Doubling Down with Low Hanging Fruit

To offset the disastrous mistake he made by forming the OCU in ROC territory, Bartholomew is doubling down and starting another sect in Ukraine. 

Yeah, I know this doesn’t make sense, but bear with me. 

It’s not that he is discontented with the schismatics to whom he granted “autocephaly.”  After all, he believes he has the right to unilaterally grant autocephaly to whomever he wants, so that’s not the issue. 

What is the issue is that he recognizes that his ukrocephalic contraption is a failure.  In other words, the OCU didn’t live up to his or his globalist masters’ expectations outside its own little group.  No one but the nationalists wants anything to do with it. 

Given the 24/7 hatred of all things Russian ginned up by our Media Industrial Complex as of late, sympathy for Sergei Dumenko should have been a slam-dunk.  Instead, however, it is the face of Metropolitan Onuphry that comes to mind when one thinks of authentic Ukrainian suffering.   

Stealing clerics, parishes, monasteries, and property from a canonical bishop isn’t enough to ward off Bartholomew’s fear of the “Third Rome,” so he is looking among the casualties of war-torn Ukraine to pick off the low-hanging fruit of those who are too angry with Russia right now to commemorate Patriarch Kirill.

Patriarch Bartholomew is going to gather them all together under him.  He’s already given the OK to commemorate him to no one in particular.  

Once again, Bartholomew is exploiting the political climate for his own gain.  Only this time, he’s being more ham-fisted than usual.  I can’t imagine that any Ukrainians, of whatever stripe, are happy with these new shenanigans.  

No matter how discouraged Ukrainian Orthodox Christians are with the present situation, they’re not going to want anything to do with the ultranationalists that comprise the OCU.  (Especially given their bizarre iconography.)  It’s just too jaw-droppingly obvious that the OCU is a contrived apparatus hastily cobbled together.  It reeks of the authenticity of a jihadi being asked to preside at a bar mitzvah.  Even Bartholomew knows this.

So what’s he doing now?  He’s going to offer the disenfranchised Ukrainians a Plan C where they can bypass the UOC and the OCU and go directly under him.  

Long-term strategic thinking was never a strong suit of the Phanariotes, situated as they are in “New Rome” which doesn’t exist.  For “pastoral reasons,” I’m sure, the EP is creating another fissure in Ukraine, breaking the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church into yet another piece [story below]. 

I suspect Bartholomew is lining his pockets in the process, giving the Ukrainians one more thing to fight about.  After all, the longer this war drags out, the better for the Military Industrial Complex and its stockholders.

Bartholomew will fail, yet again.  The Russian Ukrainians and Ukrainian Nationalists will be insulted by the gesture.  Even the Greeks will turn against him.  His time is officially up.  The CIA will have no use for him now. 

I can’t help but wonder how Dumenko feels about being stabbed in the back like this.  I guess he should have thought about this when he signed up for this globalist gig in the first place.    

Please take the time to read this piece from the Union of Orthodox Journalists:

“UOC clerics will be persuaded to move to a new jurisdiction directly subordinate to Constantinople.”

The Constantinople Patriarchate has decided tacitly to create another church jurisdiction in Ukraine, separated from both the Russian Orthodox Church and the OCU. According to the UOJ sources, priests who refuse to commemorate Patriarch Kyrill in condition of war but who see no possibility to unite with the schismatics will be lured into it.

The first throw-in on the subject was made the other day by an active apologist for the Ukrainian schism, Archimandrite Kirill (Govorun) of the ROC. He wrote that Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople allowed UOC clerics who refused to commemorate the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church to commemorate him – without joining the OCU or any additional canonical procedures.

There has not been any official confirmation or statement from the Phanar about this. However, church circles are actively engaged in talks and probing bishops about the possibility of leaving the jurisdiction of the UOC. In the first place, the eparchies that refused to commemorate the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church are being considered.”

https://spzh.news/en/news/87037-polyzujasy-vojnoj-fanar-gotovit-ukraine-novuju-cerkovnuju-strukturu–insajds

Comments

  1. Today Ukraine, tomorrow the world!

    • Gail Sheppard says

      Why would anybody want the world?

