The world has witnessed over the last year a shocking military collision between Russia and Ukraine. Yet behind the military conflict is a spiritual conflict between the historic Orthodox Church which has existed in Ukraine for over a thousand years, and a new nationalist sect created by the patriarch of Istanbul in 2018.
The true shepherds of the Orthodox Church have always stood faithfully to defend the faithful, whether they were persecuted by pagan Rome, oppressed by the Ottoman Turks, or martyred by the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century.
Yet the same temptation—the temptation to silence because of fear, or a desire to maintain a position of prestige when faced with intimidation from enemies of Christ’s Church—remains the evil one’s greatest tool against the Church today as much as it was in centuries past.
Perhaps the last few years have softened up our will, making it harder for Orthodox Christians to stand during times of persecution. Perhaps one should not be surprised when state-sponsored soldiers in the Ukrainian capital seize churches and monasteries, assault priests and monks of the canonical Orthodox Church, and forcibly install the members of the new nationalist sect in the holy places. Perhaps nothing should surprise us in a time of war.
Yet for those Orthodox Christians blessed to live outside the war zone, who say they seek to preserve the communion of the Orthodox Church from the safety of their homelands, silence is uncharacteristic of a Christian.
A few years of forced silence under state-imposed restrictions on basic liberties has made too many Orthodox Christian laity and bishops willing to forget the lessons of totalitarianism. The temptation to popularity with our elites is too great for many in the Church, and it makes some do things they should not do.
Over the last three years, we have seen bishops who would stand with Marxists, in order to gain praise as leaders in racial reconciliation—knowing all the time these same activists are attacking our faith and its teachings, and burning our neighborhoods.
This is the price of popularity with the world, when we sacrifice our brethren in Christ.
We have seen bishops who have forbidden their priests from defending the jobs of their faithful—instead siding with state medical authorities, and costing thousands of Orthodox Christians their livelihoods.
This is the price of popularity with the world, when we sacrifice our brethren in Christ.
We have even seen an Orthodox bishop—may God spare him—publicly defend the right of a mother to kill her unborn child, putting to death his own conscience in the process, and leading to the abyss the consciences of those in his spiritual care.
This is the price of popularity with the world, when we sacrifice our brethren in Christ.
Now, should it surprise us, when confronted with the persecuted canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine, that such compromised consciences might be faced with a dilemma? It is at times such as these that Christ is calling us to shake off our silence, even in the light of past mistakes, and to raise our voices—in person or in writing—in defense of those in the Church in Ukraine, who are being oppressed by fraudsters disguised as clergy, by a fraudulent sect created by an ambitious patriarch with papal ambitions.
What can our bishops and priests do at a time like this?
Firstly, they can direct each parish to serve formal prayers at each Liturgy for the deliverance of the canonical Church—not merely euphemistic “prayers for peace”, which any stranger could utter, but the prayers of true Orthodox brethren, for the deliverance of the suffering flock of Christ in the canonical Church in Ukraine now being torn apart by wolves clothed as sheep.
Secondly, they can make pilgrimage—personally, and prepared to make their case—to the halls of political power, and lay the case for the religious freedom of the Orthodox Christians in Ukraine before those who now support the regime that is persecuting the Church, as well as those who have the power to call publically to help them. This carries with it many risks—not unlike the risks faces by the saints of the early Church. Those who are real men will decide if they will stand, with God’s help, or run away.
Thirdly, they can cease commemoration and liturgical concelebration with those sectarians in the West who aid the wolves persecuting the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, who channel funds to them, or who commune with them at the Holy Table. Well must we remember the words of the Apostle Paul, who reminds us to be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)
The land war in Eastern Europe is the business of politicians and generals: it is a battle that is not the primary responsibility of the Church, for which we must minister to all involved.
The spiritual war against the canonical Orthodox Church—the attacks on priests and faithful, the ransacking of holy monasteries, the introduction of laws banning our Orthodox Christian faith—these are the business of the Church and its shepherds. The shepherds must see to this business, and not be cowed into further silence.
Our bishops and priests can find their voices for all sorts of matters which appeal to the chattering classes. It is time for us to find our courage to be men, even when the chattering classes might be against us, just as they are against Our Lord.
It is the business of the bishops (and by extension, the priests)—indeed, the very calling of the clergy by God—to say to the wolves surrounding the Church as did the new bishop of the Diocese of Kirovograd did in recent days, Look at the icon of Christ, and tell Him that you are banning His Church.
The shepherd's staff is carried by each bishop to defend the flock—the Church Fathers remind us that this is the symbol of the authority to fight off the wolves attacking the Church. Such responsibility also extends to each member of the priesthood, to be exercised against the falsehoods spoken by those who would draw the faithful out of the canonical Orthodox Church.
Saint Gregory Palamas reminds us, the silence of the clergy is atheism. The bishops and the priests in the rest of the world must now speak for the persecuted Orthodox Church in Ukraine, now suffering at the hands of the Ukrainian state at the behest of a schismatic sect.
It is a failure of our vocation in the priesthood to do any less.
Archpriest Geoffrey Korz is a priest in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
