A unassuming cursory glimpse at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

What causes wars, and what causes fights among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your bodily parts? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. (James 4:1)
 
Contents

• Introduction
• Ukrainian struggle for autocephaly
• Patriarch Cyril
• Former Kyiv Metropolitan Onoufry
• Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra
• 20th Century Timeline Compilation

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Introduction
There is a frequently used tactic of Russian apologists: “you can’t speak out against Russian Orthodoxy’s leaders unless you also speak out against this other evil elsewhere.” The goal is to deflect attention from Russian Patriarch’s ecclesial atrocities onto something else. The Stalinist ecclesiology of the Moscow Patriarch must end. Not the Russian way with violence, intimidation, propaganda, and censorship with the ultimate goal to incite imminent lawless action. But rather the Orthodox way.

1991 marked not an end to the history of the Soviet Union but rather a paradigm shift in Soviet approach with regard to deceptiveness. Its was neither an ideological evolution of humankind or as the discipline that “freed” the already heavily infiltrated Russian Orthodox Church. If fact it moved the Church based in the Kremlin to the front of the line. And by the time Putin and Cyril decided to kill them with kindness; restoring a record number of Soviet destroyed churches and developing a new morphed Orthodominion Church.

What began centuries ago with military monks, religious warriors, the incestuous military/monastic combination that fueled the Russian expansion and the very core of the Kremlin continues in the current Moscow Orthodox Church. We see the lovechild of these two malevolent men. A Cyrillic-Putinesca, the manifestation of this union is the Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces of the Resurrection “Russian Orthodox” military cathedral of epic proportions. The 3rd largest church in Russia, made from melted tanks, ordinance from the great wars, war numerologically designs, and on and on... Here are some examples of the Russian Orthodox phronema the Moscow Patriarchate proudly touts: “The diameter of the drum of the main dome is 19.45 meters, symbolizing the year when the Great Patriotic War ended –1945. The height of the belfry is 75 meters, a reference to the 75 years that passed in 2020 since the end of World War II. The height of the small dome is 14.18 meters –open conflict between Nazi Germany and the USSR lasted 1418 days and nights.”

Named Resurrection (honoring Christ’s resurrection as a symbol of Holy Russia’s Czarist resurrection as a holy nation. Patriarch Cyril proclaimed with fervent supplication “for mercy, life, peace, health, and salvation of the military leaders and valiant soldiers of the defenders of our fatherland” continuing on the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine:

Therefore, your mission is very great. Remember this, and always remain true to your oath. Remember that all the people and the entire country are behind you. And the duty of the Church is to pray for you, for your relatives and friends, for our fatherland. Let the historical path of our people flow in such harmony between the armed forces and the spiritual power of the Church, in the harmony of the spiritual and material, state and Church, in peace and prosperity. God grant that there will be new victories and new achievements along the way, and that there will never be any defeats. May God's blessing be with our armed forces and with our people.

This monstrosity of a cathedral decorated with a new form of iconography emphasizing Russian victories and not Orthodox victoriousness. The sheer outright audacity of Putin and Cyril is beyond comprehension Cyril’s große Lüge. They are projecting their intentions, loud and clear. Orthodoxy stand firm!

Let’s not forget it was just yesterday that the Russian State was the enemy of freedom. “Across the world, the KGB did whatever it could to thwart pro-Western and anti-Soviet political movements and figures. The group would assassinate political leaders with cyanide and other weapons. It would fund and arm leftist groups, especially those in developing nations. And the KGB successfully established moles in U.S. intelligence agencies, though the exact number still isn’t — and may never be — known for sure.”

And not much has changed: tactics, methods, and approach, the emphasis this time around are the actors. Many see the para-synagogue known as the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) as a covert agency of the Russian State around the world. The irony is that ROCOR was established in protest to the Bolshevik aligned church and later the Stalin created church (the current administration).
 
