The passing week is similar to Salvador Dali’s works. Events are sometimes so surrealistic: in the technocratic 2018, the question of the formation of a new church takes the first place (and this is really important), Putin says about the violation of the law by Ukrainian seamen near the Crimea, and a general plan of a seaport and estuaries is approved in Irpin of the Kyiv region. Seriously about the important things (though a little bit weird) – in the traditional digest of DUMKA.
Salvador Dali is an artist, sculptor, engraver, writer, one of the greatest surrealists of the twentieth century. There is no need to give the genius’s biography. Instead, we can mention the main Dali’s quote: “The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad”. Apparently, this is the most accurate description of the present Ukrainian information field. So let’s try to keep calm and analyze the main events of the week.
On December 15 in the Saint Sophia Cathedral, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church was formed. This is just the beginning.
Epiphanius, metropolitan of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytsky and Bila Tserkva, representative of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate had become primate of Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He was elected at the Unity Synod in the Saint Sophia Cathedral, in the presence of representatives of the Orthodox churches of Ukraine, representatives of Constantinople and the President of Ukraine.
“We managed to unite three branches of Ukrainian Orthodoxy into a single local Orthodox Church,” commented Epiphanius on the results of the Synod from the stage at Sophia Square in Kyiv. He thanked Constantinople, the President of Ukraine and the head of the UOC-KP Filaret, the head of UAOC Macariy and all the hierarchs, as well as the Verkhovna Rada for the unity.
Epiphanius was presented by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. People were waiting for the presentation of the new head of the Ukrainian church for about 10 hours.
According to the results of the Synod, Poroshenko said: “This day will become, or it has already become the sacred day, the day of the creation of an autocephalous local Orthodox Church. The day of the final independence from Russia. Ukraine will no longer drink from the Moscow’s bowl.”
And in a few days after the voting, political games (yes, there are some in religion) began. Mykhail, metropolitan of Lutsk and Volyn, who participated in the Unity Synod of Ukrainian Orthodoxy on December 15 and applied for the presiding post of a new church, said that he was made to withdraw his candidacy for the elections.
Oleksandr (Drabynko), metropolitan of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi UOC-MP, after the liturgy at the Transfiguration Cathedral in Kyiv announced the transition to the local church of Ukraine, and the believers present at the church met his words with applause.
Following this, the official Vatican news portal published the news of the Epiphanius’s election as the vicar of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine. This, in fact, means that the new Ukrainian church was recognized in a civilized world.
“Officially, the Catholic Church doesn’t carry out any act of recognition of a new autocephaly, but in fact the sharing of this news is a signal for all those who are still in doubt, including the Local Churches: the diplomacy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate has won Moscow’s efforts,” said a former spokesman of the UOC-KP Yevstratii Zoria, archbishop of Chernihiv and Nizhyn.
The new head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will get Tomos on January 6 in Constantinople (Istanbul). Therefore, the procedure for obtaining church independence will be completed. Amen.
Parliament renamed the Moscow church. Actually, returned the historic name. The Verkhovna Rada compelled the UOC-MP to change the name of the church to “Russian”. From now it should be called the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
According to a law passed by 240 votes, a “religious organization (association), which is a part of another structure and whose governing center is located in a state recognized by the law as the one committing military aggression against Ukraine and that temporarily occupied the territory of Ukraine, in its full name, must reflect the corresponding affiliation.”
The deputies also called for the prohibition of representatives of the Russian Church to conduct activities in the area of hostilities, because they “can give the aggressor information about Ukrainian troops.”
The pro-Russian “Opposition bloc” demanded a re-vote, but it did not work. Nestor Shufrych even wanted to make a fight, but the “Holy Trinity”: Boyko, Novynskyi, and Shufrych were beaten and calmed down by the MP Yuriy Bereza. Even the pray-in near VR did not help.
The only person who behaved in this situation Christian-like is the new head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Epiphanius. He explained, that the new united church is open to a constructive relationship, not a conflict. “We have to find a mutual understanding, not hostility,” said the bishop. “If they (supporters of the Moscow Patriarchate – Ed.) Will feel the love, they will join the Local Church,” he explained.
