1) On the personnel shortage of the OCU and the disappointment of young clergy
Our comment
There are several important features in this newsletter. Firstly, its source is the telegram channel associated with the OCU, that is, no one can say that this information is fiction. Secondly, in fact, everything is even worse than presented here. The personnel shortage in the OCU is connected not only with the fact that the graduates of their educational institutions do not want to go to the east of Ukraine to “preach” “father” financially. An example of this is the many churches of the UOC seized in 2019. As practice shows, the priests of the UOC who served there earlier were unpretentious and undemanding in matters of wages. At each of these parishes, no matter what, during the time of the priests of the UOC, services were performed regularly and without interruption, and the priest was always available to believers. When the “new church” came to the village, everything changed dramatically. The newly appointed abbots from the OCU began to demand three or even four times more funds to pay for their activities. Most of the captured parishes could not cope with this, and there was nowhere to go. Therefore, the believers agreed that the new “priest” would perform his “service” not every Sunday and holidays, as it was under the UOC, but once every two or three weeks. But all this information, as a rule, remains out of sight of the media.

2) Intrigues of the Phanar
Our comment
The Pravblog Telegram channel drew attention to the events surrounding the appointment of Metropolitan Emmanuel (Adamakis) to the Chalcedonian See of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. It should be noted that in the media sphere this event remained unnoticed, but in vain. The fact that Emmanuel plans to take the patriarchal throne after the death of Bartholomew becomes more and more obvious every month, especially from his statements. Their content, alas, does not bring anything good in overcoming the actual split in world Orthodoxy, because the “elder-metropolitan” actively speculates on the topic of unification with Roman Catholics on the principle “at any cost”. In addition, the appointment of Adamakis really causes some debate within the Patriarchate of Constantinople itself, but this is no longer so interesting, since even if he is elected to the patriarchal throne, the Phanar’s course is unlikely to change radically.

3) “The agreements with Constantinople were announced in a narrow circle until 2000,” – former hierarch of the UAOC
Our comment
Very interesting news in the context of the relationship between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and schismatic structures in the world. There is even no doubt that Phanar is courting not only Ukrainian schismatics, but also other schismatics. Any possible recognition of schismatics by the Phanar on the territory of one or another Local Church will be called “restoration of justice” and “church unity”. In fact, you need to understand that the communication of Constantinople with schisms in other states is dictated only by the desire to have levers of pressure on world Orthodoxy. It is possible that in the future we will see more than one Tomos, granted to some schism.

4) There is a misunderstanding in the Church of Greece with the Patriarch of Constantinople

Our comment
The Eastern Church Telegram channel revealed an interesting detail in the relationship between the Church of Greece and the Patriarchate of Constantinople. As strange as it may sound, but on the territory of Greece (which a priori is the canonical territory of the EOC) there are dioceses that are subordinate to the heads of the two above-mentioned Churches, and the preference of such ruling bishops is not at all in favor of Archbishop Jerome. That is, they carry out some ordinary instructions of the head of the EOC, but when it comes to their interests, they begin to appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew. It is obvious that the head of the Church of Greece decided to reverse this trend, which, naturally, was met with disapproval in the Phanar. In general, such features in relations between the EOC and K-plya are a clear indicator that in fact, Patriarch Bartholomew does not care about the interests of other Local Churches. Where it is profitable, he will talk about the right of an independent state to its Church, and where not, it will be like the Church of Greece, where Her canonical territory is grossly violated. By the way, as for the formula according to which the Phanar wrote out Tomos to Ukrainian schismatics, for some reason it does not work in other countries, for example, in the United States. Naturally, the Churches in the United States will not be issued a Tomos, because the Greek and other diasporas in America, from which you can regularly “cut wool”, is another matter.

5) Doesn’t affiliation with the Russian CPI interfere with chaplaincy in Ukraine?
Our comment
We wrote earlier about a “priest” of an indefinite denomination who sold weapons in the Lviv region. Later it turned out that this character is related to an organization called the Russian True Orthodox Church. Usually, they find themselves in this “church” when they refused to accept the “priest” even in the OCU. And although there is no evidence that this person had anything to do with the Ukrainian schismatics, it is safe to say that earlier he was most likely a member of the UAOC or the UOC-KP. How else to explain his “chaplaincy” activities in the JFO zone? That is, in order to get there, he needed at least some documents confirming his relationship either to the OCU or to the UGCC. Otherwise, he could not get into the OOS zone. And even more so, he would not be able to take out weapons and ammunition from there on a permanent basis. Most likely, he used his old acquaintances in order to cover up the question of his confessional affiliation. In any case, one can only imagine how many other “chaplains” there are.

6) “OCU” confirmed its rejection of the idea of ​​holding a procession on the Day of the Baptism of Rus
Our comment
Although Ukrainian schismatics refer to the pandemic, in fact, this is not the case. No viruses prevented them from gathering without adhering to quarantine requirements, for example, on July 7 this year, in Manyav. Naturally, the reason is different. It was very clearly marked on the Pravblog telegram channel. Against the background of the All-Ukrainian Religious Procession, which is organized by the UOC, any attempts by the OCU to assemble a “crowd” will look like a “pale spot”. We could already be convinced of this in previous years, when even state employees were taken from the regions to the events of the OCU, under pain of dismissal. Now, they don’t even have such opportunities. Given this feature, recent sociological studies look especially ridiculous, as a result of which more than 40% of UOC believers identified as people who are awaiting the arrival of Patriarch Bartholomew to Ukraine. Speaking of Bartholomew, it is possible that the procession of the UOC will be given to him as the procession of the OCU.