10 examples of why OCU members cannot consider themselves the Church
A visual demonstration of why representatives of the OCU do not feel they are members of Christ's Church.
Practically every day, we hear about another seizure of a UOC temple by representatives of the OCU. Their number is approaching a thousand. But every time we see how this happens, the question arises – what is the purpose of church raids? What can the new "owners" offer to Ukrainians? How do they believe in Christ? How can they help Orthodox believers in the salvation of their souls? After all, a temple is not a shop or an office; it is a place where people should become closer to Christ, closer to Heaven.
Let's get to know them better.
Guitarist invaders
On January 9, 2024, another bandit seizure shocked the whole of Ukraine, this time the Kazan Cathedral in Ladyzhyn, Vinnytsia region. People in uniform rammed the doors of the ancient church with a bulldozer, dispersed tear gas in the parishioners, threw them onto the street, and beat them. The rector's face was smashed to blood.
On the same day, new owners arrived at the Kazan Cathedral – clerics of the OCU led by the dean of the Trostianets deanery, Mykhailo Torbakhevych. And, as usual, it is implied that the old owners of the temple, from the UOC, are bad, while the new ones, from the OCU, are good. But in what exactly?
Look at how Torbakhevych crosses himself. His sign of the cross is three parallel straight lines. Even a guitar is attached to him on the internet for it fits perfectly. And this is not just an ordinary priest in the OCU; he is a dean who oversees 9 parishes. What does he teach them? He teaches them to glorify the nation and wish death to enemies.
Mykhailo Torbakhevych – to activists: "Glory to Ukraine - Glory to the Heroes! Ukraine above all! Glory to the nation - death to enemies".
In addition, Torbakhevych also dislikes the so-called "Russian" icons. Look at how he holds the Kazan icon of the Mother of God.
A similar situation occurs with another cleric of the OCU, Yuriy Bolshakov from the Kyiv region. The only difference is that Bolshakov personally seizes UOC temples. First, he seized the Sts. Boris and Gleb temple in Vyshhorod, then twice cut off the locks of the St. Panteleimon temple. And now look at how he crosses himself. While Torbakhevych's hand drew parallel straight lines, Bolshakov draws the Latin letter "V" instead of the sign of the cross. It is important to note that both Torbakhevych and Bolshakov knew they were being watched. They just waved their hands, as they had been accustomed to doing over many years.
MP with a triangle on his stomach
MP Mykola Kniazhytsky from Poroshenko's "Eurosolidarity" is one of the most active propagandists of the OCU Tomos and haters of the UOC. Back in 2022, he introduced a bill to ban the UOC, which stipulated that only those who are part of Epifaniy Dumenko's structure could call themselves Orthodox in Ukraine. He also made a huge film about the relationship between the UOC and the OCU – "A Church without Christ". In other words, Kniazhytsky positions himself as an expert in the church sphere.
But let's see how this expert crosses himself. Entering a seized UOC temple in Lviv, he draws some kind of triangle on his stomach. Moreover, from left to right – in the Catholic manner. Exactly the same triangle from left to right the deputy draws on his stomach while standing at the OCU temple in the Carpathians. In the same church, he again draws this triangle, but this time from right to left. And in the cathedral of the OCU in Poltava – again from left to right. Like Torbakhevych and Bolshakov, Kniazhytsky lazily waves his hands instead of making the sign of the cross. Yet, the cross of Christ is the main symbol of our faith and the weapon of a Christian against the enemy. If such an attitude towards the cross is displayed by clerics and supporters of the OCU, then why should it be different for the Holy Communion?
"Crap from a spoon from Onuphry's hands"
"Priest" of the OCU Serhiy Dmitriev is friends with journalist of Poroshenko's "Channel 5" Yanina Sokolova and often goes to her broadcasts. During one of them, Sokolova decided to reflect on communion.
Yanina Sokolova: "<...> when they go to church and eat prosphora and drink wine there, eat some crap from a spoon from Onuphry’s hands, and then return home and decide that they are purified, it doesn’t work like that."
And the main thing here is not the words of this woman. The main thing is that the priest's silence in response to the phrase that communion is "crap from a spoon" speaks louder than any words. As they say in the people, silence is consent.
Plastic glass thrown into the Chalice
The leader of the seizure of the Transfiguration Cathedral of the UOC in Bila Tserkva, Mykola Hopainych, administers communion to a child in his OCU temple. The child throws a glass cup for rinsing into the Chalice. Hopainych simply picks up this glass with his fingers and places it on the tray with the others, regardless of the fact that there are likely drops and streaks left on the bottom and walls. This glass is picked up several times by other parishioners until it is taken away to be washed. We know that the Blood of Christ is the greatest sanctity. And if even one drop of It spills, the service stops until the priests collect everything to the smallest particle. Here, Hopainych didn't attach any importance to this incident at all.
Pre-liturgy snack
"Priest" of the OCU Viktor Bed, in 2017, while still in the UAOC, made an archpastoral visit to the city of Teplice in the Czech Republic. Before the liturgy, he was symbolically presented with bread and salt. Bed did not understand the symbolism, broke off a piece of bread, had a snack, and went to serve the liturgy with renewed vigour. For the uninitiated, nothing special. But believers look at it with round eyes. They know that the Eucharistic fast before communion is at least 6 hours. Only a non-believer can have breakfast before the liturgy.
