Even before having reached Crete, the place where it was agreed to hold the Pan-Orthodox Council, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow decided to appear as a Cretan liar. As you know, the ROC, at least nominally, is the largest of the local Orthodox Church, but is also the most unstable. The Moscow patriarchs who tactlessly and irrepressibly played up to exalted Kremlin automatically set in motion the protest forces and centrifugal mechanisms inside the church structure they led. It has been a long time that the ROC on all of its so-called “canonical territory” has had no adequate explanation as to why such different ecclesial communities, still remaining in its composition, should be together, being subject to the center in Moscow. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the Russian Orthodox Church has tried a variety of methods other than Christian to preserve the administrative unity: bribery, lies, blackmail, playing on ethnic differences, the manipulation of collective complexes and phobias, separation, spiritual deportation, dissent, provocation, etc.

Alas, all efforts stubbornly refuse to bear the fruit conceived: more and more analysts are convinced that the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church was sown in haste with very shabby threads.

Apparently, this fear of the collapse is so much ingrained in the mind of the last head of the ROC that wherever he speaks, almost everywhere the issue of “preserving unity” arises. It is no secret that the most uncontrollable situation for Patriarch Kirill is the Ukrainian situation. For a long time it was possible to maintain it with the help of simple manipulation technologies such as brochures about the “lack of grace in the Kyiv Patriarchate.” And when the scandal broke out in Russia relating to the involvement of the ROC in free trade of certain excisable goods, it was able to shut it down by information means, imposing anathema on Patriarch Filaret (Denisenko) (in 1997). For five years they were in no rush to impose it, and now they suddenly anathematized him! The move could postpone for some time the “Ukrainian issue,” which started flowing from the theological and canonical discussion into in the area of ​​morality. In order to deprive Ukrainians at least of some church alternative due to the sharp fall in the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church, the most brutal means were set in motion.

After some time Chisty Alley realized that the “anathema did not work” and Ukraine continues to shred, giving an evil example to other national entities within the walls of the Russian Orthodox Church. By the end of “pontificate” of Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), the UOC had become a rather loose formation, having neither the motives nor the prospects to participate in the heroic defense of the Third Rome. The level of mutual informal contacts between the UOC and the UOC-KP and the friendly format of communication between the laity and clergy of these churches has become a serious headache of Chistyy alley. Moscow had to work hard to reverse the emerging “thaw” in relations back to the state of hostility. Undoubtedly, one of the key roles played in the cold spell was the election of Metropolitan Onufriy as Primate of the UOC. The motive of “Protection of the canonical Orthodoxy” comes to the surface again and again in the usual perspective of carving-up the churches. The warring parties are the two unequal parts of one community of the UOC that split because of the policies of the ROC in the issue of annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas.

It was ordered to moot the issue by any means, creating a maximum number of sharp corners, exaggerations, scandals and infighting.

Accordingly, this gave grounds to Patriarch Kirill when the opportunity occurs and otherwise to excise pity to his Church, which allegedly courageously bears the cross of martyrdom in the raging godless Outback of the Russian world. He did not fail to remind this at the Synaxis - Meeting of the Primates of the local Churches, held in Chambésy (Switzerland). But the habit to show his sore point at every corner played a bad joke with Patriarch Kirill. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church went into a rage to such an extent that has lost all sense of proportion. To curb even the idea that the Ecumenical Patriarch can somehow on his sole discretion initiate the beginning of settlement of the situation in Ukraine, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to resort to the killing argument: prove that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate is just a bunch of thieves who uses Orthodox symbols. “Recently one of their supporters publicly stated that Metropolitan Onufriy still belonged to the canonical Church only because there was no suitable instrument of torture - a soldering iron or an iron. It is terrible to imagine what would have happened if these bandits got canonical legalization and blended in our midst!” Patriarch Kirill said.

The irony lies in the fact that one of the public Facebook pages of the odious “brother” Dmytro Korchinskyy was selected for this statement. Here are his original words about the iron and soldering iron: “the fact that Metropolitan Onufrіy has not moved yet to the Kyiv Patriarchate, has not asked to become a Greek Catholic and has not declared himself a Salafist proves that the FSB is working with him better than the SBU. But what is impossible for the Security Service, is easy for the Lord. You’ll laugh, but even Onufriy is capable of believing in God more than in Putin. Only an iron, a soldering iron and the Holy Spirit are needed. Amen.” As they say, feel the difference. Mr. Korchinskyy claims that Metropolitan Onufriy continues to be faithful to the Moscow Patriarchate due to the FSB. Instead of the soldering iron and an iron. A soldering iron and an iron are, according to Korchinskiy, the last argument in the hands of the Holy Spirit to make Metropolitan Onufriy believe in God more than in Putin. In other words, paraphrasing Patriarch Kirill, “if Metropolitan Onufriy still believes more in Putin, and not God, it was only because there was no suitable instruments of torture - a soldering iron or an iron.”

But this is not the mostfunny thing, but the fact that, as noted by the press secretary of the UOC-KP, Archbishop Yevstratii (Zorya), commenting on the attack on the Patriarch of Moscow, Dmytro Korchinskyy has been a faithful child of one of the UOC-MP since 2005. It is no big deal. As you can see, the canonical legalization of a wide variety of thugs (including terrorists in Donbas who are the talk of the town) is quite a normal practice for the ROC. We can assume that the information for this “victorious” speech of Patriarch Kirill was prepared by someone like the Patriarchy supporter Kirill Frolov. This is a man characterized by extraordinary ability to cast a slur on the reputation of all those whom he serves. That is why one should double-check the data.

It is difficult to believe to the person who once lied. What can we say about who publicly lies on a regular basis? How would the members of the Synaxis react to the words of Patriarch Kirill, if someone explains them what happened? If you find that one of their venerable brothers tried to fool them badly?” That this fellow has adopted all the gangster habits of his secular patron without noticing it, and now “harasses chumps” already at the Synaxis, cracks down on wicked dissenters.

In criminal law, there is a concept of an “excessive act,” the offender goes too far and over the top. For example, wanted to scare but killed. At the Synaxis Patriarch Kirill wanted to frighten with irreversible consequences in the case of the legalization of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate - and committed a reputational suicide. When he told that in Donbas the Uniates and schismatics waged war on the canonical Orthodoxy – they still tried to believe him out of ignorance. But it was discovered that in the ranks of the defenders of Ukraine there are many parishioners of the UOC. And calling the faithful of the UOC-KP the haters of canonical Orthodoxy is already problematic, watching all their desperate attempts to enter into the same canonical field. A set of manipulative arguments already used in the ROC, and thanks to the Patriarch of Moscow Pan-Orthodox the discussion moves to the level of “blocky showdown.” Will the Universal Orthodox stop this mockery - it depends only on himself. We will see by response how deep the crisis is and to what extent the Orthodox Autocephalous Churches will be able to protect themselves from the “sacred banditry.”