This is a unique perspective provided by an Orthodox priest in England with Ukrainian parishioners. As with many things we publish, there is room to disagree with a number of different opinions put forward by this author. However, taken as a whole, it is one of the best summations we have seen of how we got here, where we are, and the opportunities as Orthodox Christians that lie ahead of us. One thing is abundantly clear, this war needs to end immediately or the suffering in Ukraine, and Western Europe, will be immense. The US will not escape harm either. We need peace and free trade in vital supplies, for all our sakes. The Orthodox jurisdictions in the West will be forced to chart independent courses from the “old countries”, and focus on the people in their own local flocks. In God’s time, this is going to be a good thing. An example of God making good come from unimaginable, senseless, man-caused tragedy.
—-OR Staff
‘Two things are infinite: The universe and human stupidity, but I’m not so sure about the universe’.
Words Attributed to Albert Einstein
Foreword
We have never had any doubt that the Russian Federation would win militarily in the conflict in the Ukraine, for which eventuality it had carefully prepared for eight long years. (I stress the word ‘militarily’). During that time the West continually poked the bear and then was surprised when the bear’s patience ran out – on 24 February 2022. That does not mean that I approve of anything that has happened in the Ukraine since 2014. I visited different parts of the Ukraine six times between 2014 and 2021 and my many parishioners from all over the Ukraine only confirmed what I had seen.
I could see only too well its immense problems, the corruption which led to an infrastructure, far worse even than that in the oligarch-dominated UK, and the poverty of the masses, making it poorer than many African countries. In this article I take no sides. All wars are huge human tragedies and cannot be approved of. However, I am interested in the truth, not in propaganda, whichever side it comes from. And here, as everywhere and always on this site, without the burden of any careerism I am free to be interested only in the truth and its causes and consequences for Church life.
Introduction: The Tragedy: 2014-2022
After the 2014 US-organised coup d’etat (cost to the US taxpayer = $5 billion, as officially admitted by the US politician Victoria Nuland), one thing was at once obvious. This was that the new Kiev government needed to carry out internationally-observed referenda. Then they could let the various peoples in the Ukraine, with its purely artificial, Soviet-made borders, assigned to it by the atheist monsters Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchov, freely decide which country they wanted to belong to. Any enforcement of the old atheist centralisation from Kiev would, as in Yugoslavia, lead to exactly the same tragedy and war as in Yugoslavia. Both amalgams, Yugoslavia and the Ukraine, were hangovers from the Communist period with their absurd borders, jamming together peoples who had little in common and no desire to live in the same country as one another.
Sadly, the reality is that this current completely avoidable tragedy in the Ukraine is ‘Yugoslavia II’, that is, it the same thing again, only on a far greater and more serious scale. And here, unlike in Serbia, NATO cannot use its air force, for it will be shot down by superior Russian technology, and its army and navy are shut out. In 2014 an internationally-observed referendum was held in the Crimea, and all went well, with a clear 97% majority choosing to return to Russia, after 60 years of enforced separation from it. However, Kiev itself refused to allow referenda anywhere, including in the Crimea. Therefore, the Kiev government, or rather those behind them who would not allow referenda, are responsible for today’s catastrophic consequences and tens and probably hundreds of thousands of deaths. They have blood, a lot of it, on their hands. What are those consequences?
The Catastrophe: 2022-
- Local Consequences: The Human Cost
In 2014 war broke out in the Ukraine, specifically in the Russian-speaking Donbass, whose language and culture were oppressed and mocked by the racist centralisers in Kiev. Up to 14,000 people, including 400 children, were massacred by the Kiev authorities and the other 6 million were told to leave the Ukraine, if they did not like Kiev’s new ‘democracy’. This year, there has been much worse. Six months of conflict have now passed, though it was clear from the beginning, like it or not, that the small Russian expeditionary force had already won in the first few weeks. Their feint to the North, as if to take Kiev, locked up the Kiev military there (the same tactic as the US used in Iraq with a feint from the sea), enabling Russian forces to achieve their aims of conquering much of the Russian-speaking East and take the Russian-speaking South as far as Kherson, where they were greeted by many as liberators. This was what the Russians had openly stated that they intended doing all along, but they had been disbelieved.
Like it or not, the ensuing decision by the USA/West/NATO to send billions of dollars of their weapons, disarming their own troops, to be destroyed by Russian missiles, sometimes before they can even be unpacked (as on 24 February at Borispol Airport), is only prolonging the inevitable defeat and making the bloodshed far worse. So far the Russians and their Allies have lost over 6,000 troops dead, although over the last two months since they took strategic Mariupol, casualties have been very low, as this has largely become a war of satellites, drones, artillery and precision missiles. On the other hand, the Kiev Army has lost some 250,000, at least 60,000 of them killed, and continues to lose many hundreds of ill-trained, ill-equipped and often very young or very old troops almost every day, whether killed, wounded, or by surrender and desertion.
You should not be fighting a modern war when you do not have air superiority. Kiev does not, as most of its air force was destroyed in the first few days. It is a catastrophe and leaves widows and orphans everywhere. Every son killed had a mother and a father, a brother and a sister. The whole country is in bitter mourning. Its population is now down to 30 million. Of 6 million refugees, Russia is the European country that has taken the most, with 2 million fleeing the bankrupt Ukraine. However, 4 million others have left futureless bankruptcy for various countries in Western Europe, over half going to Poland and Germany. It costs the US taxpayer $5 billion every month just to keep the Kiev government afloat, let alone the billions of dollars of destroyed US military equipment.
Unless the 13% of the world, which is all the Western world/G7/NATO is, really wants a nuclear war to annihilate humanity, as Mrs Truss says she does, the West will just have to accept that Russia has taken back the Russian Lands within the former Ukraine. People like Mrs Truss, with her extraordinary ignorance of the basic history and geography of the Ukraine, simply do not realise that this is an existential war for Russia on its doorstep, even though V. Putin explained this quite clearly. Russians will die to win this war to free their brothers and sisters in the East and South of the Ukraine.
However, despite what Mr Johnson has recently proclaimed, no-one in the UK has chosen to pay 400% more for fuel bills, let alone die for the Ukraine, of which country few in the UK had even heard until six months ago. The result of the UK government’s refusal to buy Russian gas and other commodities and to arm the Ukraine, without consulting the electorate, which is not even allowed to elect the next Prime Minister, is soaring inflation, social disruption, strikes and grinding poverty, which will probably topple the UK government in the near future. Here is the difference with Russia. Nobody in the UK wants to suffer, let alone die, for an unknown country.
Local Consequences: What Does the Future Ukraine Look Like?
It looks something like the following – something that could have happened without any bloodshed, had democratic referenda been allowed back in 2014:
The Real Ukraine of Ukrainian speakers, the ‘Kyiv Protectorate’, or whatever it will come to be called, may take 11 demilitarised central and western provinces of the former Soviet Ukraine: Sumy, Poltava, Kirovohrad, Chernihiv, Kyiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil. Population: 11.2 million. This will be a landlocked nation, in effect a Second Belarus, with a population of just over a quarter of the 1991 Soviet Ukraine.
Russia may take the 9 Russian-speaking eastern and southern provinces: Lugansk, Donetsk, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhe, Kherson, Crimea (Crimea of course already rejoined Russia in 2014), Nikolaev, Odessa. Population: 14.2 million.
Poland may, with Russia’s permission, take back the 3 far western ‘Habsburg’ provinces: Volyn (though a small number in the north of Volyn might want to join Belarus), Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk. Population: 3.2 million. This is the historic ‘Ukraina’ – the word that simply means the borderlands (that are next to Poland). Clearly, this real Ukraine would have to receive some sort of autonomy within the NATO-ruled Polish Republic as a demilitarised buffer-zone.
Hungary may take 1 province: Zakarpattia. Population: 0.85 million. This is providing that its mainly Carpatho-Russian people vote for this by referendum, though, true, many have already accepted Hungarian passports. This region would also have to receive some sort of autonomy within Hungary.
Romania may take 1 province: Chernivtsy. Population: 0.6 million. This is providing that its largely Romanian-speaking people vote for it by referendum, which seems highly likely.
- Global Consequences: Western Sanctions Cause Chaos in Western Europe
Why is the Russian campaign taking so long, why did Russia not use 25% or even 50% of its armed forces and take the whole of the Ukraine within a few weeks? Because that is not its strategy. By its own admission Russia has never had any intention of occupying the whole of the Ukraine and its capital Kiev. Therefore, only 5%-10% of the highly professional Russian Armed Forces have been engaged in order to take back the Russian-speaking areas, which were separated from it by Marxist diktat exactly 100 years ago. In any case, most of the fighting is being done by the local anti-Kiev Eastern Ukrainians and Chechen allies, who have suffered most of the casualties.
