"THIS
CHURCH
IS NOT UKRAINIAN"—ZAPOROZHE PRIEST QUITS UPTsMP
Anatoly
Revtov,
a priest of the Zaporozhe diocese, left the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church of the
Moscow patriarchate (UPTsMP) because of the pro-Russian position
of its clergy.
He made this decision after the diocesan meeting on 10 January,
where his
address in the Ukrainian language evoked an outcry. The priest
himself told the
portal Depo.Zaporizhia about this.
The
meeting was
held in the cathedral church of the Holy Protection with the
participation of
representatives of all parishes of the diocese (priests and
laity) and under
the chairmanship of Metropolitan Luka.
Among
other
topics, the meeting discussed Anatoly's acts, specifically his
harsh
commentaries on social networks criticizing the pro-Russian
course of the
UPTsMP (in particular in the light of the blow-up over the
refusal by a priest
of this church to perform a funeral for an "improperly baptized"
deceased child). Anatoly
was not
permitted to express his position; he was interrupted because he
began speaking
in Ukrainian.
"People,
laity,
immediately began to shout: 'Speak in Russian.' I say to them:
Ukrainian
is my civil language. And then the secretary of the diocese runs
up to me and
says: 'When you came to us four years ago you spoke in Russian.'
I say to him:
'But after that your state attacked my state. People have
changed; I have
changed.' They (parishioners—ed.) shouted and shoved and
intended to beat
me," the priest explained.
After
that he
left the meeting.
Father
Anatoly
adds that now he has firmly decided: he will be unable to
continue to serve in
the UPTsMP. His pro-Ukrainian views have long ago led to
misunderstandings with
other members of the diocese.
"This
church
is not Ukrainian. It uses Ukrainian money, it gets wages in it,
and at
the same time it hates it. How is this a Ukrainian church if an
icon of the
tsar hangs in it? I am the only one in the diocese who serves in
the Ukrainian
language—a year and a half in a row. Once I tried to begin
preaching in
Ukrainian and another time I simply spoke it with people in the
cathedral. Both
times the rector cursed me for this—says nobody will understand
you," the
priest explains.
In
addition,
sometimes priests displayed dissatisfaction with Anatoly's trips
to the Donbass
to visit Ukrainian troops and with his cooperation with
volunteers. And current
events have become for him "the last straw." (tr. by PDS, posted
11
January 2018)
IN
UPTsMP
DIOCESES, QUESTION OF UPTsKP BAPTISM IS RESOLVED DIFFERENTLY
Religiia
v
Ukraine, 11 January 2018
At
the present
time, there is no unambiguous position in dioceses of the UPTs
(Moscow
patriarchate) with regard to recognizing the sacrament of
baptism in the
opposing jurisdiction, the UPTs (Kiev patriarchate). This is
attested, in
particular, by the practice of the Kherson diocese of the
UPTsMP, a neighbor of
the Zaporozhe diocese, where for several weeks now the furor
has not quieted in
connection with the categorical refusal of the clergy to
perform a funeral for
a child who was baptized in the UPTsKP, a correspondent of the
portal Religiia
v Ukraine reports.
The
secretary of
the Kherson diocese of the UPTsMP, Archpriest Maksim
Tarasenko, responding to
questions of local journalists, said that the canon law of the
church is
formulated on the basis of Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic
Rules, and
centuries-old church practice, and since life flows and
changes one can say
that it has not been finally formulated to the present. The
priest gave an
example: when on 25 March 2010 at a session of a commission of
the
Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church (RPTs)
the chairman of
the commission, Metropolitan of Volokolamsk Ilarion announced
the position on
receiving "schismatics" into the bosom of the church: ". . .
the
external form of the sacrament performed in the schism, in the
event of a
return of a person to the bosom of the church, is imbued with
the power of
grace and thus it is not repeated. . . ." This same thought
was expressed
by the primate of the UPTsMP, the late Metropolitan Vladimir,
at the following
session of the commission on 28 September 2010 in Donetsk.
"In
this
instance (the event of the refusal to perform a funeral of a
child in the
Zaporozhe diocese—ed.), despite the fact that it was a priest
of the canonical
church to whom the parents of the deceased child turned in
their grief, and
then, after his refusal, they again turned to priests of
another church of the
same canonical church, it is possible to unambiguously
interpret the actions of
the parents as a return to the bosom of the church. And in
accordance with the
aforesaid canonical thesis, to consider the sacrament of
baptism performed
previously, in the schism, for their child to be effective.
