A video of "anathemas" being proclaimed by clergy of the UOC-MP headed by Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko) at a service on the occasion of the celebration of Orthodoxy spread around the network.
"Metropolitan Luka (Kovalenko) of the Russian Orthodox Church in Zaporizhia is being held hostage and is asking for help?",- Archbishop Yevstratiy (Zorya) of Chernihiv and Nizhyn, deputy head of the Department for External Church Relations of the OCU, were sceptical about the footage with the anathemas.
"The love of curses and public malice has been inherent in the speeches and publications of this hierarch for a long time.
But what if things aren't really what they seem? Perhaps someone has taken this bishop hostage and is forcing him to repeatedly write and declare things that resemble Komsomol anti-religious agitation in spirit and style?
What prompted this assumption? It is the vestments that Metropolitan Luka wore to the service. As you can see in the photo, crosses are sewn on the vestments, the design of which is a copy of the design of the official symbols of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Perhaps this is how the hierarch sends us all an SOS-signal: "Save me, I am forced to write and say all sorts of nonsense, but in my heart, I am for the OCU!" After all, this is often done by people who cannot directly declare their difficult situation - they give hints with symbolic gestures.
And although this assumption is quite fantastic, you will agree: well, is it possible to take seriously the statements and actions of a person who bears the title of a church hierarch but demonstrates complete theological and canonical illiteracy, elementary bad manners and psychological instability? It is better to take it with humor," Bishop Yevstratiy wrote on Facebook.