Then there is no hurry – the Russians want to conserve the lives of their own troops and of Ukrainian civilians and to conserve infrastructure. Time in any case is on the Russian side: their greatest ally is, as is usual in Russia, General Winter. By deliberately stretching the conflict out by agreeing to provide arms ‘until the last Ukrainian is dead’, Western European governments have foolishly fallen into the trap of extending the war into the winter. In this way they will have to suffer a winter with little fuel and face national emergencies, probable popular uprisings and riots and the fall of governments. The West has been completely outwitted – by its own stupidity.
Nowhere in Western Europe is the situation as grim as in the UK. With its privatised utilities, which are in reality unregulated, the law of the jungle prevails. For example the energy price cap imposed by the French government on its State energy monopolies is 4%. In the deregulated UK, prices by January will probably have increased by 400%. This is unsustainable. Expect a universal bill boycott, already started, and food riots. In the UK, Johnson’s words of 25 August, ‘You (note, ‘you’ not ‘we’) must endure to defeat Putin’ do not work. Nobody in the UK voted for this. Moreover, in the ‘democratic’ UK, 160,000 mainly elderly, wealthier people are taking two months just to choose the next Prime Minister, the fourth in six years. The UK used to mock political instability in Italy; it had better look at itself.
Global Consequences: Sanctions and Dedollarisation
Europe’s own anti-Russian sanctions, even though forced on it by the USA, are suicidal. Bankruptcy stares it in the face. The rouble has stabilised at a very healthy 60 to the dollar (before the conflict it was over 90 and briefly went up to 120) and money is flooding into Russian coffers as the whole Non-Western world wants its oil, gas, grain, fertilisers, rare earth metals, not to mention its highly effective arms. They are available to anyone in Western Europe who does not sanction them, as long as they pay for them in the Russian currency. On the other hand, the euro has sunk to parity with, or is even below, the dollar. The conspiracy theorists are even saying that the whole conflict was created by the USA to destroy, not Russia or even the Ukraine, but the EU, notably the German economy. Probably crazy, but actually quite logical.
China, India and indeed over 85% of the world have no sanctions against Russia, indeed they basically support Russia. The West is isolated, with its manufacturing dependent on China, which will soon claim back Taiwan. And Russia and other countries are now insisting on payment for their essential commodities in roubles or in their own currencies. The world economy is being dedollarised – that is a disaster for the USA.
Yellow – Nations that support sanctions on Russia. Blue – Nations trading with Russia normally. Is that really “isolating” Russia?
- Church Consequences
Now we come to the second half of this article, what interests us most. What are the Church consequences of the conflict in the Ukraine, especially, what is happening to the Russian Orthodox Church, 75% of the whole Orthodox Church? Here the situation is grim indeed. On 25 August the Russian Church was forced to abandon plans for its Patriarch Kyrill, already sanctioned and banned from visiting the UK and Canada, to meet the Pope of Rome in Kazakhstan in September. Centralised Church authorities in Moscow had totally misread the public mood and the proposition had led to a huge scandal.
However, the misreading, or just plain non-understanding of the views of the local Orthodox grassroots, is far more generalised than this mere detail. The authorities of the formerly multinational Russian Orthodox Church has tried to impose the political views of Russia on its multinational flock. The result? Its Non-Russian flock has largely left it. This is a repeat of what happened in the 1920s when the leader of the Church then, Metropolitan Sergius, tried to enforce loyalty to the atheist Soviet State on his flock outside Russia. Result? He lost his flock outside the Soviet Union. We can see exactly the same result, all over again, in many regions of the world. For instance:
a. The Ukraine.
Few can describe the hatred felt by Ukrainians, mostly from central and western Ukraine, for Russia and Russians. They are simply boycotting the churches where the name of Patriarch Kyrill is mentioned. I speak from what I have seen. Even here, for example, Ukrainian refugees come to us and ask who our Patriarch is. When I reply that last February we were issued with letters of leave to quit the Moscow Patriarchate (its Western European Archdiocese) for Patriarch Daniel of Romania because of political persecution, they smile and say they will return to us. They feel at home with us; we are neutral. However, wherever the name Patriarch Kyrill is mentioned in church services, Ukrainian refugees, like many other Ukrainians who have already been here for some time, vote with their feet and leave. Understandably so.
Even Autonomy for the only canonical Orthodox Church in the Ukraine, that which is led by Metropolitan Onufry, is now no longer enough. It is too late. Moscow has totally lost control. It is Autocephaly that has to be granted, exactly as the saintly Serbian Patriarch Porfiry recently granted to the Church of North Macedonia. This simple message has yet to get through to Moscow, but it is a fact. Otherwise, the Ukrainian Church will simply be an empty shell. This need for Autocephaly is not a top-down case of political manoeuvrings by a nationalistic elite who want their ‘own’ National Church to command and control, as was the case of the Protestant Churches in Western Europe (e.g. the Church of England or those in Scandinavia) or the purely political group founded in the Ukraine in 2018 under the Church of Constantinople. This is a case of the people demanding Autocephaly, it is a ‘down-top’ movement.
b. The Baltic States
Russophobia here is virulent. There are already two Churches in Estonia and there are about to be two in Lithuania because of nationalism and hatred for Russia. The US-sponsored Patriarchate of Constantinople stands behind both breakaway groups in Estonia and Lithuania. It seems to me that at the very least the three Baltic States must have their own Local, Autonomous, if not Autocephalous, Orthodox Church. Only that will stop the schisms. Again the message is clear to everyone, except to Moscow. Does Moscow really think it can weather the storms and hold on?
The situation in Lithuania is especially disastrous, where priests have been defrocked for a purely political disagreement with Moscow. This is an abuse of the canons. As our bishop, Metropolitan Joseph, said to us in a recent conversation, defrocking happens to clergy for moral, financial or criminal reasons, not because the clergy disagree with their bishop about politics or, as missionaries, are defending their churches from predatory and anti-missionary bishops. Nobody in the free Orthodox world recognises political defrockings. They are not only uncanonical, they are anti-canonical. They are particularly ironical, when those who should be defrocked for molesting women parishioners or stealing money from parish funds are not only not defrocked, but receive all manner of awards!
c. Moldova
Already 20% of churches in Moldova have left the Russian Church for the Patriarchate of Romania. The conflict in the Ukraine is making Moldovans shudder. Will we be next? The tiny Russian Transdnestria was of course long ago lost to Moldova, but what about Moldova itself? It seems inevitable that Moscow will lose the remaining 80% of its parishes there to the Romanian Church. Large parts of the Russian Diaspora are also composed of Moldovans, for example some 70 of the 72 Moscow Patriarchate parishes in Italy are Moldovan. Surely they too will leave for the Romanian Church?
Already in England most Moldovans have had to leave the Russian Church because of Slav nationalism and, sadly, a certain corruption. Here too, Russian nationalism appears to have destroyed the Russian Church’s once multinational character, as everywhere in the Western world. One nationalist bishop of the Russian Church in the Diaspora actually said in public: ‘I don’t like Romanians and I only half-like Moldovans’. That seemed to amuse him: it did not amuse the Romanians and Moldovans, or any of the Non-Russians, present. Here there is cause for the suspension of the bishop, if not for his actual defrocking. As far as I know, Christ never commanded us to hate other races.
d. The Western European Exarchate
In 2018 Moscow at last set up a Western European Exarchate, its centre in its brand-new, purpose-built Cathedral and centre in the most prestigious part of Paris, rumoured to have cost 50 million euros. Today, the Exarchate too is shattered, seemingly destroyed by Russian nationalism. Its first head lived in the Cathedral with his wife and child, and had another vice. He was duly sent away. (Though not sent so far as their Bishop Gury in the 1990s, who did something so serious that he ‘had to go’ and freeze in Magadan, opposite the Sea of Japan). The second head, a very politically-minded and very ecumenically-minded and very young man, who has not spent any time in a monastery and who speaks no French and poor English, now lives in Moscow and does administrative things.
