The UOC ordained a priest who was involved in a scandal with a minor as a bishop
On the morning of Sunday, December 4, the UOC (MP) consecrated the secretary of the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna Diocese, Nikita (Storozhuk), as a bishop. It was this priest who became the subject of a high-profile scandal last week, when he could be seen together with an underage boy during a search by the SBU.
Nikita himself denies this information and claims that they were forced to undress.
Until recently, Archimandrite Nikita was the secretary of the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna Diocese of the UOC MP. Around 9 a.m. on Sunday, this diocese showed live broadcast procedures of episcopal ordination, i.e. the laying on of hands (elevation to the higher priestly rank) of Nikita.
The person involved in the scandal was elevated to the rank of bishop in the Saint Panteleimon Cathedral in Kyiv.
Metropolitan Onufriy, head of the UOC MP, performed the procedure. He was assisted by Metropolitan Meletii of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna.
His diocese was recently searched, the Security Service of Ukraine found documents confirming the presence of Russian citizenship in the leadership of diocesan structures.
According to BBC News Ukraine, these documents concern Metropolitan Meletius. However, later during a sermon to the faithful, he denied that he had Russian citizenship.
Also, judging by the broadcast, the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Pavlo (Lebed) was present at the ordination. The decisions of the National Security Council regarding it were introduced the day before sanctions
These restrictions were initiated by the SBU as a result of “measures to identify and counter the subversive activities of Russian special services in the religious environment of Ukraine.”
Who is Archimandrite Nikita?
On November 25, the Security Service announced that it had conducted “counter-intelligence measures” on the territory of the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna Diocese of the UOC (MP).
Based on the results, the SBU started proceedings under the article on high treason.
“The correspondence of the heads of the diocese with their Moscow curators has been exposed, in which they support the “methodology” regarding the church’s “particularity” of holding liturgies after the full-scale invasion,” the special service said.
The representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church allegedly demanded from the priests of the UOC (MP) to deny the armed aggression of Russia, to talk about the “oppression of the Moscow Church”, etc.
Information also appeared in the media that during the search of the special service employees, they found the secretary of the diocese, Archimandrite Nikita (Storozhuka), with a boy who was in oriental underwear.
The interlocutor of BBC News Ukraine in the SBU confirmed this fact, adding that the boy is 17 years old. However, he could not provide any details of this situation.
On November 23, the UOC MP Synod appointed Archimandrite Nikita as bishop of Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia.
Archimandrite Nikita denied the SBU’s accusations and explained what happened.
“About 7 in the morning, the SBU representatives broke down the door, shouted and threatened each employee of the diocese and took them to their room, forced them to undress and put their hands on the wall. I expect that they will shoot us. And they left us taking pictures from the back,” he said.
“Then there were all the obscene things. God is the judge of all those who wrote it. If there is evidence, which there is, let them prove it,” he added.
He said that the state services of Ukraine “are undemocratic and use despotic methods.”
According to him, the search lasted 12 hours. He claims that this provocation against him was organized because of his appointment as a bishop.
For more than 20 years, the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna eparchy was managed by the current head of the UOC (MP) Onufriy.
He held the post of bishop of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna until in 2014 he was elected metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine, head of the UOC (MP).
Experts believe that Onuphrius still has a great influence on this diocese.
In recent weeks, the SBU has been regularly conducting searches of UOC (MP) institutions, on November 22, the SBU conducted searches in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv.
The SBU spoke about the results of the search in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra
As reported in the press service of the department, more than 350 church buildings and 850 people were checked.
People without documents, citizens of Russia, as well as Russian literature and large sums of money in hryvnias, dollars and rubles were found on the territory of the temples.
UOC MP on the way to ban?
President Volodymyr Zelenskyi reacted to the searches in the churches of the UOC-MP. He said that the state is taking steps towards the “spiritual independence” of Ukrainians.
“These days, we have taken some steps to guarantee the spiritual independence of our people. I see that people support these steps, and they support them very strongly. And that’s not all. There will be more steps. Ukraine will never stop halfway again,” – he said in a video message on December 3.
Before that, the Council of National Security and Defense recommended that he introduce sanctions against part of the higher clergy of the UOC MP. The relevant presidential decree was published on December 1.
According to the text of the document, the Cabinet of Ministers should inappropriately develop a draft law on the impossibility of activities in Ukraine “of religious organizations affiliated with centers of influence in the Russian Federation.”
Also, the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience should conduct a religious examination of the statute on the management of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the presence of a canonical connection with the Moscow Patriarchate.
On May 27, the UOC Cathedral announced that it had apparently decided to become “independent” of the Moscow Patriarchate. However, a number of experts and religious scholars question this thesis.