Conclusions from the final meeting of the UOC Synod

On December 20, 2022, the final meeting of the Synod of the UOC in 2022, the most difficult year in the history of the UOC, was held. Now the Church is facing very serious challenges. What did the Synod decide, what statements did it make, and what documents did it adopt?

Outcome #1: The Church does not knuckle under authorities

The protocol photo from the meeting of the Synod already says a lot: two of the four members of the Synod who were present in person, not online, are under sanctions. This is Metropolitan Pavel (Lebed), the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and Metropolitan Anthony, the Chancellor of the UOC. They were not expelled from the Synod, they were not sent to rest, nor were they transferred to other dioceses away from the capital. This means that the UOC considers the sanctions against them illegal and the accusations unfounded. This is clearly stated in the Synod’s Open Address to President Zelenskyy: “For the first time in the history of our state, ‘personal’ sanctions were illegally and unjustifiably applied against the clergy, who are citizens of Ukraine. This is gross interference in the activities of religious organizations. <...> In essence, these restrictions violate not so much personal rights of the clergy, but the rights of nearly a thousand religious communities.”

The UOC expresses a similar position regarding searches and other actions of law enforcement agencies: “Searches are carried out in diocesan administrations, churches and monasteries of our Church, as well as at bishops’ and clergymen’s, as a result of which some leaflets are ‘discovered’, which never existed, or symbols, which can denigrate the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”

That is, the UOC declares that during searches, objects are planted into church premises that give rise to discredit the Church.

Declaring the illegality of all such actions, the UOC demonstrates its readiness to defend its rights and not bend under the authorities. As Metropolitan Meletiy of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna, in whose diocese the most resonant events took place, said, he was hinted that the whole “circus” would end immediately as soon as he moved to the OCU. But the UOC does not agree to this.

The hierarchy of the UOC could have behaved less harshly in defending its position, made several curtsies towards the OCU, again called it to dialogue, refusing the demands set out at the Council. But no, the UOC will not change its attitude towards the OCU, which is what the powers that be force it to do. This position is also reiterated by the recent words of His Beatitude Onuphry that the OCU actually rejected the proposal for negotiations, going on with forcible seizures of UOC churches and other illegal actions.

This position of the UOC has another important dimension. In the 20s of the 20th century, during the Soviet persecution of the Church, a phenomenon arose, which was later called “Sergianism”. The then First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan (later Patriarch) Sergius (Stragorodsky), pursued a policy of conciliation with the Soviet government, fulfilling all its wishes and denying persecution of the Church. He believed that in this way, it would be possible to save the Church, but history proved otherwise. The Church, pursuing the "Sergianism" policy, was subjected to even more severe repressions than before. Moreover, even those bishops who made concessions to the authorities in everything were under attack.

Therefore, the current position of the UOC is a firm rejection of the "Sergianism" policy. The UOC shows that it has learned lessons from the past and is not going to be an obedient tool of secular power, even under the threat of persecution.

Outcome #2: The Church is entirely on the side of Ukraine

At the same time, the Synod stated that the UOC is with its people. Not with the government, but with the people.

“With the beginning of the invasion of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was the first among other religious organizations to strongly condemn this military aggression and expressed its unconditional support for the territorial integrity of our Motherland. From the very beginning of hostilities, our believers have been defending their country, sacrificing their lives for the liberation of their native land. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is constantly offering prayers and providing material assistance to military personnel, internally displaced persons and other categories of the population affected by the war” (from the Open Address to V. Zelenskyy).

In the information report on the results of the Synod, this help and support is described more specifically:

• Since the beginning of the war, more than 50,000 IDPs have received housing and evacuation assistance;
• Almost 3.5 thousand tons of humanitarian aid were delivered and more than UAH 25 million of financial assistance donated to the victims of hostilities;
• medications were purchased worth more than UAH 1.5 million;
• more than 550,000 meals were distributed to the needy and the poor;
• over 180 tons of humanitarian aid were transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Territorial Defense units;
• wounded servicemen received medical assistance in the amount of almost 4 million hryvnias;
• 80 vehicles were purchased and handed over to the Armed Forces of Ukraine;
• the total amount of assistance for the Armed Forces of Ukraine is about UAH 30 million.

It is worth emphasizing once again that His Beatitude Onuphry condemned Russian aggression and called for the defense of Ukraine, its sovereignty and territorial integrity on the very first day of the war, when, according to many analysts, primarily Western ones, there were 96 hours left before the fall of Kyiv, and the United States persuaded V. Zelenskyy to evacuate to Poland and even provided their special forces for this end. That statement by Metropolitan Onuphry is very valuable, but the enemies of the UOC somehow do not remember this.

Outcome #3: The campaign against the UOC is dividing society

Those who believe that the destruction of the UOC (in itself or in the form of joining the OCU) will consolidate Ukrainian society and make it more monolithic make a big mistake. Everything is exactly the opposite: you cannot exclude millions of believers of the UOC, citizens of Ukraine, from society or reduce them to the level of second-class people, and think that this will unite society. The campaign to discredit the UOC, which is in full swing and to which politicians, media resources, and law enforcement agencies have acceded, in fact serves the interests of those forces that seek to divide the people of Ukraine, turn some parts of society against others, which ultimately hinders the victory of Ukraine in the war and the establishment of peace.