The Ukrainian Church today contends with a para-synagogue of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. Lead stories telling of “Religious Persecution” at the Lavra and “evictions of innocent monks” to an audience denied knowledge. This tradgic episode is examined at the end of this article.

Unpacking facts on the ground. Let’s focus on just two characters. The current Kremlin bishop Patriarch Cyril of Moscow and the former Metropolitan of Kyiv, Onoufry. Plenty has been written about Putin and his issues. I want to lay out some facts offering you an opportunity for a paradigm shift. Make up your own mind, a decision based on facts, not emotions or tribal ties.

Surveying the Orthodox Church of Ukrainian and overt Russian Orthodox historic aggressions have always existed. Even before there was a Russia there was an Orthodox Ukraine.
955        Olga, ventures to Constantinople, she's baptized by the Ecumenical Patriarch, Poliutus.
988        Conversion of Prince Vladimir in Kyiv.
1448     Jonas declares himself Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Rus'.
1525      St Maximus the Greek arrested, denied communion (30 years), and held in solitary confinement.
1588     EP Jeremiah put under "House Arrest" in Moscow blackmail for Title: Patriarch.
1689      EP grants temporary admin to Russia/Moscow eventual annexation of the Metropolis of Kyiv.
1721     Abolishment of Patriarchate/Patriarch of Moscow (1721-1917).
1917     Unilateral Reestablishment of a Patriarchate and Self Appointment as Patriarch, Tihkon.
1941      Joseph Stalin revived the ROC to “intensify patriotic support for the war effort.”
1943     Stalin patronage convenes a local council with The People's Commissariat for State Security.
 

 
Ukraine’s 20th century struggle for autocephaly.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate ceaselessly rejected Moscow’s perversion of the events of 1686. In 1918 an All-Ukrainian Council was convoked and according to Nicholas Denysenko efforts again “In early 1919, when Ukraine was ruled by the Directory (under Symon Petliura), the state issued a law decreeing the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.”

In 1924, Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory VII gave the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church a tomos on autocephaly, citing the fact that the accession of the Metropolitanate of Kyiv to the Moscow Patriarchate was not carried out according to church canons. So in 1924 in the tomos of Patriarch Gregory VII on the gift of autocephaly to the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church where it is said that autocephaly is granted:

…listening to the loud voice of the canonical duty that imposes on our Holy Ecumenical Throne the care of the Holy Orthodox Churches in need; seeing that history also testifies in favor of the above (for it is written that the alienation from our Throne of the Metropolitanate of Kyiv and the Orthodox Churches of Lithuania and Poland dependent on it, as well as their affiliation to the Holy Church of Moscow, from the very beginning were not in agreement with legitimate canonical prescriptions, also not observed what was jointly stated about the full ecclesiastical self-sufficiency of the Metropolitan of Kyiv, who bore the title of Exarch of the Ecumenical Throne).

We can forget the constant collaborators undermining religious freedom from an obviously oppressive Kremlin-centric Moscow Patriarchate. In 1927, the “Metropolitan Sergei Stragorodsky, acting as de facto head of the Russian Orthodox Church, signed a statement of unconditional loyalty to the Soviet State. The statement was co-signed by all members of the Holy Synod” and very little has changed.

The intuitive historical disdain for Ukraine from Moscow is bewildering. All students of Orthodoxy agree the modern Moscow church has no ecclesial lineage to the church founded by Constantinople in the 10th century. None. Without getting bogged down with justifications for this claim, even the official media outlets of Moscow Patriarchate consider 1944 the initiation point when Stalin inaugurated the modern ROC, it was emphasized: "It is important to ensure that the number of nominated candidates is dominated by the agents of the NKBD (KGB), capable of holding the line that we need at the Council.”

In 1954, early in the Cold War, the Soviet Union created the Committee for State Security, more commonly known in the West as the KGB. The group came to oversee the Soviet Union’s internal security, secret police, and domestic and foreign intelligence operations controlling all aspects of Soviet life including the Church. These sectors would later be split amongst the modern Russian Oligarchs in the 1990s.