Metropolitan Epiphanius also said that Verkhovna Rada’s law on the renaming of religious organizations with the center in an aggressor country meets the expectations of Ukrainians. “The reality must correspond to the essence. Every Orthodox Ukrainian must understand which church he goes to,” he said.
On December 16, the day after the Unity Synod of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the election of Metropolitan Epiphanius as its predecessor, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko decided to meet the journalists. For the last time in a format like this, the President met with the media on February 28, 2018. The current final press conference was scheduled for Sunday and announced in less than 24 hours before the event. In addition to being rushed with such a rare format as the president’s press conference, the organizers of the event are blamed as they did not give an opportunity to investigative journalists to ask questions (e.g. Mykhailo Tkach from “Skhemy”).
Bohdan Kutepov believes that this event was geared towards victory. Because euphoria after the Synod killed any possible negative, which can be said to the President.
“Yesterday (December 16th – Ed.), journalists were wearing T-shirts that attracted attention to the investigation of Katia Handziuk’s assassination, and the President said that she was a great person and supported him.” It was so unexpected that we had nothing to say,” Kutepov noted.
Deputies of the Irpin City Council, where most of them are real estate developers, today voted for the general plan, which increases the number of authority to develop high-rise buildings on the land in several times. Before making changes in the general plan, the fake hearing was held in the city.
They presented a document, according to which the city has a seaport, a Black Sea coast and an estuary in a city near Kyiv.
In addition to the development of the seaport, which is already a revolutionary geographical breakthrough for the suburbs of Kyiv up to 500 km towards Mykolaiv region, there also appeared a dump for solid fuel wastes, which will also be transferred to Mykolaiv.
Probably, this could make you rolling on the floor laughing, but this nonsense was approved at public hearings, and nobody saw what in fact the city would like to change.
The road to the city council was blocked by the water-pumping enterprise’s car, which stopped just in the middle of the road. Because of this, the police could not quickly get into the city council.
The locals managed to enter the building only after they had broken the locked doors. During the fights at the Irpin City Council, a window was broken.
In the end, people got into the hall. But after the crowding with thugs for hire, they were taken out.
The acting head Anastasiia Popsui put the general plan on a vote at the 4th minute of the session and it was voted without discussion. At the same time, the internet provider was cut off in the city, and therefore the activists could not even stream the events.
Deputies have legalized their buildings in the city, which were built in previous years. According to the estimates, since 2012, 500 new buildings appeared in the city, but the infrastructure was not ready for this – part of the buildings has no light for several years.
The biggest secret of the General Plan is what will happen to the forest. After all, while being a mayor, Karpliuk worked so that the Kotsyubynskyi forest, as well as three thousand hectares of the forests of the Kyiv-Sviatoshyn forestry, became part of the general plan of Irpin. Apparently, they have forgotten that greed is a grave sin.
More about absurdity: Vladimir Putin began to “return good reputation” to his compadre Viktor Medvedchuk. The Russian president said that he had flown to Russia to discuss the release of 24 Ukrainian sailors.
“As for the exchange, we work on it. Mr. Medvedchuk, on the instructions of Poroshenko, is constantly engaged in this, and recently he came to Moscow and raised the question of the release of Ukrainian seamen seized in the Kerch Strait, in the Black Sea, but I already said, this issue can be solved only after the end of the criminal case (in the RF – Ed.),” he said.
Do not forget that elections are coming soon, and Putin needs some forces in Rada in order to turn the parliament’s sessions into circus performances again. Putin also said that he provides humanitarian and other assistance to Donbas so that people there “were not totally crushed”, he said that he will continue to “help”.
“We want peace and prosperity all over Ukraine. We are interested in this because Ukraine remains one of our biggest trade and economic partners. International commerce between Ukraine and Russia, despite all the efforts of the Kyiv authorities, is growing, and has grown this year,” Putin said.
He also called this fact “natural ties” and the current Ukrainian power “Russophobes, who do not understand the interest of their people.”
We have become accustomed to the fact, that the Ukrainians are called “Russophobes, fascists, etc.” and as Christians, we pay no attention to these images. But Russians need to know yet another biblical saying: “and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again”. So no offense, that in just 4 years you have become the world’s outsiders who can only be ignored.
By Kostyantyn Rul
