Lutsk, August 9, 2022
Photo: news.church.ua
Archpriest Vladimir Litvenchuk of the Holy Annunciation Church in Lutsk, Volyn Province, Ukraine, was suspended from the priesthood in May for joining the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”
However, as OrthoChristian reported in June, he repented and returned to the Church after just three weeks, and was restored to his former position as rector.
In a recent interview, he spoke about what he experienced during his short time outside the Church and why he repented and returned.
As Fr. Vladimir explained, in western Ukraine, where he’s located, there is great pressure on the clergy and faithful of the canonical Church. Moreover, he was waiting for some decisive steps from the Church leadership, but he didn’t feel that the last Holy Synod session before the Council in May went far enough, “and this prompted me to take my own steps, which I later regretted very much,” Fr. Vladimir said.
According to the priest, it only took about a week to realize he had made a serious mistake—that he “was in the political structure of the ‘Orthodox Church of Ukraine,’ not the Church.”
“There were some things that happened to me during the Liturgy, that I simply couldn’t finish the service,” Fr. Vladimir briefly said of his personal experience. His wife also saw that he was inwardly suffering and warned him: “Take care, Batiushka, that you don’t regret it later.”
“The first week I lived on emotions; the remaining 14 days after the first week I lived on nothing but antidepressant pills,” the repentant priest recalled. “I couldn’t eat or sleep. Every day I asked God for the morning not to come.”
While a few parishioners followed Father into schism, the majority remained faithful to the Church and continued to gather for prayer. It was the prayers and pleas of the parishioners that brought him back to the Church, Fr. Vladimir later told them. He was also influenced by seeing churches seized in Volyn, and how good canonical priests were suffering physically.
Fr. Vladimir served with the schismatic “Metropolitan” Mikhail Zinkevich one time. “It was probably from that moment that I realized something was wrong. I remembered a completely different Liturgy where I served with the late Metropolitan Niphont.”
Reflecting upon the services he celebrated with other OCU clergy, Fr. Vladimir said: “Externally, everything seems to be fine, but there’s definitely something wrong.” He would have to fight with his conscience after such services.
According to the priest, it was the Council in Kiev on May 27, at which the Ukrainian Orthodox Church strengthened its independence, that was his final impetus to return to the Church. “Everything was made right; the decisions of the Council simply dotted all the ‘i’s. Everything that had troubled me, that had deprived me of peace, so to speak, was settled by the Council, and it was the turning point for me.”
By this point, Fr. Vladimir was suffering psychologically, under constant torment from his conscience, as he realized he had apostatized to “the political structure of the ‘Orthodox Church of Ukraine,’” and that he was no longer in the Church.
Having resolved to return, Fr. Vladimir traveled to Kiev to offer his repentance before His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, who “received me in a fatherly way, as a son.”
“I’m infinitely grateful to him for receiving me like a lost sheep in its 20-day ‘wandering.’ And when I was returning from Kiev, it was an entirely different state. It’s a great grace that today, in these tough times, he’s leading our Church,” Fr. Vladimir said.
Back at his parish, Fr. Vladimir knelt before everyone and begged their forgiveness, which they readily gave.
“They wept, saying it was just like Pascha, that today was our Pascha.”
“Of course, like everyone else, the war is oppressing, and all the terrible moments associated with it, but my conscience is calm. I realized that I live in peace with my conscience today, which tells me that after all we are in the Church, which, headed by our primate, is leading our ship to salvation,” Fr. Vladimir concluded.
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