Here is what is said about this in the Address to the President: “Against this background, numerous slanders, insults and unfounded accusations towards the UOC are particularly disappointing. They not only form a negative public opinion, but also incite religious strife, which pits some citizens of Ukraine against others, divides our people, who so much need unity in the conditions of war. That flurry of dirt pouring out on the Church gives rise to anger and intolerance towards each other in Ukrainian society, which in turn leads to spiritual decline and loss of moral values. It prompts the beating of believers and priests, the seizure and destruction of temples and the prohibition of the Church itself. In addition, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is still deliberately called ‘Russian’ and ‘Moscow’, while its believers, who are citizens of Ukraine, are unreasonably considered enemies only because they belong to this Church.”

The UOC considers such a campaign unacceptable in general, and even more so in situations of war.

Outcome #4: UOC against anti-church bills

“Currently, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is preparing bills for adoption: registration No. 7403 dated 05/24/2022, author I. Sovsun; registration No. 8012 dated 09/08/2022, author A. Bohdanets; registration No. 8221 dated 11/23/2022, author M. Kniazhytsky and others; registration No. 8262 dated 12/05/2022, author I. Konstankevych and others. These draft laws do not comply with international law and the Constitution of Ukraine, establish limitations for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and advantages for other denominations, thereby violating the principle of equality of religious organizations, and are aimed at discrimination against believing citizens of Ukraine and the elimination of the UOC” (from the Open Address to V. Zelenskyy).

These words contain an indication of the grounds on which the UOC will rely in defending its rights. These are the international obligations of Ukraine in the field of human rights, the Constitution and laws of Ukraine. The UOC declares that it will appeal to these documents and defend its rights by all legal means. The texts of the above bills leave no doubt that they contradict both international law and domestic Ukrainian legislation, and above all, the Constitution. Provisions such as the right to freedom of religion, the prohibition of discrimination on religious grounds, and the principle of separation of church and state are the basis for the legal position of the UOC. Violations of these provisions are unacceptable in a civilized society, unacceptable for a country that considers itself democratic, and extremely harmful to negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union.

The UOC will apply to international courts and human rights organizations to defend its rights. The power cannot but understand this. For example, one of the authors of the anti-church bills, N. Poturaev, has already stated that if the UOC is banned, Ukraine will receive a lawsuit to the European Court of Human Rights and will end up in a shameful position of the country that violates fundamental human rights.

Whether the calls of the Holy Synod to the authorities not to adopt anti-church bills will have any effect will be clear in the near future.

Outcome #5: The UOC will not put up with blasphemy

A separate thorny issue is a blasphemous episode of the Quarter 95 studio, which has crossed all the limits of decency and common sense, and which is in many ways indicative.

The Address to the President states this as follows: “The systematic violation of the right to freedom of religion, hate speech and religious enmity, which is cultivated with impunity in Ukrainian society against the UOC, leads to such negative manifestations in the media, as happened on December 7, 2022. On this day, the video program ‘Bayraktar News #104’, produced by the Quarter 95 studio, was published on television and YouTube channel and called ‘Official Channel Pure News’. 14 minutes of the program were ‘pure’ blasphemy, mockery and sacrilege against God and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as well as false and unreliable information, disregard and insult to the religious feelings of believers and incitement to religious hatred.

Particularly shocking were blasphemous words that cannot be even repeated. These are cynical mockeries of the Holy Scriptures, God the Trinity and the Lord Jesus Christ, for Whom thousands of people sacrificed themselves and went to martyrdom.”

It should be noted here that the artists of Quarter 95 combined "cynical mockery" of the UOC with mockery of "the Holy Scriptures, God the Trinity and the Lord Jesus Christ", thus showing that the UOC is the Church of Christ, His mystical Body, that mockery of God falls on the UOC, and vice versa, that they cannot be separated, that God lives in his Church and that they can only be blasphemed together.

By the way, neither the OCU nor the UGCC has raised their voices against the blasphemy in this performance. Do they agree with everything? After all, this episode has caused a lot of vibrations. Or is blasphemy relevant for the fight against the UOC, so let it be?

The Holy Synod rightly draws attention to the gravity of this incident, because in the Holy Scriptures blasphemy is condemned extremely sharply. In the Gospel, the Lord says, “Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matthew 12:32).

This is a warning to the artists themselves, who have taken a heavy sin on their souls, and to the entire Ukrainian society. If society does not condemn such blasphemy, and therefore approves of it, aligns with it, then it runs the risk of incurring the wrath of God, as the Holy Scripture says. This is not the case when you can pretend that nothing has happened. It’s a must for us to have our say, because publicly, from the screens of TVs and other gadgets, blasphemy is poured out on the most sacred thing that our people have, on our Orthodox faith.