      • Bartholomew seems to possess
        a peculiar grasp of Genesis 9:7

        “But do ye increase and multiply, and fill the earth,
        and have dominion over it.”
        [LXX, Brenton]

      • Joseph Lipper says

        Gail, I want the world for all my globalist designs, so that I can be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish it, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon it.

        Hmm, it looks like I already have some challengers though.

      • Ilya Zhitomirskiy says

        “For what will it profit a man if he hath acquired the world, but he shall lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his own soul?” Truer words have not been spoken. Therefore, we must pray for the health and salvation of Patriarch Bartholomew, that he may become a true hierarch and avoid the condemnation of Nestorius, Sergius, Pyrrhus, and the other false archpastors of Constantinople. We must also pray for Patriarch Kyrill, that he may have the wisdom and discernment to help the Russians and Ukrainians end their unnecessary, bloody, and fratricidal war.

        • Gail Sheppard says

          He had 30 years of our prayers (which continue). I think God answered them. Not in the way the Church had hoped, perhaps, but His answer was clear; Bartholomew’s free will has repeatedly trumped God’s will for the Church. We are to dust off our feet and walk away.

          • Do I hear an “Amen”?

            Let old Bart abdicate his throne and withdraw to Mt. Athos this Lent to repent of his monstrous iniquities. Better he do that and stay there until he dies. If he would just withdraw for good and pray for the salvation of his own soul the Lord may grant it to him. Furthermore, it would give the worldwide Church a chance to recover by the grace of God from the damage he has done with such a cavalier attitude. The need is ever more pressing now that the two most populous Orthodox countries are shooting at each other.

            Lord, have mercy!

  2. Ukrainians aren’t stupid, they know that Bartholomew is the one who caused and greatly exacerbated this spiritual schism in Ukraine. From what I’ve seen there have been two small monasteries near Lviv who have gone to the OCU, no word of how many monks it was.

    I think Bartholomew is being generous with himself if he thinks the Ukrainians are going to commemorate a Turkish man who caused spiritual crisis in their country and essentially abandon Metropolitan Onuphry who has shepherded them through crisis after crisis.

  3. https://orthochristian.com/145373.html

    This doesn’t make me think that the Polish Church is going to recognize the OCU like Joseph L previously suggested.

    • Joseph Lipper says

      My guess is Metropolitan Sawa is being pressured by the Polish government to recognize the OCU, hence the invitation of Patriarch Bartholomew to Poland from its president.

      But… if what George is hearing “on the street” is true…that Poland intends to invade Ukraine, then it beats me. I can’t imagine that Orthodox Ukrainians want to be invaded by Poland either. That would be a mess.

      • Gail Sheppard says

        Or maybe it’s about the foolishness of encouraging the people who are angry with Patriarch Kirill to commemorate Bartholomew directly. I’m not an ecclesiastical expert but something tells me Bartholomew just crossed the Rubicon.

        • Joseph Lipper says

          Gail, the two Orthodox monasteries that just recently joined the OCU in Western Ukraine are not commemorating Patriarch Bartholomew. Instead, they are now under the omophorion of the OCU’s Metropolitan Epiphany. I haven’t seen any evidence that Constantinople’s Ukrainian Exarchate is expanding yet.

          • Gail Sheppard says

            You know, Joseph, it doesn’t work like that. They may think it does, but unless they leave with just the clothes on their back they’re not going anywhere. – Not saying things aren’t going to change for them. They think they’re leaving a patriarchate. What they’re leaving is the Church. They’ll probably be defrocked.

      • George Michalopulos says

        The word is not “invasion” but “protectorate.” Ironies abound in that the Ukrainians in the West hate the Poles just as much as they hate the Russians.

