Author: Nicholas Denysenko

Amen Corner: Orthodoxy’s Kryptonite

by Nicholas Denysenko

Previously published in Worship 97 (April 2023).

Orthodoxy’s Kryptonite:
False Neutrality and Complicity on Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

By Nicholas Denysenko

The one year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has passed. Intelligence agencies warned us about the massing of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, but most of us were still surprised when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Predictions of Ukraine’s surrender and a swift end to the war were wrong. The global audience grimaced at images of Ukrainian citizens rushing into bomb shelters as Russian missiles destroyed hospitals, schools, and homes in addition to “military targets.”

Global leaders condemned the attack and imposed economic sanctions on Russia. The United States and NATO supplied Ukraine with weapons, intelligence, and training. Experts predicted that the weight of economic sanctions would force Russia to arrange a compromise with Ukraine. Instead, Russia doubled down. Not only did they relentlessly bomb cities and civilian targets, but Russian soldiers committed war crimes by executing civilians in cities like Bucha and Irpin, trying to conceal these evil acts in hastily arranged mass graves. (1) War crimes investigators have reported teenage soldiers raping and impregnating women old enough to be their mothers and girls as young as nine years old.

A reality check beckons us to acknowledge the cold geopolitical realities of Russia’s invasion. Multiple countries maintained a neutral stance on the war. Countries like Hungary, India, Israel, and China maintained neutrality and often admonished observers to consider “both” sides of the story before rushing to condemnation. Iran has recently created an alliance with Russia. It seems that Vladimir Putin is hoping that Western support for Ukraine will waver, and NATO will push Ukraine into an agreement favorable for Russia. Russian’s relentless attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure expose the hope that the cold winter will force Ukraine to submit.

No one will lament a lasting ceasefire in Ukraine. Many will bemoan the unnecessary violence, death, and trauma caused by Russia’s aggression and war crimes.

The experts have reflected at length on Putin’s motivations for waging this vicious war. Some say that NATO’s expansion and America’s support for democracy and Europeanization in Ukraine provoked Putin. (2) Others referred to his desire to monopolize the fossil fuels market by taking Ukraine’s natural resources in the East and forcing Europe to capitulate to Russian pricing without an immediate transition to clean energy. Numerous commentators claim that Putin’s ideological platform fueled the invasion, especially his firm belief that Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus constitute one nation and people.

Religion has also fanned the flames of Russian violence. Ukrainians are quick to remind everyone else that Russia’s war on Ukraine started in 2014 with the seizure of Crimea and the arming and assisting of the Donbas separatists. Russia responded violently to the Maidan Revolution of Dignity that started in 2013 and continued through the ouster of Victor Yanukovich as president. The religious dimension of Russian violence was evident in the vitriol expressed toward Ukrainians as traitors among Russian Orthodox clergy and people, and the creation of a “Russian Orthodox army.” (3)

The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill (Gundaev), has justified the war from the pulpit. He went so far as to give the “Our Lady of Augustow” icon to the head of the Russian National Guard on the first Sunday of Lent 2022, to lead Russia to victory over the Ukrainian “Nazis.” Patriarch Kirill is also responsible for the Russkii Mir ideology that depicts Europe as a malevolent force of contemporary vices as opposed to the Russkii Mir—an Orthodox civilization based on the Russian Orthodox Church. The Russkii Mir ideology argues that Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus are truly one people, descendants of a united medieval Rus’ originating in Kyiv. (4) This ideology echoes Putin’s July 2021 speech on the unity of Ukraine and Russia. The Russkii Mir is dangerous because it belongs to the larger ideological apparatus that defines Russia in neo-imperial terms, and therefore dismisses the legitimacy of Ukrainian and Belarusian sovereignty and distinctiveness.

Kirill’s activities in the Church have been aggressive. He defended Russia’s invasion as a necessary response to the alleged atrocities committed by Ukraine against the people of Donbas, parroting a popular accusation without a shred of evidence. He depicted Russian aggression in Manichean terms, as an image of a larger, metaphysical war of good versus evil. Kirill undermined Metropolitan Onufry, the leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine under the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), by ignoring Onufry’s pleas for the Church’s intervention. When Onufry took a small step away from the Russian Church by organizing for May 27, 2022, a council that changed the statute of the UOC-MP, Kirill eventually responded by simply seizing two eparchies that had previously belonged to the UOC-MP. Kirill’s public actions have consistently justified the war and shifted blame to Ukraine and the West.