Meanwhile, the Moscow Patriarchate Diocese in the UK no longer has a bishop, he is in Moscow. Few even remember who was the last Englishman to be ordained to the Russian Orthodox clergy in the UK. And the Moscow Patriarchate bishop in the Netherlands also seems to have disappeared. He got into great trouble with the Dutch government for threatening the clergy of his huge church in Amsterdam with ‘the Russian Embassy’, because, as Non-Russians, they had expressed purely political disagreement with the conflict in the Ukraine. As a result, the parish and about 70% of the people transferred to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, as did a parish in Italy and another in Germany. Frankly, it appears as if the Western European Exarchate had its chance and failed. Does it have any future after the events in the Ukraine? That it might become the foundation to set up a future Western European Orthodox Church, as Patriarch Alexiy II wanted twenty years ago, now sounds like a bad joke. Hopes have been dashed by those who have betrayed their pastoral duties.
e. North America and ROCOR
In the USA the Moscow Patriarchate has also lost its bishop. Its forty or so parishes are left without a leader and, it seems perhaps without any possibility of even survival through new ordinations, let alone expansion. However, in general, all parts of the Orthodox Church in North America are in chaos. The largest group by far, the Greek Archdiocese, is facing scandal and disorder with the probable deposition of its new, highly political and secularising Archbishop Elpidiphoros. The second largest group, the OCA, which has Russian origins, is facing many difficulties, mot least the behaviour of its administration in over-zealously closing churches and persecuting clergy during lockdowns. The third largest group, Antioch, sometimes called ‘The Church of the Four Families’, faces a scandal involving allegations against its Metropolitan Joseph.
The fourth largest group, quite small in fact, a Russian group, ROCOR (the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia), faces very embarrassing accusations of defamation, precisely from a Ukrainian priest, Fr Alexander Belya. The US courts will clearly favour him, though they must first justify his allegations to find out if they are true. Several other scandals in the USA involving properties and Russian clergy who have fled it for the Greek Church are also left unanswered. On top of all this, questions have been raised about the use of the electronic signature of the late Metropolitan Hilarion of ROCOR. He was clearly very ill for quite some time, at least for a year, if not for several years, before his death in May 2022, and yet all manner of very serious documents were being issued in his name by others. His death also leaves his Western Rite group, already dissolved in England, all at sea.
Moreover, ROCOR faces huge difficulties outside the USA. In Western Europe it lost half its English Diocese, 12 clergy, 5,000 people and two million pounds worth of Church buildings, ultimately to the Church of Romania, which canonically received them all, with the blessing of Patriarch Daniel himself. In 2007 they had already lost their only two monasteries in England to an Old Calendarist Church only because their analysis of the degree of the deSovietisation of the Church inside Russia varied with that of their bishop. On top of that, that English diocese then lost another four clergy to various other jurisdictions. Although still (!!) in complete denial of this reality, ROCOR here has now largely become an internet presence. The churches that left it for the Romanian Church are full and growing in clergy and people. Its very few remaining churches are very small. Meanwhile, in Geneva it also faces yet another court case on internal matters concerning administration and very embarrassing sackings, allegedly illegal, involving its appointment of freemasons.
From 1917-1991 ROCOR existed as the free and unpersecuted branch of the Russian Church outside the Soviet Union. After the atheist Soviet Union fell in 1991, and even more after ROCOR’s long-awaited reconciliation with the post-Soviet Russian Church in 2007, many began to question the reason for its continued existence. Some felt that Providence had given it a chance to justify its continued existence as the missionary part of the Russian Church outside Russia. It had the chance to prove itself as such from 2007 to 2017. Then all was still possible. Sadly, it failed to realise its potential and openly abandoned missionary work in whole areas of the world, such as Latin America, Indonesia and most of Western Europe, and instead concentrated on trying to amass money and striving to obtain impossible-to-obtain properties gained by previous unsupported missionary work. It seems as though the once persecuted Church has become the persecuting Church.
At the same time, some of its members turned inwards and selected Trumpism, and not Christ, as their ideology. It was clear that some in ROCOR had lost their way. Having chosen not faith, but a political ideology, and one which fails to work outside narrow US Republican ghettos, and lost most of itself outside North America, ROCOR may now be obliged to retreat to North America and lick its wounds. A well-known Russian Orthodox Metropolitan wrote to me only last week and told me that he does not think that it can survive at all; ROCOR risks becoming an embarrassment to the Russian Orthodox Church inside Russia. This is a Church Titanic, of which Fr Alexander Belya is only the tip of the iceberg.
Conclusion: Lose-Lose?
The curse of nationalism has been lose-lose for all who have taken that particular acid bath. The Kiev government has lost by persecuting its own people and playing with several different nationalist and schismatic ‘Glory to the Ukraine churches’ and persecuting its only canonical Glory to God Church. Its false ‘churches’ have not only not created unity, but they have destroyed all remaining unity by persecuting and striving to seize the properties of the canonical Church (more parallels with the situation in the Diaspora). The Church of Constantinople has lost by playing with Greek and then Ukrainian nationalism. Western Europe has lost by playing with European nationalism (its ‘freedom and democracy’ myths) and enforcing Russophobic sanctions to cut off its nose to spite its face. ROCOR has lost by playing with American nationalism, exactly as the much persecuted St John of Shanghai prophesied. And the once multinational Russian Church has lost most of all by betraying its multinational vocation, that very vocation set by Tsar Nicholas II, with Russian nationalism, thus wrecking its multinational reputation. It will not recover from that for at least a generation.
Everyone is a loser. However, Divine Providence can and does make good out of bad. You will see and are already seeing it. Here is the possible end of schisms in the Ukraine and its opportunity, shorn of its Russian territories, to find its true identity and unite around a liberated and demilitarised Kiev. Here is the opportunity for scandal-ridden Constantinople to become a missionary Church, having understood that nobody is interested in a secular-minded, political and racist Church. Here is the opportunity for Europe, including the UK, to make peace with Russia after nearly 1,000 years of hatred based on jealousy and intolerance. Here is the opportunity for the two parts of the Russian Church in North America, the OCA and ROCOR, together with the bishopless Moscow parishes, to unite and love one another, instead of hating one another. (The apparently still unknown commandment of loving one another is to be found in the Gospels). It is all so simple. Here is the opportunity for the Russian Church, having for now lost Europe, to turn to serious missionary work in Asia and in Africa. God always gives opportunities. Sadly, men do not always take them.
Father Andrew – Originally posted at Orthodox England.
Fr. Andrew: Kindly consider the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances of 1994. Ukraine was assured by Russia, Britain and the U.S. that they would not be subject to military force or economic coercion if they gave up their nuclear weapons. They gave them up and are suffering for it.
That’s why our Founding Fathers bequeathed us the 2nd Amendment after the Revolution – man is inherently evil and cannot be trusted.
GOD BLESS.
Stephen –
Thank you for reading and thank you for your comment. Three things must be noted about the Budapest Memorandum. First, Ukraine’s legitimate government was overthrown in 2014 due to American interference. What followed was wholesale persecution of the Russian-speaking minority in the country. This current article mentions the Donbas War and the fact that it was completely avoidable by allowing the artificial borders of Ukraine to be voted out of existence peacefully. We have covered in this in many other articles, here is an excerpt from this one:
No one agreeing to the Budapest memorandum could have possibly foreseen a civil war and the murder and oppression of the Russian-speaking population sponsored by US and NATO money.
Second, Zelensky signaled before the start of the war that he wanted to acquire nukes. See Point 7 in this article, which is excerpted below:
The final point we’d like to make is that because this war was intentionally provoked, we should not give our political, military, and intelligence elites a pass by pretending we “owe” defense to Ukraine based on the Budapest Memorandum. This is not unprovoked Russian aggression. The Russians tried to work via the Minsk protocols to avoid this war, and tried to make a deal early in the war back in March. That deal was scuttled, apparently, on orders delivered in person by British PM (at the time) Johnson. The U.S. and NATO are intent on fighting to the last Ukrainian to preserve a unipolar world. Or to destroy the economy of Western Europe, or both. More than one motivation can be true at the same time, since any activity of this size has more than one interest group whose goals overlap but primary reasons for pursuing these goals do not.
In short, the interest we all have is peace. As soon as possible. At this point, as this post is accurate in describing, Ukraine is going to lose territory and lives. The question is – what territory and how many more lives? A negotiated solution is the best option, even though at this point it will resemble unconditional surrender. The US is currently destroying its currency and depleting weapons stockpiles which we cannot replenish. Our own ability to defend ourselves is thus gravely compromised. It is time to call a halt and do whatever is necessary to restore peace, disentangle Ukrainian nationalists from the Russian population, and end the sanctions.
“First, Ukraine’s legitimate government was overthrown in 2014 due to American interference.”
