“I’m not a batiushka!”: Video from Easter blessing goes viral online
A clergyman claimed that "batyushkas are all abroad." Photo: Screenshot from Nazarienko’s YouTube channel
The video, uploaded by Nazariy Yeremenko on YouTube, has already gained over 2 million views. In the clip, a woman with an Easter basket approaches a man in liturgical vestments and asks him to bless her paska, addressing him as batiushka (a traditional Orthodox term for a priest, used in particular by the UOC and the ROC). The man refuses, citing the way she addressed him.
“I won’t do it, because I’m not a batiushka. I’m a priest, a father. All the batiushkas are abroad,” he says.
The location and the confession of the “not-a-batiushka” remain unknown. It is assumed he may be a representative of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) or the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC).
Earlier, the UOJ reported that Dumenko had declared the practice of kissing a priest’s hand to be a servile Russian tradition.
Read also
Most Britons oppose abortions, poll finds
The survey found that 62% of UK residents support legal protection for unborn children from the moment their heartbeat is first detected.
Annual academic conference opens at Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary
The fifteenth annual conference was dedicated to the anniversaries of Prince Vasyl-Kostiantyn Ostrožský and Metropolitan Rafail (Zaborovský).
Feminists attack Roman Catholic churches in Latin America
During protest actions, members of radical groups attacked cathedrals in several Latin American countries, assaulted police officers, and threw paint at believers.
UOC hierarch takes part in German bishops’ conference
Bishop Veniamin of Boyarka took part in the OBKD assembly in Düsseldorf.
Ivano-Frankivsk scraps school project planned on demolished UOC church site
The authorities in Ivano-Frankivsk have dropped plans to build the school for whose construction a UOC church was demolished.
Shostatsky to UOC: If you are so righteous – do not cling to your churches
The OCU metropolitan called on UOC faithful and clergy to pray rather than defend their churches from seizures.