The Ukrainian Orthodox Church Suffers with Christ

April 13, 2023
Fordham Orthodox Christian Studies Center, Greek Archdiocese, War in Ukraine

To help the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, please go here to sign a petition of support in English which we are continuously distributing. ROCOR is accepting donations to help the monks in the Kiev Petschersk Lavra, who are being starved out by the Ukrainian Government. Click here to read more and find the Donate link. To sign an Italian petition to save the Kiev Theological Academy and which is targeted at the European Union, please click here.

During Lent and Holy Week, most Orthodox Christians will spend extra time in prayer and fasting. We will engage in acts of self-denial for our spiritual benefit. We will contemplate the mysteries of Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection. We will attend many long services, after which a few of us will complain of being tired, or having hurting feet, or of having been bored at certain points.

In the West, most of us have had fairly comfortable lives devoid of the opportunity to truly suffer with Christ and for Him. For us, “martyrdom” is something we have only read about others experiencing.  Such a situation is so far out of our frame of reference, that when it happens to others, our first inclinations are often to downplay or dismiss the persecution entirely. Are such things even possible in today’s world? A question we ask while munching snacks on the couch watching TV.

This insouciance is incredibly destructive. Suffering for Christ is quite common in the world, especially for Orthodox Christians, but we in the West behave as if such things are but ancient history. We ignore the plight of other Orthodox Christians at our own peril, both spiritual and temporal. If we do not listen to their cries for help, we become spiritually callous. If we believe that the forces persecuting the Church elsewhere in the world cannot reach us here, it makes us dangerously complacent.

The canonical Orthodox Christians in Ukraine under His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine are suffering persecution that we cannot ignore. Thugs have attacked churches to seize them or even to destroy them. Priests and parishioners have been assaulted. Local governments have banned the UOC. The national government may follow suit. Over 200 monks at the Kiev Petschersk Lavra, along with the students and faculty of the Kiev Theological Academy, have been ordered to vacate the holiest site in Ukraine. The Lavra is under seige, defended only by prayer.

In the midst of all this chaos, Metropolitan Onuphry has taught the world how true Orthodox Christians respond to government persecution. In an address to the clergy and parishioners of the Khmelnitsky Diocese, which has been under violent attack by the schismatics of the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” and government authorities, His Beatitude called on his people to treat suffering for Christ as the honor it is, to reject all malice, to pray for their enemies,  all the while continuing to defend the holy sites of Orthodoxy:

Today the Lord has allowed you to suffer with Him. It’s a great honor for a Christian when he suffers with Christ. I understand that it’s hard for you, that there’s a lot of untruth, but the Lord also endured lies. We should thank God for everything. This doesn’t mean we should give up and be passive. We must protect our holy sites. We must defend our churches and monasteries by legal means. But we mustn’t have malice against people, against those who attack us, who abuse us.

 

We must pray for all: that the Lord may strengthen the good in the good, and give the evil a spirit of repentance. So that they understand that when you abuse another, it’s a sin, and you abuse yourself…

 

The Lord will never leave a man who entrusts himself to Him. So let us be faithful to God, let us love God, love all people, and the God of peace will be with us.

Metropolitan Onuphry’s words of love reminded me of the words of the traditional Latin hymn:

Ubi cáritas et amor, Deus ibi est. || Where charity and love are, there is God.

I also thought of the words of the Apostle Paul:

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. – 1 Corinthians 13:2

Metropolitan Onuphry and the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are abounding in charity and love. They are still contributing humanitarian relief to the Ukrainian military. They defend their churches with prayer and non-violence, even in the midst of vicious attacks. Witness the faith of this Ukrainian girl as she is questioned by thugs who want to see her beloved Church completely uprooted from her country.

To be united with God, a person must have a heart full of love and charity, even for his enemies. Maybe especially for his enemies. On the other hand, those that are devoid of love and charity are separated from God. Within unloving, uncharitable people, there is no divine grace. You cannot have both a hard heart towards your neighbor and the Holy Spirit dwelling within you.

What is most disturbing about the persecution in Ukraine, is the extent to which the hierarchy and clergy of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) are actively involved in all of it. An open letter of Archbishop of Bilogorodka Sylvester to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew made the situation clear:

We see a direct disregard not only for legal norms and democratic values but also for Christian morality. I must say clearly: the Tomos of autocephaly granted by Your Holiness to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine did not bring religious peace to Ukraine, but only provoked a new wave of confrontation and violence. Unfortunately, the hierarchs of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, having received the Tomos, took it as a sanction for violent actions against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This violence began already in 2019. But now, in the context of war, it is reaching its peak…

Supporters of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and of Western policy in Ukraine, loudly proclaim that the OCU is the canonical Church in Ukraine because of the tomos issued to it in January 2019. Below are some examples of the ongoing persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, all supported by the hierarchy, clergy, and members of the OCU. Would the authentic Church of Christ be involved in, let alone direct, such illegal, immoral, and unchristian actions?