The first lie. Ukraine’s military and intelligence was in the Soviet tradition and therefore pro “Russian,” and assuming that the “Russian” Federation didn’t have their own intelligence assets in Ukraine is ridiculous. It’s completely impossible that the US magically “overthrew” the “legitimate government” (which isn’t at all what happened: in reality the Parliament voted to remove Yanukovich.) This is pure propaganda.
“What followed was wholesale persecution of the Russian-speaking minority in the country.”
more nonsense.You repeat the fake claims of “genocide” for which there is no evidence.
” This current article mentions the Donbas War and the fact that it was completely avoidable by allowing the artificial borders of Ukraine to be voted out of existence peacefully.”
Did the Russian Federation allow Chechnya to go? No, two wars were waged, the second one started with a massive FSB false flag under Putin (Moscow apartment bombings, Russias 9/11) and was “won” by making an alliance with Islamist gangster Kadyrov. So why should Ukraine allow communist Russians to establish “People’s Republics” (one of them has a red star on its emblem which is modelled after the Soviet emblem) on its territory?
Victoria Nuland bragged about it. The US sponsored extremists in 2014. We published an article from a gentleman who was there:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/an-eyewitness-to-the-us-coup-detat-in-ukraine-tells-the-truth/
Info below was originally published on our site here:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/the-war-in-ukraine-as-a-tool-for-progressive-revolution-against-orthodoxy/
Jacques Baud is a former colonel of the General Staff, ex-member of the Swiss strategic intelligence, and a specialist on Eastern countries. This is a long quotation from his recent article explaining the true background of the war and its current conduct:
This is from the same article referenced earlier from Colonel Jacques Baud:
No magic. Just corruption and influence peddling combined with the extremist nationalist element in Ukraine that was virulently anti-Russian. That gave you the Kiev Regime in 2014, and the US has continued to pour gasoline on the dumpster fire known as Ukraine. This is not our war. The US should never have gotten involved in Ukraine. We cannot afford the billions. We cannot afford to deplete our own military stocks. Europe cannot afford the sanctions or the influx of refugees or the exorbitant costs of propping up the Kiev regime. It is time for peace.
What happened in Chechnya was none of our affair, and we wisely avoided that war and the war in Georgia. We were smarter back then, or at least more cautious.
Ukraine is not the only country to emerge into modernity with badly drawn borders. The same situation occurs in Africa, and regularly leads to tragic consequences. Breaking up these countries is better for everyone. As for peoples republics, what the Donbas Russians what to set up is their affair. The Kiev Government cannot retake the Donbas, so we had all best get used to those Red Stars. They have declared independence and are entitled to self-government. The US was born out of secession. So was Greece. So was any nation which fought its way out of an empire.
Whether you are in favor or not is purely irrelevant. There is no appetite among the majority of Americans to watch our nation implode while we spend billions in Ukraine in a war that is clearly lost. This war never should have happened, and it should not be continued.
Well, there isn’t any evidence for a coup what in what you provided. There is the claim that Yanukovich (apparently he alone was the Ukrainian government?) feared for his life and was pursued by military. Nothing addressing the fact that the parliament removed Yanukovich.
More unfounded allegations about supposed genocide of the Donbas separatists, and of course the incessant talk about “neo-Nazis,” but not a word about the fact that while ~ 2 % of Ukrainians support far-right parties, the Donbas insurgent republics are officially called “people’s republics,” one has a red star in its emblem reminiscent of that of the USSR, red flags are flown, Lenin monuments restored, Putin celebrates the cheka, the FSB website identifies it with the cheka, calls Dzerzhinski “knight of the revolution,” even the official communist party of the Russian Federation has about 50 / 450 seats in the Duma…. this all doesn’t matter?
You talk about the evils of the fascists but about those who glorify the Soviet Union and even the murderers of the Saints themselves, you are silent?
The point here isn’t whether it is opportune for the US / EU to help Ukraine defend its territory and its people from the invasion, the point is that you have 100 % adopted the Russian Federation narrative that justifies an unjustifiable war, which was not started by the US, but by the Russian Federation.
At this stage, anyone writing a comment like this reminds us of diehard mRNA vaccine fanatics. Blind to the evidence, they just keep repeating the same old talking points.
We published an eyewitness account of the coup, and multiple other articles that included details of how it was carried out and why. Just because this article didn’t detail them, does not mean we have not addressed the topic:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/an-eyewitness-to-the-us-coup-detat-in-ukraine-tells-the-truth/
This is a good summary as well, including a panel of experts such as Professor John Mersheimer – https://orthodoxreflections.com/is-russia-really-fighting-a-holy-war-in-ukraine/
We linked to a video from Mersheimer that covers the run up to this war at the bottom of this piece:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/the-war-in-ukraine-is-not-about-religion/
There is ample evidence for the coup, the oppression of Russian speakers after the fact, the ongoing attacks on the Donbas and the ramp up of military action by Ukraine that was leading towards an all-out offensive which Russia’s SMO prevented. If you are ignoring all of this information, then you are simply being willfully ignorant.
NATO started this war, and the sanctions will break Western Europe as a result. As for the Donbas using “people’s republics”, they will be incorporated into Russia now so that terminology will go away. The Russians have repeatedly said they are not “woke”. They are not trying to erase their own history, even the bad parts of it. Putin has said they are not going to go around tearing down statues. He has also tried to find positives in the decades of Communist rule, despite having been also highly critical of it. A people can’t despise decades of their own history in a healthy fashion.
This particular piece did not touch on the Soviet Union, or the Communist Party in Russia which, strangely enough, is quite pro-Orthodox Church:
How much do I buy of this new found respect for Orthodoxy? Not sure, but it is seriously indicative of the strange new world we find ourselves in. One that critics like you don’t seem to be capable of even acknowledging, much less understanding.
NATO, primarily the US, provoked this war and insisted on the sanctions. The suffering will be immense. The war could have ended in March, but the US and NATO would not let Zelensky do a deal. The suffering has been awful, and will get even worse. There are already mass protests against the sanctions, and the real pain is only now beginning.
Making peace is the only hope for avoiding even more catastrophic bloodshed.
Blind to the evidence? What evidence? You are just re-hashing Russian Federation narration. Such as “Nuland bragged about it [i.e. the imaginary coup]” which isn’t true. You need to read / listen to the actual conversation and consider the timing, and it would also be good to understand what a Coup d’etat actually entails.
I’m not impressed by “experts” who for instance talk about Minsk but ignore the Budapest Memorandum. It immediately shows what they are. Not “experts” (except for experts of active measures, maybe) but shills for the war.
https://www.dw.com/en/ukraines-forgotten-security-guarantee-the-budapest-memorandum/a-18111097
“the oppression of Russian speakers”
OK, now it’s *oppression* that is a bit different from the made-up “genocide.” Does “oppression” justify an intervention?
“after the fact, the ongoing attacks on the Donbas”
Why mention the attacks on the “people’s republics” / insurgents and not the ongoing attacks by the inurgents on the Ukranian military?
“If you are ignoring all of this information, then you are simply being willfully ignorant.”
That is exactly what you ought to take to heart, “Orthodox” “reflections.”
“NATO started this war”
It is literally insane to claim that NATO, which has had no part in the war save for member states delivering weapons and training, “started” the Russian invasion(s.) The mental acrobatics necessary to make this claim are astounding.
“and the sanctions will break Western Europe as a result.”
You seem very confident, right now it seems like the Russian Federation is in a bit of a trouble over the mobilization. But anyway, what is your point mentioning this?
“As for the Donbas using “people’s republics”, they will be incorporated into Russia now so that terminology will go away.”
Oh, great! And that makes the communist terminology, communist symbols and literal confessions to communism (“socialism”) ok in your “Orthodox” worldview?
” The Russians have repeatedly said they are not “woke”.”
That is an irrelevant statement?
“They are not trying to erase their own history, even the bad parts of it.”
No, they embrace it, including the murderers of the Saints, including “iron” Felix whom they call “knight of the revolution.”
“Putin has said they are not going to go around tearing down statues.”
No, they restore statues of Lenin.
https://www.newsy-today.com/russian-soldiers-raise-soviet-flag-and-restore-lenin-monument-in-kherson-oblast-news-tvnet/
Busts of “iron” Felix.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/09/13/new-russian-monuments-to-soviet-secret-police-founder-spark-controversy-a75032
“He has also tried to find positives in the decades of Communist rule, despite having been also highly critical of it.”
Oh really, positives? Why can’t they find positives in Ukranian nationalism then?
“A people can’t despise decades of their own history in a healthy fashion.”
