“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
UOC Holy Trinity Church damaged by Russian shelling in Odesa region
A Russian attack on the Odesa Eparchy church shattered windows and damaged doors and icons.
Adviser to OP deputy head leads religion forum delegation in Romania
At a forum in Romania, a Ukrainian delegation led by an adviser to the deputy head of the Presidential Office held discussions on restrictions on religious freedom during wartime.
Lavra's attorney calls on faithful for support ahead of next court hearing
The hearing in the Upper Lavra case will take place on September 29 at Kyiv’s Northern Commercial Court of Appeal.
Episcopal priest's claim that “God is transgender” sparks outrage in U.S.
An Episcopal Church priest’s unorthodox claims that God is “nonbinary” and that Christ appeared in His “transgender self” have sparked controversy.
In Kremenchuk, TRC gasses UOC cleric and injures his ribs during mobilization
Protodeacon Viktor Dudnichenko of the Kremenchuk Diocese of the UOC was forcibly mobilized and sent to a military unit in the Chernihiv region.
UOC responds to proposition to mark museum's jubilee at Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra
The UOC Information and Educational Department commented on the words of the Reserve's director to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the "museification" of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.