In March 2023, the Lviv City Council transferred to the use of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine a land plot on which the church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in honor of St. Prince Volodymyr, the Equal-to-the-Apostles, had been located for many years. On April 6, 2023, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine demolished this church. The Deputy Mayor of Lviv for Urban Development, Lubomyr Zubach, released photos and videos of the atrocity. Before the demolition of the church, a priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine read some prayers near the church, after which he gave his blessing for the horrible act.

What kind of priest blesses the destruction of a Church?

On March 28, 2023, the locks of the Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ivano-Frankivsk were cut off. The priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church were driven out of the Church with tear gas. One of the priests had to receive emergency medical care. Priests of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine then entered the church and began to perform services there, announcing that the church was now under OCU jurisdiction.

What kind of priests of what kind of church would assault people with tear gas, regardless of what religion the victims were? Is that how you show the world the love of Christ?

On April 2, 2023, in Khmelnytsky, at the Intercession Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, a man in military uniform assaulted a priest during the divine liturgy, throwing him off the pulpit and knocking the Gospel out of his hands. Immediately afterwards, a crowd gathered at the church, held a vote and announced the transfer of the cathedral to the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

Since when do Christians steal houses of worship from others by violence?

This assault against a priest did not turn out the way at least one of the perpetrators intended. God struck him dead over his assault on a Church and putting his hands on the holy person of a priest.

The wicked may think they are immune from the judgment of God, but they are very much mistaken. Either in this world or the next, the innocent victims will have justice. 

In Chernivtsi Diocese, a man stopped his car, got out, and punched Bishop Nikita in the face. He then attacked one of the subdeacons, whose father and brother are currently serving in the Ukrainian army.

The man said he wasn’t worried about the authorities being called, claiming he knew everyone in the Ukrainian Security Services. He must have been right. The police declined to arrest him, even though he continue to threaten violence and started a fight in front of them.

Ukraine, very apparently, has a two-tiered justice system in which the Faithful of the UOC are totally unprotected. Laws apply to them, but do not protect them.

Nothing says love and charity quite like mobs screaming at grandmothers trying to go to Church. We could have posted other videos of young people, families, and monks being abused while praying, walking in processions, or just trying to enter a Church.

What kind of people would do this? What kind of people would support this?

This is a sampling of the fine people who turn out to protest and abuse the UOC while supporting the OCU. Do these people seem like sincere Christians to you? Do these seem like the kind of people that Orthodox priests should even be consorting with, much less directing their actions?

All of this persecution, both by mobs on the street and by police in uniform, has been condemned by the vast majority of the Orthodox world. The Patriarchates of Antioch, Jerusalem, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria along with other local churches such as OCA and ROCOR have all condemned this persecution. Even the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed its dismay at these actions of the Ukrainian Government, actively backed by OCU, that violate even the most basic understanding of religious freedom.

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How to Ignore and Justify Christian Persecution

But where is the government of the United States? The one that goes around lecturing the world about democratic values? Often enforcing those “values” with smart bombs? What about the Orthodox Christians associated with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, usually organized into “Greek” Archdioceses around the world? What about Orthodox academics at schools such as Fordham? Where are all their voices? How can they be so silent?

We Know Nothing

The United States is the only thing keeping the Ukrainian Government of President Zelenskyy afloat. Only around 22 million or so Ukrainians are left in the country. The economy is completely destroyed. Only billions in aid each month from the United States keeps the bills paid and the government functioning. Ukraine is no longer so much a country as it is a US military colony. If the Zelenskyy regime is persecuting the UOC, then the United States approves of and supports it. That, of course, violates the American commitment to religious freedom and human rights. In fact, the US is backing actions in Ukraine that would be illegal at home under its own Constitution. How can the US defend such hypocrisy?

Well it can’t, which is why the US Government has to pretend none of this is happening. Ignorance is bliss. Take this exchange between Vedant Patel, the Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the Department of State, and a reporter. The Department of State’s transcript from 4/10/2023 press briefing reads:

QUESTION: Thank you. Is the State Department aware of violent attacks on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church parishes taking place now?

 

MR PATEL: I’m not aware of these specific reports. Can you expand a little bit?

 

QUESTION: Last week alone, there were dozens of attacks on the church and churchgoers in Ukraine. People are capturing churches in Ukraine. Have you heard anything about it?

 

MR PATEL: Again, I haven’t seen those reports, so I couldn’t speak to them, but we’re happy to check and get back to you.

It isn’t just Mr. Patel. Whenever current or former high-ranking American officials comment on the Church situation in Ukraine, it is only ever to praise the OCU. No one in officialdom ever seems to acknowledge the anti-Christian actions our American tax dollars fund. Fortunately for those in power, the Western media willingly accepts such lies.