Yes, they could indeed celebrate the heroes, such as the New Martyrs of the Soviet yoke, and despise the enemies of God, mankind, and Russia, such as the Soviet Union and all its institutions. It is called “repentance.”
“How much do I buy of this new found respect for Orthodoxy? Not sure, but it is seriously indicative of the strange new world we find ourselves in. One that critics like you don’t seem to be capable of even acknowledging, much less understanding.”
Abusing something has nothing to do with respect. A military temple with hammer and sickle, Patriarch (or “Patriarch”) Kirill meeting Castro and commemorating “international soldiers,” declaring fallen soldiers will be absolved from their sins, meeting the Pope and declaring a “common mission of preaching the Gospel” with heretics… all this has nothing to do with Orthodoxy.
“NATO, primarily the US, provoked this war and insisted on the sanctions. The suffering will be immense.”
The suffering is immense in Russia already. Record mortality, poverty, no care for the elderly, the disabled… Why not mention that?
“The war could have ended in March, but the US and NATO would not let Zelensky do a deal.”
You mean throw the Ukrainian people to the genocidal wolves? Glory to God that these people have stood up so successfully to the aggression by the idolater who has said “I believe in man” and that the fall of the USSR was the greatest catastrophe in recent history. May the neo-Soviet designs fail and Europe be helped to repentance by any coming hardship.
“The suffering has been awful, and will get even worse.”
Indeed, and all because of the Russian invasion(s) and their support for the insurgents. Had it not been for that, indeed the hostilities could have ended soon.
“There are already mass protests against the sanctions, and the real pain is only now beginning.”
There are no “mass protests.” There are confused patriots instrumentalized by active measures to sympathize with their enemy.
“Making peace is the only hope for avoiding even more catastrophic bloodshed.”
Amazing how you support an invasion, yet talk about “making peace.”
Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin, whom Kirill recently congratulated on the occasion of the conversion of Volga Bulgarians to Muhammadanism, says Nazi” Ukrainians should be killed “like parasites with pesticides,”explained that the Western nations are “minions of the Antichrist and the Dajjal” (the Islamic equivalent of the Antichrist) as proved by their “arrogance, extremism and terrorism.”
https://bitterwinter.org/russian-mufti-council-exterminate-ukrainians/
So there it is, the trap prepared by all of this. Will you fall for it?
Well, we published it Hans. Only because we don’t do censorship. There is nothing of any value, or any truth really, in anything you wrote. We will not be wasting any time refuting any of it. We have tens of thousands of words on this site already doing just that for anything you asserted about Ukraine. There is no logic or good faith in your reply.
Here is what we will say, just a few brief thoughts. When even Joe Rogan refutes the “official” narrative of the war on his show, then you know that the propaganda has well and truly lost:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVXzwnU1H6U
Further, Glenn Greenwald said it quite well – Americans are worried about nuclear war over a conflict in which they can get no benefit. We have everything to lose, and nothing to gain. That is not just Americans, but also Western Europeans and even the Ukrainian people. Why should Western Ukrainians die for a unipolar world dream of American foreign policy elites? The West is constantly lied into wars that the average people soon realize were mistakes. There was nothing in it for them. There is nothing in this for us, other than our own potential mass suicide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba4HxCPa-g0
Time to end our engagement, followed by a peace treaty. Ukraine cannot fight without us. The war ends when our money and shipments of arms end. Then the four new provinces of Russia will have peace, as will the rest of Ukraine. That is the only resolution to this conflict that can avoid more bloodshed and possible nuclear annihilation.
Though we shouldn’t, we can’t help ourselves one last point. The whole “communist” thing you bring up is simply so much drivel. The common propaganda point is that Russia is trying to rebuild the Soviet Union. Not true, and not even plausible, as Russia even now is only going to keep the majority Russian-speaking provinces. We are not even discussing who will rule Kiev, much less who will rule Kazakstan.
So no, we don’t take any of the NAFO talking points about communism in Russia or in the former “Peoples Republics” that are now part of Russia. Whatever the situation is, can be discussed outside the framework of the War in Ukraine and the Neoliberal charges of a new “Soviet Union”.
“Here is what we will say, just a few brief thoughts. When even Joe Rogan refutes the “official” narrative of the war on his show, then you know that the propaganda has well and truly lost”
Because Joe Rogan, a known psy-op who works to get people into psychedelics ALSO promotes the neo-Soviet lies they must be true? Such “logic,” no wonder you aren’t getting anywhere.
“Why should Western Ukrainians die for a unipolar world dream of American foreign policy elites?”
Ukrainians are fighting to not be conquered and occupied by neo-Soviets who fly red flags and rebuild Lenin monuments… Also, thinking people do not use shibboleths such as “unipolar world order.” Only those who have already bought into the Soviet lies do. The rest understand that Putin stands for the same NWO Klaus Schwab stands for.
Klaus infamously has a Lenin bust in the picture in one of his interviews… they are all the same.
The facts aren’t “NATO talking points.” I’ve given you links and you got nothing to say about them… Go to the FSB site and verify that the FSB says they were founded in 1917 by Felix Dzerzhinsky, whom these monsters call “knight of the revolution” and whom they praise in the highest terms. You would search “emblem of the Luhansk People’s Republic” or just “People’s Republic” and you would have irrefutable evidence that the Russian Federation has NOT repented but is in fact carrying on the Soviet legacy.
It is easy to see where the West is headed… but whoever joins himself in any way to the neo-Soviet East of a Putin or Kirill is also a servant of the antichrist.
I remember well commenting on this very site with the suspicion that you were acting as agents of Moscow when you “criticized” modernism / ecumenism exclusively among the Greeks… and I’ve been vindicated. Whether you know it or not, that is what you are.
Search up what is “NAFO” as opposed to “NATO” in terms of talking points. If Putin and the West are both NWO cut outs, then why bother with who wins the war in Ukraine? The NWO wins either way, right? That makes total sense to spend billions on supporting Zelensky’s govt in such a situation. What is in this war again, for average Americans? Besides billions of dollars wasted and the risk of nuclear war? The Donbas is perfectly fine being part of Russia, don’t they count? What evidence do you have that Russia wants to go further? As for getting anywhere, you are right – America already has troops on the ground and is willing to risk nuclear war, so no, we aren’t getting anywhere.
As for criticism of the Greeks, we also published criticism this week of the OCA. The Russian Church is not our issue in America. Our issues include the Greek Archdiocese. The Russians can see to their own Church, if necessary.
And the whole Joe Rogan comment was hilarious considering the progressives would love to cancel him. He is not perfect, but he is willing to talk to almost anyone and do so honestly, which is why so many people respond to his shows. He was a single, popular source of truth on the vaccines for a long time. His show with Dr. Peter McCullough was excellent. If he is psyop, then he has been a good one for Team Reality.
Your opinion of the Russian federation still does not tell the average American why we should sacrifice our blood and treasure, plus risk nuclear war, for a Zelensky regime in Kiev to rule four provinces primarily populated with Russians who want to be part of the RF. And to that, Hans, you will have no answer other than to bleat on about how the RF is still the USSR. Curiously, we never risked nuclear war fighting the USSR, did we? So why would we risk nuclear war now?
There is no benefit for any of the common people suffering as a result of this war in any way. Without American support, which according to you is just a Schwab proxy, this war ends and we can go on with our lives. Sounds good to us.
Neither you nor I decide where governments spend money. My point is that this invasion is not in any way justifiable, as Fr. Andrew does in the article and as you do in the comments.
Furthermore, the chekist in the Kremlin is threatening us with a nuclear strike. It seems like that doesn’t even bother you in the least. Not for an attack on the Russian Federation, but merely because their military adventure in Ukraine is failing.
The Moscow Patrirchate is relevant to you locally because of the ROCOR-MP. Look up the Havana Declaration for example, a Synodally approved statement of heresy.
Do you really not understand the fundamental principle of controlled resistance? You got two teams pushing left, one pushes harder and you got the “conservatives” to support the other one. So easy.
Concerning the vaccines: This should have been a point in time for you to realize that Putin is in on the game, as he has been doing the same as the West, and worse, with the ridiculous military vax that was tested on 30 people or something, QR codes, spoon desinfection and what not.