The annexation of the Metropolis of Kyiv “under the control of the Moscow Orthodox Church was never recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The conditions set out in the Synodal Letter were not met by the Moscow Orthodox Church: the election of the metropolitan passed into the hands of the Russian Synod, the commemoration of the Ecumenical Patriarch ceased, and the privileges of the Kyiv metropolitan were abolished, even the metropolitanate ceased to exist as a church unit. Ukrainian national church historiography has always denied the transfer of the Kyiv metropolitanate under the omophorion of the Russian Orthodox Church.”

“In 1990, Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios wrote in a letter to the Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow that the Ecumenical Patriarchate recognized the Russian Orthodox Church within 1589 tomos.”

2018     Unification Council of the Orthodox Church Ukraine convened in Kyiv by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. All Ukrainian bishops invited most attend including many former Moscow Patriarchate hierarchs, though most Russian-allied hierarchs decided to “Return to sender” unopened.

The Tomos of autocephaly was granted to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in 2019.

 
The So-called Patriarch of Moscow, Cyril
 
The current Patriarch of Moscow, Cyril (Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev) is the 6th Patriarch of Moscow since Stalin reconstituted the Russian Orthodox Church. To be exact, in 434 years, Cyril is the 16th Patriarch of Moscow since January 1589.

Patriarch Cyril is the fruit of the Cold-War Soviet Orthodox Church

A young Vlad entered seminary in Leningrad at the age of 19 and was ordained a monk at 23. “He was quickly noticed by Metropolitan Nikodim, who was head of the external relations section of the Moscow patriarchate during the 1960s and ‘70s. Kirill was made a bishop at the age of 30 from within that section. This external relations section was “extremely political and in direct contact with the KGB, because it was regularly involved in communications with religious figures and political authorities in other countries”.

Following the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s, a Russian parliamentary commission investigating the KGB’s activities deemed it highly probable that the agent then known as “Mikhailov” is the man now known as Russian Patriarch Kirill. “These elements all lead to a strong suspicion of ties between the KGB and a Russian Church that was, during that period, very much under control and surveillance”, says Nivière. Patriarch Kirill’s father and grandfather, both clergymen, had been interned in the Soviet labour camps.

The number of functioning Orthodox churches fell from around 22,000 in 1959 to 6,893 in 1987. This is the world Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev inherited when elevated to the post of metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad in 1991. Vladimir began early to formulate his conquer-the-world "Russkiy Mir" temperament as early perhaps as age 10 while he was a cartographer for local KGB services.

Patriarch Cyril’s Russkiy Mir vision linking Russian spiritual hegemonic unity and a distinctive territorial expansionist is also distinctive idiosyncrasy of Russian Czarist history. These subversive ideals are aimed at the globe with an emphasis on ex-Soviet Union countries or more exacting Czarist Russia of Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov when Russia was geographically at its largest...

“The Soviet regime, then conducting a draconian persecution that shut down half the country’s Orthodox churches, had “allowed” the Russian Orthodox Church to join the World Council. The regime’s motives were hardly ecumenical, however. Russian Orthodox representatives at the World Council were carefully selected by the KGB, the Soviet secret intelligence service; their task was to block any challenge to the Soviet Union’s violations of religious freedom, while turning the World Council into a constant critic of the West.”

“Unlike with his predecessor as Russian Orthodox Patriarch, Aleksi II, the date the KGB recruited Patriarch Kirill is unknown. The earliest known mention of the future patriarch as a recruited agent in available KGB materials dates from February 1972, when he was just 25.” The then-Archimandrite Kirill was sent by the patriarchate of Moscow as a Russian Orthodox representative to the World Council of Churches in Geneva. “Very much like Vladimir Putin at the state level, Patriarch Kirill has imposed a top-down power structure in the Russian Orthodox Church since 2009. He makes all the decisions, which are then passed down to the bishops. He imposes his will and his choices,” says Nivière.

