Another New Year is upon us; the past year is something many would like to forget. So, we will not dwell on it here—instead, we will make a wish and say a prayer for the year to come.
May the sick and the suffering find healing and succor.
May the hungry find sustenance, and those shivering in the cold be warmed.
May seemingly hopelessly entrenched hatred be turned to forgiveness.
May hardened hearts be softened and filled with compassion and Christian love.
And may all come to know the peace that passeth understanding (Phillip 4:7).
Something of which, gratefully, more and more people have become aware during the past year is the ongoing persecution against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry. Much has been said about the fact that although the UOC declared its independence from the Moscow Patriarchate at the beginning of Russia’s special military operation, citing this as a reason why the Ukrainian government has no legal right to ban it, we would like to mention something we believe has largely been overlooked. And this is the very motivation behind this persecution and ban on the original, historical Orthodox Church in Ukraine—which is being legislated by the government, and carried out by nationalist factions. This division was also cunningly and painstakingly engineered and supported by foreign agents, including a former U.S. Secretary of State.
Why was this pushed? Because these forces are intent upon dividing the people of Ukraine from the people of Russia for geopolitical reasons. It is clear to them that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was not just a canonical part of the Moscow Patriarchate; their union and cooperation was a unifying factor and creative synergy benefitting all ethnicities and peoples across the vast expanse of the Moscow Patriarchate’s canonical jurisdiction.
All too often overlooked is the fact that Ukrainians and Russians spring from the same Orthodox Christian roots; they share a magnificent civilization and a complicated, yet glorious, history. They have complimentary characteristics, and their combined gifts once made them powerful and unstoppable. Those dividing forces want all to forget this shared history, to forget the good that came out of this union, and remember only the bad, without even weighing one against the other—because from our Orthodox Christian perspective the good will clearly be seen to outweigh the bad.
To evoke thoughtfulness about this intentionally ignored truth, we cite a private message from Ukraine to an Orthodox priest in Russia, Archpriest Gennady Skilya. It was written by a priest who chose to stay with his parish, and it’s about how clergy are living in Ukraine today. It is a cry from the heart about the current reality, and yet it is a ray of hope for the faithful everywhere.
God bless you. I thank God for the chance to be in touch with you—and through you, with all our Orthodox, God-loving people. Thank you for your prayers and for caring, not only about me, but about all Orthodox Christians who live in a country that was once beautiful and relatively peaceful, and is now living under persecution. I want to share a few thoughts.
Let this be an honest statement of my faith and my beliefs. There are many people here who think the same way. I sincerely ask you, people of Great Russia, not to see all Ukrainians as schismatics or traitors. And of course, we have more than enough scoundrels among us too. I can’t describe everything that is happening here, but I will try to show the reality as I see it myself.
For some time now, I’ve been living in forced semi-reclusion. I call it “semi-reclusion” because from time to time I still have to leave the house—always at my own risk—to serve in the church, give Communion to the sick, and bury the dead. Like most men in my country, I am now being hunted. My parish is praying for me. Please pray as well.
You know, the power of this prayer is something you can really feel. Men are disappearing every day. Even those who supposedly have exemptions or deferments. Some have managed to leave—there are fewer of them now. The rest are hiding. Some haven’t left their apartments or houses for years. Many people I know have vanished from sight: you know they’re still here, still around, but you never see them anywhere.
In the villages, it’s common for people in hiding to come out only at night. They steal just to survive. Over the past six months, kidnappings of clergy from our canonical Church have sharply increased. The scale is huge. What gets written about it online is just a drop in the ocean. Only schismatics and sectarians feel free. For them, it’s a green light everywhere.
There are clergy from our own Church who try to convince everyone that there is no persecution of faith in Ukraine and no lawlessness. That’s not true. They are either deliberately lying or are under some kind of demonic delusion. Everything is soaked in a spirit of godlessness, satanism, malice, hatred, and madness. You start to feel as if you’re living in some parallel fairy-tale reality, like the ones once described by Lewis, Ronnie Kennerly, or Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings, where evil is growing stronger and poisoning everything around it.
Ukraine has become that Middle-Earth over which darkness has descended from the West, from Mordor. But it will not last forever. We believers know that God’s power is revealed in help. Even a small flame defeats the darkness. Even a single voice on the side of good makes evil weaker. During this dark period of our history, I kept asking myself, How can I take part in the fight against evil? Yes, I stayed faithful to the Church. I remained with my flock. I did not run away.
But now the time has come when I can be seized at any moment. And I will not agree to any compromise or deal with the current regime. Yes, I am afraid. I ask the Lord to give me strength—not to lose heart, not to give in to fear. I understand very well how all of this could end for me.
Right now, while there is still time, I am raising my voice out of this darkness and reaching toward you, toward the light. I am calling out to you: Good is stronger. Know this—small lights are still burning here.
Pure prayer is being lifted up to God, and that means evil is not all-powerful. I beg you: Love the Orthodox faith. Love your churches. Fill them. This is real power—the kind that can stand against evil. Protect your country and your families from everything that has happened here to us. Do not let yourselves be deceived or tempted by promises of a “better life.” You are the most fortunate people.
And what happens to those who do not value what they have? Look at the people of Ukraine. The Lord severely chastises the ungrateful.
May we all enter the New Year with firm faith that God’s truth will prevail, and that even the deepest wounds can be healed—if only we desire this and pray for it.