To be sure, many important Christian voices have condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Church of England, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the World Council of Churches have implicated Russia. (5) Hundreds of individual members of the clergy and theologians have denounced the Russkii Mir ideology. The European Parliament placed sanctions on Patriarch Kirill. (6)

Pope Francis’s position has been inconsistent. On the one hand, he has clearly expressed his outrage over the war and his deep concern for refugees in his public actions. On the other hand, he has been too equivocal by suggesting that the West did indeed provoke Russia and by speaking of both “sides.” (7) There is one aggressor—Russia. And there is no defense or justification for the devastation, horror, violence, death, and trauma unleashed on the people of Ukraine.

In my estimation, as a lifelong, baptized, and anointed member of the Orthodox Church, and as a deacon with nearly twenty years of service, the greatest scandal is the refusal of the sister Orthodox Churches to hold Patriarch Kirill accountable for his contribution to the violence. Only a handful of Orthodox Church leaders have condemned Kirill for his complicity, especially the Churches of the Greek tradition. Too many Churches have either remained silent or have treaded carefully by expressing concern about the war without mentioning the patriarch.

My own Church, the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), is an apt example. The OCA’s Holy Synod issued a statement calling for an end to the Russian invasion and condemning the war while expressing support for Metropolitan Onufry and his church. (8) The OCA’s leader, Metropolitan Tikhon (Mollard), sent a letter to Patriarch Kirill asking him to intervene—though we do not know the precise details of the letter since it was delivered privately and never shared with the people of the Church led by the metropolitan.

The boldest action among Orthodox came from a cohort of clergy in the UOC-MP. More than four hundred priests signed a long letter addressed to the highest-ranking patriarchs of the Orthodox Churches to convene a tribunal that would assess the charge that Patriarch Kirill fanned the flames of war by promoting the dangerous Russkii Mir ideology. (9)

Parishes and clergy of the Russian church in Ukraine have protested Kirill’s complicity by refusing to commemorate him in the Liturgy. Metropolitan Onufry himself continues to commemorate Kirill, but he presides at Liturgy as if he was the primate of an autocephalous Church. An example of his liturgical expression of autocephaly is the intonation of the diptychs, the commemora- tions of all the primates of the autocephalous churches. This liturgical action demonstrates Onufry’s position—he appears poised to lead a de facto autocephalous church, even if it remains under Moscow’s jurisdiction de jure.

Most Orthodox Church leaders and synods have issued statements ranging from condemning Russian aggression to calling for peace and reconciliation on both sides. The appeal for peace is absurd; peace can be achieved only when all Russian forces leave Ukraine and respect Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Orthodox leaders and theologians have criticized the Roman Church for its steadfast defense of the papacy. The Orthodox claim that the Roman Church has invested too much power into the papacy and that the association of infallibility with the pope’s exercise of the extraordinary magisterium—rare as it is—leaves the Church with no avenue for correcting a false teaching or removing a dangerous pontiff, is, ironically, replicated in the Orthodox Church.

The sad irony is that Patriarch Kirill’s justification of Russia’s violent war on Ukraine has exposed Orthodoxy’s kryptonite. Orthodoxy’s pathetic response to the war reveals one urgent problem and one crisis.

THE PROBLEM: BISHOPS HAVE TOO MUCH POWER
The problem is that Orthodoxy also grants too much power to bishops, and especially to the archbishops, metropolitans, and patriarchs who preside over Church life. To date, the appeal of the four hundred priests for a tribunal to hold Patriarch Kirill has gone unheeded. It is highly unlikely that any such event will take place.

The Russian Orthodox Church exercises considerable influence in world Orthodoxy, especially over the Churches of Serbia, Antioch, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the OCA. None of these Churches have called Patriarch Kirill to accountability for his misdeeds. A special kind of power prevents Christian leaders from speaking prophetically when they are called to defend the vulnerable against violence and exploitation. The patriarch of the Russian Church possesses too much of this power, and there is no mechanism in place to call him to accountability. This is the problem the Orthodox response to the war reveals.

THE CRISIS: INDIFFERENCE IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
The response also reveals a crisis in Orthodoxy. The crisis is one of indifference. Orthodox readers might object to this assertion. After all, many Orthodox Churches have leaped into action by devoting themselves to humanitarian efforts. These initiatives are laudable. But it is not enough to concentrate spiritual energy solely on humanitarian aid. The Church has the resources to address the cause of the crisis.

A religious ideology that has come off the rails and contributed to the transition from the exercise of soft to hard power is immune to humanitarian aid. Church leaders need to speak prophetically, and one component of using the voice God has given is to come together to call Patriarch Kirill to accountability for his complicity in the violence Russia has inflicted upon Ukraine.

