RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


 

Struggle within UPTsMP over future with Moscow

UPTsMP DOES NOT SEE SENSATION IN DOCUMENTS PUBLISHED BY DRABINKO

RIA Novosti, 27 May 2015

 

An assistant bishop of the Kiev metropolitanate, Metropolitan Alexander Drabinko, published on a social network a photo of two orders by Metropolitan of Kiev and all-Ukraine Onufrey, by which he was dismissed from the office of head of the Department of External Church Relations of UPTs and of rector of the church of All Saints of the Holy Resurrection cathedral complex of Kiev.

 

The press service of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow patriarchate does not see anything sensational in documents posted on his Facebook page by a vicar bishop of the Kiev metropolitanate, Metropolitan Alexander Drabinko.

 

This week Drabinko published on the social network a photo of two orders by Metropolitan of Kiev and all-Ukraine Onufrey, dated 2 April and 19 May of this year, by which he was dismissed from the office of head of the Department of External Church Relations (OVTsS) of the UPTs and rector of the church of All Saints of the cathedral complex of the Holy Resurrection of Kiev.

 

"Drabinko does not head the OVTsS. It is headed by Metropolitan of Luhansk and Alchev Mitrofan. It is impossible to remove from office someone who does not occupy that office. And as to the second (order--ed.), he remains under the immediate supervision of Metropolitan Onufrey," a representative of the press service of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Vasily Anisimov, told RIA Novosti. At the same time he added that he has still not managed to become familiar with the documents published by Drabinko.

 

Metropolitan Alexander was removed by the Holy Synod of UPTs from the office of head of OVTsS of the Ukrainian church, which he occupied for less than a year, in February 2012. In May of the same year Metropolitan Mitrofan was appointed to that post. In the recent order by the head of UPTs, whose text Drabinko posted on Facebook, the 2012 decision of the synod was also mentioned. (tr. by PDS, posted 30 May 2015)

 

 

HIS BEATITUDE VLADIMIR'S CROSS. WHY ALEXANDER DRABINKO WAS FIRED

by Lana Samokhvalova

Ukrinform, 26 May 2015

 

Today on the Facebook account of Metropolitan Alexander Drabinko of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church an order was published from the primate of UPTsMP, His Beatitude Onufrey, about his [i.e., Metr. Alexander's] dismissal from the post of rector of the church of All Saints of the Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Kiev.

 

Many view this step as an attempt of the Kremlin lobby in the UPTs to remove from all possible offices in the church bishops who are capable of becoming a central figure of the UPTsMP in the processes of unification of Ukrainian Orthodoxy and of purging the UPTsMP church of Kremlin plants.

 

An explanation for newcomers. Archbishop Alexander Drabinko was for many years the closest aide and secretary of His Beatitude Vladimir (Sabodan). In the eyes of the flock he was bishop number one, if we are talking about the prospects of making the UPTsMP church really Ukrainian and of beginning the process of genuine church dialogue with the UPTsKP.

 

He is the youngest bishop of the UPTs, which perhaps also pleases the flock, but which was itself rather irritating for gray-haired bishops, many of whom were and remain recipients of Russian money.

 

It was significant in the eyes of the public that Drabinko was a figure in a criminal case that was opened against him by Minister Zakharchenko, who was trying to remove the late His Beatitude Vladimir from the administration of the church.

 

For Yanukovich and the Kremlin, one of the priorities was to achieve complete puppet status for the church, beginning in 2012. According to our information, at the time, Metropolitan Alexander had a meeting with a church benefactor, Viktor Nusenkis. After this, Drabinko was left with a poor choice: either to persuade His Beatitude Vladimir to renounce the leadership of the church, or to depart for Russia, or to be isolated and then be discredited and then . . . we shall see.

 

At the same time, the argument that such a departure would be difficult for His Beatitude Vladimir, which Vladyka Alexander pushed for years, was not acceptable to the major donors and "masters of Ukraine."

 

Departure for Russia would promise him sustenance, immunity, and rehabilitation on the side of the Russian World, but this would be a crushing blow for the nationally focused flock. Metropolitan Alexander was 35 years old when he opted to remain in Kiev and go nowhere.

 

After that everything was as promised: the ridiculous escapade with the kidnapping of nuns, the opening of the criminal case against him, and the isolation of the metropolitan.

