Church raid in Ptichya: why did it happen again?
On spiritual and political causes of aggression toward the Orthodox community in Ptichya.
A detailed timeline of the raider seizure of the temple of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Ptichya village is offered by the UOJ in the article ”From a сlub to armed terror: how conflict develops in Ptichya”.
It remains to answer some questions:
Why did this happen?
Why did this happen namely at the present moment?
Who stands behind this?
What will happen next?
Let's try to figure out.
Why did this happen? Let's start with the deepest, conceptual dimension – spiritual. The reason for the raider seizure of the church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is the spiritual blindness of people. They do not see the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as the Church of Christ and therefore, dare to raise their hand at Her. The same thing happened during the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ. The mass of folks, who listened to Him, did not see in Him the Messiah. The Lord spoke of these people as follows: "And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of these people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them." (Matthew 13: 14-15).
According to the words of the Savior, spiritual blindness of a person is caused by:
First, coarsening of the heart. That is, the heart in which mercy is replaced by cruelty, the desire to forgive – by vengeance, inclination to good – by the desire to commit evil to near and distant people, the truth – by hypocrisy and so on.
Secondly, the reluctance to see and hear. These people themselves "closed their eyes" and do not even want to listen to the arguments of the other side and think: what if I'm just not right? This technology of manipulating people has not changed for millennia. In order to control a person, one must be weaned off to think. Do not think! Do what the members of the Jewish Sanhedrin (as 2000 years ago) or modern political leaders (or their behind-the-scenes puppeteers) tell you. And if you see something that contradicts these appeals, then just close your eyes – and you will not see it at altogether. So the Jews of the times of the Savior's earthly life turned a blind eye to His miracles and healings, so our modern compatriots turn a blind eye to the clear evidence that the UOC is the Church of God.
Third, failure to turn to God. People do not seek God, they do not ask Him to heal them of spiritual blindness, they do not pray for admonition, they do not ask Him what way is right and which of the Ukrainian faiths is really the Church of God.
From this it is possible to incur that those people, who take part in the raider capture of the UOC temples, are sincerely misled and ignorant. They are sure that they are doing a just cause, but the Lord also said to his disciples: "They will put you out of the synagogues; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God" (John 16, 2). It seems that among those who dream of driving the UOC out of the Ukrainian land, considering it the structure of the "aggressor state", there are a lot of those who do it, as they say, by the "call of their heart." But as wise Solomon said: "There are ways that seem straight to man, but the end of them is the way to death" (Proverbs 16, 25).
So for these people the Holy Scripture offers a way to get rid of the detrimental spiritual blindness. To achieve this, it is necessary to:
First, soften your heart. By mercy, good deeds, helping others, forgiving offenses, fasting and so on. By the way, let each of the invaders of the temple in Ptichya answer himself honestly the question: did they observe the Great Lent? And let all the other people think: could a person, who had fasted for six weeks, grab forcefully a temple on the Holy Week, which belongs to another confession, even if he considers this confession wrong?
Secondly, try to see and hear. To think, for example, about why, after four years of frenzied defamation of the UOC in the media, people still remain faithful to this Church and do not go into a "patriotic" split. Why is on the Feast of the Baptism of Rus the Cross Procession of the UOC many times more numerous than a similar event of the UOC-KP? Why do believers of the UOC-KP and the UAOC have no access to the sacraments, performed in Jerusalem or Mount Athos, whereas the believers of the UOC have? Why does the number of monastics and pupils of theological schools in the canonical Church many times exceed (on a ratio basis) the indicators of schismatic confessions and so on? There are many things that make you think and cannot be explained by the total "intrigues of the FSB". You just need to try to think for yourself, rather than chew over other people's slogans, stamps and myths in your brain.
Third, turn to God. In a sincere prayer, ask the Creator himself, where the true Church is. And if you couple this prayer with fasting and charity, can the Lord not answer? But this works, of course, provided that such a person is really looking for God, and not fulfilling the order of his patrons.
However, this simple recipe is not demanded, therefore it led to the recent seizure of the church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Ptichya village.
There is also an secular, everyday dimension of the seizure committed. This is a violation of the European choice of Ukraine and the provision of the Constitution, which says that our country is a state of law. It implies the respect for the rule of law. Not political expediency, not a current public conjuncture and not a changeable public opinion, but namely law. And if the UOC community has all the rights to the temple building in Ptichya, which has been confirmed by 8 (!) court decisions, then these rights should be exercised, despite all other circumstances. And if someone, some private individuals or organizations interfere with the exercise of this right, law enforcement agencies are obliged to intervene and make sure people can enjoy their rights.
In any European state, this would be so. But in this case, the police, the Department for Religious Affairs, and local authorities openly and manifestly flout this European choice and their own Constitution, demonstrating to all (and Europe in particular) that Ukraine does not have the rule of law or the primacy of political conjuncture. How can one ignore the court decision?! How can one spit on the provisions of the law?! How can violence be practiced instead of a civilized conflict resolution procedure?! And most importantly – how can the police look at all this indifferently and, moreover, support those who commit lawlessness?! Any European head would struggle to understand it!
Why did this happen just now? It's not difficult to answer this question – due to elections. The country has joined a pre-election campaign for power, and in this struggle all means are good to achieve the goal. The fact that in our country the struggle for power is carried out mainly not in the legal field, but by the right of the might (and impudent), further increases the probability of using dirty political technologies. And one of such dirty political technologies is inciting inter-confessional animosity and hatred in order to mobilize a "patriotically" minded electorate.
Let's notice that it is not religious needs and not the desire to transfer a beautiful temple to the "correct" confession that triggers today's alarming events, but namely politics. The choice of the moment is a proof hereto. Those political forces that do not see the opportunity for themselves to win elections in a lawful way, try to create a situation to enable a forced takeover. And this situation is the division and enmity of one part of society against another. Furthermore, the feud is supposed to be active and preferably armed. It does not matter on which issue, no matter by what criterion or ground. The main point is the intensity of passions, the highest possible degree of confrontation. In the religious sphere it is much easier to achieve this goal than, for example, in the field of wildlife protection. Therefore, they take a temple, and not a zoo or a reserve.
Who stands behind this?
As a joke, we suggest comparing two screenshots.
Well, according the deputy head of the SBU (not less!), those who illegally seized the temple in Ptichya, are representatives of Russian special services. And what are the policemen then, who don’t care about it? What are the local authorities who condone this? What role does the Department of Religious Affairs play in this combination? Curious.
If to be serious, it has already been said that those political forces that do not have any chances to win elections "honestly" and are hoping to gain power (and maybe even to preserve it) by means of violence, and which have for this end organizational, financial and human resources, as well as weapons, are interested in fomenting religious strife and loosening the political situation in the country.
What will happen next?
Actually, it depends on us, the Ukrainians. If we remember the apostle's words: "Do not participate in the fruitless deeds of darkness..." (Ephesians 5:11) and will not yield to provocations of those who foment hatred and enmity in our country (whoever they are), all these attempts will come to naught by the time the elections arrive only in a year. Otherwise, we will plunge our country into chaos and lawlessness on our own.
Orthodox communities that have suffered church raiding need to be patient and, first of all, to seek help from the Almighty God, for this trial is a test of their personal faith, and secondly, to try to defend their rights by civilized methods: appealing to judicial and law enforcement bodies, attracting the attention of human rights organizations, including international organizations, explaining the situation in the media, and so on. All other Orthodox Christians need to provide their brothers and sisters in distress with all possible help and support: prayerful, financial, organizational etc. These people should feel that we remember about them, pray for them, and worry about them. That behind them is the Church of Christ and the truth is on their side.
