Orthodox Reflections

The deadline is fast approaching for over 200 monks at the Kiev Petschersk Lavra, along with the students and faculty of the Kiev Theological Academy, to vacate the holiest site in Ukraine. This is the latest and greatest outrage committed against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Ukrainian Government. While only God can know for sure what will shortly happen, we can take hope from one important change in the situation. Only a short time ago, most of the world was either ignorant of, or willfully ignoring, the persecution of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine. Not any more. Whatever sick plans the Zelenskyy regime has for the holy monks of the Lavra, they will be carried out under the watchful gaze of the rest of the world.

The whole world is watching. So is God.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a new report that it is “concerned that the State’s activities targeting the UOC could be discriminatory.” The UN report pointed to “vague legal terminology and the absence of sufficient justification” in proposed anti-UOC legislation being pushed forward by the Zelenskyy administration. This report is fruit of the work that Oleh Denysov, a lawyer from Ukraine and founder of the NGO Public Advocacy, has carried out in Geneva. The recent statements of the UOC to the ongoing UNHRC session are accessible via this link. The international exposure of its actions caused the Zelenskyy government to lash out in self-defense. The UN action, and the Ukrainian response, were covered in the Associated Press and picked up by multiple other outlets that don’t normally do Orthodox Christian news. For many readers, this was their first exposure to this hideous Christian persecution financed by their own tax dollars.

Other outlets and cable news shows have also run stories about the Ukrainian persecution, including The American Conservative. The Orthodox Reflections petition on the persecution is closing in on 5,000 signatures, while another petition drive just started in Italy targeted at the European Parliament.

More Ukrainian Orthodox are also getting a chance to tell their stories directly to the world via social media. Orthodox podcaster Dissident Mama just had on Archimandrite Filaret Voloshyn, Vice Rector of Kiev Theological Academy in Kiev Petschersk Lavra, to tell the world about the tragedy about to befall his students and faculty. Like many others at the Lavra, the Archimandrite has published his own appeal telling the world about the injustices in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Orthodox Christians have also been busy in Ukraine. Social and traditional media have noted the thousands of Ukrainians gathered in prayer at the Lavra in support of the monks. It is impossible to either ignore or hide crowds this large.

Today in Kiev thousands of Orthodox Christians gathered in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra for the Sunday liturgy. Zelensky regime wants to expel all priests and monks by March 29.

God help them ☦️ pic.twitter.com/1uPLN0Ic7N

— Based Serbia (@SerbiaBased) March 26, 2023

We have received reports (corroborated by Ukrainian media) that the Ukrainian Government, not wanting the optics of breaking up large prayer meetings, has been trying to prevent Ukrainians from reaching the Pocahaiv Lavra by stopping them on the roads. A government does not go to this kind of trouble, unless the large prayer meetings are having an effect.

On March 24, 2023, the Ukrainian police stopped two buses with UOC believers for prayer to the Pochaiv Lavra from Chernivtsi enroute to the Pochaiv Lavra. The security forces explained their actions by the fact that rallies and meetings are prohibited during martial law. According to the UOJ, buses were confiscated from the drivers who were taking UOC believers for prayer to the Pochaiv Lavra for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Believers not allowed into Pochaiv say they will go on a hunger strike. The believers declare that they are ready to go to the end and call on the authorities to stop oppression and persecution.

The idea of hunger strikes appears to be spreading within Ukraine. His Eminence Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church announced a hunger strike:

As a believer, not even as a bishop, I can’t watch how our Church is being abused, how relics are being turned into exhibits. What to do? Even today, the question was asked—I would like to call everyone at the end: Let’s impose a fast upon ourselves. Not today, but from Monday, on Tuesday and Wednesday, just before the 29th [the date of eviction—OC]…

 

I declare a hunger strike in support of the Kiev Caves Lavra. For us it’s a fast, but for non-believers, they’ll understand what a hunger strike is.

The secular world may not understand faith, but it does speak in the language of human rights. Freedom of association, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion are respected by those who don’t understand the first thing about Orthodoxy. They also understand hunger strikes, a method used previously by those fighting all kinds of injustices. If the world thought Nelson Mandela could carry out an effective hunger strike, just wait till the world experiences the ability of faithful Orthodox Christians to fast!

The whole secular world will watch what happens. God is also watching, as is the entire Orthodox World.

Messages of support are pouring in for Metropolitan Onuphry and his Church.

Patriarch Ilia of Georgia, often cited as the most beloved and authoritative primate of all the Orthodox Churches, sent an appeal on behalf of the UOC to the Patriarch of Constantinople. In it, His Holiness confirms  that the clergy and parishioners of the UOC are loyal to their country, and that the UOC separated itself from the Moscow Patriarchate. The Patriarch of Constantinople has a lot of culpability for the current tragic mess in Ukraine, and the rest of the Orthodox world will not let him, or his supporters, ever forget it.

His Grace Bishop Siluan of Australia also made clear, in a letter to Australian to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, that this persecution is purely political in nature:

The context of this persecution is subject to the UOC not recognising, and refusing to assimilate, become a part of the state imposed nationalist entity known as the ‘Orthodox Church of Ukraine’.

