Fr. Serhii Barshai, UOC, Sophia Brotherhood
When you learn about yet another parish or monastic community being expelled from its church or monastery, it is, of course, saddening. Now this unpleasant turn has also come for the sisters of the St. Nicholas Krupytsky Monastery (near Baturyn), since part of its buildings belongs to the National Preserve “Hetman’s Capital.” One would very much like everything to be resolved in the best possible way, especially since it remains completely unclear how the Preserve plans to use the buildings vacated by the nuns. After all, the monastery is located several kilometers from Baturyn in the hard-to-reach village of Verbivka.
But we want to speak about something else.
One would very much like to believe this was Photoshop or some kind of AI fabrication, yet the relentless internet repeatedly confirms one unpleasant detail: until recently, a sign was displayed on the monastery gates that defies both common sense and the official statements of the leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. There is hardly any need to mention the eleventh year of war with that same Moscow, four of which have been full-scale.
Yes, in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, unfortunately and shamefully, such signs were common on churches and monasteries of the UOC (both in language and in self-designation as the “Moscow Patriarchate” or the “Russian Orthodox Church”) in all regions, even in the West. There is no need even to speak of the now-occupied Crimea or Donbas — rarely was there a church or monastery without such a sign. Incidentally, this completely contradicted the then-current statements of church leadership about alleged full independence from Moscow.
It is understandable that a diocesan bishop, even in such matters, cannot exert pressure on every monastery within his diocese, especially women’s monasteries. It is equally understandable that such a “calling card” expresses the inner outlook of at least the local abbess — so to speak, a Freudian slip. But today is no longer the 2000s. And the Krupytsky Monastery is not somewhere in the east or south, where, unfortunately, such things rarely provoked indignation. This is the frontline Chernihiv region, land long soaked with Ukrainian blood shed by those same northern invaders around Baturyn. And the current ruling bishop of the local diocese (Nizhyn) is supposedly a patriot — at least that is how he has repeatedly described himself in various television programs. So why does such an unsightly thing hang on a monastery within the diocese entrusted to him? Has such an authoritative archpastor, who even serves as a Church spokesperson, truly failed to find the words to persuade the abbess to remove this disgrace? Or is the UOC independent from the ROC only officially, while in practice everyone does as they please?
Such “boards” do not merely harm a particular religious community. Signs like the one in Krupytsky directly portray the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as a Moscow subdivision and, accordingly, as anti-Ukrainian, anti-Christian, and fundamentally dishonest. For if the information on the monastery gates is false (that it is a structural unit of the Moscow Patriarchate), then both the monastery leadership and the local diocesan administration are lying. And if it states the truth, then by claiming the complete independence of the UOC from the Moscow Patriarchate, the Church leadership itself is lying.
Monastery Signboard: A Litmus Test Effect
Fr. Serhii Barshai, UOC, Sophia Brotherhood
When you learn about yet another parish or monastic community being expelled from its church or monastery, it is, of course, saddening. Now this unpleasant turn has also come for the sisters of the St. Nicholas Krupytsky Monastery (near Baturyn), since part of its buildings belongs to the National Preserve “Hetman’s Capital.” One would very much like everything to be resolved in the best possible way, especially since it remains completely unclear how the Preserve plans to use the buildings vacated by the nuns. After all, the monastery is located several kilometers from Baturyn in the hard-to-reach village of Verbivka.
But we want to speak about something else.
One would very much like to believe this was Photoshop or some kind of AI fabrication, yet the relentless internet repeatedly confirms one unpleasant detail: until recently, a sign was displayed on the monastery gates that defies both common sense and the official statements of the leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. There is hardly any need to mention the eleventh year of war with that same Moscow, four of which have been full-scale.
Yes, in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, unfortunately and shamefully, such signs were common on churches and monasteries of the UOC (both in language and in self-designation as the “Moscow Patriarchate” or the “Russian Orthodox Church”) in all regions, even in the West. There is no need even to speak of the now-occupied Crimea or Donbas — rarely was there a church or monastery without such a sign. Incidentally, this completely contradicted the then-current statements of church leadership about alleged full independence from Moscow.
It is understandable that a diocesan bishop, even in such matters, cannot exert pressure on every monastery within his diocese, especially women’s monasteries. It is equally understandable that such a “calling card” expresses the inner outlook of at least the local abbess — so to speak, a Freudian slip. But today is no longer the 2000s. And the Krupytsky Monastery is not somewhere in the east or south, where, unfortunately, such things rarely provoked indignation. This is the frontline Chernihiv region, land long soaked with Ukrainian blood shed by those same northern invaders around Baturyn. And the current ruling bishop of the local diocese (Nizhyn) is supposedly a patriot — at least that is how he has repeatedly described himself in various television programs. So why does such an unsightly thing hang on a monastery within the diocese entrusted to him? Has such an authoritative archpastor, who even serves as a Church spokesperson, truly failed to find the words to persuade the abbess to remove this disgrace? Or is the UOC independent from the ROC only officially, while in practice everyone does as they please?
Such “boards” do not merely harm a particular religious community. Signs like the one in Krupytsky directly portray the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as a Moscow subdivision and, accordingly, as anti-Ukrainian, anti-Christian, and fundamentally dishonest. For if the information on the monastery gates is false (that it is a structural unit of the Moscow Patriarchate), then both the monastery leadership and the local diocesan administration are lying. And if it states the truth, then by claiming the complete independence of the UOC from the Moscow Patriarchate, the Church leadership itself is lying.