Priest to Dumenko: What are your fruits? Tears, fights, and forged documents?
A UOC cleric responded to statements by OCU head Epiphany Dumenko about the “restoration” of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
The priest described as cynical the interviews given by the head of the OCU, in which he claims that his organization supposedly knows how to “restore” and “win.” According to the priest, the actual activity of Dumenko’s structure has nothing to do with creation.
“You do not know how – you are talentless. What you know how to do is steal, rob, and produce forged documents. You act like a thief in the night, like a robber, coming to our shrines,” the cleric stressed, noting that the OCU has not been granted by God the ability to build or create anything of its own.
The priest recalled the Gospel principle that a tree is known by its fruits. “What are your fruits? Tears? Fights? Humiliation? Slander? Forgery of documents?” he asked Dumenko rhetorically. The cleric pointed out that the OCU’s “achievements” consist of beating priests and driving believers out of houses they had built up with their own hands.
The priest also questioned the OCU’s ability to sustain prayer life in the seized premises of the Lavra. He recalled that before the monks were expelled, the Lavra had truly been “a living organism,” where prayer never ceased for even an hour. “There used to be nine Liturgies a day in the Lavra, not counting prayer services, akathists, and memorial services. There was worship there,” he stressed.
In conclusion, the cleric stated that the OCU is showing the whole world how far it is from God, since instead of love and mercy it brings violence and lies into the Church enclosure. He stressed that the real shrines were restored by the faithful and monks of the UOC, while Dumenko’s structure merely “comes to what is already prepared,” relying on the forceful support of state institutions.
Earlier, the UOJ reported the statement of a UOC priest that the authorities are merely creating the illusion of concern for the Ukrainian shrine, exploiting the tragedy for their own PR.
