“We argue about church politics, but keep silent before sacrilege”
The UOJ editorial office received a text from one of the UOC bishops, who asked to publish it anonymously. We publish it without editing or alterations.
I will say at once that I am not active on the internet, I do not react to media outbursts, and I believe that the task of a bishop is prayer and helping people in their main task – salvation.
For me, the example in this is His Beatitude Onuphry. He is constantly reproached for silence, for the absence of political statements and attempts to establish contact with the authorities. And he is silent not because he has nothing to say. I know that His Beatitude believes that all the current events have been sent to us by the Lord for our admonition and correction. And if that is so, then one should not lose oneself in the noise of statements, but rather concentrate on inner spiritual labor. Therefore, one must endure and strive to draw spiritual profit from current events. Many in the UOC share this vision, though by no means all.
There are quite a few among our clergy who regularly write on social networks, make statements on one or another occasion, record videos, and so on. They too are right in their own way, for they bring benefit, guiding the faithful in the sea of the most contradictory information, where it is very easy to drown.
Thus, some pray and endure, drawing above all spiritual fruits from everything that happens. Others zealously defend their Church, hoping to influence circumstances. As the Apostle Paul said: “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation; he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness” (Romans 12:6–8).
That is, each one labors, bringing benefit with that gift which he received from the Lord.
To those who serve God and the Church with the gift of prayer, patience, and silence, there can be no reproach. But to those who labor in the field of public speaking, admonition, interpretation, and so forth – to them I have several remarks. And since we are all bound together by one Body – the Church – we cannot but feel when one of our members begins to ache. “And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it” (1 Cor. 12:26), as written by the Apostle Paul.
First remark
For some reason, it is precisely among the active and public defenders of our Church that division into certain parties is becoming increasingly evident. Though this division is conditional, it is becoming more and more visible. There is the party of the “commemorators,” there is the party of the “autocephalists,” and there are those who might be considered “centrists.” What is noteworthy is that among those who might be conditionally called the “silent ones,” such division is not observed. Perhaps because they are silent and we simply do not know. But I am inclined to think that this is thanks to a more measured understanding of what is happening.
For example: quite recently, after Zelensky deprived His Beatitude of citizenship, the hierarchs of the UOC published a letter in his defense. Unfortunately, this letter, signed by almost the entire episcopate, became a cause of discord. We saw statements from different “camps.” Some considered the wording too complimentary toward the authorities, other bishops thought differently. Yet the intensity of speeches and statements with which the clergy argued in absentia hardly corresponded to the significance of the subject matter.
Before that there was the letter condemning the actions of the ROC regarding the dismissal of Metropolitan Hilarion of Donetsk. Some signed it, some did not. In one camp it was declared that such a letter should never have been written, in another they held that silence in that case was impossible. And again all were electrified, all argued and proved their rightness. Was the subject truly worth such profound church resonance? You may answer yourselves, looking back from the vantage of a year’s distance.
When I listen to the public statements of our hierarchy and clergy, I get the impression that in the UOC we have already resolved all problems with preaching the Gospel, with the practice of prayer, with Sunday schools, with establishing parish life, with clergy education, and so forth. That all we have left is to polish the wording in appeals to the authorities, to build friendly relations with them, to define our status – and then we will become the true Church of Christ.
Yes, the last phrase is irony. But I want to say that among the “spokesmen” of the UOC, those who regularly issue appeals, far too much attention is given to external, “political” questions. They react very vividly to one or another event, address, words of representatives of the authorities, the OCU, the ROC, and so on – to what I would call “church politics.” And though perhaps one cannot do without such politics altogether, when only it is spoken of, this is a very dangerous tendency.
Second remark
This flows from the first. If we admit that all these public debates on various matters of Church life are very useful to it, then why do they not include essential questions – those that concern the spiritual value of our Church and of our entire people?
Recently in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra there occurred what we had suspected deep in our hearts but did not consider real. The relics of the saints, venerated by our ancestors for centuries, were desecrated for the second time in the history of the Lavra. Yes, some today declare that this is not so, that the employees of the Ministry of Culture “merely removed” the relics of the saints allegedly “for re-vesting.” Some even assure that the museum staff are practically heroes, and that their manipulations differ in no way from the actions of the Lavra monks, who for centuries re-vested the saints with prayer.
But, hand on heart, we understand that all such assurances are, to put it mildly, unconvincing. That all that is happening around the relics is ordinary sacrilege. Moreover, we understand this (and discuss it in a narrow circle of like-minded people) not only we – our priests and our faithful also understand it.