Also, before you accused me of being like the mRNA apologists: Why didn’t you mention the DNA vaccines delievered by an adenovirus vector, i.e. the same way that gene therapy is? That strangely seems to be ignored more often than not…
It’s not “my opinion” on the RF. I’ve given you evidence, it is objective truth. I’m not “bleating.” Look, if you are Orthodox, then the fact that a supposedly Orthodox country is celebrating the God-fighting internationalist construct that was anathemized by St. Tikhon and the Russian Synod, that persecuted and murdered the faithful in unprecedendet numbers, that subverted parts of the Church to create the anti-church structure that is called “Moscow Patriarchate,” considered a schism by all the senior Hierarchs that now have a Saint before their name… would get you riled up. But it doesn’t seem to impress you much… at all.
Do you believe it was wrong for the US to fight NS Germany in WW2?
So you keep asserting. The Donbas Russians asked for help in February because of the impending Ukrainian invasion. We have been over this. It is well documented. We have posted the documentation. You ignore it. Russia has conducted a very restrained military operation. Kiev is still standing. The power is still on. Russia worries about world opinion, which right now is overwhelmingly pro-Russian. How this will change now that the 4 provinces are part of Russia is anyone’s guess, but a major ramping up of the war is probably inevitable. The Russians in the 4 provinces do not want to be ruled by Kiev. Let them go and we can have peace.
Even if that we the case, which you aren’t interpreting that correctly, then it only underscores the point that this war needs to end and is not in the best interest of the American people or even any people. When a nuclear armed state indicates a willingness to use nukes, then the only logical response is to negotiate an end to hostilities. Clearly things have simple escalated too far. We have American and British troops on the ground and we are pumping billions a month into the war. When Russia’s reserves hit the theater, Ukraine is going to be pushed back hard. Zelensky actually appears to have called for a pre-emptive strike. This is too much risk for absolutely no gain for anyone. Let the Donbas go.
So ROCOR governs itself. They broke with Moscow once, they can clearly do so again. As for the Havana Declaration – which parts of it were heresy?
We live in an environment of controlled opposition. The US government spreads money around like a farmer does fertilizer in planting season. They buy all sides. Which is why so many writers and commentators refer to “official” conservatism as “Con, Inc.” If you look at any of our articles, for example the one on combatting abortion post-Roe, we always tell everyone to first focus on their own souls. Pray, fast, read the Saints, read the Fathers, read the Bible, seek spiritual counsel. We never present one politician or the other, one movement or the other, and certainly not one ideology or the other as a solution to our problems. They simply aren’t. What is within our control is our own relationship to God. Now, from there we can try to spread the faith, we can also engage in politics, but with a jaundiced eye because politicians tend to lie as easily as breathing. Since, however, what Orthodox want out of politicians is basically to maintain good order and otherwise let the Church be the Church, it isn’t hard to make us happy.
https://orthodoxreflections.com/all-political-ideologies-are-incompatible-with-orthodox-christianity/
We never praised Putin once for anything during the Pandemic, for all those reasons. Belarus, on the other hand, was quite good. The Russian Church had some good things to say about voluntary informed consent and about digital control vs. freedom. We are totally aware that the ROC applied those positives in an uneven fashion. It was good to hear, however, the ROC could have been much better. We took exception, for example, to Patriarch Kirill’s Christmas message and how it did not mention the suffering caused by the lockdowns and other policies:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/lockdowns-kill-why-do-orthodox-bishops-ignore-the-victims/
Don’t believe anyone said you were an mRNA apologist, just that debating you on the topic of Ukraine felt the same as debating mRNA apologists. We criticized the J&J vaccine as well, but remember that in the US that vaccine was actually shelved, then brought back, then basically disappeared. It is simply a matter of focusing on that most common – Pfizer and Moderna, with Pfizer clearly topping the charts.
For starters, the OCU is a nationalist disaster masquerading as an Orthodox Church. The only canonical Church in Ukraine is headed by Met. Onuphry, and they were and are under persecution from the nationalist govt in Kiev. So the liberation of the Donbas from persecution is a good thing in that regard. The Church under Met. Onuphry will end up with full autocephaly, because that can’t be fixed now, but OCU needs to be totally disbanded. The rest of your opinion about the Russian Church is your opinion, and is not shared by our bishops, our Metropolitans, or our Patriarchs – all of whom have their roots in the Middle East or the Balkans. In any case, the ROC is not our issue. Ending this war is.
Wrong question. More analogous to this situation – should the US have gone to war with the Soviet Union over the crushing of revolts in Budapest, Prague, Poland (twice), and the Berlin blockade? The answer, of course, is that we did not. We did not escalate the situation, because we recognized that a potential nuclear war was not the risk. You could even go further back and recall that in the late 40’s, the US was the only nuclear power in the world and had the most powerful military. Did we go to war to save Eastern Europe from communism? You can argue perhaps we should, but again we did not. The US public would not have stood for another war with potentially millions of casualties over who would rule Eastern Europe. Yet, here we are pumping billions into a proxy war with a nuclear armed state and even putting our own forces on the ground. This is a recipe for disaster that just a generation ago would have caused a White House coup. We were smarter than this once upon a time. The 4 provinces of the Donbas are not worth the killing, the sanctions, the inflation, or risk of nuclear war. A sane American govt would never have put us in this position.
I didn’t say Putin is a “Schwab proxy.” That would imply that Schwab controls Putin. I don’t know about the inner workings on that level. Putin is a chekist who fondly remembers the “glory” of the cheka and the USSR. Being an unremarkable KGB officer, he was for some reason moved up the ranks via support from J oligarch Roman Abramovich. You can hear a Chabad Rabbi brag about how Putin is their man. Putin himself tells a story of how he was a shabbos in his youth. Any of this should make it immediately clear that he isn’t Orthodox in any meaningful way but rather playing that role.
Considering that his government opens an average of one Orthodox Church a day in Russia, he is playing the role well at least on some level. When asked if a man on his staff was a spy, a German general once remarked that the man was so invaluable, that it would be hard for him to imagine how the enemy could profit more from him than did the Fatherland. It is hard not to feel that way about Putin in some respects. Regardless of his personal failings, he has done a lot of good things. But he isn’t our issue, because we are not Russians. Our issue is ending this war.
Putin matters because Putin started the war. Putin matters because he is the leader of the Russian Federation. It matters that evidently he is not only an unrepentant checkist but also fully on board with any of the NWO agendas, with the exception of LGBTQ, which the RF makes up for with extreme levels of immorality in other areas. Though it needs to be mentioned, the USSR promoted this in other countries (via the KGB, i.e. Putin’s men) while prohibiting it at home and attributing it to Western decadence.
You posted opinion pieces which leave huge blank holes. I’ve shown some without reaction from you. You also made false claims like “Nuland bragged about it” which shows you accept propaganda for truth without verification. The fact that you simply adopt the RF view that the conquered territories are “now part of the RF” tells us where you stand. There is no way for you to see the reality since you base all your views on those of the RF and their agents.
Let me stage insurgency in a foreign country, then use the backlach as a lever, conquer an area and stage a plebicide that says the people approve… nothing could be more transparent.
I never mentioned the OCU, why bring it up? It is worthwhile to mention that the MP, accusing the OCU of being schismatic, is itself schismatic from its inception. This is attested to by the other locum tenens / senior Bishops who have “Saint” before their name now, which Met. Sergius of sorry memory does not and never will.
The ROCOR never “broke with Moscow,” they simply did not accept the Soviet-sanctioned takeover by Met. Sergius and instead recognized the Mets. Peter, Cyril, Joseph and what was to become the Catacomb Church, until the betrayal. The ROCOR sources on this are still available and can be reviewed, so before you bring up “schismatic” accusations I recommend doing that.
Furthermore, Met. Onufry has condemned the illegal invasion. Many of the sons of UOC-MP priests are fighting with their compatriots against the invaders.
The Havana Declaration is heretical because of the implication that the papist sect is a “sister church” and by stating that the common mission of the MP and the papist sect is to spread the Gospel (point 24.) It mirrors the heretical document of the Kolumbari pseudo-council but is actually worse because there, the supposed common mission of Church and heretics is not explicitly extended to that area (though the implication is there.)
Concerning the vaccines, Astrazeneca is another one.
It’s interesting how you just brush over the fact that Putin’s Russia saw the mirror image of what happened in the West. Closing churches for services, mandating masks, vax mandates, tracking via QR codes and so on. Seems insignificant… and you somehow forgot Met. Hilarion (Alfeyef’s) infamous statement completely while mentioning completely worthless token statements about consent…? Many Russians got the “vaccine” because of the threat of losing their job, which in Russia is many times more significant than in much of the West, because it can easily mean starvation…
Where was the outcry? Why didn’t anybody censor Met. Hilarion? Simply because there is no dissent among the apparatchiks in mitre, it’s just theater to keep people think there are people who have their best interest in mind… same as in politics.