There are many excuses offered for the cautious approach. What good would it do to criticize Kirill publicly if Putin will simply remove and replace him with a yes-man? Condemning Kirill could incite reprisal—perhaps the Russian Church would annul the canonical status of autocephaly (independence) it has given to the Churches of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the OCA.

Holding Patriarch Kirill accountable for his bellicose activity could certainly have consequences for these Orthodox Churches. The Russian Church might alienate them, threaten to annul autocephaly, or sever communion. Each and every one of these consequences is worth retaining the gift of prophecy that God has given to Christians. As of this writing, most of the leaders of the world’s Orthodox Churches are refusing to exercise the prophetic ministry by ignoring appeals—many of them from within the Church—to hold Kirill accountable.

The loss resulting from burying the gift of prophecy is much worse than all the other consequences combined. It is akin to denying the call coming from the Lord himself, to deny ourselves, carry our crosses, and follow him. Those called to protect the needy are abandoning the vulnerable. Those called to be shepherds are taking cover and allowing the wolves to tear apart the flock.

The Orthodox Churches can recover the gift of prophecy so many of them have decided to bury, by the grace of God. The Church—the whole Church, all of Christ’s body, including the laity—has a lot of work to do to create mechanisms that limit the power borne by leaders and hold those who abuse their power to account.

For the time being, the refusal of Orthodox leaders to condemn Kirill for his actions is a terrible scandal that permits the Russian patriarch to use his office to justify an unjust and evil war. The people belonging to the Churches that refuse to speak out have no reason to have confidence in their leaders. If Church leaders cannot and will not speak out and act to defend and protect the vulnerable, the faithful have no reason to trust leaders with themselves, their resources, and their children.

The world now knows Orthodoxy’s kryptonite—a combination of exploitative power and indifference. May God heal that which is infirm in Orthodoxy through the prayers of the Ukrainian martyrs killed in Russia’s unholy war.

(1) Carlotta Gall, “Bucha’s Month of Terror,” New York Times, April 11, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/11/world/europe/bucha-terror.html, accessed January 11, 2023.

(2) Isaac Chotiner, “Why John Mearsheimer Blames the U.S. for the Crisis in Ukraine,” New Yorker, March 1, 2022, https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/why-john -mearsheimer-blames-the-us-for-the-crisis-in-ukraine, accessed August 22, 2022.

(3) See Mikhail Suslov, “The Russian Orthodox Church and the Crisis in Ukraine,” in Churches in the Ukrainian Crisis, ed. Andrii Krawchuk and Thomas Bremer (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 133–62.

(4) For a more in-depth exploration of Russkii Mir, see David K. Goodin, “The Rise of the Third Rome: Russkii Mir and the Rebirth of Christendom,” Journal of the Council for Research on Religion 2, no. 2 (Spring/Summer 2021): 71–88, https://creor-ejournal .library.mcgill.ca/article/view/56, accessed January 30, 2023.

(5) “Church of England General Synod Hears of Ukrainian Suffering as It Votes to Condemn Russian Invasion,” Anglican Ink blog, July 11, 2022, https://anglican .ink/2022/07/11/church-of-england-general-synod-hears-of-ukrainian-suffering-as-it -votes-to-condemn-russian-invasion/, accessed August 22, 2022.

(6) “A Declaration on the ‘Russian World’ (Russkii Mir) Teaching,” Public Orthodoxy blog, March 13, 2022, https://publicorthodoxy.org/2022/03/13/a-declaration-on-the-russian -world-russkii-mir-teaching/, accessed August 22, 2022.

(7) Luanna Muniz, “Pope Francis: Russian War in Ukraine Was ‘Perhaps Provoked,’” Politico, June 14, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/article/pope-francis-says-war-in -ukraine-perhaps-provoked-or-unprevented/, accessed August 22, 2022.

(8) Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America, “Statement on Ukraine,” Orthodox Church in America website, https://www.oca.org/holy-synod/statements/holy-synod /statement-on-ukraine, accessed August 22, 2022.

(9) “Open Appeal of the Priests of the UOC-MP to the Primates of Local Orthodox Churches,” Public Orthodoxy blog, April 26, 2022, https://publicorthodoxy.org/2022 /04/26/open-appeal-of-uoc-priests/, accessed August 22, 2022.

Liturgy, Politics, and Vinegar

by Nicholas Denysenko

“Instead they gave me poison for my food; and for my thirst they gave me vinegar.” (Ps. 69:22)

I recently received feedback on the essay I wrote on Orthodoxy’s kryptonite. The writer complains that my essay was too political.

I do not have much more information to work with, so I am not one-hundred percent certain why my assessment of Eastern Orthodox indifference on the Russian Orthodox Church’s (ROC) justification of the invasion of Ukraine does not fit.

