More Schismatical Hijinks in the Ukraine

Archbishop Sergei Gensitski of Ternopol-Kremenets (1951- )

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On 20 November, adherents of the self-proclaimed “Patriarchate of Kiev” attempted to grab hold of Holy Protection church in the village of Musorovtsy in Ternopol Oblast, according to the website of the canonical UOC’/MP. As noted in a letter by Archbishop Sergei Gensitski of Ternopol-Kremenets and Metropolitan Vladimir Sabodan of Kiev and all the Ukraine, the head of the village council smashed the lock on the front door of the church with a hammer “in order to make it possible for clergy and laity of the ‘Patriarchate of Kiev’ to forcibly take over the church”. In addition, according to the hierarchs, the authorities “passively stood on the sidelines”, and thugs from the Berkut faction “used violent means” against believers defending the church, allowing supporters of the “Patriarchate of Kiev” to enter the church. However, the people who were in the church didn’t allow the intruders inside. As further noted by Archbishop Sergei, there are those in the “Patriarchate of Kiev”, the Ukrainian government, and the police that “don’t want concord and unity in the Church and State; so, they set out to disrupt the current negotiations between the highest levels of the UOC/MP and UOC/KP”. In mid-November, supporters of the so-called “Patriarchate of Kiev” made an earlier attempt to seize the church in Musorovtsy.

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Bishop Evlogy Gutchenko of Sumy and Akhtyrsky (1967- )

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Bishop Evlogy Gutchenko of Sumy and Akhtyrsky said that adherents of the “Patriarchate of Kiev” attempted “to seize the St Michael the Archangel church in Ohtyrka in Sumy Oblast”. UOC/MP members perceive that “contempt for their legitimate interests” by the authorities is an attempt to destabilise the region, “using religion as a tool”, according to a telegram of Vladyki Evlogy to Nikolai Lavrik, the chairman of the oblast state administration, which came to Interfax-Religion on Thursday. Bishop Evlogy also reported that, on 25-26 November, in the village of Velikaya Rybitsa in Sumy oblast, supporters of the “Patriarchate of Kiev” tried to “collect signatures from the villagers for a petition to transfer the local parish to the secessionist organisation”. In addition, they attempted to coerce the starosta of the parish into handing over a chapel to them. {editor: the Russian was молитвенного дома… it mightn’t be a fully-fledged church.}

“During our last meeting, you assured me that you would tolerate no more seizures of churches in Sumy Oblast and that you would make every effort to create an atmosphere of calm in interfaith relations”, in the words of the telegram of Vladyki Evlogy to Lavrik. The telegram continued, “However, the facts don’t give me grounds for an optimistic conclusion”. Bishop Evlogy urged Lavrik to protect “the constitutional rights and interests of the Orthodox communities in the Diocese of Sumy of the UOC/MP, and end any attempt by members of the UOC/KP to seize the Orthodox churches. I believe that you have enough power to establish social peace in the oblast. Sumy Oblast should cease to be a place where one church launches corporate raids on another and where there are systematic violations of the constitutional rights and freedoms of Orthodox citizens”.

Earlier, this past July, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias, in talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, inter alia, raised the issue of violation of the rights of Orthodox in Sumy Oblast, as signified by a series of seizures of churches of the canonical UOC/MP. MEP Tatiana Zhdanok also expressed concern over the commandeering of churches in Sumy oblast. As reported in February, supporters of the “Patriarchate of Kiev” fraudulently took possession of the building and property of the Orthodox church of St Paraskevia in the village of Gudyma, and, on the eve of Easter, seized Holy Transfiguration church in the village of Beyevo.

2/3 December 2009

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=33188

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=33212

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Bishop Evlogy Gutchenko of Sumy and Akhtyrsky (1967- ), blessing participants in a political rally. The visible sign reads, “Today… questioning. Tomorrow… shooting?” This refers to the actions of the CIA-trained SBU goons of Yushchenko. Your tax dollars at work… bringing the “joys” of “democracy” to the world.

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Editor’s Note:

One of the reasons that Americans and Canadians don’t know of the persecution of the canonical Orthodox Church in the Ukraine is that there is a strong and vocal Galician Nationalist minority in the USA and Canada. This group is indifferentist in religion, and one finds Uniates and so-called “Orthodox” worshipping together and cooperating closely on not just social, but religious matters as well. These people wish to not only distort the historical record, they wish to chase out everyone who isn’t a “Ukrainian” from the soil of the Ukrainian region (it isn’t a nation, and it’s only a state due to the peculiar conditions of the post-Soviet interregnum)… just as the UPA bandits did in the ‘40s. Because of lies circulated by this pressure group, they’ve fooled the US government into thinking that the UOC/MP isn’t grounded in the people.

Nothing could be further from the truth. 85 percent of the Orthodox are in the UOC/MP, despite government support for the two schismatical bodies. Only 12 percent of the Ukrainian populace is Uniate, despite their loud noise in the West. They have this preponderance due to two historical accidents. The first is that Galicia was in the Hapsburg Empire, and it was a hillbilly backwater with no economy to speak of. Many Galicians emigrated due to the lack of prospects at home. They were the majority of those labelled “Russian” in the US and Canada in the early part of the 20th century. Before 1917, there was little Great Russian emigration to North America, as there were plentiful opportunities in the booming Russian economy.

