Yet Another Split in Ukraine! Schismatic New Church Forces Government Employes to Attend Service!

Speaking about our next subject we always stress that we're not priests to judge rightfully.

Speaking about our next subject we always stress that we're not priests to judge rightfully. However, this Saturday's situation about the Ukrainian church is rather political. Also, it looks like a violation of human rights — it seems wrong when people want to pray in one church but are forced to go to the other. Anyway, we should remember the name of Epiphanius or Epifan in common parlance. It's a male name that means "manifested" in Greek. But the new head of the Ukrainian Church Epiphanius (secular name Dumenko) didn't manifest but rather was presented today in Kiev.

Alexander Balitsky with the details on how the council was convoked.

 

The crowd was brought to the St. Sophia Cathedral long before dawn. Busses from the regions were driving along the Khreshchatyk. Only those on the list could enter the square. Teachers, medical workers, and village administration employees. The public sector workers didn't hide the fact that they were ordered to come.

- The administration organized this trip.

- Did they pay for it?

- Sure.

- I see you've got new flags.

- They gave us these flags. The church paid for everything.

She means the schismatic Church of the Kiev Patriarchate. The crowd consists of Autocephals and Greek Catholics some dressed in military uniform.

"Are you cold? Let's sing the anthem!"

"Glorious spirit of Ukraine shines and lives forever".

The so-called Unification Council was supposed to begin at 10 a.m. but Poroshenko appeared only at noon.

Pyotr Poroshenko: "Thank you've come here and are praying that the Ukrainian Church will be strong! Glory to heroes".

A news agency with ties to Constantinople explained the three-hour delay. The Ecumenical Patriarchate allegedly asked President Poroshenko to deliver on his promise to invite ten archbishops of the Canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church in order to make the gathering legitimate. From the very beginning, the UOC refused to talk to the schismatics who aren't recognized by any other Church. The Security Service had to openly interfere.

Agapetus, Metropolitan: "Security officials came to me and offered to take me to Kiev to talk to Metropolitan Simeon. We drove there but I took my own car."

Andrey Derkach, member of Verkhovna Rada: "What happened to Metropolitan Agapetus only confirms that our government doesn't refrain from exerting pressure."

Simeon, whom Agapetus was supposed to talk to, was present at the Council together with another hierarch of the UOC. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church reacted immediately.

Archbishop Clement: "In this case, those people chose to be excommunicated. We can only sadly acknowledge that".

The leader of the canonical Church Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine Onufriy didn't comment on the schism. He's already told Bartholomew everything. Recently, he awarded the winners of the Future of Ukraine child competition. Unlike those who came to the Sophia Square today, he's the only remaining symbol of faith in Ukraine.

- Whom would you like to see as Patriarch of the new church?

- Onufriy used to come to our district, we know him pretty well. He's a good man.

- He refused to participate.

- I didn't know that. But we support Onufriy.

The Council was governed by the exarchs sent by Bartholomew and President Poroshenko sitting to the right from Metropolitan Emmanuel of France who arrived from Istanbul. He openly talks about interfering with the Church.

Pyotr Poroshenko, President of Ukraine: "The state did everything to make our Church independent from Moscow. Now, the future of Ukraine depends on you. You must choose the leader and the status. The tomos for the new leader is already in Fanarion".

While Poroshenko was encouraging his people to ultimately sever all spiritual ties to Moscow alarming news came from Vinnitsa — unknown captured the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral, took the keys from the guards. The Vinnitsa Eparchy refuted the news. But here comes new information — the Eparchy was forced to refute the news. At the Sophia Square, the nationalists were already planning to seize Kiev Pechersk Lavra.

- Do you think it's necessary to liberate the churches from the Moscow occupation after holding this Council and getting a tomos?

Dmytry Korchinskiy: "Definitely. We must liberate them from the Moscow occupation, amicably but insistently by the order of the Police Chief."

The schismatics have been long waiting to snatch the Orthodox relics. Now, they've got a chance. Mikhail Denysenko (Filaret) who was dreaming of becoming a Patriarch promised Bartholomew to not run for office. At the Council, he didn't even have his Patriarch Cowl on. However, he had his loyal protege Epiphanius by his side who was elected the leader of the new church body by majority vote.

Pyotr Poroshenko: 2We struggled to get the Autocephaly".

The schismatics who used to dream of independence can now wave it goodbye.

Alexander Volkov, Spokesman of Moscow Patriarch: "We can't call it anything but a farce. It's a political project obviously and explicitly tied to the policy of the Ukrainian government aimed at maintaining their electoral status".

It seems that the schismatics will celebrate their newly acquired worth by lashing out at the priests of the UOC which will affect millions of Ukrainian believers who are being forced to pray at the new artificial church body. At least Poroshenko gets to earn some points with his loyal voters on the eve of the presidential elections.

Alexander Balitsky, Elizaveta Beryozkina, Pavel Alexeyev. Vesti on Saturday.