Act Daily News
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The vertically shot video printed final November exhibits no weapons, battlefield atrocities and even troopers. But the sound of a patriotic Russian music reverberating via a church on Kyiv’s well-known Lavra monastery grounds appeared to open a brand new entrance in Ukraine’s struggle with Russia.
The church belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) – which, regardless of the title, has historically been loyal to the Russian Orthodox Church, and whose present chief Patriarch Kiril has overtly supported Moscow’s brutal invasion. Splitting with Kiril, the management of the UOC denounced Russia’s assault, and final May, declared its independence from Russia.
In a sermon days after the cut up, Patriarch Kiril mentioned he was praying that “no temporary external obstacles will ever destroy the spiritual unity of our people.”
Days after the video surfaced, masked members of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) performed a raid on the Lavra – formally, to stop it getting used for “hiding sabotage and reconnaissance groups” or “storing weapons.”
By December, a handful of church leaders had been sanctioned, and dozens extra church buildings throughout the nation have been raided by the SBU – although the searches turned up little various Russian passports, symbols and books.
“There was no mention in the findings of weapons or saboteurs. What they said they found was printed matter, documents, which are not prohibited under Ukrainian law,” UOC Bishop Metropolitan Klyment informed Act Daily News in an interview.
There is loads of grey space, nevertheless. In a press release the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) informed Act Daily News that it’s not unlawful to retailer Russian propaganda, however it’s to distribute it. “If such literature is in the library of the diocese or on the shelves of a church shop, it is obvious that it is intended for mass distribution,” the assertion learn.
It insisted that the raids on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church “are aimed exclusively at national security issues. This is not a matter of religion.” Vladimir Legoyda, a spokesperson for the Russian Orthodox Church, nevertheless, slammed the searches as an “act of intimidation.”
Professor Viktor Yelenskyi, Ukraine’s newly appointed non secular freedom watchdog, mentioned that for greater than 30 years the UOC management has been “poisoning people with the ideas of the Russian world.” He defended the SBU’s raids, evaluating them to the crackdown on Islamic extremism after 9/11. “Ukraine is still a safe haven for religious freedom.”
Yet, on the finish of 2022, the federal government declined to resume the church’s lease on its large, central Lavra cathedral and turned over the keys to the equally named, however fully separate Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). The rival OCU celebrated Orthodox Christmas (on January 7) mass there for the primary time this yr.
Speaking outdoors the church on Christmas Day, Alla, who declined to provide her final title, mentioned, “I think it should’ve been done a long time ago.”
“We’ve been tolerating this [UOC] evil and closing our eyes as we thought we should be tolerant, but the war brought it all to surface.”
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church held this yr’s Christmas mass at a smaller church down simply steps from the cathedral. Kyrylo Serheyev, a pupil on the lavra seminary, mentioned this yr particularly, he’s praying for Ukrainian troops. And regardless of authorities sanctions and scrutiny of his church, he insists “our patriotism is not becoming less.”
Viktoria Vinnyk mentioned she was unhappy to not have mass within the central cathedral this yr. Though she speaks Russian, she’s by no means been to Russia.
“I hope for better in my country. And I hope that the situation will change,” she mentioned.
The cathedral isn’t the one holy website to vary fingers. Outside Kyiv, within the village of Vita Poshtova, a small church has sat perched on a hillside above the frozen lake for the reason that Soviet period. It’s the one one within the village. In September the congregation voted to transform the church from UOC to the impartial OCU. Parishioner Olha Mazurets says she was uncomfortable with any connection to Russia.
“It’s a matter of identity and self-preservation. We must identify our enemy too,” she informed Act Daily News.
Father Pavlo Mityaev, the newly appointed priest says earlier than struggle, “people didn’t pay attention to whether it was a Ukrainian or Russian-speaking church, they were coming to God. But when the war started, everything changed.”
According to Klyment, as much as 400 of the UOC’s 12,000 church buildings in Ukraine have transformed to the OCU for the reason that struggle started.
The safety providers says that for the reason that full-scale invasion started, 19 church clergy have been charged and 5 have been convicted.
In December, UOC priest Andriy Pavlenko was sentenced to 12 years for passing details about Ukrainian battlefield positions within the Donbas to the Russians. Every week later, he was despatched to Russia as a part of a prisoner change.
Klyment acknowledges that priest’s guilt however dismisses different circumstances – just like the Vinnytsia priest indicted simply this week for disseminating pro-Russian propaganda – as hole accusations. He thinks the broader church is being unfairly tarnished.
“Members of the Ukrainian Orthodox … are citizens of Ukraine, and sometimes among the best citizens of Ukraine, proving their patriotism with their own lives,” he mentioned referring to UOC members combating on the entrance strains.
In his nightly tackle on December 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated he was ready to transcend raids – proposing a regulation to ban church buildings with “centers of influence” in Russia from working in Ukraine – all within the title of “spiritual independence.”
“We will never allow anyone to build an empire inside the Ukrainian soul,” he mentioned.
But Klyment believes that regulation would merely push his church underground.
“What else do you call persecution if not this?” he requested.