Secondly, after World War II, Galician Uniates weren’t repatriated to the USSR because they held Polish passports… a very delicious irony, as they hate Poles! Up to the dissolution of the USSR, actual Great Russians were rare in the diaspora. Today, it’s different. There are more Great Russians living in the West, and we’re not going to be silent in the face of Galician distortions of the facts. We’re going to speak up for our persecuted Orthodox confrères in the Ukraine, and we’re not going to be silent about schismatical and Uniate attacks on our faith. We’re going to hold our banners high and we’re not going to let condescending Amerikantsy shut us up. It’s a new 1612 in the Ukraine, and it’s time for all good Orthodox to raise their voices. Say it loud… I’m Orthodox and I’m proud! Keep your bloody papist and schismatic hands off the Church! We’re not gonna say it twice!

BMD

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Patriarch Kirill Believes Female Believers should be Active, but, Issued Warning against “Intemperate Mannishness”

Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev (1946- ) of Moscow and all the Russias

Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias thinks that women should take an active position in society, but, they should also remember their primary duty is to be a wife and mother. “You make the voice of the faithful heard through the active participation [of women] in all spheres of public life. However, at the same time, under no circumstances, can we alter the role of women as wives, mothers, and homemakers”, Patriarch Kirill said on Thursday at the opening of First all-Russian Forum of Orthodox Women in Moscow.

His Holiness noted that many contemporary Orthodox families have become “hyper-patriarchal”, that is, some women deliberately refuse to pursue professional fulfilment, work, or a social vocation. However, as the patriarch pointed up, this hyper-patriarchal attitude is very often, “A reaction to the ambience found in the modern world. This conception of the world imposes on women a false conception of ‘equality’ with men. That is, it forces upon them an imitation of the worst male qualities… aggression, competitiveness, and a focus upon a career at the expense of neglecting one’s family. Nevertheless, we see that women are happiest when they are wives and mothers. If our society does not learn how to support women’s roles, it has no future. Women should follow the Creator’s Design, not fall into an intemperate mannishness”, Patriarch Kirill said.

In addition, he expressed the viewpoint, “Today, Orthodox Christian women should take an active public role to protect Christian moral values in family and society”. In his opinion, a Christian women, in addition to being a wife and mother, “must be aware of herself as a member of civil society, responsible for the fate of our country. The Church, the Motherland, and even the whole world expects action from faithful women”, Patriarch Kirill said.

3 December 2009

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=33208

Prime Minister Putin says that Russia would take Tough Action against Terror

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (1952- ), at the controls of a Tupolev Tu-160 bomber

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On Thursday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed that the Russian government would step up the fight against terrorism following a deadly train bombing that killed 26 people last week. Putin admitted that terrorism remains a top threat to the nation and promised that the authorities would act “very harshly” to uproot terrorists. “We’ve enough resolve and firmness for that”, he said, opening a question-and-answer session broadcast live by Russia’s state television. The bombing last Friday of a Moscow-to-St Petersburg express train fuelled fears that Russia could face another wave of terror attacks outside the volatile North Caucasus region following years of relative calm and official claims of the defeat of the Islamic militants there. Putin’s televised comments sent another strong signal that he remains the dominant force in Russian politics, overshadowing his designated successor, President Dmitri Medvedev. Medvedev hasn’t made any such appearances since his March 2008 election. Many are watching Putin’s performances closely for clues on whether he plans to regain the presidency in Russia’s 2012 elections. Putin had to resign as president in 2008 after two consecutive terms in office, but since then, new laws lengthened the presidential term to six years, and Putin’s eligible to run again in 2012.

On Wednesday, hundreds of Russians protested against terror in both Moscow and St Petersburg after Chechen rebels claimed responsibility for attack on the train. Russian investigators say terrorists placed a bomb under the tracks and they found traces of explosives in the crater at the disaster site. Top government officials were amongst those killed. The train bombing was the first terrorist attack with fatalities outside the North Caucasus since the bombings of two airliners and a Moscow subway station attack in 2004. Putin also focused heavily on economy during Thursday’s programme, which featured televised hook-ups with workers from several provincial towns, which cast him as a paternal figure capable of fixing the nation’s problems. Putin said Russia’s now past the worst of the economic crisis and claimed credit for softening its impact on the economy and the population. Russia’s weathering its worst economic downturn in a decade as commodities prices, the backbone of its economy, collapsed late last year. However, it emerged from the recession in the third quarter, as the economy rose by a seasonally-adjusted 0.6 percent. “We can say with a large degree of certainty that the peak of the crisis has been overcome”, he said, adding that the government may still have to spend more money to support the economy for the time being. “The exit from the crisis will take time and effort, as well as substantial funds”, Putin said. He said that Russia’s rising birth rate shows that “people believe in the positive development of the country”.

