Mt. Athos, October 20, 2023
Abbot Ephraim speaks with the schismatic Vasily Lilo. Photo: World Ecclesiastical News
Abbot Ephraim of the Athonite monastery of Vatopedi, who once supported the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and even called on the people of Ukraine to remain faithful to Christ in this Church, concelebrated with clerics of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” on Sunday, October 15.
In particular, he served with a priest who personally led the seizure of a Ukrainian church during which the priest and parishioners were violently beaten.
The service was held at Xenophontos Monastery on Mt. Athos. The Liturgy was celebrated by Metropolitan Joachim of Bursa of the Patriarchate of Constantinople together with Abbot Alexios of Xenophontos, Abbot Gabriel of Pantocrator Monastery, Abbot Ephraim of Vatopedi, and other clerics, including “Priest” Vasily Lilo of the schismatic OCU, reports World Ecclesiastical News.
Xenophontos and Pantocrator Monasteries have openly supported the schismatics since their organization was formed in 2018 and granted “autocephaly” in early 2019. Abbot Alexios of Xenophontos attended the enthronement of “Metropolitan” Epiphany Dumenko in February 2019, and it was even a monk of Xenophontos who physically wrote and decorated the “tomos of autocephaly” given to the OCU. Pantocrator Monastery was the first to welcome the schismatics on Mt. Athos, allowing them to serve the Liturgy.
Abbot Ephraim serves with the schismatic Vasily Lilo. Photo: World Ecclesiastical News
This is likely the first time that Abbot Ephraim has personally concelebrated with any representatives of the schismatics.
In 2015, during a visit from His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine and a canonical UOC delegation, the abbot stood up for Orthodoxy:
With a heavy heart I am anxious about the present state of the Ukraine and from Holy Mount Athos I am asking the Ukrainian people to remain faithful to the canonical Church, the canonical primate and the canonical Synod. We want the Ukrainian residents to support the canonical Church. It is important for one’s salvation, to obey the canonical Church.
However, in 2019, he too was sent to attend Dumenko’s enthronement, under threat of suspension, but upon arrival in Kiev suffered a heart attack, rendering him unable to attend. However, another monk of Vatopedi did attend and concelebrate in the schismatic service.
A few days later, a schismatic delegation visited Mt. Athos (when they first served at Pantocrator Monastery) and was permitted to celebrate the Liturgy in Vatopedi.
Another blow came from Vatopedi when Abbot Ephraim simply declared in a web broadcast in December 2020 that Mt. Athos is powerless to influence the Ukrainian situation.
His Eminence Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye, the most outspoken hierarch of the canonical UOC harshly criticized the abbot, recalling how he once stood on the side of truth, and how the UOC had stood by him when he himself was persecuted and imprisoned a decade ago.
The Metropolitan lamented:
What a sad sight! On the one hand, captured churches, beaten people, altars and Holy Gifts thrown into the mud on the street, and on the other hand, comely elders smiling sweetly and talking about the universal love of God and the need for unity and spiritual peace. What is this? Is it cunning, or unwillingness to know the truth? Or is it a betrayal, clothed in the robes of obedience?...
He could have been the new Maximus the Confessor or Mark of Ephesus, but he didn’t want to. Apparently, the softness of the abbot’s chair and the gilding of the abbot’s staff were dearer to Fr. Ephraim than Truth and love for Christ. It’s a pity, a great pity, that in the respected abbot, the genetics of sin have won over the new man in Christ. After all, he had the chance to become a holy confessor of the faith of Christ during his lifetime, but it tuns out he chose obedience to the Istanbul bandit…
***
The “priest” Vasily Lilo of the schismatic OCU personally led the violent seizure of St. Michael’s Church in the village of Boyarka in the Kiev Province in June. The mob used tear gas against the Orthodox Christians who were prayerfully present to protect their church and also inflicted physical damage against the church and the people.
Following the incident, the canonical rector, Archpriest Vladimir Paraschak, suffered a heart attack, and his Matushka suffered a broken arm and leg. Parishioners were injured as well.
Lilo is in fact a high-ranking functionary in the schismatic OCU and visits Mt. Athos quite often, as well as Patriarch Bartholomew and the primates and bishops who support him in his invasion of Ukrainian Church territory:
Photo: spzh.news
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