When you are a “bishop” in the OCU, but your family remains in the Church

"Bishop" of the OCU Havyiil Kryzyna. Photo: Kryzyna’s Facebook

The news that the mother of “Bishop” of the OCU Havyiil (Kryzyna) took the great schema in a UOC monastery (having earlier received the lesser schema there) became one of the most-read stories on the UOJ website. And no wonder – the case is truly extraordinary.

Even more unusual is that Kryzyna himself wrote about it on Facebook, justifying it by claiming that “the UOC MP is close to the OCU.”

The comments exploded into a veritable battlefield. Some reproach the “bishop” for failing to explain to his mother the error of staying in the “Moscow Church.” Others demand she be transferred into an OCU monastery. Still others ask, quite logically, whether his mother even recognizes her son’s episcopal rank.

But what puzzled everyone most was why Kryzyna made public such information, so awkward and shameful for the OCU.

And perhaps the most truthful explanation was voiced in the words of commenter Slava Sheremet: “Most likely, something terrible and painful is happening inside him, and he is in need of support and advice.”

We have seen more than once that people in “holy orders” (first in the UOC-KP and UAOC, and later in the OCU) treat their position there as a job. It provides income, social standing, and the support of the authorities. But in matters of the soul they still look toward the “FSB-controlled” Church.

Havyiil Kryzyna had been an archimandrite in the UOC, but he longed to become a bishop. And so, when he learned of the plans to create the OCU in 2018, he swiftly crossed over to the UAOC, received the “episcopal” rank there, and very soon became the ruling “bishop” of the Rivne-Volyn Eparchy of the OCU. But did that make him any happier?

Neither his parents nor his sister supported him. And it is evident that “Bishop Havyiil,” as a man who still has faith, is deeply troubled by this. He knows what he ought to do. But such a step demands spiritual strength. And for now, Fr. Havyiil does not have it.

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