Thus I think that
from the position of contemporary canonical thought, the
priest had the right
to perform the funeral of this unfortunate child."
Father
Maksim
Tarasenko said that several priests "are captive to their own
strict
principles and cannot part with them, which sometimes
unfortunately leads to
extremely tragic consequences." The secretary of the Kherson
diocese said
the history of this church is primarily a history of
"economy," that
is, indulgence toward people exclusively for the sake of the
salvation of their
souls.
"As
a
cleric of the Kherson diocese, I can attest that, in
accordance with the
blessing of our ruling bishop, in our diocese in such
circumstances the
practice of "economy" is used exclusively. An example of this
is the
tragic event which happened in September 2017 in Kherson, when
an old two-story
building caught fire and a whole family (two adults and three
children)
perished in the flame. The tragedy happened at night, and by
morning of the next
day, with the blessing of our bishop, a collection of funds
for the victims was
begun. I myself personally, with our priests, performed the
funerals for this
family, and it never even occurred to any of us to inquire of
the relatives of
the deceased in which patriarchate these children and their
parents had been
baptized," Archpriest Maksim Tarasenko noted. "In addition, everybody knows the
general church
practice of prayers for all victims in the Second World War,
all who were
repressed and tortured by the atheist regime in the bitter
years, and all the
innocent victims in our days, and the like. . . . It is
understandable that
among them there are people of other confessions and also
other religions, but
where there is trouble and where there is pain, the church
should be alongside
a person, because the basic historic path of the church is the
path of
'economy.'"
A
similar
position in their commentaries was expressed by Orthodox
theologians and
priests of the UPTs and RPTs, Archimandrite Kirill, Archdeacon
Andrei Kuraev,
and Metropolitan Alexander. The sacrament of baptism performed
in the UPTsKP is
recognized by the Catholic church also. In particular, the
head of the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav,
declared that he
is shocked by the conduct of priests of the Zaporozhe diocese
of the UPTsMP who
refused to perform a funeral for the child. At the same time,
the
Constantinople patriarchate prayed for the repose of the soul
of the deceased
child Evgeny in Zaporozhe.
As
an analysis
of church rules published on the website Religiia v Ukraine
attests, baptism,
if it is performed correctly ("In the name of the Father, and
the Son, and
the Holy Spirit"), is recognized in Orthodoxy as effective,
regardless of
who performed it—a canonical Christian or a schismatic. (tr.
by PDS, posted 11
January 2017)
BECAUSE
OF FUROR
IN ZAPOROZHE BELIEVERS WILL QUIT UPTsMP—RELIGION SCHOLAR
The
situation in
Zaporozhe, where priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of
the Moscow
patriarchate (UPTsMP) refused to perform a funeral for a
deceased child, who
had been baptized in the Kiev patriarchate, has become the
occasion for a
transfer of believers from the UPTsMP to the UPTsKP, but such
a transfer will
not be massive, according to the head of the department of the
history of
religion and practical religious studies of the Department of
Religious Studies
of the G. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the National
Academy of Sciences
of Ukraine, Liudmila Filipovich. This was reported by
Interfax-Ukraina.
"What
happened
in Zaporozhe is a colossal challenge for the church and for
Ukrainian
society. . . . For priests of this church it is an absolute
requirement not to
recognize the schismatics and not to perform a funeral for
children who have
died, if they were not baptized in this church. . . . There
will be transfers,
but they will not become massive. This is a very complex
process," L.
Filipovich said at a press conference on Wednesday, 10
January, in Kiev.
Oksana
Gorkusha,
a senior scientific fellow of the Department of Religious
Studies of the G.
Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of
Sciences of Ukraine,
added that transfers will be possible "because they (the
churches) are
identical in rituals but the rhetoric of the UPTsKP is more
understandable for
Ukrainians and they realize that this is their church and it
is also
Orthodox."
The
specialists
also recalled that the UPTsMP has not acknowledged the armed
aggression of
Russia in the Donbass and the annexation of Crimea.
"We understand that the church consists of diverse people. There are many wise and good spiritual priests, including in that church. However there exists a general tendency and, speaking of the official rhetoric of the church, it was not disapproved and not appealed but, on the contrary, the position of this priest was supported at the official level. This attests that this church, on the whole, is losing religious functions. . . . It is frightening that in this church it is the human and not the spiritual that prevails," O. Gorkusha added. (tr. by PDS, posted 12 January 2018)
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