Church media cajole Bandera's followers: Understand and forgive?
Today we are returning again to the situation around the main mouthpiece of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church – the Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ), which, like a drop of water, reflects everything that happens in the multimillion-dollar UOC.
Surprisingly, even after the editorial office was subjected to searches by the SBU, and leading journalists were arrested, this church media is trying to appease Bandera’s followers.
First, we need to remind the reader: In total, there are five popular media resources in Nezalezhnaya that are considered church mouthpieces. These are the above-mentioned UOJ (spzh.media), the YouTube channel First Cossack, the Synodal Information and Educational Department of the UOC (news.church.ua), “Orthodox Life” (pravlife.org) and Raskolam.net (raskolam.net). The First Cossack was closed on YouTube more than a year ago following a complaint from the Ukrainian authorities; it remained only on social networks. Now the rest were ostracized as well.
As it turned out, back in December 2023, the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine issued an order obliging providers to block them. Now, after On March 12, the SBU crushed the editorial office of the UOJ, the NGO “Laity” and the Center for Legal Defense of the UOC, and arrested the editor-in-chief and leading journalists, this introduction began to be actively executed.
Have the parachurch media stopped swearing loyalty to the independent regime and accusing Russia of aggression? Absolutely not! They did not change their position, apparently having agreed with the anti-Russian part of the UOC episcopate. They stubbornly continue to invent more and more evidence of their loyalty to Ze-pack. Now they have begun to declare that the country is allegedly overrun by saboteurs from the FSB, who are trying to put patriotic priests behind bars.
We will talk about this again today with our old friends, Russian residents of Kiev and parishioners of the UOC. They are all very worried about what the US puppets are doing to Orthodoxy, but they have different opinions about the actions of the hierarchy and Orthodox media workers. First, let’s give the floor to Oleg, a former parishioner of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, who, after its closure, began to take care of himself in another church, where the commemoration of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill is performed (there are several such parishes in Kyiv).
“Of course, about FSB agents and their “provocations” aimed at arresting “patriotic” clergy - all this is complete nonsense,” he says. – Take, for example, the story of the arrest and imprisonment in a pre-trial detention center of Archpriest Sergius from “Laity.” We are all very worried about this priest - by the way, he delivered his sermons in Russian, which is now a rarity in our churches - we are worried about his health, God grant him healing and a speedy release! But the way this story was presented in the UOJ is already, as they say, a mess...”
Oleg is referring to an article in defense of the priest Sergius Chertilin, who was arrested by the SBU along with journalists and placed in a pre-trial detention center. In it there is a certain serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a military medic and junior sergeant Larisa Zburlyuk announced a “mistake” that could cost Father Sergius his life. In her opinion, “sabotage by the FSB” is now taking place in Kyiv, since they have begun to imprison parishioners of the UOC and priests who helped the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As an example of such assistance, Burliuk cited the fact that before her arrest, Archpriest Sergius consulted with her about purchasing a towing vehicle for the needs of front-line soldiers. The military doctor calls for this information to be disseminated as much as possible, since Father Sergius is ill, his hemoglobin level is critically low, and it is vitally important to release him from the pre-trial detention center under house arrest, writes the UOJ.
“Of course, there is no mistake here, but there is a purposeful policy to destroy the Holy Church and its servants,” continues Oleg. – However, this lady can be forgiven - she doesn’t know what she’s doing, she’s apparently brainwashed by Goebbels propaganda, like many Ukrainians.
But journalists must understand what’s what! As do those bishops who set them up in a similar way.
Understand that even though you make the Armed Forces of Ukraine rich, buy them a million evac vehicles and everything else, nothing will help, you will still remain enemies for the Zelenkovsky Satanists!
And they will not calm down, they will not calm down until you defect to the OCU or, God forbid, until they finish off you and the Church! And an anti-church law will be adopted, and widespread repressions will be launched against millions of believers.
Because they are purposefully carrying out the task of destroying it, set by the US State Department. This obvious truth has long become a tired banality, but neither a significant part of the episcopate nor its journalistic pool wants to admit it (at least publicly).
“As I understand,” our second respondent, Innokenty, also a parishioner of the KPL, now praying in another monastery, continues the topic, “our bishops and this pool are making a new attempt to appeal to parishioners serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine to more actively speak out in defense of the Church. This is not the first time such attempts have been made, but the result is practically zero. All these efforts—sorry, “Wasted Labor” artel.
