Cherkassy: the obvious and the not so obvious

The emotions after the seizure of the UOC Cathedral in Cherkasy do not subside, and this is understandable. However, there are several important points that remain behind the scenes that should be addressed.

The obvious

The Cathedral of Cherkasy has been seized and it is obvious that the Church will not be able to return it in the near future. It is also obvious that under the new “owners” it will stand empty, because the level of religiosity in the Cherkasy region, frankly, is not the highest in Ukraine, not to mention the fact that the concessionary preferences of local residents are still more on the side of the UOC than the OCU.

How and why the OCU took this church is also not difficult to guess. They took it because they could. And if they need to, believe me, they will take any cathedral in any diocese, even in the most ultra-Orthodox Odesa diocese. And it’s not believers, priests, or even bishops who are to blame. This is happening because it is their time. No matter how trite it may sound.

Not the obvious

And now the most interesting thing. In Cherkasy, it was not the UOC and the OCU that clashed, but the Church and the state. The Church, having no resources comparable to those of the state, was doomed to defeat in this clash.

First of all. We are in no way saying that Metropolitan Theodosius is to blame for what happened, but it is a fact that it happened because of his unwavering position. All this time, the state has been persuading the hierarch to at least keep silent and at most cooperate. All the criminal cases, house arrests and other nonsense are links in the same chain. Having realized that the bishop’s position could not be influenced by persuasion, it was decided to resort to extreme measures.

Second. The last resort was an “exemplary flogging”, which involved the entire state repressive machine in the form of special services, media, radicals and the OCU.

Please note: the regional administration, the city council and the police worked in a coordinated and synchronized manner. They simply did not interfere in the situation, commenting on what happened after the fact. Law enforcement officers acted as extras who left the area on command when all hell broke loose. All the reports of offenses filed by the UOC and the proceedings opened will be put on hold or directed against the UOC.

Radicals are actually a state-controlled and special services-controlled power bloc that is deployed specifically for such cases. There are practically no real radicals and nationalists in the country, and all those we see in the video in Cherkasy are “undercover.” By the way, there were foreigners among the radicals, which was confirmed by the head of the nationalist group C14, Yevhen Karas.

The local and national media also used the news to their advantage. All, as one, described the situation in the format: “supporters of the UOC started a fight” or ”the UOC began to seize the cathedral, which was transferred to the OCU at night.” Later, naturally, all sorts of “experts” like Chernomorets joined in, who, in normal countries, would have been in jail for their statements.

Third. Many are now asking themselves why the hierarchy is silent. After analyzing everything that happened in Cherkasy, we can say that is why they are silent. They are silent, realizing that each of them may have the same situation as in Cherkasy and even worse. Given the few bishops who are raising their voices in response to what is happening, we can assume that the next such “intimidation actions” will take place at least in Zaporizhzhia and Boryspil. And later — in other regional centers.

Is there a way out?

We see only one way out of this situation — to bring the discussion of the existing problem to the international level! First of all, this concerns the Local Churches and various human rights organizations. Only in this way will it be possible to somehow draw attention to the situation and force the state to change its course. Unfortunately, the UOC has completely exhausted its internal potential for struggle.