  4. https://orthochristian.com/145381.html

    Good to see that Elpidophoros was finally rebuked by other Orthodox bishops in the U.S regarding his wishy-washy two sides pro-life comments at the March for Life. Good on Metropolitan Joseph.

    • George Michalopulos says

      I’m glad to see that not all of our primates are given to excesses of Phanaromania.

      • Phanaromania?

        Not many new-coined words get my approbation,
        but this one does…

      • Phanaromania, I like that.

        Phanariotism, Bartholomites.

        Always good to have a name put with a heresy and mainstream it.

    • Gail Sheppard says

      Agreed. The apple, as they say, does not fall far from the tree.

      “Here is a direct quotation from a July 20, 1990, article, “SF Shows Off Its Ecumenical Spirit,” in the San Francisco Chronicle. Metropolitan Bartholomais of Chalcedon is the current Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

      Asked the Orthodox church’s position on abortion, Bartholomais described a stand more liberal than that of the Roman Catholic Church, which condemns abortion in all cases and whose clergy have, in some cities, excommunicated leading pro-choice Catholics.

      Although the Orthodox church believes the soul enters the body at conception and, ”generally speaking (Whoomp, There It Is), respects human life and the continuation of pregnancy,” Bartholomais said, the church also ”respects the liberty and freedom of all human persons and all Christian couples.”

      ”We are not allowed to enter the bedrooms of the Christian couples,” he said. ”We cannot generalize. There are many reasons for a couple to go toward abortion.”

      ***
      This is the problem with the Orthodox Church: We have hierarchs (some claiming to speak for all of us) who are NOT ORTHODOX. Why do we have such a hard time admitting it and dealing with it? – And why didn’t the OCA sign this? Very disappointing.

      • And why didn’t the OCA sign this? Very disappointing.

        Yea I was surprised as well that the OCA didn’t sign. But, I’m willing to give them a pass since the OCA has repeatedly issued pro-life statements and has been present at the March for Life for years. Also, Archbishop Michael is pretty consistently praying outside of abortion clinics in NYC and I personally know one OCA bishop that is staunchly pro-life.

        Maybe the OCA didn’t feel the need to issue another statement, but it still is surprising.

      • Gail, I totally agree. Met. Tikhon (OCA) seems hesitant at times to do things. Signing the recent declaration is just one example. Although, in his recent archpastoral message for the Feast of Annunciation he did add this at the bottom:

        “The Orthodox Church in America has always believed, upheld, preached, and defended the sanctity of human life from the time of conception in the womb.”

        Maybe it was an oops, I goofed, but I’ll make up for it with this?

    • The bishops’ statement is truly inspired and brilliantly worded. Their stance for life is absolutely unequivocal. Nevertheless, there are two disappointments to be noted:

      1. Abp. Elpidophoros is not named in the statement. He should have been rebuked by name and called to repent by his episcopal brethren. Unless he does repent, another bishop should be promoted to take his place if there is an invitation to the March for Life next year. Elpidophoros does NOT represent the Orthodox position against abortion. It’s important for public relations that all of our American bishops be united on this paramount issue.

      2. The statement is signed only by ruling hierarchs of minor jurisdictions, except for Metropolitan Joseph of the Antiochian Archdiocese, of course. The primates of the OCA and ROCOR did not sign it. One can only ask why not. Again, the appearance of disunity only hampers the Orthodox witness. A divided house is a weak one and prone to fall; the Orthodox Church in our country is so small our hierarchs can’t afford to equivocate here.

    • Joseph Lipper says

      None of those bishops who signed were at the 2022 D.C. March for Life though. I wonder why not?

  5. “Long-term strategic thinking was never a strong suit of the Phanariotes”.
    The Problem with the AROCWE’s attempted dissolution by the CP, and most of AROCWE’s subsequent joining to the MP is evidence of this.