Not just American officials take a “we know nothing” approach. The Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria, along with their assorted representatives, also largely pretend that Metropolitan Onuphry and the UOC do not exist. When they do acknowledge the ecclesiastical situation in Ukraine, they pretend that the conflict is between a native Ukrainian Church versus the “Russian” Church. Only, there is no Russian Church in Ukraine.

Focus on the Russians

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is comprised of Ukrainians. The UOC supports the Ukrainian War effort both materially and through prayer. According to official data, the church renders great assistance to the army, internally displaced persons, and the needy. The UOC assistance to the army has reached nearly a million dollars, and more than 180 tons of humanitarian aid have been delivered for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Hugely impressive numbers given that people in Ukraine are the poorest in Europe. In addition, at the UOC’s main council in May 2022, a number of decisions were adopted to break off all remaining ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Ukrainian Government and OCU ignore all this in order to pretend that the UOC is a “Russian” body, and thus the ongoing campaign of lies, hate, and suppression is entirely justified. Many supporters of the Ecumenical Patriarch do the same thing. Having interacted with many of them, we can attest that their hearts are stone. There is no love or kindness in such people.

There is no evidence that the UOC is a group of 5th Columnists. However, even if there were Russian sympathizers or even Russian collaborators in the UOC, how could that justify abusing grandmothers, children, innocent priests and monks? How could that justify committing acts of violence in houses of worship? Profaning holy objects? Even destroying churches outright?

The presence of some Russian collaborators could never justify such collective punishment towards the people and such grave insults towards God. Further, nothing Russia does, or does not do, could possibly justify the Ukrainian Government persecuting its own citizens. The UOC has no control over the Russian Church, the Russian State, or the Russian Military. Blaming Ukrainians for Russian actions is as illogical as it is cruel. On the other hand, the US government is up-to-its-neck in Ukrainian affairs, which means American citizens should have some say in what is happening as we are complicit in Christian persecution if we are silent.

Many “Greek” priests, as shown above, are hung up on the power and authority of the Ecumenical Patriarch. In their opinion, their Patriarch in Istanbul can declare who is canonical, and who is not, on his own authority as “first without equals” in the Orthodox world. For those considered “non-canonical” in Ukraine (the UOC), there is no love or charity. Whatever tragedy befalls them is their own fault, because Metropolitan Onuphry and the UOC have dared to defy Constantinople.

Who would support treating any human being this way, regardless of what religion he or she is? God does not live in such vicious hearts, whether the person is ordained or not.

Another common redirect is for supporters of the persecution to focus on the supposed hypocrisy of UOC’s supporters, even those of Patriarchal rank. If you have not condemned Russia, in the opinion of some Orthodox commentators, then you are not allowed to criticize the Ukrainian Government persecuting its own citizens. Fr. Bohdan Hladio, a Ukrainian Orthodox priest within the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and a PhD student at the Toronto School of theology, makes this case:

Since the announcement of the Ukrainian government’s cancellation of the rental agreement the Onuphryite church has been posting letters of support from various patriarchates and hierarchs for the monks as well as condemnations of the Ukrainian authorities on its website. It is difficult to read such texts, however, when hundreds of thousands of military personnel (Russian as well as Ukrainian!) as well as tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed and wounded, when between one-third and one-half of Ukrainian citizens have had to flee their homes, and when civilians and civilian infrastructure are attacked on a daily basis by the Russian military—all with the enthusiastic blessing and support of the Patriarch of Moscow.

 

I would invite those who of late have become deeply concerned with the state of religious liberty in Ukraine to first study the state of religious liberty in Russia and the temporarily occupied territories. While the Onuphryite Church in Ukraine is not being banned, the existence of Ukrainian Orthodox (and other) Churches and cultural institutions in Russia is forbidden, along with many other religious, cultural, and human rights groups. The question I would propose to those who are so concerned about the state of civil rights in Ukraine is “What have you done to support human rights in Russia?”

 

Likewise, I cannot help but wonder why it is that most if not all of the patriarchates and hierarchs who support the Onuphryite monks in Kyiv have not been able to find the honesty and courage to openly and categorically condemn Russia’s unprovoked war and particularly the Patriarch of Moscow’s clearly anti-Christian support of it?”

Before we get to the real point of the quote for our purposes today, let’s discuss a few other things Fr. Bohdan had to say. Fr. Bohdan’s first paragraph excellently summarizes some key points as to why this war needs to end immediately through sincere peace negotiations. Continuing this war is only going to make a terrible situation even worse for the Ukrainians.

Fr. Bohdan also writes a horribly dismissive epithet directed at the UOC – “Onuphryite”. Prior to the end of 2018, when Poroshenko and the US Security State came calling in Istanbul, the entire Orthodox world (Patriarch Bartholomew included) recognized the UOC as the only canonical Church in Ukraine. Thanks to changes in Ukrainian and global politics, the UOC has, according to Fr. Bohdan, gone from the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church to the personal cult of Metropolitan Onuphry.