This Russkiy Mir combines Cyril’s authoritarian Orthodoxy and dictatorial civil government -hand in glove. Since before Cyril’s ascension to the head of the Moscow patriarchy, he has been the subject of several scandals which have tarnished Orthodoxy. The “Russian oligarch of cigarettes,” “cruising aboard a luxury yachts,” “the disappearing watch” valued over $40,000.00 and so on. “His image is not very positive for a large part of Russia’s Orthodox worshippers.”

Its obvious to most Patriarch Cyril caused the ecclesial fracture in Ukraine from the day he became Patriarch.

Former Kyiv Metropolitan Onoufry
 
Let’s examine the former Moscow Patriarch’s Kyiv Metropolitan Onoufry and his part in this ecclesiastic tragedy unfolding in Ukraine. Metropolitan Onoufry(Orest Volodymyrovych Berezovsky) is a jovial fellow seemingly always with a smile, a sweet personality and unlike Cyril I found him to be sincere. Yes sincere, sincerely corrupt.
Orest’s full title according to the official Russian Orthodox website; the Metropolitan of Kyiv and the Exarch of Ukraine in the Patriarchate of Moscow, and ex officio, the primate of the Ukrainian... Orest was born 1944 in Chernivtsi Oblast as the son of one of the few priests who managed not to be murdered by the Soviet overlords.

October 1990, in a ceremony at St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, the newly elected Patriarch Alexei II handed to Metropolitan Filaret a tomos granting "independence in self-government" (the tomos did not use either of the words "autonomy" or "autocephaly") to Metropolitan Filaret Denysenko, and enthroned Filaret, heretofore "Metropolitan of Kyiv", as "Metropolitan of Kyiv and All-Ukraine." yes the same fellow Onoufrywould later replace and call schismatic.

In December 1990 Onoufrywas consecrated to his hometown Bishop of Chernivtsi and Bukovina by Metropolitan Philaret (Denysenko),

Filaret the first post-Soviet and according to Moscow “independent and self-governing” Metropolitan of Kyiv and the Exarch of Ukraine in the Patriarchate of Moscow, and ex officio, the primate of the Ukrainian... convened a local assembly at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra in January 1992 that adopted a request of autocephaly for Ukrainians to the Moscow Patriarch. On January 22, 1992, Onoufry signed, along with ALL Ukrainian bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, a request to Patriarch of Moscow Alexy II for the erection of an autocephalous Church in Ukraine, and on January 23 Onoufry was transferred to the Ivano-Frankivsk diocese.

“In March–April 1992, the Hierarchical Council of the Russian Orthodox Church met with a single agenda item: to consider the resolution passed by the UOC Sobor four months earlier. Although the issue itself was not discussed, Filaret was asked to resign.[12] On the second day of the meeting, Metropolitan Filaret agreed to submit his resignation to the UOC Synod, and the ROC Synod passed a resolution which stated:

"The Council of Bishops took into account the statement of the Most Reverend Filaret, Metropolitan of Kyiv and of All-Ukraine, that for the sake of church peace, at the next Council of Bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, he will submit a request to be relieved from the position of the Primate of the UOC. Understanding of the position of Metropolitan Filaret, the Council of Bishops expressed to him its gratitude for the long period of labor as Archbishop of the See of Kyiv and blessed him to carry out his episcopal service in another diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”

However, after returning to Kyiv, Filaret recanted his resignation.” In May 1992, conveniently a Russian Orthodox priest and Soviet dissident accused Exarch Filaret of having been an informer for the KGB. Filaret was suspended on May 27, 1992, and in June set up the “Kyiv Patriarchate.” Filaret was defrocked by the Russian Orthodox Church in July ‘92 and anathematized by Moscow in 1997.

1994 Onoufry was elevated to the rank of archbishop and appointed a permanent member of the Holy Synod of Moscow Patriarchal Ukrainian Orthodox church.

