Rector of the Ascension Church in Babin
Police officers stormed the Ascension Church in the village of Babin, Chernivtsi Eparchy, in order to help the OCU members seize the church, reports the diocese’s press service on its Telegram channel.
The police broke into the temple during the performance of Extreme Unction and tried to disrupt the sacrament and drag the rector out into the street.
Archpriest Ioann Protsiuk, the rector of the church, had a hard time persuading the law enforcement officers to allow the sacrament to end.
At the end of the Unction, supporters of the OCU, together with their “priest”, tried to force their way into the altar. Father Ioann tried to stop the aggressive activists from desecrating the shrine but was abused by the police. Here
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church commenting on this incident said that “on March 22, 2023, the Kiev regime authorities decided to evict the priest and the parishioners from the church in the Babin village and give the building to the OCU.
In the video, the policeman forcing the priest out of the church is yelling “Stop committing offence! Stop committing offence!” At the end, the priest and the parishioners had to leave their church and they went to the priest’s house to pray.
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Think the OCU under Bartholomew wouldn’t do this? Think again. This is what it looks like to hold up a parish with hired guns, AKA the Nazi government. If this happened here, people would be brought up on charges.
Bartholomew knows this is happening, as it’s happening all over Ukraine. Imagine this happening in your parish. As long as we support Bartholomew, he will support this. (Warning: I can’t even watch it because it’s too upsetting.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdtyoI7kFNQ
R.J.Rumnel stated:
“ I have used the term democide for murder by government, where murder is understood as it is defined in civil law. This is clear enough. And, I have used the term mortacracy for a regime that commits mass democide, such as did Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, communist China, and Pol Pot’s Cambodia, among others. The key understanding of democide is that it is intentional. Yet what about those regimes that unintentionally cause the deaths of their citizens as a natural consequence of their actions, or their lack of action? One example might be a regime where corruption has become so pervasive and destructive of a people’s welfare that it threatens their daily lives and reduces their life expectancy.”
https://hawaii.edu/powerkills/DEFINING_THE_MORTACRACIES.HTM
Btw, i was tipped off to this by Jacob Dreizin. A good source of news from a military/inside-the-beltway source.
How the Ukraine gets its glory…
But watch it we should. Especially the Canonical Assembly of Orthodox Bishops of the USA.
And if they don’t speak out against it, then we can probably expect this in the good ole’ U S of A sometime in the future. Especially if Elpi does his recon work for the EP.
When I was a child, I would dream about the future and try to imagine how wonderful it would be. I now live in the future and I gotta admit that I don’t care for it very much. The future I dream and hope for today is when the Lord comes back.
Lord have mercy on the suffering and persecuted Ukrainian Orthodox Church!
Here is a man who is unafraid:
Artur Pawłowski—Standing Up to the Gestapo
https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/artur-pawlowski-standing-up-to-the-gestapo
[Video – 01:04:14]
‘ “Gestapo is not allowed here” was the declaration that introduced the world to its utterer, Pastor Artur Pawłowski of Alberta. Not the whole world, but the remnant of right-thinking and well-doing that was looking for authentic courage and truthfulness in a time of fear and deception.
Of all the resistance to tyranny that we witnessed during the Covid–19 descent into totalitarianism, perhaps the most memorable, the most inspiring and the most accurate was the the viral video clip of Artur Pawłowski chasing the police from his church shouting:
Gestapo is not allowed here. Get out of this property!
This was a singular moment of clarity during those bizarre and fear-filled times. Artur stood boldly against the evil the authorities were imposing. Millions watched, and something changed.
This interview with Pastor Artur covers his early experiences in Poland, during the Solidarity trade union resistance to communism, and his move to Canada to find freedom—freedom to honour God and to be a pastor to his flock. Sadly, it also includes the loss of liberty in Canada and the creeping criminalisation of good works and of honest men.
In his stand, Artur was supported by his church, his family and his close associates. Most Christian churches in Canada, as elsewhere, did not resist, but meekly complied with state diktat. From these churches, Artur got no support. He and his congregation stood alone. To those churches who closed their doors, took government coin and ceased to preach the gospel, Artur has a very simple message:
This was the biggest betrayal since Judas Iscariot.
Artur describes his many arrests, many charges, court cases, time in jail; the full spectrum of intimidation by the state. He describes his victories, how he became Canada’s “Freedom Pastor”, and the still-continuing attempts by the state to silence him.
These attempts are presently ongoing, with a live case concerning a sermon he made at the Freedom Blockade at Coutts on the Canadian-US border. This is a unique trial because the only evidence against him was his sermon. Effectively, it is the sermon that is on trial. The judge’s decision is due in May and Artur faces the possibility of further jail time for his preaching.