So, where is your honesty and consistency? We disbelieve the West but trust the RF when the RF does the exact same things, and in many areas is even worse than the West (e.g. free speech) ???
“Wrong question. More analogous to this situation – should the US have gone to war with the Soviet Union over the crushing of revolts in Budapest, Prague, Poland (twice), and the Berlin blockade? “
It is not at all “more analogous.” But rather the analogous situation is the annexation of Chechoslovakia. Using an ethnic minority for leverage and justifying an invasion.
There is something that you keep avoiding, which is common to all boosters of this war. We keep emphasizing it, because it is the only logical way to look at this conflict. There is nothing in this conflict for the average American, the average Western European, or even the average Ukrainian. Nothing. As Americans, we are spending billions of dollars, risking nuke war, and ruining our economy over who rules 4 provinces full of Russians in Eastern Europe. That is the definition of insanity. Which is why you brought up the Sudetenland, because the only possible way to convince Americans this is not insane is to pretend that the War in Ukraine is a prelude to Putin attacking the rest of Europe. Which it isn’t, and any rational person knows it isn’t. But our leaders in the West are not rational. Russia tried negotiating for years after 2014 – Minsk I and II were never taken seriously by Kiev. Russia came in after it was necessary to defend the Donbas, and then held back on really pounding Ukraine to try and negotiate. This is not the behavior of a Hitler regime in the making. So you will not get very far trying to convince Americans that we need to sacrifice blood, treasure, and the lives of untold Ukrainians to keep 4 provinces (added to Ukraine by Lenin) full of Russians under the control of Kiev. As of this morning, Russia is destroying Ukrainian infrastructure. The suffering will be immense. There could be even more escalation, at which point we could all die.
The Russians in the areas that have been taken over by Ukraine are being murdered. The Daily Mail reported that Ukrainian officials were bragging about it.
https://twitter.com/mariodiogosilva/status/1579141475232882689
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11284819/How-Ukrainian-intelligence-chiefs-tracking-collaborators-worked-Russians.html
The RF cannot quit and go home. The new provinces have to be taken entirely, and Russia will go to any lengths to make that happen. There is nothing in this for us. NATO money and weapons are dragging this out, but the end is going to the same regardless of how much we spend. That is, unless we end up escalating into nuclear holocaust. If it stays conventional, Russia will win in the end and a lot of money and precious lives will be wasted. <
We live in the US and Canada, though we do reprint some European priests and hierarchs on occasion. Putin can be the most unrepentant Chekist in history, that changes nothing in any of our lives. The threats to our religious liberty and human rights do not come from Moscow, they come from our own capitols. As for starting the war, the answer is no on that, but we will post more on that below.
Actually, the fact that a nuclear armed state has claimed 4 provinces that were historically part of Russia, which are populated by Russians who want to be part of Russia, and who face murderous reprisals if they fall into Ukrainian hands is the reality. You can’t get away from that reality. As for Nuland, here is the clip and commentary from journalist Robert Parry of Nuland and Pyatt openly discussing how to arrange the post-coup Ukrainian government: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGq_Xvzn_3I
The coup was a US operation. Here’s a great panel discussion over the start of the war and the legacy of 2014:
https://youtu.be/OeeqooNWO48
Jacques Baud is a former colonel of the General Staff, ex-member of the Swiss strategic intelligence, and a specialist on Eastern countries. This is a long quotation from his recent article explaining the true background of the war and its current conduct:
The insurgency was not staged. The Russian-speaking Ukrainians rebelled on their own. Putin should have taken those areas in 2014, but he is too cautious for that. But again, who cares now? The 4 provinces are part of Russia, and they will not go back. If they did, the residents would be murdered. The Ukrainians are dumb enough to brag about that. They will not go back, and Russia cannot give up. So the only way forward is to negotiate or risk immense death and potential escalation.
OCU was a nationalist enterprise, not an actual church, and it is not canonical.
The point is that ROCOR is under no obligation to toe any line from Moscow. That was the point. That is also why the Russian Church is not an issue for us. Let the Russians see to their own Church, as we continue to navigate the jurisdictional mess in the West.
Fighting to keep 4 provinces full of Russians who don’t want to live in your country, in your country by force? We can think of better reasons to go to war. We printed the entire statement by Metropolitan Onupry:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/in-ukraine-time-to-start-listening-to-metropolitan-onuphry/
The war is a nightmare and should end immediately. The UOC will need autocephaly at this point, and will lose the Crimea and the 4 provinces to the ROC. That will simplify the situation going forward.
We also noted that many of the individuals quoting Metropolitan Onuphry on the war have very recently declared that he is not the Metropolitan of Kiev. They acknowledge him when it suits them, otherwise they claim the OCU is the legitimate Church.
https://orthodoxreflections.com/lies-progressive-orthodox-tell-about-ukraine/
We read it as an attempt to broker peace in Ukraine by neutralizing the Greek Catholic Church. Too much politics? Perhaps, but we don’t think the ROC is in any danger of merging with the RC anytime soon. The Patriarchate of Constantinople, on the other hand, might.
Which was never available in the US and was barely used in Canada, which is why we ignored it.
We live in the US and Canada. We did cover the situation in the UK some, mostly because the Anglo-countries all influence each other. We also talked about Greece, since we have connections to the Church of Greece and the government there was so blatant in its efforts to control certain hierarchs. The resistance of those hierarchs was very inspiring, plus the Greek Archdiocese is close to the country. Much closer than ROCOR is to Russia. One example:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/metropolitan-neophytos-of-morphou-defends-orthodoxy-against-covid-restrictions/
We used the ROC’s “token” statements because, from an Orthodox perspective, they were the only clear statements supported by an important synod. Our goal at the time, and now, was to document the qualifications for a religious exemption and to support Christians (Orthodox and heterodox) in getting religious exemptions to the vax. The statements on informed consent from the ROC synod helped in that regard. We do not focus on Russia. Unlike Canada and the UK, Russia has very little influence on American society. What happen in Russia is the province of the Russian people. They are not our primary concern, nor are the failures of their government concerning the “pandemic”. And the various failures of the Russian government do not justify prolonging and expanding this war. Of course we disbelieve the West. Western propaganda is laughably transparent. We believe what the RF says when we can verify the truth.
Reality is what it is.
The borders drawn by Wilson after WWI were a horrible mistake. Stranding Germans in Poland and Czechoslovakia was major error. That is why the article you are commenting on called for allowing peaceful adjustment of illogical borders. That is a wise policy, as the Eastern border of Ukraine was established by Lenin. And as a matter of historical fact, the Sudeten Germans were being persecuted, and the desire to help Germans was a factor in throwing public support to Hitler. The whole thing never should have happened, because that border should not have existed. The Sudeten should have remained with Austria. The Russians do not want to live under Kiev. They won’t live under Kiev. But aside from that, huge differences between Hitler and Russia. 1) Hitler wrote a book and told you that Germany planned to expand East for living space. He had the German nation, the most powerful in Western Europe, at this disposal. Russia doesn’t even appear to want the rest of Ukraine, much less Poland. 2) Hitler did not have nuclear weapons. The US had a policy of not going to war with the USSR, because they had nukes, but now we are supposed to go to war with Russia which has nukes? Even if UK and France went to war against Hitler over the Sudeten, at least it would not have ended life on our planet. Nothing has changed since 1991 – nuclear armed states cannot afford to go to war with each other, and this could rapidly escalate.
Time for peace.
Fr. Andrew, thank you for your candid report.
And really, I think it goes much deeper than nationalism. Ever since the first Ecumenical Council (canon 7), there has been a problem with things above the local bishop level. These men are too far from the flock to have any pastoral value so, invariably, they become ambassadors for the jurisdiction which always leads to political entanglements. At this time, it seems all decisions on this upper level are politically motivated and its killing the Church at ground level. It reminds me of when Israel asked for a king and the prophet of God spelled out how the king would abuse the people. In stead of one pope, we have a half dozen all trying to out pope each other or something. The gates of hell are prevailing in this mess.
