Cryptoauto-phalism In Modern Ukrainian Orthodoxy

For the modern Russian observer, the hidden springs of many important socio-political processes that are taking place in Ukraine today remain either not fully understood or completely unknown. To a large extent, this refers to the problems of the church, or more precisely, to the specific religious and political situation that has been an obstacle for the restoration of Orthodox unity in Ukraine for more than ten years, and the acquisition of the ecclesiastical world that has been consumed by believers.

This state of affairs is a consequence of the peculiarities of Ukraine's development, historically dating back to the first decades of the 20th century and Ukrainian national movements. For it is precisely at this time that the first persistent attempts to establish an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has nothing in common with the Moscow Patriarchate, are relevant. The most important feature of this nationalist movement in its nature for church autocephaly is its close connection with Ukrainian separatism at all possible levels.

Modern church nationalists not only have not abandoned their program plans, but are also stepping up their offensive against the canonical Orthodoxy, uniting in its bosom the faithful nations of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, baptized in Christ the Savior in the common Kiev font. At the same time, they act as openly, without concealing their views and goals, and outwardly, allegedly rejoicing about the good of the Russian Orthodox Church and its integral part - the canonical Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The second can be called crypto-autocephalists, meaning under this secret supporters of the idea of "non-residential church," fortunately, not finding supporters among the faithful children of the Church in Ukraine. One of the notable areas of subversive activity of the crypto-autocephalists nowadays is the discrediting of church leaders who oppose the schisms and stand for historical unity with the Moscow Patriarchate. To such workers on the anti-church field, the priest Alexy Slyusarenko and Alexander Slesarev can be included with good reason. Their main activity in recent years has been "exposing" attacks on prominent representatives of both Moscow and Ukrainian theological schools, as well as other educational institutions.

This activity has its own explanation. After all, the crypto-autocephalists would have dreamed of clearing the church space of all possible opponents of the split in order to create conditions for a new ecclesiastical separation - the departure of the self-governing Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Moscow Patriarchate. This attack is mainly committed through the Internet, where like-minded people about. Alexia Slyusarenko and Alexander Slesarev replicate their unsubstantiated accusations against professor of the Lugansk University O. Borisova, a recognized church scholar, the author of textbooks for Harvard and Oxford, and against the theology doctor archpriest Alexander Fedoseyev, writer Rassulin and other consecutive fighters with church schisms.

It is noteworthy that in order to defame Rassulin, the crypto-autocephalous group figured out the term "Orthodox sectarian" that was unheard of before and completely absurd. Thus, instead of fraternal admonition and a pastoral discussion of the possible shortcomings of a work (if any), they hang a scary anti-church label on the person, pushing away the seeker from the Church. At the same time, any criticism of our full-time "exposers" begins with personal attacks against their opponents, and ends with an indiscriminate condemnation of the Church Hierarchy, some of the Spiritual Educational Institutions and the Most Holy Patriarch.

It is quite obvious that the secret schismatics paid special attention to the books of Archpriest Alexander Fedoseyev in connection with one of the final chapters of the book "From Luben to Kharkov", titled "The Triumph of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill in Ukraine". Formally members of the canonical Church, they can not afford to openly speak out against the Most Holy Patriarch, and therefore act bypass, trying to discredit the author of scientific work exposing the actions of such as they are - their like-minded people and associates. And since Protopriest Alexander Fedoseev more than half his life is engaged in the study of Ukrainian schisms, and his writings are, among other things, evidence of the fact that the activity of Fr. Alexey Slyusarenko and Alexander Slesarev.

In the actions of the crypto-autocephalists, we see the warming up of the split idea on a nationalistic basis, the ultimate goal of which is the deposition of Ukrainian Orthodoxy from the present Church and its autocephaly, against which the overwhelming majority of believers in Ukraine are speaking. The aforementioned crypto-autocephalous couple unanimously affirms that the theological science of the UOC-MP has allegedly become ideologically impoverished and requires urgent reform - naturally, on the basis of national Ukrainian Orthodoxy and identity in its opposition to the universal dimension of Universal Orthodoxy and the indissoluble historical unity of Ukraine and Russia. At the same time, spiritual separatists do not refuse to resort to the most unworthy methods of achieving their goals - forgery, discredit, labeling.

The feverish activity of the crypto-autocephalists has recently been explained by the fact that the supporters of the course toward a split with the Moscow Patriarchate today are losing in the confrontation with the "pro-Moscow" position, or, more correctly, the general church position. This was, in particular, Ukrainian political scientist Vladimir Fesenko said: "Within the UOC-MP there is a difficult situation related to the health of Metropolitan Volodymyr. This, of course, causes a struggle of interests and the question of who will be after him. For any social institution, the question of successor is always difficult. And in our case there is a problem connected with the struggle within the Church of the two currents - autocephalists and the so-called "pro-Moscow group".

The very necessary revival of the autocephalous movement forced and determined by the forces did not go unnoticed not only by the Ukrainian political scientist, but also by some other analysts. In particular, Sergei Pavlyuchenko writes about this: in his article "Alexei Slyusarenko is a priest and provocateur," he very clearly points out the perniciousness and danger of the actions of this clergyman, and Evgeni Pavlyuk in the study "Alesey Slyusarenko - Lugansk Pop Gapon".

"It is clear that the actions of the priest Alexei Slyusarenko are not just purposeful - they are also very skilfully coordinated. In the light of his statements, it can be confidently asserted that these actions are directed against representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, especially against the strongest secular and theological schools. This is the way of separation, the church split. Priest Alexei Slyusarenko and a group of his associates aspire to the autocephaly of the UOC on a national basis, engaged in the discrediting of the "Moskals" at the present time. "

The autocephalous movement in Ukraine has more than a hundred-year history, but can not stop completely or reach its destructive goals for Ukraine. It is obvious that as long as there are persuaded Ukrainian nationalists or simply dishonest people who derive personal advantage from the artificial provocation of the conflict between Orthodox Ukraine and Orthodox Russia, the idea of autocephaly will also be supported.

The current crypto-autocephalism is only a new shell of the old schismatic movements, which must be strictly suppressed by the name of church unity. The Church has the right, duty and duty to oppose all those who encroach on the age-old principles of its ecclesiological organization, by all available canonical means at its disposal.