    Having UOC-MP clergy commemorate the CP without joining the CP itself does not really make sense in terms of jurisdictions because the CP hasn’t created an Exarchate for them in Ukraine or coordinated this with the OCU. If the OCU were the legitimate Church for Ukraine in the eyes of the CP, then the CP would normally expect the OUC’s clergy to either join the OCU or to go directly under some CP bishop.

    • Gail Sheppard says

      No, it doesn’t make sense. You can’t just start commemorating someone unless you’re ecclesiastically under them. This is the problem with the EP. He does not feel he needs to be Orthodox. IMO, this latest move puts him directly in “heresy” territory. One of his braver bishops should be submitting this to spiritual court.

      • One of his braver bishops should be submitting this to spiritual court.

        Are there even any good bishops under the EP anywhere? The only one I can think of is Met. Isaiah of Denver, but I doubt he or any of the other bishops under the EP would even dare take Bartholomew to spiritual court. They would get decimated by the other bishops.

        I’m not even sure it’s possible but the best hope would be for the Athonite monks to do this.

    • George Michalopulos says

      Yet another wrinkle if you ask me.

  6. Joseph Lipper says

    There seems no indication whatsoever that Metropolitan Onuphry is aiding the Russian troops in their “military operation” to de-nazify and rid Ukraine of gay-pride parades. It’s probably quite the opposite. If anything, his presence is likely an obstacle that is demoralizing to the Russian troops in their task. I might even say that Metropolitan Onuphry had the foresight to remain in the Moscow Patriarchate because of the possibility of a Russian invasion like this. His presence right now is a stabilizing force in Ukraine. However, it remains to be seen how much longer he can remain with the Moscow Patriarchate. There comes a point where it just doesn’t work anymore.

    As for the OCU’s Metropolitan Epiphany, it sounds like he’s keeping plenty busy, but yes, mostly under the radar. There’s no doubt that he’s being targeted by the invading Russian troops. Still, the OCU is expanding right now, while the UOC-MP is decreasing.

    • Gail Sheppard says

      Are you telling us that Met. Onuphry is going to leave the MP? And do what, exactly? Become a schismatic?

      And what’s this about Epiphany being targeted? The OCU has probably run for the hills at this point. They certainly aren’t standing tall with their countrymen. I couldn’t find one bit of news about any of them.

      Since you’re obviously more plugged in than I am, Joseph, can you support even a single statement you’ve made? Because, legally, George and I are not permitted to knowingly print BS and that’s what this sounds like to me.

      • The OCU has probably run for the hills at this point.

        They’re too busy fighting in the Azov Battalion. OCU & Azov are two sides of the same coin.

        But you’re right. Epihony ran for the hills while Met. Onuphry stayed and gave spiritual nourishment to his flock. I guarantee this will not go unnoticed by everyday Ukrainians.

    • Yes, Joseph Lipper—can you plug us into your insightful radar? You seem to know what’s going on in Ukraine, almost as if you’re actually there.

  7. Joseph Lipper says

    Gail, no I’m not necessarily suggesting that Metropolitan Onuphry would go into schism with Moscow. What I said is “it remains to be seen how much longer he can remain with the Moscow Patriarchate. There comes a point where it just doesn’t work anymore”.

    Do you think that Metropolitan Onuphry could get full autocephaly from Moscow? The MP’s previous argument against Ukrainian autocephaly was that “the canonical Ukrainian Church does not want it.” Well, that circumstance may have changed. Unfortunately, the UOC-MP is apparently unable to have a council about this during wartime.

