Priest from Odessa: The top of the UOC commits more and more betrayals

The treacherous position of the top of the UOC, which last summer renounced unity with Moscow, explaining this by the desire to protect churches and monasteries from repression, led the Church to even greater persecution. The lies of a number of bishops hoping to appease Bandera’s supporters are becoming more and more obvious.

Priest Andrei Novikov, former secretary of the Odessa diocese, who was forced to leave Ukraine due to the threat of repression, writes about this in his blog, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.

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"When priests in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which renounced the Moscow Patriarchate at the Feofaniya Council in May, who perform the canonical duty of commemorating the name of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, asked the bishops faithful to Feofaniya why they were pressuring them and forbidding them to commemorate the Patriarch, these bishops responded with pompous statements: ' What, don't you think about your parishioners? Do you think we care about ourselves? You don't care, and we do, when the SBU comes for your parishioners. And what will you do for the believers then? Everything we do now is to save the believers from persecution .'"

So-so logic, false, not Christian for a minute. But let it be.

And so they came for the believers. They came from the SBU. They came for those believers who sang about the ringing of bells over Russia and that Holy Rus' is rising. They sang about the icons of the Mother of God over Russia. In one of the temples of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. Everyone should remember well that a few days ago this was talked about everywhere.

The reaction from the bishops of the UOC, “witnesses of Theophany,” as people began to call them, was not long in coming. This is their finest hour, when they need to show that everything they have done is for the sake of the church people, for the protection of believers.

Metropolitan Barsanuphius of Vinnytsia: " If some believers or ministers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have an anti-Ukrainian position or violate Ukrainian laws, they bear personal responsibility for their own actions or violations ."

Archbishop Viktor (Kotsaba), representative of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the European Institutions, said: " Law enforcement agencies report hundreds and thousands of cases of collaboration among officials, including police officers and members of the security forces. Each of these individuals is responsible for their actions in accordance with Ukrainian law. And no one in Ukrainian society is calling for, for example, a ban on the entire National Police or the Verkhovna Rada based on such cases. Everyone understands that this is absurd. But for some reason, such calls are constantly being made regarding the Ukrainian Orthodox Church ."

That is: they, the believers, sang in the church—so take them and do whatever you want. Of course, according to Ukrainian law, according to which those who burned the Trade Union House in Odessa committed an act of patriotism, and the Russian prisoners of war executed by Ukrainian militants are themselves guilty of violating the laws and customs of war. Pack them up, the believers, the parishioners, but leave the Ukrainian Orthodox Church alone. Well, that means leave us alone, the structure, the episcopate, and don't take the buildings either. As for these—they must bear personal responsibility . So far, it's the first group of believers that has been disowned, but even with the 141st, you'll get the same response from these Ukrainian Feofaniev bishops. They're lying from the start . None of them ever cared about any believers. Those who betray the Church, those who betray the canons, will betray everyone around them, just to survive —to somehow get by, and then we'll see. You know the famous Ukrainian proverb: “You die today, and I will tomorrow,” writes Novikov.

However, he clarifies:

"There's an important 'but' to the rather grim picture of events within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Despite Theophany and its tragic consequences, some bishops, many priests, and faithful remain in the UOC. Despite horrific external and internal pressure, they continue to stand in church unity, commemorate the Patriarch, and observe the holy canons . For obvious reasons, they are not present in the media. But the UOC still stands on them. And today, we must do everything to support them. And, of course, we must clearly state that the Kyiv regime's crimes against the Church, the imposition of schism, the attempts to ban the UOC, and the seizure of churches—these constitute not only Nazism but also Satanism," the priest concluded.