Picking nose during the Eucharistic Canon
Kherson cleric of the OCU Serhiy Chudynovych, even before his legalization by Patriarch Bartholomew, liked to broadcast his services on Facebook. During the Eucharistic canon, at the most sacred moment of the Divine Liturgy, Chudynovych enthusiastically picks his nose. These frames were filmed by himself and posted online. That is, he saw no problem in them.
When the Bible is "absolute Muscovite trash"
During the seizure of the church in Trebukhiv, OCU activists called the Holy Scripture and prayer books with the order of communion "rubbish" and "trash"and threw them into the dump.
Yaroslav Bondarenko, an OCU 'believer' and co-organizer of the seizure in Trebukhiv: "We have found rubbish. We will give this book (the Bible) to Bohdana (a deputy of the Brovary City Council – Ed.), he will dispose of it. These are Russia ... Also absolute rubbish (Order of Communion – Ed.). Manuals are such Muscovite trash. Russian trash (the Bible – Ed.) will not be in our churches. Trash goes to trash."
When the altar is thrown onto the street
In the village of Kurozovany, OCU activists, during the seizure of the Intercession Church, went into the altar and brought out the altar with sacred items right onto the road. For an uninformed person, this means nothing. But church people know that only clergy can touch the altar, on which the greatest sacrament in the world is performed. And to pull it out of the church and throw it onto the road is plain sacrilege.
When "priests" fight with leg-kicking and break into churches
Violence during the seizure of churches has long become commonplace for the OCU. For example, a group of thugs in Cherkasy brutally beat parishioners during the seizure of the Nativity of the Virgin Monastery. A 76-year-old man had his leg broken, a priest had his jaw broken, and another UOC cleric was simply repeatedly punched in the face. One might think that a normal person should condemn such behavior and distance themselves from the thugs. After all, this is not just unchristian; it goes beyond the bounds of ordinary morality. But the "Metropolitan" of the OCU calls these thugs his parishioners and says that by attacking people at the church, they were defending themselves.
Ioan Yaremenko: "It was just self-defence of parishioners who defended themselves from being thrown into the fight by these individuals."
But should we be surprised if the example is set by the OCU "clergy" themselves?
In Fastiv, during the seizure of the Intercession Church, a OCU cleric kicked an elderly priest, Father Anatoly, in the stomach. He fell. Later, he needed medical assistance.
If OCU "clergy" resort to violence, then seizing churches is child's play. OCU clerics Maksym Matviychuk, Mykhailo Krechkovsky, and Andriy Misko personally broke down the doors of the Transfiguration Cathedral of the UOC in Bila Tserkva. Misko spent three hours hitting the doors with a sledgehammer, breaking them with a crowbar, and destroying them with an angle grinder and a chainsaw.
In Stara Zhadova, Chernivtsi region, on the homeland of Serhiy Dumenko, an OCU cleric attempted to saw off the lock on the Archangel Church of the UOC with an angle grinder. Only the intervention of parishioners was able to stop him.
"Shut the hell up, you bitch, I curse you!"
At the end of January 2024, Ukrainians were shocked by the behavior of another OCU dean, now in the Khmelnytsky region. Mykola Khomyak, during the seizure of the Intercession Church in the village of Pechesky, behaves like a recently released convict.
Mykola Khomyak: "Listen, filter out the chatter! You are a sect! You are a sect! Shut up! Shut the hell up, I repeat, if you don't want to fall under my curse. Shut the hell up! And don't wave your hands at me because I will curse you now. Who are you, dirty bitch? Shut your mouth and never open it again! Be cursed! Get out, bitch!"
In another place, in one of the state institutions, Khomyak put up a fight with a person who was filming him.
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Some may say that we deliberately seek dirt in the OCU, there are also unfaithful clerics in the UOC. There are, but there they are very rare exceptions, to which the hierarchy always reacts. But does Dumenko react to everything we've shown? Should a wolf react if its cubs kill another animal? We have never heard Epifaniy condemn the forcible seizure of any church. He even rewards the participants in such seizures. For example, the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk, a Uniate, was awarded for organizing the seizure of the UOC Cathedral. In Bila Tserkva, he rewarded "priest"-deputy Mykola Hopaynych for seizing the Transfiguration Cathedral, the same one who fished a glass out of the Chalice with his fingers.
And Epifaniy' signal to his clerics and authorities is clear – you are all doing the right thing. But can such people consider themselves priests?
If they wave their hands instead of making the sign of the cross on camera, if they beat other priests, if they remain silent in the face of blatant sacrilege, if they take food before the Divine Liturgy, and many other "ifs"...
They perceive the Church simply as a place to earn money. This is the only way to explain why people who call themselves priests commit explicitly unchristian acts. It is stupid and meaningless to say that you are a Christian shepherd and then do the opposite of what Christ teaches.
How can a true priest, after driving people who have prayed in the church for years out with tear gas, run into the altar and pray demonstratively for the camera? What are you praying to God for while beaten parishioners are crying on the street, as the crowd you gathered with shouts of derision is driving them away? Where is your conscience, where is your Christian compassion? Do you really believe that God will hear such prayers?
And this question is addressed not only to Epifaniy Dumenko's clerics. It is to everyone who is driving believers of the UOC out of their churches today. And even if you are a patriot ten times over and believe that an ideal state can be built on grief and tears of "non-patriots", if you are a Christian, can you really believe that a Church of Christ can also be built on grief and tears?
