‘Assuredly I Say to You, They Have Their Reward’
Met. Antony and Abp. Daniel of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. devour their brother for earthly recognition.
The Union of Orthodox Journalists recently reported on Abp. Alexei of Sitka and Alaska’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his subsequent response to criticism of the short visit. While His Eminence did not directly acknowledge it, we will: the loudest criticism came from Met. Antony and Abp. Daniel of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A.
In a Facebook post titled, “Betrayal of Christian Witness in Welcoming a Dictator,” the two hierarchs of the UOC of the USA open by saying it is “with deep sorrow and righteous indignation that we respond to the recent words of a hierarch of the Orthodox Church in America, who publicly welcomed and complimented the President of the Russian Federation during his visit to this continent.”
From the very beginning of this statement, one can see the strawman that is being built. They claim that Abp. Alexei “Publicly welcomed and complimented” the Russian president. However, it would be more honest to say that the two men met in a spirit of hospitality and spoke about Russian Orthodoxy’s history in Alaska. There was no direct complimenting of Putin; Abp. Alexei simply expressed his gratitude for the holy icons of St. Herman of Alaska and the Dormition of the Mother of God that were presented to him and a general gratitude expressed for Russia bringing Orthodoxy to Alaska.
Elsewhere in their open letter, the two hierarchs accuse Abp. Alexei of extending “words of welcome and admiration” to Putin, and later said that the Russian president is “not a peacemaker, but the author of death and destruction. To call him otherwise is to lie before God and before humanity.” Again, this is a complete strawman. When did Abp. Alexei admire, “call him otherwise” or commend Putin for the War in Ukraine? Just because he didn’t scold him in front of the world’s media, he is now an avowed Putinist? One expects this kind of nonsense from worldly, secular moralists, not Orthodox bishops.
Speaking of worldly individuals who claim Orthodoxy, the former nun Barbara (née Vassa) Larin shared her own post in response to the meeting, saying that Abp. Alexei “could have done his job.” “As did St. Ambrose of Milan, when he publicly rebuked Emperor Thedosius I for his massacre of the citizens of Thessaloniki and refused him Communion until the emperor repented,” she added.
Maybe I’m missing something, but I didn’t see a chalice in Abp. Alexei’s hand. Also, it’s noteworthy that the meeting did not take place in any of Alaska’s beautiful Russian-style churches. Furthermore, Putin isn’t a member of the archbishop’s flock, whereas Theodosius was a member of St. Ambrose’s flock while the emperor was residing in Milan. Furthermore, St. Ambrose initially wrote a private letter to the emperor telling him to demonstrate repentance. Despite the atrocity that he committed, Emperor Theodosius the Great is also venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church.
I am certainly not predicting that Vladimir Putin is a future saint of the Church! What I am saying is that this analogy is surface-level bogus that falls apart upon further inspection. No doubt this will irritate the moralists, but we must be frank: the situation is far more complicated, and the solution far more nuanced.
If Ms. Larin wants to talk about the dangerous entanglements between Church and State, let’s talk about Met. Anthony. Just days after he and Abp. Daniel “called out” Abp. Alexei, the First Hierarch of the UOC in the USA received an award from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In fact, Abp. Daniel has also been decorated for his loyal service to the Ukrainian government. He’s not shy about this, either. On the contrary, consider the following passage from his official biography on the UOC of the USA’s website:
Within the framework of the preparations for the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, on September 7th, 2018, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, under the leadership of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, appointed His Eminence Archbishop Daniel (along with Bishop Ilarion of UOCC) as Exarch of the Ecumenical Throne to Ukraine. In a month following the appointment (9-11 October, 2018) and upon the conclusion of the preliminary work of the Exarchs, the Ecumenical Patriarchate made the historical announcement about the granting of autocephaly to the Holy Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
On November 3, 2018, Archbishop Daniel participated in the formal conclusion of the process and signing of the Agreement ‘On Cooperation and Interaction between Ukraine and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople’ by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.
On December 15, 2018 His Eminence Archbishop Daniel, along with Metropolitan Emmanuel of France (presiding hierarchs) and Bishop Ilation of UOC of Canada, participated in the Unification Council of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
On January 5-6, 2019 Archbishop Daniel participated in the official ceremony (at Holy Great-Martyr George Patriarchal Cathedral in Constantinople, Turkey) of signing and granting Tomos of Autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
The biography then goes on to list the awards that Abp. Daniel has received from Kyiv. These include:
- The Presidential Merit Award from the State of Ukraine (August 2018)
- Honorary Merit Certificate and Medal from the Parliament of Ukraine (December 2018)
- The Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise from the State of Ukraine in (January 2019)
Abp. Daniel is one of the architects of the schismatic OCU project, which has led to church seizures, violent attacks, and political persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Met. Antony consents to and supports the same. Now they have both been awarded by the Ukrainian government for advancing Kyiv’s agenda within the Orthodox Church. Yet they wish to lecture—really, to bludgeon—Abp. Alexei online about proper behavior. To that I say, “Anaxios!”
Ironically, just a few days ago, Abp. Daniel posted a brief video on his Facebook page. In it, he said: “Each day, you’re given a choice – to speak the language of love, mercy, kindness and forgiveness, or the language of anger, judgment, and hatred. The choice is yours.”
This is a good teaching. To really drive it home, let us turn to the saints.
“Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are at least esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers!”
- 1 Corinthians 6:1-6
It is unfortunate that Abp. Alexei was forced to apologize to the secular court of public opinion in a statement that I suspect wasn’t written by him. But we have continued to see his steadfastness on display, as almost daily, despite all the noise, His Eminence is releasing edifying materials and homilies on crucial matters of the Church – spiritual matters, not political theater.
“Faith refines the conscience,” the Archbishop said in an interview the week leading up to the meeting between Putin and Trump. During that week, he called his entire diocese to pray for peace. As His Eminence said at the time,
Faith teaches people to look at other people as being in the image of God. It teaches us to look at others not as enemies first, but as neighbors. From the point of view of a bishop, the king’s heart is in the hands of the Lord, as is said by the wise Solomon… The Church’s role is prophetic, not partisan. We always defend life, truth, and peace. The primary call at the beginning of the Gospel is the call to repentance, which is not directed to one side or the other, but it’s actually directed to all of us… Polarization really tempts us to choose factions over Christ, and our task is to keep parishes as hospitals for souls, as a place where Ukrainians, Russians, Native Americans, can repent and forgive and pray together.
The man who is secure and steadfast in his Orthodox faith can meet with someone like Putin and exude a calm, reasonable disposition that is not consenting but inviting. The man who isn’t secure in his Orthodox faith craves the world’s approval and therefore needs to make a grand show of his disapproval, even to the point of cannibalizing a brother bishop.
I pray that Abp. Alexei’s efforts to sow peace will bear fruit. As for the hierarchs who remain blind to these intentions, may they come to possess the peace that is not of this world.
“History remembers with shame those who once smiled at tyrants,” Met. Antony and Abp. Daniel wrote; “who spoke softly to mass murderers, who flattered oppressors in the name of diplomacy or false peace.” Their words are true, but they do not apply to Abp. Alexei.
History will remember the worthless awards that Pres. Zelensky gave to Met. Antony and Abp. Daniel — not because they are a point of pride or significance for anyone in the Church, but because they were gained by aiding in the persecution of Ukrainian Orthodox Christians and through the public flaying of your brother bishop.
Pray for swift peace and mercy in this terrible war in Ukraine – not only the physical war we see on our screens, but the invisible war we wage in our hearts.