In February 2014 was the Revolution of Dignity also known as the Maidan Revolution

February 2022 further invasion into Ukraine. Yet not until May did a reluctant Bishop Onoufry and some, not all, synodal bishops announced a “break” with Moscow, declaring self-rule in similar fashion to ROCOR half a century ago. In response to Onoufry , Cyril asserted “There is no autonomy without my approval the ‘status’ of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is determined by the Charter given by Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia on 27th October 1990.”

Onoufry did not publicly condemn collaborating clergymen from his church, and they were not dismissed from the church. In an attempt to stop the hemorrhaging clergy, he did ban his church clergymen from transferring themselves to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. It hasn’t worked, in fact entire diocese have transferred on masse and continue to do so in large numbers especially since the Russian invasion.

 
Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra
Today the Orthodox Church is in the international news again… Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
The exorcising rebel monks, FSB monks, and innocents caught under the sickle is being framed spun as a Religious Freedom issue. It couldn’t be farthest from the truth. The fake news spun by the original spin doctors. For example, the MP is trying to derisorily equate the horrors of the Bolshevik revolution with the Lavra. The Moscow Propaganda Patriarch endorses:

“What doing today in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, in other monasteries and churches of Little Rus', is reminiscent of the worst times of persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century.”

If not such a sinfully tragic accusation it would be laughable. A few monks needing to relocating is neither the martyrdom of the early church nor the matyrific tragedy of the Russian persecution of Orthodoxy in the early 20th century.

As per the current stand-off at Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. It’s simple. Like every church, monastery, and every ecclesial administration/cultural/educational facility and building is owned by someone. Who legally owns the premises? Like the criminal squatters of Esphigmenou Monastery on Mount Athos the illegal occupants must vacate. The most common route is usually joining the legal brotherhood who are extending olive branches constantly.

Today at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra which the news doesn’t tell you is a large majority of former Moscow Patriarchate monks have joined the legitimate brotherhood. In fact, “Archimandrite Abraham appealed to Metropolitan Epiphanios to accept him in the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The Metropolitan of Kyiv accepted his request and blessed Archimandrite Abraham to perform his duties as Abbot of the Monastery, under the jurisdiction of the Autocephalous Church.” So, what you see on the news is a tiny number of monks including the former Abbott with strong muscovite ties to the Kremlin and rabidly militant Russo-sycophants.

However, like the criminal squatters at Esphigmenou who are truly schismatic, they must vacate to allow the inevitable healing of the nation. Slava Ukraini
 
 
Pray for peace.
 
 
To paraphrase Jorge Lonelirebel:
“What began with Joseph Stalin must end with Cyril.
Let the title “Patriarch” be stripped from Moscow.
Centuries of heresy, schism, and internecine turmoil is enough.”
 

 
Timeline Highlights from 1990 to Today
Timeline dates and authorship compiled in fluid research.
 
1990     A Ukrainian Exarchate receives the novel status of “broad autonomy and independence of self-governing” – (but neither autonomy nor autocephaly) from the Moscow Patriarchate.  The Ukrainian Exarchate is now known as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP). Since the Unification Council of all Ukrainian hierarchs, I prefer the uncanonical Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine (MPU). 

1991     Ukraine is recognized as an independent nation and adopts a democratic constitution.

1991     All of the bishops of the MPU (UOC-MP), including then Bishop Onoufry - currently Metropolitan of the MPU, make written appeal to the Moscow Patriarchate for its support of the UOC-MP’s autocephaly, under the leadership of (then) Metropolitan Filaret (Future “Patriarch of Kyiv”).

1992     Once again the Moscow Patriarchate declines hear the appeal for autocephaly and charges Metropolitan Filaret with leading the Church into schism.

1992     The MPU convenes a synod in Kharkiv – without canonical primate Metropolitan Filaret (arguably in violation of canonical law) – and elects another Metropolitan MPU. The council of clergy of the MPU declares its firm commitment to obtaining canonical autocephaly. The Moscow Patriarchate deposes Metropolitan Filaret from holy orders on the charge of leading the Church into schism. Metropolitan Filaret appeals this deposition to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and to other Autocephalous Orthodox Churches.