In contrast with the bookish Medvedev, who was out of the country on a trip to Italy Thursday, Putin deliberately burnished his common-man appeal. Speaking to a widow of a worker who was one of the 75 people who died in a disastrous accident at Russia’s largest hydroelectric plant, Putin called it a terrible tragedy and promised state support for her children and other relatives of the victims. He promised to raise wages and social benefits and solve other social problems, and demonstrated his knowledge of regional issues. “If the situation demands it, I’ll come to you or to any other place in the Russian Federation, it’s my duty”, he said. He also delved into foreign policy issues, sharply admonishing the United States for failing to abolish Cold War-era trade restrictions imposed to penalise the Soviet Union for its refusal to allow free emigration of the Jews. “The Soviet Union’s gone, but (restrictions) have remained”, he said. Putin also accused the United States of hampering Russia’s accession into the World Trade Organisation.

3 December 2009

Vladimir Isachenkov

Associated Press

As quoted in Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091203/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_putin

Editor’s Note:

If you had a choice (and we don’t… let’s not fool ourselves), would you want THIS or would you want Vova? No contest, eh? Remember, Vova is a black-belt judoka… BO’s lucky if he can toss in a few hoops in the backyard! By the way, the poster is just an ad… “All on his lips… Dark in the white! I like it!”… innocuous… watch ’em call me a racist… as Bernard Manning would say, “Get fucked”.

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The Cold War restrictions on trade remain in force… Jackson-Vanik lives on, a legislative golem with a life of its own. For them not in the know, what is Jackson-Vanik?

The amendment denies most-favoured-nation status to certain countries with non-market economies that restrict emigration, which is considered a human right. Permanent normal trade relations can be extended to a country subject to the law only if the President determines that it complies with the freedom of emigration requirements of the amendment. However, the President has the authority to grant a yearly waiver to the provisions of Jackson-Vanik, and these waivers were granted to the People’s Republic of China starting in the late 1970s and later to Vietnam.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson-Vanik_amendment

If the purpose of Jackson-Vanik was to “punish” states that restricted emigration, the Russian Federation doesn’t restrict emigration of anyone, so, why’s it still in force? In particular, let’s not be coy, its intent was to punish anyone who restricted the freedom of movement of Jews, and the bill became law to placate cries from a small (but very vocal) set of politically-active Jews (whom, I’m sure, do NOT represent all, or even a majority, of Jews). This group is a subset of the chattering class, and it’s one of the most juvenile and abusive groups in American society. The only group worse in the chattering class are those who gas about therapeutese… you know, the psychobabble crowd. There are NO restrictions on the emigration of Jews, or on anyone else, for that matter, from the Russian Federation. NONE. Then, why is Jackson-Vanik still in force, and why does the USA oppose Russia’s membership in the WTO? The conditions for its ending have been present since the fall of the USSR in 1991.

I believe that it points up, even for the slow learners, the nastiness, bullying, and brutishness inherent in the suburban chattering classes and their corporate running-dog-lackeys. The America of today isn’t the country that I grew up in… I do NOT mean the normal change that the years bring (I’m old enough to know that). America’s a country of whiners… “Do as I say or I’ll smash you in the face with a hammer”. Then, the attacker claims immunity from the consequences because they were a “victim”. What utter rot. There are those who label me (of all people) a “whiner”… why? I don’t demand immunity from the consequences… I don’t claim to be a “victim” with “special rights”. Hmm… I think that it’s because these people are part of the chattering class that I describe in this post. America the Beautiful has become America the Bloody. Bombs rained down on Belgrade on Orthodox Easter, but bombing “had” to halt for Ramadan. The America that produced Endicott and Johnson, who treated their workers with respect and who received loyalty and love in return, has been replaced by an America that believes in “downsizing”, “globalisation”, and the “bottom-line”. Let’s not equivocate, the people who defend this state of affairs defend the shifting of industry to Third World dictatorships where the workers are brutalised and beaten on a regular basis. You see, it fattens their dividend cheques, so, it’s an acceptable cost of business. They’re only wogs… who cares? The defenders of the current American order are all Leona Helmsleys with a supreme contempt for their fellow man. Excuse me, whilst I vomit to clear my system of such venomous poison.

This poison has affected the Church as well. If one looks closely at many Amerikantsy konvertsy, one sees the same smug condescension, the same brutish ignorance, and the same grasping cupidity that one sees in the chattering class as a while (the Gillquistites are the most egregious example, but JP and his California Crowd aren’t far behind). The general malaise affects us, for it’s not only the OCA that believes that it is exempt from the consequences of its actions. That’s a very common conceit in the suburban circles from whence most of the self-appointed “leadership” arises. After all, we’re talking of people who don’t care if thugs and company goons beat Indonesian workers with rubber hoses as long as they continue to receive their dividend cheques from their “investments”. In short, these people have dragged the Church into the same pit that America as a whole is now mired in. Oh… you should see how they hate Russia. I have a challenge… whom would you have as a leader? Barack Obama, who can’t even get a healthcare bill through Congress, or, Vova, who stands tall when the shit hits the fan? Look at how quickly he resolved the South Ossetia affair… the Russians put the obsequious American clients on the run, and in short order, too! In Church terms, we have a choice, as well… the Surfer Dude or the Prairie Peasant. My money’s on the latter… what about you?

BMD