Real support for the OCU in Kyiv

S. Dumenko in a Kyiv church in Berkovets. Photo: OCU

On June 29, the OCU celebrated the feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, which marks the end of the Apostles’ Fast.

Serhiy Dumenko served in Kyiv’s Peter and Paul Church in Berkovets. Judging by the photos, around 40–50 people came to the service with their primate on a major feast day. And there are no questions here: the images show the real parish community, plus guests. It is much the same as on ordinary days in the “OCU Lavra,” where a real five to ten people attend services.

The question is this: why, on the days when Epifaniy visits the Lavra, are people brought to Kyiv by the hundreds? And if those hundreds come to Epifaniy in the Lavra “from the heart,” why did that same heart not lead them to him in Berkovets?

At one point, after scandalous photos showed the Lavra’s completely empty Refectory Church on Transfiguration, Yevstratiy Zoria said that the desire for a “crowd scene” is one of the signs of the “Russian world,” and that what matters is truth, not the number of people in churches.

So it turns out that in the OCU, crowd scenes both exist and do not exist – apparently, just like truth.

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