‘Become a prayerful Russian monk there’ – UOC Archbishop on Metropolitan Onufriy’s Russian citizenship
Metropolitan Onufriy (Photo:The Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine/Facebook)
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) Archbishop of Chernihiv, Evstratiy Zorya, reacted to Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in Ukraine Metropolitan Onufriy’s claims that he doesn't see himself as a Russian, while acknowledging that he previously had a Russian passport.
Onufriy's Russian passport is an undeniable fact and his excuses only make things worse, Zorya said in an April 8 Facebook post.
"Because thus he acknowledges his deep mental and spiritual dependence on Russia. He dreams about Lavra in Russia as a kind of paradise," he said.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia considers the "Russian world" a tool for expanding and maintaining his power and doesn't believe in all this gibberish, he said.
"Metropolitan Onufriy believes. Sincerely. From the bottom of his heart. And with his claim (the style and expressions indicate his personal authorship, but his own speech and thought, not a text prepared by lawyers or assistants) Metropolitan Onufriy only confirms all this," said the UOC Archbishop.
Zorya also compared the reaction of representatives of the ROC to Onufriy's Russian passport to the glorification of the so-called "Russian world" during its service in the Kyiv Cave Monastery, when parishioners sang "The bell is ringing, it is ringing over Russia, Mother Russia is waking up."
At first, the ROC called those claims a fake. Then, when proven to be a regular occurrence, they made the ridiculous excuse that "it was a bit like this, but really it was the opposite and they supported Ukraine and everyone else are slanderers," Zorya wrote.
Onufriy claimed himself to be a Ukrainian who is not interested in papers. He just wants to end his life in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in Moscow Oblast, he said.
Zorya proposed that Onufriy go to his desired paradise destination near Moscow to become a prayerful Russian monk there, instead of stubbornly destroying Orthodoxy's authority in Ukraine.
ROC Metropolitan Onufriy and over 20 other ROC priests have Russian passports, Ukrainska Pravda reported on April 7.
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