The advertising campaign of the Ukrainian dissenters continues: TV channels air commercials, there are billboards on the streets of Kiev, “Epiphanii” Dumenko himself held a real press tour in May
All this may cause confusion, because the church does not need advertising. But that is the church, and this is a religious-political organization. It cannot do without propaganda. All the more so that the acronym the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, to which many people are accustomed to, as if pointing to Orthodoxy. But this is pure deceit.
What is under the sign of the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” of the Istanbul stalwarts? Desperately competing with each other are natives of the so-called “Kiev patriarchate”, also a former “autocephalous church” and the defectors from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
The KP has the dominant position. They feel like masters, because they outnumber the rest, and the leading positions were given to “filarets”. But “Filaret” Denisenko himself has not lost his grip with age and resolutely demands not only honour, but also material resources taken away in the organization of the Istanbul baby. At the same time the maverick schismatic scholar is actively dividing the structure. For example, the statutes of the “Vicariate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate” have been officially registered in the US and Canada. That is, the schism in the schism has been legally formalized. Denisenko has more than ten “bishops” in Ukraine and enough parishes to ensure the functioning of the “Kiev Patriarchate”.
“The Kiev Patriarchate” continues to struggle for power, status and resources. As the spokesman for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate
, Archpriest Mykola Danilevych, notes, circumstances are pushing them towards this, in particular the presence on one territory of two or three “hierarchs” from different schismatic structures at the same time.
For example, two parishes of the newly created “The Orthodox Church of Ukraine” in Kharkiv Oblast have been taken over by former Kaptists. “Archbishop” Athanasiy Shkurupiy is now fighting with “bishop” Mitrofan Butynsky and laments: “There is a rebellion to transfer the parishes to another diocese. They have gathered the majority of outsiders who come to church just to consecrate cakes, and with their help they want to successfully commit an act of Judaic treason … Well, for what we fought, we have just met with it. However, it turned out that the “rebellious priests,” who joined the competition, were previously members of another part of the Autocephalists. That is, fragmentation within the schism is an ongoing process that cannot be cured, because it is not the cause, but the consequence.
At the same time, the structure created by Bartholomew and Poroshenko lacks the necessary number of personnel to ensure the proper functioning of the parishes. And those that are available are puzzling. For example, criminal proceedings have been opened against the “archbishop” Tikhon Petraniuk, the manager of the Ternopil-Buchansk diocese of the “PCU”, on charges of fraud on a particularly large scale. In 2010, while in the “Kyiv Patriarchate”, he fraudulently took $100,000 in Luhansk region. The Filaretists suspended him and banned the thief from conducting “services”. After that Petraniuk disappeared for several years and now he has resurfaced as a “clergyman” in the ranks of the adherents of tomos. It is noteworthy that the Ternopil “diocese” of the Autocephals is telling this sordid story. Apparently, competition is paramount there as well.
And another “priest” of the Poroshenko-Varfolomaya Church and simultaneously a deputy of the Poltava city council from the European Solidarity, Oleksandr Dedyukhin, received “gifts” from his elderly parishioners in the form of real estate worth 1500,000 hryvnias at the beginning of the current year. A scandal erupted. Dedyukhin commented on Facebook: “Some said, how dare you take money from the grannies for their own home? You know, absolutely not ashamed. In fact, I still take money from their pensions to buy food and medicine. And I will continue to take it until their last breath, don’t doubt it…”.
In Volyn, Ruslan Kashayuk, a sniper with the Aidar battalion who had fought in Donbas since 2014, has become a “deacon” in one of the local cells of the Orthodox Church. At the same time, Aydar is known to be drawn to both neo-Nazism and neo-paganism.
But the chaplain of the Kiev regional brotherhood of Organisation of Ukrainian nationalists Ukrainian Rebel Army , as well as the “priest” of the Kiev Sretensky temple of the
“The Orthodox Church of Ukraine”, Serhiy Tkachuk, “decorated” the crucifix in his “church” with a red and black Organisation of Ukrainian nationalists Ukrainian Rebel Army flag and a print-out of Tomos. Next to it stands an “icon of the Heavenly Hundred”, with statuettes of Bandera and Shukhevich in front of it. The fact that both were Greek Catholics does not seem to bother Tkachuk at all. Coming from the “Kiev Patriarchate,” this figure has gained scandalous notoriety by proposing to paint “icons” of Bandera and Shukhevich, and also by using the fascist greeting “sig heil” instead of shaking hands in “church” as a measure to prevent the coronavirus. Is this not further proof that behind the acronym “the Orthodox church of Ukraine” there is no Orthodoxy and no sanctity, and the so-called “priests” are fake?
Former Metropolitan Alexander Drabinko recruited a certain Bohdan Zagorulko, a Protestant Charismatic with a history, as his “subdeacon”. Orthodox blogger Alexander Voznesensky writes: “He was trained at the Evangelical theological school ‘Vision’. At the same time his acquaintances characterize Bodia precisely as a man with pronounced ambitions to make a career in the religious environment, so many point out that it was probably the opportunity for career growth that led him to Drabinko. That is, Drabinko elevated not an Orthodox man to the status of a subdeacon, but in fact an evangelical pastor with a charismatic bent. The question arises: when will the healing and prophesying sessions begin in Drabinko’s parishes?”
There is also a problem with the parishioners. As a rule, it is a small number of people standing on the principles of “patriotism” who do not attend the church after it has been taken over. This makes it impossible to maintain the church premises in the absence of donations. This problem is not solved by the support of the authorities. Therefore, curious situations arise. For example, “bishop” Boris of Kherson and Kakhovka “serves” on a suitcase instead of the pulpit. It is very symbolic, especially if you consider in what condition the place where the suitcase with the “bishop” is located.
The way meetings of supporters of the Tomos are held without the help of local administrations was demonstrated by the events in Ivanovo, the administrative centre of the Ivanovo territorial community of the Vinnitsa region. Here the “PCU” legally registered a new legal entity – its community – and announced that it would be building its own church. There were 22 “patriots” who took part in the meeting that decided to create the religious community. The village has a total population of 15266 people.
Poroshenko-Varfolomey’s “church” succeeded far less than what had been planned. This was revealed in an interview with the publication “Vitrazh. Inform”, Metropolitan Varsonofiy of Vinnitsa and Barskiy: “They have started to figure out inside there who is to blame.
For example, the Security Service says: “I worked there, but the the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Epiphany did not work”.
Heads of administrations also say: “I have worked there. And their fathers have not worked there”… They have not considered, as His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry said: a believer, who trusts God and will never betray Christ, his canonical Church, where he was baptized, where he prays, where he receives grace, feels the grace of God.
They will not change that. The officials of the state rank did not take it into account, because they did not understand it. They are not church people, they used to prescribe everything as scheme for raiding of different firms and structures. But here they were faced with something completely different. So their plan did not work.
Agniya Mirskaia, One Motherland