    Yet the abbot of the monastery in Ukraine that joined the OCU said he did so “after learning that Constantinople doesn’t intend to expand its structure [Exarchate]”.

    https://orthochristian.com/145275.html

    Furthermore:

    “Zaxid.net reports that the [second] monastery was received into the OCU with stavropegial status, directly under ‘Metropolitan’ Epiphany Dumenko, yesterday.”

    https://orthochristian.com/145352.html

    The same orthochristian.com article reports the OCU had a synodal meeting last Monday, March 21st, with this statement:

    “Due to the war that Russia has waged against Ukraine, more and more clergy and faithful under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine (UOC-MP) understand the real state of affairs, realize their true canonical and civic duty and begin to look for ways to distance themselves from the Russian Orthodox Church, which through its leaders actually supported the aggression and is one of its inspirers… ”

    The same article from orthochristian.com continues:

    “clergy, monasteries, and parishes ‘that for some reason can’t be part of the local diocese of the OCU’ can be temporarily received directly under the omophorion of Epiphany Dumenko, as St. Onuphry Monastery reportedly was, with the aim of later being integrated into the relevant diocesan structure.”

    All of this indicates that Patriarch Bartholomew is not pushing to expand his Ukrainian Exarchate.

    Here’s the bit about Metropolitan Epiphany targeted by Russia:

    https://df.news/en/2022/03/09/metropolitan-epifaniy-i-m-target-no-5-for-russians-they-ve-already-tried-to-kill-me-three-times/

    • Gail Sheppard says

      You’re backpedaling, my dear, but thank you for the clarification.

      • Joseph Lipper says

        And, the UOC-MP churches are putting up huge iconographic billboards of the Mother of God everywhere with messages like “Most Holy Theotokos, save Ukraine”:

        https://orthochristian.com/145291.html

        That’s just a brilliant move. Not only does it inspire Ukrainians to protect their homeland, but it also demoralizes the aggressor.

        The question is, will the UOC-MP receive autocephaly from Russia?

        There’s no doubt in my mind that the bishops of the UOC-MP now want it, but if the Russian Church won’t grant it, then of course there’s another option.

        • Gail Sheppard says

          This is about the Fatima consecration on 3/25/22 where the Pope was to consecrate both Russia and Ukraine to the “Beautiful Lady’s Immaculate Heart”. That’s why you see “Most Holy Theotokos Save Ukraine” everywhere.

        • if the Russian Church won’t grant it, then of course there’s another option.

          If you’re insinuating that Metropolitan Onuphry will take autocephaly like Filaret Denisanko did, then I have ocean front property in Arizona to sell you. Given all of the schism that have happened in Ukraine, I have no doubt that should the UOC-MP pursue autocephaly then they will do it canonically.

          If/when Russia wins the war, which everyone outside of the MSM believes they will, then Russia & presumably the Russian Church will view Ukraine as part of Russia. Perhaps the UOC-MP will maintain it’s very high level of autonomy.

          Don’t forget that the UOC-MP has a vastly higher amount of self-rule and autonomy than does the schismatic OCU.

          • Joseph Lipper says

            The OCU is not in schism with Moscow though. It’s Moscow that does not recognize the OCU.

            So, what will happen to the 100,000 Ukrainian refugees coming to the U.S.? I suspect at least some of them are from the OCU. Will they be welcome in our parishes? How will they be received?

            https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-accept-up-100000-ukrainians-fleeing-war-sources-2022-03-24/

            • Gail Sheppard says

              Will the OCU refugees be welcome in parishes other than the GOA? I assume so if they’re done with the EP.

              • Joseph Lipper says

                For size comparison, the OCA probably has 100,000 active members.

                • Gail Sheppard says

                  If the Orthodox Church lost 100,000 members, satan is jumping for joy! (I suspect it’s difficult to get hard numbers during a war. Let’s wait until the dust settles and not be so jubilant over people leaving the Church.)

                • Joseph Lipper says

                  I wonder if the recent statement from the OCA’s Holy Synod is because they are anticipating these refugees. I hope that Ukrainian refugees will feel welcome in OCA parishes, regardless of whether they are coming from the OCU or UOC-MP.

                • Alexei Krindatch and many others would disagree with this huge number of 100,000 active members.

                  The OCA probably has less than 30,000 active members. Not stating this with joy — stating this with utmost sadness.