1992     June – under the assumption that there was broad-based consensus among the Orthodox clergy in Ukraine, the UAOC convenes a unification council with the UOC-MP; however, only one UOC-MP bishop and Metropolitan Filaret attend.  This council receives Metropolitan Filaret into its ranks and appoints him deputy to Patriarch Mstyslav. This council changes the name of the Church to the UOC-Kyivan Patriarchate. Patriarch Mstyslav does not accept the name change. The Church divides into the UOC-KP (much larger) and the UAOC.

1993     Patriarch Mstyslav dies. The UOC-KP elects Archbishop Volodymyr Romaniuk as the new patriarch.

1995      Patriarch Volodymyr dies under suspicious circumstances. UOC-KP elects Metropolitan Filaret Patriarch.

1996      Vladimir Putin appointed Deputy Chief of Presidential Property Management Directorate in charge of relations with former Soviet states and the transfer of assets including church properties works closely with future Patriarch Cyril.

1997      UOC-MP ceases to reaffirm its commitment to Ukraine autocephaly.  As a result of irredentist foreign policy, Russian Federation demonstrates it desire to control Ukraine despite its national sovereignty.  The Moscow Patriarchate anathematizes Patriarch Filaret.  Metropolitan Filaret makes a compelling defense that his deposition and subsequent anathematization were politically motivated and provoked by the Russian government and therefore in violation of canon law.

1998-2012 Tensions between Ukraine and Russia increase over Ukraine’s desire to join NATO and build stronger economic ties with the European Union.

2014      Maidan protests begin leading to the ouster of pro-Russian president who leaves Ukraine under accusations of corruption and flees to Russia.  Russian Federation supports civil war in Donbass region of Ukraine. 

2014     Russia invades and militarily annexes Crimea.  Representatives of Moscow Patriarchate attend Vladimir Putin’s announcement to Russian Dumas that Crimea is “holy land” that belongs to Russia. 

2014 to 2018 Ukraine civil and ecclesial representatives renew and reaffirm their petitions for autocephaly with the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

2018  The Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate has announced the decision to lift the anathema against leaders of two extracanonical churches in Ukraine - Filaret of the Kiev Patriarchate and Makariy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church

"We have heard the appeal of Filaret Denisenko and Makariy. We have made a decision that at the time, the anathema was introduced for an insufficient number of reasons, due to some political motivations. This is why the Synod of [the Ecumenical Patriarchate] decided to include them in canon once again."

2018     Unification Council of the Orthodox Church Ukraine convened in Kyiv by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. All Ukrainian bishops invited most attend including many former Moscow Patriarchate hierarchs, though most Russian-allied hierarchs decided to “Return to sender” unopened.

2019     January 5, Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch, signed the tomos that officially recognized and established the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and granted it autocephaly.

2020      Churches of Cyprus, Greece, Alexandria join Constantinople in the Recognition of Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Only Moscow Patriarchate rejects autocephaly. Other autocephalous church offer support for Onoufry but continue ecclesiastic ties in unity. Only Moscow denies commemoration of others which is the true manifestation of Orthodox Unity, everything else in window decorations for geopolitical obligations.

2022     Russia again since 2014, invades Ukraine with the blessing, encouragement, and dispensation of Moscow Patriarch Cyril “Russian soldiers who die in the line of duty in Ukraine have all of their sins forgiven”

2022      A reluctant Bishop Onoufry (Former Kiev) and some, not all, synodal bishops announced a “break” with Moscow, declaring self-rule in similar fashion to ROCOR half a century ago. In response to Onoufry Cyril proclaimed “There is no autonomy without my approval the ‘status’ of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is determined by the Charter given by Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia on 27th October 1990.”

2023     Ukrainian State requires Pro-Russian sycophant clergy and monks to relocate from Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra
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