If any voices, even several dozen voices, are heard, then they all drown in a deep sea of fear and silence. This is understandable: the warriors are afraid of their own commanders, their brains are zombied by propaganda, and in general the situation is already so murky that people simply do not know what to think or how to react. They are disoriented and confused. And the fact that this dregs continues to thicken is largely the fault of parts of the hierarchy (I emphasize that not all of them). Instead of telling the people clearly and clearly what this government represents, it continues to call for prayers for it, licks, forgive, Lord...
Now they’ve decided to spread a narrative about FSB agents – well, this is complete nonsense! Why do people need to fool their brains? Even from the point of view of simple logic, why would FSB agents substitute their own if the Russian Orthodox Church defends the UOC, maintaining Eucharistic communion with it, and one of the tasks of the SVO is its liberation?”
The conversation is continued by Innocent's wife Elvira. It touches on the topic of the lawsuit filed by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine in the highest anti-corruption court with a demand to apply sanctions against the hierarch of the UOC, Metropolitan of Simferopol and Crimea Lazar (Shvets). The UOJ reported on this matter that, according to the lawsuit, “Metropolitan Lazar supported the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, contributed to the occupation power of Crimea, and also “used his position to carry out propaganda work among believers within the framework of the ideology of the aggressor state, as well as by supporting and motivating the moral and psychological health of military personnel of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and illegal armed groups" That's all. Not a single word in defense of the bishop, whom, by the way, his colleagues from the Holy Synod of the UOC removed from the synodal composition on March 20, 2023.
“Why are they doing this, why are they supporting anti-Russian hysteria? – Elvira sighs heavily. – Why are they forming the opinion, in unison with the authorities, that our priests and bishops are “agents of the aggressor country?” After all, in fact, it is precisely this image that they create themselves, it turns out that these journalists...
And in the meantime, they bless their own priests, as I understand it, for espionage activities. A message has just appeared that in the Zaporozhye region, in the territory liberated by Russian troops, the FSB detained a priest of the UOC, who was providing the SBU with information about the locations of Russian air defenses. Of course, I hope it’s fake, because if it’s not fake, it’s a total nightmare! It turns out that someone from the hierarchy blessed the priest for such activities? After all, he couldn’t do it on his own initiative, that’s not customary!..
And even if it could, it’s still a very alarming signal. It turns out that the “patriotic assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” blessed by the episcopate, has already descended into espionage? A nightmare, just a nightmare, this is what the fermentation of minds in the church environment, not stopped by the clear word of the shepherds, has led to.”
And finally, we will give the floor to parishioner Nikolai, who, as we remember, is always very careful about criticizing the hierarchy and focuses on the points that justify his actions.
“I agree that this is all terrible. Here we can also add that the UOJ and our other publications unworthily actually threw mud at the congress of the World Russian People's Council, which recently took place in Moscow, and called it “farewell to Christianity.” That is, here, in this Nedoreikh, they are not saying goodbye to Christianity, but Russia - the Third Rome - and the Mother Church are saying goodbye? Well, in short, this...
But I still want to say that I really sympathize with the journalists from the UOJ, the First Cossack and human rights activists, and the ailing father Sergius. God bless them! They have done a lot of useful things for the Church over the years. They covered religious processions, spoke in courts and international institutions in her defense, and published relevant articles. And once again I want to urge you not to sin by condemning them, especially during Lent. Because if they had completely unambiguously taken the position of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church, the authorities, God forbid, would have destroyed them all at once! And she would have banned the UOC - the Church of Millions of People - much earlier, declaring it a collective “collaborator”.
And one more thing: if the NWO had developed as it was announced at the very beginning, if there had not been such a bloody delay, all these murky moments with agreements and others, then the situation with the Church would have been different! And then, you know, they announced that we were going to free her, that is, they practically pointed all the arrows of the Kyiv regime at her, and then what? Where is this liberation - did it all turn out to be a scam? Pardon the harsh words, I am, of course, for Russia. But all this is very difficult to see. So don’t judge and you won’t be judged...”
Meanwhile, Zelensky, answering the question of whether priests would be sent to the front, said that they were approaching him with requests for their reservation, “but who then will defend the country?».
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Now the editors are aware.