Theologian Kirill Govorun notes on his Facebook page that the main argument in favor of eradicating the structures of the UOC-MP in Ukraine is collaboration and promotion of “Russian world” narratives. The archimandrite believes that these reproaches are justified. But will the destruction of the structures of the UOC alone solve these problems?
“In any Church, three levels can be distinguished: structures, congregations, and members of congregations. Communities are not at all collaborators and propagandists – in them, even if they belong to the UOC, there are usually people with different views. Structures are virtual constructs that live only in the minds of people who identify with one jurisdiction or another. If communities are the “hypostases” of the Church, then church structures are her fantasies. To be more precise, it is like an artificial intelligence that “thinks” according to an algorithm laid down by people. By the way, Ukrainian legislation, which recognizes communities as legal entities, and not structures, is very sober precisely from the theological point of view. Also by the way, identification with the structure-jurisdiction for many Ukrainian Christians replaces the Christian identity. Such identification is part of mythology, but not of Christian theology, and this mythology is common both in the UOC and in the OCU. It is even more common in the secular environment,” writes Kirill Govorun.
The archimandrite believes that the destruction of structures will not destroy the ideas of the “Russian world”, because they will remain in the heads of their bearers.
“Therefore, those who fight structures will have the illusion that by destroying them, they have overcome ideas, but the latter, together with their carriers, simply roll to another place, in particular, to other structures – even to the OCU,” the message says.
“I am not in favor of preserving the structures of the UOC – I don’t feel sorry for them at all. It’s like that gospel chaff, whose fate is to be burned – sooner or later. I feel sorry for the communities that suffer by their individual members, as well as through the leaders of the structures, and also through the fact that popular perception identifies the communities with their jurisdiction. I also see the problem in the fact that the goal of the fight against the UOC – the weathering of the spirit of the “Russian world” – will never be achieved, and only the dangerous illusion of victory over it will remain,” the theologian writes.
“There can be only one way out: leave the communities alone and punish individual individuals for crimes proven by the court. Even if these individuals are high-ranking hierarchs who think that they are the Church. By the way, those who fight against churches think the same way, but from a theological point of view, this is a delusion,” Kirill Govorun concludes.
