The Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine (UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate) is strengthening its own position in the political space on the eve of the politically active autumn period.
Taking advantage of the euphoria after their successful, as they believe, religious procession that rallied several thousand followers and escalating the situation on the eve of the visit of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I for the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, the Moscow Patriarchate is actively registering new regional offices of the affiliated Myriany non-profit.
This NGO is not an independent entity, only serving as a front organization for the ROCinU, so that a Moscow-controlled church could directly interfere in the political life of Ukraine, pushing for the “Montenegrin scenario.”
However, the constant attempts of the Miryany leadership, represented by Vasyl Makarovsky and the senior bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate, to pretend that the ROCinU is beyond politics and has no political ambitions, may create a misconception among citizens about the true nature of the non-profit.
In fact, the Myriany and the ROCinU are pretty much the same thing. And there are multiple grounds for backing this assumption.
It is worth noting the procedure for appointing heads of regional branches of the non-profit. The organization had previously opened offices in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Rivne, Dnipropetrovsk, and Cherkasy regions, before announcing on August 8 that a new branch us being set up in Zaporizhia region.
The Spiritual Front’s sources report that all appointments to key positions, especially those of regional offices’ leaders, were coordinated with the local ruling bishops.
At the same time, candidates for positions were also selected randomly. As a rule, the list of candidates included the heads of pilgrimage departments of the ROCinU dioceses, elders of influential religious communities, well-known parishioners of the ROCinU, the heads of organizations of a religious nature, affiliated with the local dioceses.
Commenting on the beginning of the work of the Zaporizhia organization, Metropolitan Luka (Kovalenko) of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, called on the parishioners of the diocese to actively join the Myriany ranks.
“I asked our priests to announce at their services calls for signing up and thinking together, what we can do to protect our church, our Orthodox faith,” the bishop said.
It is not known exactly from which alleged threat the Orthodox faith and their church in Ukraine should be protected, while the use of worship services to campaign for the NGO is a direct evidence of ROCinU’s politicization.
As a result, it can be argued that the non-profit is already transforming into a clearly hierarchical, political structure fully controlled by the head of the ROCinU, Metropolitan Onufriy (Berezovsky), who has begun to implement the “Montenegrin scenario” in Ukraine.
The Moscow Patriarchate is gradually coming out of the hiding and beginning to openly interfere in the political struggle, threatening the Ukrainian government more and more defiantly. Wearing gloves on both hands and letting the Myriany do the dirty work, the ROCinU is finally close to taking off the mask of a religious organization and exposing itself as a completely anti-Ukrainian political project run by the Kremlin.
It should be recalled that Vasyl Makarovskyi, chief of the Myriany, public organization of the Russian Orthodox Church, is included in the so-called database of the Peacemaker Center. The activist is accused of “participation in acts of humanitarian aggression against Ukraine, anti-Ukrainian propaganda measures aimed at destabilizing socio-political life, and inciting interethnic and interfaith hatred.” He was referred to as an opponent of the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the ROC which represents the aggressor power.
