Kiev, December 20, 2019
Photo: Facebook
The well-known LGBT activist Ivan Ryabchiy attended the Bishops’ Council of the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” together with the “hierarchs” of the schismatic structure and a large delegation from the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which was held at St. Sophia’s Cathedral in Kiev on December 14, reports eadaily.com.
“After this, it becomes clear why Dumenko says the OCU is an ‘open church,’” reads a comment from the “Kiev Patriarchate”-friendly Facebook page За Українську Церкву (For a Ukrainian Church).
Recall that last December, Epiphany Dumenko, the primate of the schismatic OCU stated that the church needs to reform its stance on LGBT issues, in order to not be like the Russian Church. Additionally, the KyivPride gay pride organization was among the first to offer its congratulations following the “unification council” on December 15 that united the schismatic “Kiev Patriarchate” (KP) and the schismatic “Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.”
Photo: Facebook Ryabchiy, a glamorous journalist, translator of contemporary French fiction and philosophical literature, and leader of the Ukrainian LGBT movement, attended the Council as the translator for “Bishop” Mikhail (Philip) of Laroche, a former “hierarch” of the KP who in May announced his submission to the French Metropolis of the Patriarchate of Constantinople as per the conditions of the tomos granted to the OCU that forbade the new structure from having any parishes abroad (though not all communities have obeyed).
According to eadaily.com, the LGBT activist also styles himself as an ardent Ukrainian nationalist and was previously close to the leadership of the KP. He was awarded by “Patriarch” Philaret Denisenko in 2016 “for special merits in the revival of spirituality in Ukraine.”
In his own Facebook post, “Archbishop” Evstraty Zorya, the Deputy Head of the OCU’s Department for External Church Relations, who is often tasked with attempting to put out the OCU’s many fires, offered no response to the situation but instead remarked that the fact that the Facebook user who initially identified Ryabchiy knew who he was and the details of his biography “says much more about” him.