We also see the lie Fr. Bohdan and others tell about the UOC “not being banned”. While the national ban of the UOC is still pending, local bans have been enacted in many places. Even without legal bans, de facto bans enforced by mob violence have taken hold.

But let’s not digress too much.

The real heart of the quote from Fr. Bohdan, and this is heard quite often, boils down to this: you are a hypocrite if you criticize the treatment of the UOC by the Ukrainian Government, without also condemning the Russian State’s and the Russian Church’s various actions in this war. According to Fr. Bohdan, the Patriarch of Georgia can’t call out the Ukrainian Government for its persecution of its own citizens, unless it is equally willing to condemn Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine as being unprovoked, genocidal, and immoral.

To which anyone with an ounce of logic replies, “Garbage!” How can the hypocrisy of any third party impact the immorality of the Ukrainian Government and the OCU waging a campaign of violent persecution against Ukrainian citizens?

You can ask Orthodox hierarchs to condemn both the persecution of the UOC and the Russian military operation. What you can’t rationally argue is that failure to condemn Russia either justifies Ukrainian actions against its own citizens, or somehow requires the Orthodox and international communities to remain silent. Christian persecution is either wrong or it is not, regardless of what anyone else is doing or saying.

Fr. Bohdan isn’t really trying to convince the Orthodox world to condemn Russia. Rather, he is simply trying to convince people that since the bishops are hypocrites, you should ignore their just condemnation of the persecution in Ukraine.

Another variation of the “hypocrite” theme is to note that Metropolitan Onuphry supports the Ukrainian Government in its war effort, so anyone supporting the UOC must do so as well. Metropolitan Onuphry is in the worst possible position imaginable. He is leading his flock the best he knows how. He is a sincere and loving Christian bishop. We do not judge him for the actions he takes to protect his people.

However, I am not Ukrainian. My troops are not under fire. As a citizen of the US,  I am free to have a different perspective. I believe that the US foreign policy establishment is using Ukrainian blood for American objectives. I believe that we are preventing needed peace negotiations in order to finance more death. I believe this war needs to end as soon as possible, and that can only happen if the US ceases to foment war.

You can support Metropolitan Onuphry and the UOC, while not wishing to commit hundreds of billions of more dollars to funding a war not in Ukraine’s interest, and which Ukraine has already lost.

Downplay the Persecution

If you can’t distract from, or justify, the persecution then you can downplay it.  That was the strategy of Aristotle Papananikolaou from the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham. In his opinion, the forced removal of over 200 monks from the Kiev Petschersk Lavra, along with the students and faculty of the Kiev Theological Academy, is just “people getting kicked out of a building”:

He downplays the seriousness of the situation, and pulls the “what about Russia” card in the same Tweet. Ironically, Aristotle, one of the editors of the Website Public Orthodoxy, was proud to inform us that his site published an appeal from Archbishop Sylvester, Rector of the Kiev Theological Academy and Seminary, to save the academy from eviction and extinction. Among the things Aristotle published in that article is this quote:

Nowadays, the Kyiv Theological Academy is the leading educational institution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, training candidates for the priesthood and the staff of church institutions. Over 250 students are enrolled full-time at the Academy at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. More than 500 students study by correspondence. The full-time students live in the Lavra dormitories. Accommodations and meals are free for all full-time students.

 

Now the state demands from us in an ultimatum to release the buildings where the Academy has been situated for more than thirty years. If this eviction takes place (and now, alas, all this is going to happen), the leading educational institution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has more than 400 years of history, would simply cease to exist.

 

However, the Academy has nowhere to move. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has no buildings that could serve as equivalent replacements. Needless to say, the state offers us nothing in return. Therefore, now the Academy is on the verge of extinction. I sincerely wish I were mistaken, but all indications are that the liquidation of the Academy is one of the state’s goals.

One would ask, is this situation really just some “people getting kicked out of a building”? How can an academic be that uncaring about the extinction of a 400-year-old Theological academy? How can a man who makes his living teaching and writing about God be that callous towards innocent students who just want to serve God?

Ubi cáritas et amor, Deus ibi est. || Where charity and love are, there is God.

Fair warning to those who persecute the Orthodox Church. Not only do you deprive yourself of grace, but you will only end up strengthening the Church. Archbishop of Bilogorodka Sylvester to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew explained that in his open letter to the EP:

The history of the Church shows that any persecution against Christians only led to the internal strengthening of the Church. Therefore, even today, we believe that the suffering that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is going through will only help it to be internally purified and spiritually strengthened. We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, through the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints of the Ukrainian land, will not leave us with His all-powerful help.

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

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