"Renovationism and lack of spiritual life": OCU cleric explains why he left the structure

Ex-cleric of the OCU Yaroslav Yasenets, who announced his withdrawal from the organization, recorded a series of video messages lasting more than two hours, in which he detailed the reasons for his decision, pointing out both personal disagreements with the leadership led by Epiphany Dumenko and systemic, in his opinion, shortcomings of the OCU, which he described as “a renovationist structure that has exhausted itself.”

According to the Antiphon Telegram channel, Yasenets named the following among the key claims against the OCU

– lack of evangelization, quality spiritual education and activity in general;

– epiphany Dumenko’s remoteness from the problems of ordinary laity and clergy;

– accusing the UOC of all the failures of the OCU;

– unwillingness to engage in dialogue with the UOC and often unfair accusations of the entire UOC, without exception, working for the FSB;

– unfair “transfers” of churches from the UOC to the OCU, which then result in catastrophically low attendance;

– the almost complete absence of monastic life;

– adjusting to society at the cost of tolerating sinful things, joint prayers with Muslims and Jews, transition to the New Julian calendar, lack of asceticism and spirituality;

– poor conditions of the Tomos from the Patriarchate of Constantinople, in particular, the inability to have foreign parishes.

As possible ways out of the crisis, Yaroslav Yasenets suggested several options: from the resignation of Epiphany Dumenko to the convening of a new Unification Council and support for the restored UOC-KP. Although Yasenets has not directly stated his future plans, the source suggests that he will join the UOC-KP, as evidenced by comments on his Facebook page.

Earlier, we reported that the priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Andrei Shimanovich, who joined the UOC-KP in July 2017, decided to return to the UOC. He was prompted to do so by the “difficult experience” of being in the structure of the OCU and “deep rational reflections.” One of the reasons why Shymanovich returned to the UOC is, according to him, “personal insults, humiliation, hand-waving, threats of physical violence.”