“A Spit in the Face of the State”: Chornomorets on the UOC Leadership’s Position

A supporter and lobbyist of the OCU in the media, religious scholar and member of the “Sophia Brotherhood” Yurii Chornomorets once again spoke out against the positions of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which, according to him, continues to remain in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate and “conducts an information war against the Ukrainian state and on international platforms.” He believes that the UOC leadership is deliberately delaying the process of breaking with Russia, trying to portray the state as a persecutor and even justifying aggression, while most believers and clergy seek separation from Moscow. He said this on NV radio.

“The point is that the goal of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which still remains in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate, is to wage an information war against the Ukrainian state both inside Ukraine and on international platforms. Accordingly, they benefit from this confrontation and from presenting the state as a persecutor. If we open all the media — official and unofficial — of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, we will see propaganda claiming that the Ukrainian state is some sort of new Bolsheviks, who want to deprive us of all churches, of the Orthodox faith, to turn it into a state church, to unite with the Catholics. And the propaganda is so blatantly false that it simply doesn’t fit into any framework,” Chornomorets claims.

He recalled that the law on the protection of the constitutional order required from the UOC “only a few simple steps” to confirm independence: “Metropolitan Onufriy needed to convene a Synod or Council and proclaim separation from Moscow, as well as publish a statement on withdrawal from the governing bodies of the ROC. This could have been done in a few hours.” Instead, according to the scholar, the UOC leadership sent “a letter with outright lies and manipulations,” which Chornomorets described as “a spit in the face of the Ukrainian state” and a manifestation of “absolute arrogance.”

Chornomorets also claims that within the UOC itself there is allegedly growing resistance to its leadership’s course: “The majority of believers and even bishops are in favor of breaking with Moscow. But instead, in churches, people are told that Ukrainians are to blame for the war, that it was provoked by Ukraine or America. Then comes the justification of the Russians. This is no longer a church, but a branch of Moscow propaganda.” He spoke especially harshly about certain hierarchs: “Metropolitan Feodosiy of Chernihiv shouts: we will serve in basements, but we will not break with Russia. This is clinical. Such collaborationism is intolerable.”

Chornomorets also stated that Orthodox clergy who do not have a canonical connection with the head of the OCU, Epiphaniy Dumenko, have no right to operate on the territory of Ukraine. He added that the OCU leader should consider the issue of anathematizing all hierarchs and clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and demand their expulsion from the country.