Why did Dumenko sit in Metropolitan Onufriy’s chair?
OCU “synod” in Metropolitan Onufriy’s Lavra residence. Photo: OCU
On April 3, the OCU leadership gathered in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, in a residence long associated with the Primate of the UOC, a residence taken from the Church with state backing. It gathered in a building the UOC restored with its own hands after decades of Soviet neglect, in a place where its Holy Synod had met for years under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Onufriy. And at the center of it all sat Dumenko, occupying Onufriy’s seat.
At first glance, the question seems simple: why?
Epifaniy Dumenko does not lack space. He had options – his own residence, Filaret’s former headquarters on Pushkinska Street. Yet for his latest “synod,” he chose something else entirely: the Lavra, the office of Metropolitan Onufriy, the chair that was not his.
Because this was never about logistics.
It was about symbolism.
History offers a familiar script. Revolutions do not merely replace seats of power – they appropriate its symbols. The Bolsheviks took the Kremlin. The French revolutionaries repurposed royal palaces, turning them into “people’s” institutions. Not out of necessity, but to send a message: authority has changed hands.
In practical terms, Dumenko has no real need for the Lavra residence – just as he has no real need for the hundreds of churches that have been seized, while his own remain half-empty. What is at work here is the psychology of the predator: to show the world that the rival has been defeated, that his territory is now occupied.
The Lavra is not just a location – it is a sign. To sit there is to claim continuity, legitimacy, victory. It is a gesture meant to be seen, understood, absorbed.
And yet the gesture raises uncomfortable questions.
If this is strength, why does it need to be staged?
If this is unity, why does it look like conquest?
If this is dialogue, why does it begin with appropriation?
And in all of this symbolism and spectacle, one question lingers:
Where is love for one’s neighbor – even if that neighbor is branded an “FSB agent” or simply an “enemy”?
Where is Christ?
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