Constantinople, November 8, 2018
Photo: Facebook The Ecumenical Patriarchate knowingly aligned itself with clergymen of ill repute when it lifted the ecclesiastical sanctions against Philaret Denisenko and Makary Maletich and received all of their respective groups’ clergy—at least in the person of Philaret Denisenko, the leader of the schismatic “Kiev Patriarchate” (KP).
Denisenko, the former canonical Metropolitan of Kiev, was charged with serious sins and crimes by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 1991, including that he was “extremely cruel and arrogant,” that his personal life was a temptation to the faithful (it was long publicly known that, despite being a monk, he had a wife and children), that he broke an oath sworn before the Cross and Gospel, that he slandered and ignored the decisions of the Church, and that he created a schism in Ukraine. Due to these charges, he was defrocked in 1992, and in 1997 he was anathematized for continuing his schismatic activity.
It is also widely believed that he is responsible for the death of his predecessor and several other schismatic “bishops.”
The Russian Orthodox Church brought its canonical sanctions against Denisenko to the attention of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1992 and 1997, and Patriarch Bartholomew responded to His Holiness Patriarch Alexei I of Moscow that he acknowledged and accepted these sanctions.
Now, in his first personal meeting with a representative of the KP since his acceptance of them into his Church, Pat. Bartholomew has awarded a patriarchal cross to a KP priest who believes the violent death of Russians is an answer to prayer and who advocates for the legalization of drugs and prostitution.
The “priest,” Alexander Dedyukhin, accompanied Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to Constantinople on Saturday, when the head of state signed a joint statement with Pat. Bartholomew, further declaring the intention to create an autocephalous Ukrainian Church.
Dedyukhin posted a photo of himself with Pat. Bartholomew and the cross on his Facebook page, where, interestingly, he expresses his thanks to the President’s press service in Russian, not Ukrainian.
Dedyukhin is well-known as a scandalous priest, having made a number of shocking statements, ranging from blasphemous to criminal.
In particular, he has stated that:
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the Holy Fire is not from God, but that the Patriarch of Jerusalem lights his candles from a lampadas at the order of NTV—the first television station to broadcast the Holy Fire ceremony;
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the participants in 2016’s All-Ukrainian Procession for peace were just “Moscow vampires;”
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the Maidan was an act of the Holy Spirit and that the holy Apostles did not need Molotov cocktails because they had the fire of the Holy Spirit, but for those of us living outside that paradise life, they are necessary;
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2017’s St. Petersburg subway explosion, that killed at least 15, was an answer to the KP’s prayers: “We prayed on Sunday that the Lord would deliver us from the invasion of foreigners, and look, in the northern capital of these militant foreigners, there was a terrorist attack. Are these events related? Of course, yes. We entreat God to free us and that all the hatred and evil directed against us would return where it came from. “ He also added that a Christian should not offer condolences in such a situation;
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the only way to “forgive” aggressors is to kill them: “Forgiveness comes in different forms. There is forgiveness through the scope of an automatic—that is how to forgive an aggressor, sending him 6 to 12 grams of love to one of his vital organs. This also frees us. The main thing is not to forget the simple truth: a dead enemy is no longer an enemy. A dead enemy is just a corpse. And we gain freedom by forgiving as much as we can;”
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the canonical Ukrainian Church should be allowed to stay in Ukraine, but only “small and persecuted;”
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prostitution and drugs and anything else we want should be legalized: “Yes, I am for allowing everything: shotguns, prostitution, marijuana—what else would you like?” he writes, arguing that, “Jesus Christ gave us all freedom.”
Facebook post where Dedyukhin refers to those in the Cross procession as "Moscow vampires." Screenshot provided by spzh.news “Fr.” Alexander’s hierarch, “Patriarch” Philaret Denisenko, has made very similar statements. In November 2016, stated, “We should not think that the population of Donbass is innocent in these sufferings. It is guilty! And it must expiate its guilt by torment and blood,” adding, “Did you vote for federalization in the referendum? Yes, you did. Did you sin? You did! So here is the consequence of your sin. If you had not sinned, if you had not voted, then you would have not suffered so much.”
Meanwhile, another representative of the KP, “Hieromonk” Bogdan Kostyuk, has been known to share Hitler speeches and videos analyzing the secrets of the Nazi leader’s oratory skills on his personal Facebook page, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
Two videos about Hitler shared on "Hieromonk" Bogdan's page. Photo: Facebook The Hitler videos have either been removed since the UOJ’s report or are visible only to friends, though the UOJ’s report provides screenshots of the videos being shared on Kostyuk’s page.
He also shares posts on the activities of Right Sector, a nationalist terrorist organization in Ukraine that is responsible for seizing churches and beating up clergy and faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He also keeps his followers up to date on the activities of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
Moreover, “Hieromonk” Bogdan is himself serving in a church in the Kherson Province that was seized by the KP through deception and threats, writes canonical priest Fr. Gennady Shkil on his Facebook page. His post also contains the screen shots of Kostyuk’s Hitler posts.
OrthoChristian has also reported on a newly-consecrated KP church where the “iconography” is filled with Nazi symbolism.
According to Archbishop Job (Getcha), a representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, all of these men are now clergy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
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