                  Back when Metropolitan Leonty was the OCA/Metropolia First Hierarch (1950-1965), there were more than 350,000 active OCA members. Parishes were huge, with hundreds of active families. Mostly all were Slav/Galician immigrant families and their 1st-generation American descendants, or what we’d now call western Ukrainian or Polish.

                  American secularism was just too much, and so many left the Church or became nominal members only. So many parishes in Pa., Ohio, N.Y., and N.J. tell this sad story. Immigrant families after the fall of the USSR saved many parishes from closure.

                  Active attendance/participation in the OCA is probably less than 30,000. ROCOR is even less, though ROCOR in America is smaller. The GOAA is larger, but even GOAA active attendance is a small fraction of what it was 50 years ago.

                  Thank God that the Truth is not dictated by numbers. Simply because people don’t actively participate in Church as much anymore does not in any way negate the Truth of Christ or of His Church.

                  Through God’s grace, may the foundation that these Slavic immigrants laid grow through American converts of all colors and flavors and varities in the decades to come

              • George Michalopulos says

                Interesting point. They won’t be able to be integrated into Epiphany’s sect, will they? After all, according to Bartholomew’s grant of “autocephaly,” that’s something that the OCU can’t do, can it?

                • Joseph Lipper says

                  No, but I suppose Metropolitan Philaret could conceivably end up coming to the U.S. and try being their “Patriarch”. Hopefully that doesn’t happen, but such things usually do. I think he may already have some parishes in North America.

                  • Gail Sheppard says

                    Yeah, I’ve heard he had some offspring, too. Just didn’t know it was in America.

                • Gail Sheppard says

                  That’s what the Tomos says, but they’ve been bucking that from the beginning. Why would they care about following rules?

                  • They are a Rules Based International Order.
                    Canon Law based, not so much.
                    And of course the rules are what they say they are,
                    when they say they are.

                    • Gail Sheppard says

                      There was a time when I believed a rule could not be broken.

                      But they can be replaced with the drop of a hat.

                      Frankly, it might be easier to let them make all the rules and then replace them when no one is looking.

                      I’ve come to understand that the one with the most comprehensive and best rules wins the game. When I worked for the Department of Mental Health in L.A., we would spend weeks in committee talking about a single paragraph and how it should be written. A consultant who probably made $200 an hour led these groups.

                      My position was always: “Let’s just do it the first time and THEN document the best way to do it in the future; after we do a postmortem to determine what we could have done better.” This scared her to death! She didn’t seem to understand the value of knowing what you’re talking about before you immortalize it in print!

                      Rules are someone else’s wishes that may never come true.

                • – The biggest specifically Ukrainian Church in the US is the UOC-USA, which is under Constantinople.
                  – The OCU has no parishes in the US that I am aware of because its Tomos limits it to Ukraine.
                  – KP Philaret’s OUC-Kyiv Patriarchate that nobody including the OCU recognizes does have about a dozen parishes in the USA, and more abroad.
                  – Since Constantinople is the only jurisdiction outside Greece, Cyprus, and Africa that recognizes the OCU, it seems that there would have to be some decision or rule about procedures for accepting any OCU laity or clergy into non-Constantinople parishes. ROCOR, by comparison, makes a big deal about accepting clergy and laity from non-canonical jurisdictions. However, I don’t know of any decisions specifically on the topic, other than the fact that the other Churches don’t recognize the OCU.

                  • As ROCOR is part of the ROC-MP,
                    I can’t really see OCU refugees going there.

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      Don’t be so sure. Not all the refugees leaving the Ukraine are anti-Russian (or under any of the vagante jurisdictions created by Bartholomew).

                      It is now being credibly reported with much documentary evidence, that the Kievan forces are torturing people of all stripes, not just Russian POWs.

                      Plus, there’s a lot of draft-dodging going on, specifically young men who don’t want to fight for the thugs who rule Kiev.