 

The persecution of the monastics of the aforementioned Lavra, is infact fuelled by nationalist fervour encouraged by the Ukrainian government. The Abbot of the brotherhood, His Eminence Metropolitan Pavel, says: “We came to the Lavra to dedicate our lives to serving God, to prayer, to the people. We pray for our state, and we ask today, in these difficult times, that the Lord preserve it for us. We are citizens of Ukraine, and we ask those in power not to interfere in the affairs of the Church. We do not seek protection, but ask for only one thing: the enforcement of the laws of the state. And once again, we ask, we implore that the monks in the monastery be left alone, to provide them the opportunity of fulfilling their principal mission – prayer.”

 

The plight of the monastics continues to be covered up by authorities in Kyiv and international governments alike. I appeal to you as the Prime Minister of our democratic and sovereign nation, to do the right thing and demand that the democratic rights of religious freedom and freedom of conscience be respected and upheld in Ukraine, specifically in relation to the monastics at the Kyivo-Pechersk Lavra and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Patriarch of Antioch and All the East John X sent a message of solidarity to Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, which was published on March 27, 2023

“With great pain in our hearts, we watch from afar the persecutions that you and your Holy Church are suffering for Christ.”

 

“With joy combined with sadness, we embrace you in Christ in these days of Great Lent, when we prepare for the death and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior. We are writing to you at this difficult time in the history of the respected Ukrainian Orthodox Church, a time when the words of the Holy Apostle Paul are remembered: ” We are pressed from all sides, but we are not pressed; we are in hopeless circumstances, but we do not lose hope; we are persecuted, but we are not forsaken; oppressed, but we do not perish” (2 Cor. 4: 8-9).

A statement from His Grace Bishop Michael of Constantia of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church told the world that this persecution was an attack on the the very Body of Christ:

Today, the Kiev Caves Lavra, which is the largest monastery in Ukraine and one of the spiritual centers of the Orthodox Church in its importance, can be likened to a spiritual heart, a center of spiritual life and a precious ornament of the martyred Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The attack on the monastery is a blow to the most numerous confession in Ukraine, a blow to the Orthodox Ukrainian people and the entire Orthodox Church—a blow to the living Body of Christ.

 

In addition to the perceived legacy of Soviet ownership of the holy monastery, which is in itself problematic, have not the current rulers of Ukraine also perceived this past relapse of disregard for the right to freedom of religion?

 

When we ask ourselves the rhetorical question whether the Lord Jesus Christ is again on trial before Pilate today, let us also bear in mind the definite outcome of such a sacrilegious act as has been repeatedly witnessed to us in the history of the Church.

Archbishop Theodosius of Sebastia of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem echoed these sentiments:

We deeply condemn the systematic persecution organized against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Kiev authorities, who, as we know, are implementing Western programs hostile to the entire Orthodox Church. They contradict its values and mission, threaten its very presence.

 

We perceive the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as persecution of the whole Church.

 

For our part, we demand urgent actions from the entire Orthodox community to stop these severe persecutions.

Abp. Theodosius also affirmed, as he has done many times, that the Jerusalem Patriarchate recognizes only the canonical UOC under Metropolitan Onuphry. Together with Antioch and Moscow, Jerusalem’s stance means 3 of the 5 important, historical Patriarchates support the UOC unequivocally. In the Orthodox world, it is not the UOC that is isolated. Rather the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Alexandria are.

These historical Patriarchates have been joined by Bulgaria, Georgia, and Serbia. His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church was particularly blunt:

The behavior of the Ukrainian state leadership testifies that its true and probably ultimate goal is the destruction of historical memory and all traces of the original Orthodoxy in Ukraine in order to change its code and historical identity, which the Church has created in patience and torment, preserving for centuries, from the Holy Prince Vladimir to the present day.

In addition to these messages, we can add those from Metropolitan Isaak of Germany and Central Europe of the Antiochian Orthodox Patriarchate, Metropolitan Jonah of ROCOR, Archbishop Anastasios of Albania, Metropolitan Tikhon of America, Metropolitan Nicholas of ROCOR, Metropolitan Gabriel of Lovchansk (Bulgaria), and Bishop Gerasim Popovich (Serbia). Of special note was the message of support from Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou (Cyprus). His Eminence gained a special place in world Orthodoxy for his defense of the Faith during the Pandemic. His Eminence is also part of the Greek-speaking world, and as such, the pressure he feels from the Patriarchate of Constantinople must be intense. God bless His Eminence for his witness to the world!

In an ironic twist, the Orthodox world is uniting around the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and her holy leader, Metropolitan Onuphry, and against the politically charged meddling of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Isn’t the wisdom of God a marvel?

We, as mere humans, have no idea what will happen next. We must continue to pray, continue to speak out, continue to spread the truth about what is happening in Ukraine. We may “lose” this battle, as the Ukrainian government by various means, may actually succeed in stealing the Lavra from God’s Holy Church. But persecution never succeeds in the long term. Suffering purifies, strengthens, and renews the Church. Should the expulsion of the monks really happen – President Zelenskyy, his fake church, and his allies in the American Government will regret such “victory” more than any defeat they could have sustained.

Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America