Metropolitan Luke comments once again on the current untenable situation for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has been officially banned in its own countrya, despite that fact that it is the largest religious organization in Ukraine.
Christ is in our midst, dear readers!
On the eve of the Beheading of John the Baptist, I would like to once again address the situation that has developed around our Church today.
Our only “guilt” lies in our desire to follow God’s Law and our refusal to compromise with the world, to call evil good. The state treats the UOC (Ukrainian Orthodox Church) as a social institution. But the Church is a mystical organism, filled with grace, and governed by spiritual laws. The violation of these laws will lead to catastrophe.
When politicians try to impose their laws on the life of the Church, it is akin to wild aborigines, who cannot read or write, attempting to modernize the work of a nuclear power plant based on their own understanding. This is essentially what is happening now. People who don’t even know the “Our Father” prayer, who don’t know how to cross themselves, and have never read the Bible, have suddenly decided to teach us how to believe, whom to pray for, what language to pray in, and how to order our spiritual lives.
We are accused of being “Russian spies.” The devil never invents anything new. When the lands of present-day Ukraine were part of Poland and Orthodox dioceses were under the omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Polish authorities called Orthodox Ukrainians “Turkish spies” because their patriarch was based in Istanbul. This has already happened in history. Today, we recognize the absurdity of the accusations from the Polish government of that time. The accusations against us today are no less absurd.
However, in our time, Satan has gone further. For example, he now demands the “nationalization” of saints. That is, if a saint was born in a country that, according to Ukrainian law, is considered an aggressor, he can no longer be a saint. But if he was born in another country, it is permissible to pray to him. Previously, during wars with Turkey or when Romanians fought alongside Germany against us, the Church was never required to de-canonize Greek or Romanian saints. But now, Satanic thinking has evolved in this direction as well.
Equally absurd are demands to condemn any patriarch or patriarchate. For instance, Patriarch Bartholomew supported Turkish military operations against neighboring countries. Yet I have never heard of Orthodox Christians in Syria demanding their patriarch to condemn the head of the Phanar. There is currently a war in Gaza, and Lebanese territory is under bombardment. But are the authorities in Gaza pressuring the faithful of the Jerusalem Church to condemn Israel? Or are Lebanese authorities issuing ultimatums to the Antiochian Patriarchate to condemn the Jerusalem Patriarchate? Such things are impossible because the life of the Church is not tied to politics.
Equally absurd is the notion of equating national security with spiritual independence. Can it be called spiritual independence when the OCU (Orthodox Church of Ukraine) is dependent on the Phanar? And would it be right to forcibly transfer the fully self-governing UOC into dependence on the Ecumenical Patriarch, who himself is entirely dependent on Turkish authorities and his overseas patrons?
All of this amounts to the accusations of Herodias against our Mother Church, which desires only one thing—to cut off our heads.