 

I do not know what kind of future Metropolitan Alexander imagined for himself in the countryside boarding house where he was forcibly imprisoned for six months. Perhaps he thought that at the worst his earthly path would come to an end, and he believed in a bright heavenly future. Perhaps he ached for His Beatitude in whom, under the "watchful care" of Yanukovich's doctors, they were not able to find cancer. And perhaps he recalled the words of the late Metropolitan Vladimir: "I knew that the path to Ukraine, with all its problems, would become my Golgotha. But I never asked for anything and I did not reject anything." To endure and to create a pro-Ukrainian line within the UPTsMP could be considered a spiritual and managerial miracle, but in fact this was the late metropolitan's cross. And the Calvary of the Moscow-defiled church is still continuing and now Alexander Drabinko is bearing the cross. He received this cross from His Beatitude, staying in Kiev and opting for Ukraine and the late metropolitan and for you and me, the flock of the UPTsMP.

 

Since then, Metropolitan Alexander has not belonged to himself. In the church, there are many of its own submerged rocks, aspirations in the church hierarchy, and the whole structure does not evade intrigue and gossip. And personal relations with both bishops and some journalists have evolved differently for the metropolitan. The writer of these lines, for example, never in five years managed to get an interview with him. But all these squabbles, intrigues, and displeasures are chump change. Because after Yanukovich, and Drabinko's imprisonment, we, the faithful of the UPTsMP, who are focused on departure from Moscow and on church unity, have no other bishop whom we trust in this way.

 

And if Ukrainian autocephaly has a future, then it is bound up with Alexander Drabinko. I learned that the metropolitan was fired from his position as rector from his personal Facebook account.

 

Notes on this page in the web have always been an outlet for the patriotic flock of UPTsMP. We find there what we cannot find in our churches. A continual clear prayer for Ukraine's victory. There have been sermons there what later were read in the dioceses by simple priests. Here are words from one of them: "What is the cause of our collective blindness? What is it? Sin or God's special providence?

 

"During the Revolution of Dignity, our church was able to overcome the principal deception with which the government tempted us. 'Condemn Maidan,' the representatives of the regime demanded of Metropolitan Vladimir, who now rests in God. 'Call the people gathered there revolutionaries and violators of God's commandments.' Alas, some of the church hierarchs betrayed and repeated these words recommended by bureaucrats. But the church as a whole decisively rejected this demand and managed to save face.

 

"The situation in which we find ourselves today is much more complicated. War continues in the Donbass. This war is imposed from the outside. It is imposed by politicians who think that they are themselves capable, operating only on the resources of their own government, to resist the whole world and achieve a review of the state boundaries in post-war Europe.

 

"Our northern neighbor lives in an imaginary world, where his greatness is supposedly threatened by some external factors. Sad to say, but they have not heard Ukraine's voice for a long time. Alas, in Russia they now live by political myths about our country. There they believe that defenders of the integrity of our country are only 'Uniates' and 'schismatics.' There they imagine that the majority of us are supposedly awaiting 'liberators.' There they think that you and I are wishing for freedom and independence that has supposedly been imposed on us by America. The truth cannot change those who do not wish to hear it. But it can change us ourselves. Today the word of truth is awaited from the church, which must be the conscience of the country and the nation."

 

The metropolitan's public pro-Ukrainian line was so noticeable that it moved the church leadership with its amorphous position on the war to obsequious trips to Moscow and international complaints about persecution of the UPTsMP.

 

Briefly summing up the foregoing. The fact that Vladyka Alexander was forced out of the church of All Saints, which is a part of the cathedral complex, is of course news, bad news. But this is not worse than in 2013, when His Beatitude Vladimir was sent to die in the hospital, when Vladyka Alexander himself sat in prison, and one did not want even to look at the future of Ukraine and the church. I once called the appointment of His Beatitude Vladimir to the metropolitan position in Kiev, who gave us the freedom to think and to desire unity, Moscow's miscalculation and the Mother of God's smile. Do you really think that the Mother of God has ceased to smile upon us? Never in this life.

 

Therefore, don't worry. The vladyka will, as before, serve in the Holy Transfiguration cathedral and pray there for Ukraine and for the victory of Ukrainian arms. Come.

(tr. by PDS, posted 30 May 2015)

 

Russian original posted on Portal-credo.ru, 28 May 2015


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