Therefore, the Synod of the UOC called for the following: “In this regard, the clergy and laity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church appealed to the leadership of the 1 + 1 TV channel and the team of authors of the Kvartal 95 studio with a demand to apologize publicly for the broadcast and remove it from the information space, and to law enforcement agencies to properly investigate this shameful story. We expect that the authors of the script for this program, its presenters and actors will draw the appropriate conclusions and apologize to the Christian community of Ukraine.”

It also feels like adding a call for personal repentance of artists, confession of their sin in the sacrament, because it is about their soul, about their fate at the Last Judgment of God, and the Church “wants everyone to be saved and to come to the mind of truth.”

Conclusion #6: Ukraine should not act by the methods of the Soviet regime

“The current war is our common struggle for universal values: freedom, dignity, human rights. And we believe that Ukraine will emerge from the flames of war as a country that respects the constitutional rights of every citizen. That is why there is no place in our state for those means and technologies that offend and despise the Church and cynically offend the religious feelings of millions of believers. These are the methods used by the atheist authorities during the Soviet totalitarian period. Then hundreds of thousands of clergy, monks and laity, whom we now honor as martyrs and heroes, were deprived of human rights, exiled and killed. Today Ukraine is trying finally to overcome the totalitarian past for the sake of the future. But true de-communization must take place in the realm of human consciousness. Overcoming the remnants of the communist system is impossible if we allow its methods to be applied, notably in the legal, public and information space. In no case should one wage war against God, because this is the path to self-destruction” (from the Open Address to V. Zelenskyy).

Ukraine must overcome the totalitarian legacy of the USSR, which means that it must abandon the methods of the communist regime, even if they seem to some to be effective.

Outcome #7: The UOC will not leave its flock abroad

At the Council of the UOC in Feofaniya on May 27, 2022, a decision was made to provide spiritual guidance to believers who ended up abroad, fleeing the horrors of war. At the meeting of the Synod, the question of this activity was raised.

“Today, there are 32 communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 11 countries of Western Europe. The spiritual needs of Orthodox Ukrainians there are met by dozens of clergy of our Church. In addition, the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church made trips abroad to provide spiritual support to Ukrainians who were forced to leave their homes, as well as to provide them with humanitarian assistance. In view of the above, the Synod made a decision to appoint the cleric of the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna diocese, Archimandrite Veniamin (Voloshchuk), in charge of the parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church abroad. In the near future, his episcopal consecration will take place” (from the information report on the meeting of the Holy Synod).

The opening of parishes of the UOC for believing Ukrainians abroad is another evidence that the UOC is the Church that unites Ukrainians, wherever they are. This is the evidence that the UOC is essentially a Local Church and has the appropriate powers. After all, the OCU, according to its Tomos, does not have the right to patronize Ukrainians abroad.

Outcome #8: The UOC continues to live and develop

Even in today's difficult conditions, the UOC lives and develops. The information report on the meeting of the Holy Synod states that for 2022:

• two monastic cloisters were created;
• the Cossack (Intercession) parental Saturday was established with the commemoration of the deceased Cossacks and soldiers who laid down their lives for the Orthodox faith;
• On the Saturday before the Feast of the Intercession of the Mother of God, the Synaxis of the Cherkasy Saints will be celebrated.

Will the authorities stop pressure on the UOC

At the end of the Open Address to the President of Ukraine, there is the following: “Honorable Mr. President! In your person, we see the guarantor of observance of the Constitution of Ukraine. In the 2019 elections, you showed yourself as a charismatic person, a person unspoiled by the bureaucratic system. By this you have earned the trust of the believers of our Church, who en masse cast their votes for you. You managed to consolidate the Ukrainian people in all regions of Ukraine around the values of democracy, freedom and dignity. That is why the whole world respects and supports you.

Today we respectfully appeal to you to ensure the right to freedom of conscience and religion for the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. To protect the Ukrainian society from hate speech and intolerance on religious grounds, inciting religious discord in the country. We request you to unblock the activities of sanctioned religious organizations together with their archpastors, to prevent the adoption of anti-constitutional laws against the Church, which are under consideration by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. We hope that you will be able to halt the artificial split of the Ukrainian people along religious lines, which is vital in the face of external aggression. Let the spiritual values that we profess and defend really come true, and their implementation will be a real measure of our national maturity.”

By and large, this is a call to stop illegal pressure on the UOC and ensure the right to freedom of conscience for all Ukrainian citizens without exception. This call is addressed not only to V. Zelenskyy, but to the entire Ukrainian government. The Church has articulated its demands quite firmly, clearly and harshly. These requirements, however, do not go beyond the scope of the law. The UOC does not ask for any benefits, or preferences, or any special position. It only requires that Ukrainian laws be observed in relation to it, as well as in relation to other religious organizations.

These claims are absolutely correct. Now, as they say, the ball is on the side of those in power. If the demands are met, then Ukraine will prove its commitment to human rights and democratic values, and pass the test of "national maturity." Otherwise, the UOC is ready to defend its position by all legal means. It will not make concessions and compromises and will not be an obedient executor of the will of the mighty of this world.