                    • Brendan,
                      When I raised the issue of ROCOR, I was bringing up the issue of how canonical Churches (besides Constantinople) would accept members of the OCU who wanted to join canonical parishes outside Ukraine. I was giving ROCOR as an example of a Church that tends to have pretty clear policies and lines about accepting those from noncanonical Churches. Constantinople-run parishes will just automatically accept OCU members. The OCA, Antiochian, and Serbian Churches do not recognize the OCU, but does that mean in practice that they will require some procedure or ritual for accepting members coming from the OCU? If an OCU bishop or priest joins the UOC-USA unceremoniously, will the OCA, Serbian Church, and Antioch concelebrate with him?

                    • @Hal

                      Understood.

                  • Looks like there will be a new Tomos for those guys. Question is who will be first, from Rome or from Istanbul 🙂

                    https://spzh.news/en/news/87337-zhdem-jeshhe-odin-tomos-s-uniatami–ijerarkh-pcu

                    “When we win, these tendencies will soon take shape, and there will be another Tomos,” Zinkevich said.

                    According to him, the expectations from the Tomos of the OCU were not met: “We expected all Orthodox churches to get united – the dioceses of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Kyiv Patriarchate, the Autocephalous Church. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was also among them. After all, in the future after the war, I see all these churches blended into one structure.”

                    According to Zinkevich, “it should be one Kyiv church in the patriarchal status.”

                    • Gail Sheppard says

                      I don’t know why I’m laughing.

                    • Zinkevich: “When we win…”

                      Who is this “we”, I wonder?

                    • PS: According to Philaret “it should be
                      one Kyiv church in the patriarchal status”
                      with himself as Patriarch…

                    • @Gail, it’s funny because of how absurd it is lol. Whatever is in the water in the Fanar they must be sending that water to Ukraine.

                      I guess the OCU is fine with being the fatted calf that Bartholomew plans sacrificing to the alter of Francis/Rome

            • The OCU is not in schism because it is not a church.
              Even its honorary (founding) ‘Patriarch’ wants nothing to do with it.

            • Joseph Lipper, no the OCU is not in ‘schism’ with (or from) Moscow, as you say. However, the OCU itself is an uncanonical entity full of schismatics, deposed clergymen and self-ordained laymen. Even a lowly can of tuna has more apostolic succession than they do!

            • If 100,000 Ukrainian refugees come to the US, then how many of them are Orthodox, as opposed to Catholic, Jewish, non-observant, or Protestant? 30,000? Out of those 30,000, they would be divided between the OCU and UOC-MP. I expect that the OCU members that you are asking about would prefer to join Constantinople’s UOC-USA parishes, although maybe some would join the UOC-KP parishes in the US, or else the other jurisdictions.

              I don’t know how other jurisdictions’ clergy would interact with OCU clergy who joined Constantinople’s parishes in the US without any ceremony.

  8. https://spzh.news/en/news/87282-v-polyskoj-pravoslavnoj-cerkvi-podtverdili-vizit-v-stranu-glavy-fanara

    This doesn’t sound like the Polish Church will be recognizing the OCU, it seems more like they are appealing to Patriarch Bartholomew to meet with the heads of the local Churches.

    The one “iffy” thing is that Bartholomew was also invited by President Duda. This doesn’t necessarily give Poroshenko vibes and I’m guessing that as a Roman Catholic Pres. Duda doesn’t have much knowledge of the OCU. If Met. Sawa does a complete 180 a-la Theodoros then we know there was massive coercion.

    With Holy Week four weeks away, I wonder what the Churches who rely on Constantinople for chrism will do. My opinion is that the Russia-Ukraine deal has been a game changer in the Church, I just can’t tell if its for better or worse.

  9. US HHS Secret Keeper Xavier Becerra Admits To
    Genociding “People Of Color” & Other Slip Ups

    https://www.brighteon.com/904795b1-67dd-4410-8996-7d60d3cd4bf4

    [Video – 01:42]

    Truth will out…