draw conclusions.

Wiping with liturgical instructions?

At the end of January 2025, priest Georgiy Izay of the UOC published on his Facebook page a video showing how representatives of the OCU use the UOC’s liturgical instructions, with the order of services in Church Slavonic, as toilet paper.

Texts with prayers, including the name of Christ, the Mother of God and the saints, half-used for corresponding manipulations, are hanging in the toilet near the Trinity Church of the OCU in the village of Krekhaiv, Chernihiv region. Scraps of liturgical texts in Church Slavonic are also lying on the floor near the hole with waste.

Readers will likely ask: how did the OCU get the UOC’s liturgical instructions? The answer is simple – this church used to belong to the UOC community. Father Georgiy Izay, along with the faithful, built this church and decorated it. But one day, the supporters of the OCU took the church for themselves, along with everything inside. And now they have decided “to put it to good use”.

After this news was published on the UOJ website, the press service of the Chernihiv Eparchy of the OCU issued an official statement, denying any involvement in the incident: the toilet is not ours, the Instructions are not ours, and in general, it’s all a provocation aimed at discrediting us. However, these are poor excuses as no matter what toilet the liturgical instructions ended up in, they were taken from the church administered by the OCU. Especially since these texts are in Church Slavonic, which usually causes strong dislike among OCU supporters. This is also evident from the following example.

Is the Bible rubbish?

On 22 April 2023, OCU activists seized the Intercession Church in the village of Trebukhiv, Boryspil Eparchy, cutting off the doors with an angle grinder.

Seizure of the church in Trebukhiv Photo: news.church.ua

One of the invaders, Yaroslav Bondarenko, started to rummage through the candle box, pulling out Bibles and prayer books and showing them to the camera.

An OCU activist in Trebukhiv with the Bible which he promised to utilize. Photo: a video screenshot from Bondarenko's Facebook page

He said the following: "Here’s some rubbish we found. I think we’ll give this book to Bohdana (Drach, a member of the Brovary City Council – Ed.), she’ll utilize it." He also referred to the prayer books with the Communion liturgy as rubbish. These books featured an image of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, this didn’t bother the OCU supporter – he promised to throw the prayer books in the bin. "Here, the girls found some Katsapian manuals. Complete rubbish, too," he said. He didn’t even realise how sacrilegious his words and actions were. He posted all of these videos on his Facebook page.

The Bible and the Holy Fathers to the rubbish dump?

On 6 October 2024, a group of raiders from the OCU seized the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos Church of the UOC in the village of Novosilky, Kyiv region. Afterward, for an entire week, they took out icons, the Psalter, the Bible, the Gospel, prayer and spiritual books and threw them all onto a heap of rubbish. When the priest of the UOC community, deprived of its church and robbed, asked if he could at least take something, the OCU representatives cynically called a rubbish truck, loaded the icons and books along with the waste into it and drove them away.

Icons thrown into the rubbish. Photo: UOJ

The Bible, the Word of God, remains the Word of God, no matter what language it is printed in, no matter what country it is published in. An icon remains an icon, no matter where it is made or in what temple it is located. Any believing person understands this very well, no matter what denomination he/she belongs to. But the OCU supporters do not want to understand this.

An altar with the Holy Gifts thrown onto the street?

Here’s another example. On 1 March 2019, OCU raiders seized the Intercession Church in the village of Kurozvany, Hoshcha district, Rivne region.

After that, the UOC community adapted a private house for worship, where they set up an altar and gathered everything necessary for the Liturgy. But on 12 April 2019, OCU activists raided this house, broke down the doors and threw the altar with the seven-branched candlestick and the Holy Gifts onto the street.

OCU activists carried the throne with sacred items right onto the road. Photo: UOJ

"Such was the fate of crosses, vestments and church vessels. The OCU supporters treated sacred items, intended for Eucharistic service, as if they were just ordinary furniture or dishes. This can only mean one thing: they simply have no understanding of the sacred or the holy, no religious consciousness. These people committed acts after which one should not even go, but simply run to confession. But they clearly didn’t see it that way.

Such examples could be continued, and there are plenty more. There are even more latent cases that didn’t make it into the news feeds. But it’s time to draw conclusions.

Conclusions

On 27th January 2025, at the very moment when OCU supporters were wiping their behinds with sacred texts, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, speaking at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, declared that the Tomos for the OCU "healed divisions and wounds of centuries". And regarding the OCU, he said: "The development and maturity of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine demonstrate how solidarity and unity work in practice, not just in theory."

Despite the brutal seizures of churches, violence, the violation of basic human rights and sacrilege against sacred things, the head of the Phanar continues to voice the narrative that his actions in Ukraine to create the OCU have led to untold blessings, unified everyone and healed "divisions and wounds of centuries". The glaring discrepancy between these words and reality has already become obvious to everyone.

The question is not why Patriarch Bartholomew is so persistent. That’s clear. In his view, the Patriarchate of Constantinople cannot be wrong in principle, and to admit otherwise would be to tarnish the dignity of the "Throne of Constantine". The question is: how did it come to this? Why are the people he has favoured and accepted into communion doing such things? Why are they committing sacrilegious acts and blatant lawlessness? Where did "His All-Holiness" make a mistake?

If we look at how the communists treated church relics, we’ll notice similarities to our times. Communist Party activists also threw Bibles in the trash, burnt icons, used them to line the floors of pigsties, and threw altars and iconostases into the street. But they didn’t hide their unbelief in God, their hostility towards Christ. At least they were honest about it.

Now, we see similar actions. But here, the people committing such sacrilege and desecration of sacred things call themselves Orthodox Christians. They are convinced that faith in Christ and desecrating Christ go hand in hand. That throwing a Bible printed in Russian into the trash is a good deed. That wiping themselves with liturgical instructions written in "Moscow" Church Slavonic is akin to a victory over the enemy. And Patriarch Bartholomew, instead of pointing out the inadmissibility of such actions (and thereby guiding them onto the path of truth), on the contrary, affirms them in this unworthy state and praises them as good, developed and mature. Ultimately, it turns out as the prophet Isaiah wrote: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20).

Therefore, we must start by calling things by their proper names, not deceive ourselves, and not lull our conscience with the tales that everything became wonderful in Ukraine after the Tomos. We must call sacrilege – sacrilege, and blasphemy – blasphemy. And then will come the understanding that, without repenting of all this, one cannot enter the Church and become a true Christian.

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