And when it was so necessary to speak out against this sacrilege, suddenly all the “spokesmen” fell silent. I deliberately checked the central and diocesan websites, the personal pages of bishops and clergy on social media. Only a couple of bishops out of more than 110 expressed their protest (and that rather timidly). For the rest, it went unnoticed – all pretended that this was as it should be.
Yes, some of us (myself included) have consciously chosen a tactic of silence in response to everything that happens. We think that such a position somewhat resembles the behavior of Christ, Who was silent when He was humiliated. But in reality this is not so.
Christ did not keep silent when the Temple of God was insulted, when the Church was insulted (remember the expulsion of the moneychangers). Yet among us bishops there are those who speak out on every occasion, who angrily hurl thunderbolts, indignantly denounce “formulations,” worry about “canonical purity,” or demand “transparency” of the UOC Synod. Where now is their denunciation, where their protest, where even a simple human word that what is happening is not normal?
Nowhere.
Of course, in the matter of the Lavra there is already a certain weariness. It has been spoken of much since 2022–2023. There were statements, protests. Including in the spring of 2025, when some commission of biologists and veterinarians “worked” with the relics.
But do we have the right to be silent today, when everyone has seen with their own eyes that our greatest holy things are being treated as lifeless, soulless exhibits?
Even in war, from which we too are weary, it is one thing to hear the dry numbers of losses, and quite another – when we see on social media a video of prisoners being shot. Our heart bleeds; we cannot look indifferently at such images.
Perhaps my comparison is inaccurate. But when I looked at the photo of a museum worker poking around in the reliquary of the Venerable One, my soul was torn to pieces.
This is why we, brothers, are witnesses not only of the desecration of relics but also of the desecration of our conscience.
For when it comes to politics – we speak. Much, willingly, sometimes even boldly. Some reason about the war, others about how not to become a hostage of the political situation, others about how to “save Ukraine.” But when it comes to our spiritual treasures, we fall silent.
Why?
Because we are afraid? Hardly. Many of us are courageous enough and have more than once proved it in action, defending our rights and the rights of the believing people. Much more likely the illness here is one far more insidious: indifference.
We have become so immersed in the “political” life of the Church that we did not notice how we lost interest in its spiritual treasure. Before our eyes the relics of the venerable ones are being desecrated, while in those very days we discourse on Ukraine’s independence. We congratulate one another on a great holiday, even as mockery is made of our holy forefathers.
If you do not agree with my definition, invent your own, but it is unlikely it will justify us.
Can we really excuse ourselves before the Venerable Fathers of the Kyiv Caves by saying that we had more important matters in those days? Or that we were afraid? But in political questions we were not afraid to speak sharply. What explanation can there be here other than the one I have proposed?
And now tell me: after such loud silence regarding the desecration of our holy things, how do you intend to discuss the “status of the UOC,” “gray zones,” “commemoration or non-commemoration,” “autocephaly or autonomy,” “who is mother, who is not mother”? Do you think anyone will be interested?
Sadly, we have become more church politicians than pastors.
Do you think the people do not see it? They do. Do you think the laity do not read our behavior? They do.
The laity see too how today we carefully choose which liturgies to attend as “guests,” afraid of criticism from bloggers, who might pin on us the label of “commemorator” or “autocephalist.” And my heart, brothers, is grieved because of this. For I keep asking myself: how has it come to pass that we fear not to anger God, but fear to fall into the clutches of media vultures defending their own camp?
And thus the flock increasingly listens not to us, but to those very bloggers and Telegram channels. For there they speak of what we prefer to remain silent about. Coarse, politically biased, deceitful – but they speak. And that means we have handed over our pastoral authority to them – to all those for whom the Church is only politics, and not life with Christ and in Christ.
The events in the Lavra are, in a certain sense, a litmus test. They show not only the attitude of the state toward the holy place, but also our own attitude to the Church itself.
When the laity see that their shrine is trampled upon, and those who yesterday defended and declared something today are silent, they draw a simple conclusion: these “preachers” have ceased to be witnesses of the Faith. For a witness is one who speaks the truth and stands for it, even if he is crucified for it.
The laity speak of the Lavra, representatives of other Churches speak of it, but not we. And our silence about the things happening today is not “prudence.” It is bankruptcy. Spiritual, pastoral, and human bankruptcy.
Christ said to the apostles: “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” And if we are silent when holy things are trampled – then we, as salt, are already losing our strength. And that means the talent (to whom it was given) to teach and to defend the truth is being buried in the earth, hidden from the Master.
I call upon everyone to reflect deeply upon what has been said. For if we do not recognize the disease that has stricken us, we risk dying from it. “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (1 Thess. 5:3).