And what is the pastor’s response? It is to stand up, and to fight for truth and for justice. Artur’s message: Get off the fence, you must choose a side. You must be like lions. ‘
This is the e-mail that I sent yesterday to Archbishop Michael, Fr David Cowan, and Fr Joseph Lickwar of the OCA Diocese of NY-NJ, regarding the current rector of the OCA’s Holy Virgin Cathedral in Manhattan who is a vocal supporter of the so-called “OCU” which is actively persecuting the Church:
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Your Eminence and honorable clergy,
With profound sadness and dismay I – along with many other Orthodox faithful – are aware of the goings-on at the Holy Virgin Protection Cathedral in lower Manhattan, publicized shamelessly on its Facebook page and other internet sites. We have a lot of patience, but what tips me over the edge is the latest shameless plug on the Cathedral Facebook page in support of the fake and ridiculous “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” as they try to take over the Kiev Caves Lavra and fight against God and His Holy Church, against the saintly Metropolitan Onuphriy and his flock.
How the current pastor of the Holy Virgin Cathedral is allowed to run amok in his online conduct and cause such confusion and disarray among the faithful who are both part of the Cathedral community and who care about it and observe the community from afar – well, this simply boggles my mind.
We all struggle to remain faithful to Christ and His Holy Church, intensely so during this Lenten period. We don’t need a Cathedral cleric shoving “wokeness” down our throats as he posts photos of rainbow, non-Orthodox clergy gathering at the temple. He also gloats over the fact that the Holy and All-Venerable Ukrainian Orthodox Church is trying to be removed from the Kiev Caves Lavra by some two-bit pretender to the episcopacy, this clown “Epi-phony” (as we call him here in Texas) who mocks everything that we hold holy and dear as Orthodox Christians.
Though I no longer live in the Diocese of NY-NJ and now live in Texas, I care deeply about what happens there, as I do about the state of Orthodox Christianity everywhere in this country that I love. I fondly recall taking the train to Manhattan from New Jersey to attend services at the Holy Virgin Cathedral. Metropolitan Leonty of blessed memory remains one of my favorite not-yet-formally-canonized saints – as we all know, that Cathedral was the center of his episcopal ministry for decades.
Blessed Metropolitan Leonty must be crying tears from Heaven at the nonsense that goes on there now. Fr. Christopher Calin’s support of the charlatan “Epi-phony” is in direct contradiction to Metropolitan Tikhon’s full-fledged support of the real (and only) Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Metropolitan Onuphriy, published online on the OCA’s website only two days ago: https://www.oca.org/news/headline-news/his-beatitude-metropolitan-tikhon-issues-statement-on-kiev-caves-lavra
Please force this nonsense that the current rector of the Holy Virgin Cathedral engages in to stop at once. He’s been doing it for a long time, and faithful Orthodox Christians across America are sick of it. We want pastors who love and respect our faith and our Church, not those who mock it.
If he is not willing to be a faithful, obedient, and honorable pastor of the Orthodox Church in America, then he should resign or be removed at once.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please keep me and my family in your prayers.
With love in Christ,
//signed//
Thank you for doing this FTS!
Artur Pawlowski physically drove the covid nazis out of his church. He was pulled out of his car and forced to his knees on the Trans-Canada Highway. In prison he was deprived of food, water, and company for long periods of time. Yet, he did not yield. He’s right, it is time to be lions. Lions don’t write letters, they act.
This is heartbreaking.
On a hopeful note, the monks in Kiev have been able to repulse the Zelenskyites yet again:
https://youtu.be/rVLVTLWDFkg. Only 4.15 minutes but go especially min 3:30
Thanks for sharing this. We need the encouragement of even small or temporary victories, because the drone of negative news, while often “real” and “true,” is not the “full story”–the full story includes triumph of the human spirit by the grace of God, over the demonic attacks of the evil one, and we dont get those stories enough. Im becoming convinced that part of the method or psychological warfare against us all is precisely this type of negative news which is all about the good guy getting crushed, and the intention is to get people to just acquiesce rather than have to go through that annoying and messy middle part that involves spiritual resistance.
My “positive reading” has been lives of the saints lately, because they can be very gruesome but ya always get the win at the end. Its motivating and it gives a concrete reminder of how theres a point and its always worth it to just keep pushing through the pain…as any mother in labor knows, it cannot last forever and youll get something great in the end. People like me who have always had a life of comfort really need these messages of Christian encouragement for when those comforts go away.
Sarah, thanks for this comment. It started me thinking about Everyday Saints, that excellent book by Tikhon Shevkunov.
These stories were taken from the depths of the Soviet repression and yet God manifested His saints during that time.
There is always hope.