"Minor positive" against the background of a major failure

As reported earlier, on 26 September 2016 Warsaw hosted the OSCE Human dimension implementation meeting. The floor was also given to Ukraine’s representatives. Naturally, each of them shared their deep concerns. So, the UOC speakers drew attention to the systematic violation of the rights of the faithful of our Church, to the scandalous facts of the church seizures with the use of physical violence, etc.

In response to these statements the Director of the Department for Religious Affairs A. Yurash noticed that there is an alternative point of view, according to which violent seizures of churches (and even their destruction) are in full compliance with the law of Ukraine and OSCE recommendations. In his opinion, this view is held by representatives of the so-called "Kiev Patriarchate".

I'm not lazy and decided to find out what those who were sitting next to Yurash at the conference really think and whose point of view is apparently in full agreement with the view of the head of the Department for Religious Affairs. To find it out it was enough for me to look at FB page of the UOC-KP "bishop" Eustratius (Ivan) Zoria (by the way, thanks to the publications on UOJ site the content of this page has changed significantly. If earlier more than half of the posts were devoted to the UOC and three quarters of the posts – to the Russian Orthodox Church and Putin, today you may quite often come across entries on a spiritual topic. So, as they say, the water wears away the stone, and it is possible that the "bishop" over time will change his views on staying in the schism and through repentance will become a faithful child of the canonical Church).

So, after a short monitoring, I revealed 4 posts. I won’t comment on them in chronological order. Let me touch upon only those which I find most interesting.

So, the first post (in focus) is devoted to the "vladyka"’s speech. I won’t cite it in full. I only note that Ivan Zoria focused on "persecution of religious minorities in Russia, including a UOC-KP community in Noginsk, where they want to demolish its church."

That is, for those who do not understand, "the bishop" gave one (!) example of such "persecution" in relation to the UOC-KP. One! Of course, he didn't say anything about the seizures of UOC-KP churches in Ukraine. Just because they aren’t any grips because in Ukraine, as you know, the UOC-KP takes over the role of the aggressor-invader, but not the aggrieved party. So "vladyka" modestly didn’t say a word about it.

Instead, he drew attention to Yarovaya’s "dictatorial law", which, in his opinion, restricts the rights of religious communities and believers. As you can see, Mr. Zoria as the majority of our officials and politicians are more interested in what is happening in Russia, but not in what is going on in Ukraine. Okay, let's say that he is a liberal, a democrat and a man who cares about the attitude towards believers in general, regardless of the country of residence, and he therefore felt it his duty to stand up for them. No matter, Russia or Afghanistan. But then why didn’t he mention the "draconian" laws adopted in Ukraine, which not only restrict the rights of believers but, in fact, legalize church raiding?

In addition, he emphasized the pressure by Russian security officials towards the so-called "alternative Orthodoxy" (the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church (ROAC), the True Orthodox Church of Russia (TOCR)). It is clear that the man who can be considered "alternative" in every sense of the word cares for those who belong to his brothers in misfortune. Along with this, the term "alternative Orthodoxy" used by Zoria cannot be explained from the canonical point. The fact is that the Church of Christ as His Body is one.

Allowing "alternative Orthodoxy", Mr. Zoria respectively suggests the existence of some "alternative Church", and therefore "an alternative Christ." The Holy Scripture warns us: "Take heed that no one deceives you, for many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many" (Matt. 2, 5). Under the name of Christ His enemy shall come. Thus, it appears that Ivan Zoria either directly preaches the Antichrist and his "Church", or simply "thinks in an alternative way".

He also drew attention to "a systemic violation of the rights of the KP Ukrainian community and believers in the occupied Crimea". However, he, as usual, did not specify what kind of "system violation" he referred to, because we'd all be interested to hear about violations of the rights and freedoms an RF citizen, who works as "Bishop" Clement of the Crimea.

Another post about his staying in Warsaw "Archbishop" Zoria entitled: "The OSCE Conference – minor positive:)". Further he talks about how on the sidelines, he was approached by a member of the organization that protects the rights of the Constantinople Patriarchate, and, with the words "I know your problems and I wish you success", asked to bless him.

Firstly, the name of the post ("minor positive") itself tells us that the trip to Warsaw was not to "vladyka" Zoria successful. If he finds it only positive that someone approached him and asked to bless him, the result of his visit to the OSCE conference Zoria assesses as negative. That is, but for this "minor positive" no good awaited the dissenters in Warsaw.

It is not surprising, since they were forced to listen to the accusations of UOC church seizures. And these charges were not unfounded, as the facts proved.

Perhaps that is why one of the ex-deputies of the Sejm of Poland Eugene Chikvin noted that the situation with the observance of the rights of UOC believers in Ukraine is "unthinkable and does not comply with European standards." "If something like that happened to us in Poland, I am not saying to the Catholics, but even to the Protestants, then it would be much fuss in the media. And so this is the Orthodox, and therefore they keep it quiet. In Poland, in 1991 the Orthodox Church signed a concordat with the state on the absolute respect for the rights of the local Orthodox population," said Chikvin.

It is clear that Chikvin expressed the opinion of almost all the participants (Of course, later Zoria called Chikvin "an old friend of the Moscow Patriarchate." And how could it be otherwise? After all, according to his logic, anyone who speaks out against human rights violations automatically becomes "an old friend of the Moscow Patriarchate").

Secondly, at that meeting there was a person who listened carefully to what was happening in Ukraine, regarding the Orthodox Church. He, of course, like everybody else in the conference room, felt outraged. On the sidelines, he saw a "bishop", who sat together with the Ukrainian delegation and had a badge with the words "the UOC-KP" on his cassock. The man, as Zoria said, presented a secular organization, but not the church, so he could hardly know the subtleties of the Ukrainian schismatic movement (to say nothing of abbreviations). He saw a "bishop" from Ukraine and came to him. He said of what he had heard at the conference: "I know your problems and I wish you success," and then asked to bless him. That is, he could have taken him for another person by mistake. And if so, then even that "small positive thing" Mr. Zoria was deprived.

And I am more than confident – he is well aware that the man reached out to him by mistake, but out of habit the "vladyka" is looking for any excuse to prove to himself that he is on the right track. Therefore, by the way, he does not say what organization that man represented, because this representative could be told who he asked for "blessing", and that man quite might explain that there was a mistake. It could be pretty embarrassing.