The Metropolitan / Patriarch / Archbishop heading a synod of Bishops is also a local bishop. In many Orthodox nations, you see these men frequently. They lead processions. Some even ride public transportation. This is about Patriarch Pavle of Serbia:
Pavle was referred to by some as the “walking saint” based on his simple lifestyle and personal humility.[20] All of the bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church had cars, which they used to travel through their dioceses, except Pavle. When asked why he’d never owned a car, he replied: “I will not purchase one until every Albanian and Serb household in Kosovo and Metohija has an automobile.” Asked by foreign journalists about alleged Church support to the Greater Serbian project, Pavle answered:
Not all bishops are saints, obviously, but the office doesn’t seem to be the problem in most countries, but rather the men who occupy the office. We have 54 canonical bishops in the US. Were they covering smaller territories they could be present in the lives of their people, the way bishops are in the “old countries”, where the populations are smaller and the number of bishops way, way higher. . Unfortunately, our lack of unity makes one bishop cover 11 or more states in some jurisdictions. By necessity, even a local bishop is a remote figure under such a situation. Add the following quote and you can see the origin of our problems here in the US:
Father Kosmas wrote in his article For the Orthodox Faithful who are Confused About COVID Vaccines:
Bishops with less grace and discernment are supposed to listen to those who are more illumined. This is obviously not happening, as you can tell by the fact that this article was even necessary. If the world’s Orthodox synods were either full of men like those above, or at least listening to such men when making decisions, then we, the truly faithful Orthodox, would follow them to the Gates of Hell.
We do have some truly outstanding bishops in the United States, but we also have our share of careerists who are more administrators than spiritual leaders. We need more candidates (hence more monks) so we can have more bishops closer to the people. We need better bishops who will listen to the most spiritually enlightened. We need a focus on Christian formation and spreading the Gospel, rather than on money or international politics.
Indeed, Pat. Pavle is an outstanding example of what leadership should look like. Yet, I do not have the good fortune of having access to his manner of life as I would delight to watch it unfold; I study people.
From a practical side, our strength is also our weakness. Because we choose men from the monastics to be bishops, then upper hierarchs, many have little practical experience in the secular world. Few have ever owned a business, held a job that required advanced communication skills, or dealt with people who come with subversive motives. Make no mistake; any man at the top of any pinnacle of influence will be fully targeted by well-funded, well-trained subversives just like DC lobbyists. Where there is power, the vultures gather in strength until an objective is acquired. Our bishops are ill prepared to match their schemes. During the recent COVID melee, it was obvious somebody—unknown, invisible, out of reach—was pulling some strings.
During the 1990’s—an exuberant protestant—I studied church growth of that era. There were a number of mega-churches that sprung up almost overnight. Desiring to know what made them so successful, I probed into the lives of the initiators. Most all were former businessmen, most notably real estate salesmen who had, had enough and wanted to give back to community in the most meaningful way. None that I looked at were seminary graduates, but they hired seminarians to teach the people. (now you know why mega-churches are run like businesses, because they are) While Orthodoxy is quite another dynamic indeed, my point is these men knew their way around the world—were street smart—before planting a church.
In our Lord’s ministry on earth, He operated by the fathering principle—the principle of increase. Jesus did not found the Church, His disciples did. Looking at the raw material that He chose, all—by modern definitions—were self-employed business men. None came from the halls of academia. What did these men have that seminary students—of that day—did not? The ability to do business in the real world, the ability to communicate well, and just a knack for getting the job done. These were the things, the skills, the abilities Jesus could not impart; they had to have learned it from their youth. St Matthew knew his way around the Roman world all right, better than most. No doubt, an advantage when he became Apostle Matthew.
Abbots should require all initiates to spend at least one year working in the secular world, or better yet learning a craft—construction, cabinet making, dairy farming; something to bring to the monastic community of practical value. The monastic life should not be a default, if all else fails choice.
Of course, I would be terribly remiss if I did not mention some shining exceptions; where Orthodoxy has robbed other Christian sects of their best. Met Jonah (raised Episcopalian or something like it) learned the real estate business from his father and now this is quite helpful in his ongoing success. Fr. Josiah Trenham was an absolute steal from the “Reformed” sect—a very outspoken ruckus yet academic bunch—; here we plundered the brain trust of Protestantism at the root—John MacArthur may be next. Of course, on a local level Fr. Zacharias Lynch and his father Fr. Thomas, Pueblo, CO, who were Protestant missionaries in Ukraine are great steals. Fr. T ran the entirety of his own missions organization. No man I know, knows the later Russian fathers better than Fr. Z. Even now he is translating rare Russian gems of brilliance into English.
Fr Z’s Orthodox conciseness parallels Fr. Trentham’s. By that I mean, these men eat, breathe, think, live and die Orthodoxy. Neither are cradle Orthodox; for them Orthodoxy was a choice as well as a calling.
Think about Fr John Connaly of St Marks in Denver, who was a church planter for the Episcopalians—as I understand it. What a steal. In recent years, he championed the effort in planting a beautify well furnished monastery near Canon City. In these men, we have the future of the Orthodox Church, they all should be regularly teaching the postulants at our seminaries.
How about you? Who do you know who was a great steal from other Christian traditions? Please add their names and a piece of their stories. If you know a good story, by all means, tell it.
“How about you? Who do you know who was a great steal from other Christian traditions? Please add their names”
Bertrand Vergely
David Bentley Hart
Fr. Aidan Kimel
The first name we will have to look up. The other two are blights on the Orthodox Faith.
You make good points. One thing we have not adjusted to (not to be morbid) is the decline in women dying in child birth. At one point, many bishops were formerly married priests with often large broods of children and lots of worldly experience. When women started outliving their husbands, that pool dried up. However, two of our bishops in the US are both former married priests whose wives (sadly) succumbed to disease. So the high, high proportion of bishops strictly from the monastic ranks is a more recent phenomenon. On the plus side, monasteries must make a living, so they always have businesses attached to them. An Abbot must have some experience running a farm, or a dog breeding business, selling icons, pies, hand carved coffins and keeping a community running. (Those are all real examples.)
It is quite true that intelligence services interfere in our Church all the time on a global level, and do so mainly through bribing or blackmailing the vulnerable hierarchs. It is also true that we have some bad hierarchs around the world. Out of a pool of about 1,000 – there is the “good”, “bad” and “ugly” (which you put in an article once). A hospital for sick souls will contain sinners.
We were at a conference one time when an Athonite Monk made a compelling case for bringing back married bishops, making the office completely local so as not to overwhelm the family (every town and city has a bishop in that model). Interesting thought, though absent a social catastrophe it is hard to imagine such a plan ever being put into place.
There are some monasteries that actually do produce something, but, not many, if any at all in the US. All I have visited–two women’s–or know of–one men’s–live off of either donations, hospitality, or both (hospitality could be considered a business I guess, but most of the time it is free gratis). Its different in Europe and in the ancient world where if they did not produce they starved.
The conservative Anglican group I was a part of (Reformed Episcopal Church) actually do have married bishops.
As I understand it from my Orthodox catechism, married bishops were done away with because in those days the bishops actually owned the Church property and when they passed it went to their children who sometimes wanted nothing to do with the Church. That was a problem. But now, because we have a corporation designated as a person, the corporation owns the property which is governed by whoever the bishop (more technically the dioceses board of trustees) is at the moment. Of course, what this means is that as far as the courts are concerned every diocese is a non-profit corporation and can only enforce that side of things and most of the time when somebody sues. The state can only enforce what is done with the property, and the people can do whatever they darn well please. The only thing the bishop has is excommun ication when the priest will enforce it. No body owns people, as far as the courts are concerned anyway.
Of course, the whole marriage business contract–ultimately–is to ensure the state can pilfer through inheritance taxes etc. In reality, anybody can create any kind of business relationship with a contract.
Any spiritual authority a bishop has is a Church thing not a government thing. Why any bishop or priest would act as an agent of the state by enforcing COVID mandates is as ridiculous as bishops handing out speeding tickets.
Truth be told, then, any marriage lisense issued by the state is ONLY a business contract awarding–for the most part–joint ownership of property. Because marriage is a church thing, it is a covenant within that jurisdiction defined by the canons and whatever the bishop’s whim is (hello Henry XIII). Technically, there is no need for a couple to get a business contract for a church marriage. And, of course, many courts have created a common law marriage which assumes a business contract where non exists. Life insurance–I was an agent for 20 years–goes around probate (and the tax man, when personal insurance/not business) and many a divorced wife have received benefits when the new wife did not, because somebody forgot to change the policy beneficiary. Sorry to bore you with business stuff.
Fr. Cosmos of Zaire is an other example of a construction worker / architect who became a monastic and missionary.
Also, I don’t know of any monastery that does not have some sort of enterprise from farming to icon making. Also, I have never been to a monastery that did not include a wider community of laymen who assisted and were pastored by the monastics. Most monasteries are not isolated hermitages, but centers for faithful.