Focusing on the Liturgy of Christ’s Pascha

The liturgical agenda is always a long list, and I’m guessing that prioritizing a commentary on the Orthodox geopolitical problems seems to be better suited somewhere else. After all, the Churches of the West are deep into Holy Week, with the Orthodox observing these holy days one week later this year.

We are laser-focused on the prizes, occupying ourselves with antiphons, processions, the washing of the feet, consecration of oils, reconciliation of penitents, baptisms, chrismations, the Paschal Vigil, the Exsultet – an inexhaustible list. A competent pastor would exhort the people to fix their gaze on the crucified Lord and prepare their hearts for the descent of the Spirit that permits us to recognize Christ, risen in our midst, and become his apostles.

Most of us who participate in these discussions and have become accustomed to the anticipation of entering Christ’s bridal chamber have already been washed and anointed, and partake of his body and blood in holy Communion. We have been given the capacity to see, hear, and speak with the image of God renewed in us, and therefore, to bear witness.

Having beheld the resurrection of Christ, how can we set holy joy aside and kvetch about the failures of the leaders of our church communities?

Is the Liturgy Political?

My own answer to these questions takes me away from the world of liturgiewissenschaft, of manuscripts, editions, and translations, and into the very essence of liturgy – the community.

I think of those for whom Easter is now barren and flat. I think of the support group for widows and widowers that is bursting with anxiety this week, trying to figure out how to mark these holy days while nursing the still-open wounds of the death of their spouses.

The Tears of the Afflicted

I think of the face of a Ukrainian woman I recently met. She arrived in the United States in a very roundabout way having endured gunfire, separation from family and friends, loss of home, work, and school. She left behind an apocalyptic scene of abandoned vehicles owned by people fleeing Ukraine who knew the missiles were coming.

I looked into her face and saw her uncontainable tears. The missiles came, over and over again, destroying schools, hospitals, and taking lives. Children have been kidnapped and deported from Ukraine to Russia, a documented war crime. She knew what was coming.

We humans do not weep only from fear of violence. We weep at the primordial sin of covetousness, which breeds such fierce hatred as to incite murder. The world was warned, the churches lifted up prayers incessantly and collected millions of dollars for aid, and the missiles kept coming, along with the rapes, executions, kidnappings, and human trafficking.

I looked into her face and thought about the God who will wipe away our tears and give us eternal life.

He is Risen – the members of Christ’s body have beheld his resurrection and are supposed to bear witness.

Bearing Witness to the Resurrection

The Church is God’s body – the people of God can wipe away these tears and can call upon the instigators of violence and injustice to stop. In fact, the Church has a responsibility to take immediate action. God has renewed the humanity of those who have been baptized and anointed in Christ. They now have the eyes, ears, mouths, and minds conformed to Christ’s own, given freely to them at these sacred liturgies.

The silent indifference of the leaders of God’s holy people in this world is cacophonous. One of their own, the patriarch of the ROC, has repeatedly justified the war, going so far as to give an icon of Mary, the mother of God, to the leader of the Russian National Guard to defeat the “Nazis.” Patriarch Kirill used the pulpit to instruct the people that defense of the fatherland on the ground was participation in a metaphysical war of good vs. evil, and a holy war, in which losing one’s life amounted to a baptism of blood.

Almost all Orthodox church leaders have looked away. Some have condemned Russian aggression, prayed for peace, and collected money for aid. But they have not yet held their own leader accountable even though some of the clergy in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church he claims jurisdiction over have called for an international Orthodox tribunal to bring him to justice.

When God has given the body of Christ all the tools they need to extend the divine hands to console the afflicted and bear witness to Christ’s righteousness, and the main leaders of the body refuse to act, how can the church look into the eyes of the afflicted without seeing the image of their own condemnation?

Renewed Humanity, the Afflicted, and Justice

Baptism, anointing, and Holy Communion are political. These mysteries beckon us to see the afflicted in our midst and to identify those who enable and justify aggression. The Church has been scarred by one scandal after another, from enabling sexual abuse and concealing it from the church to inciting hatred and violence on the basis of a lie.

Perhaps Holy week and Easter require a renewed sense of participation in Christ’s passion and death. Perhaps bearing witness requires the body of Christ to appeal for accountability and name the actual problems in the church. Perhaps one of those problems is a distorted interpretation of sacred orders that grants an ecclesial version of diplomatic immunity to church leaders and entitlement to the church at large.

The time has come to allow destructive and enabling practices in the Church to die.

Acknowledging the reality of broken humanity in our midst is bitter – it is like trying to quench our thirst with vinegar. Enduring this passion is a necessary step in dying to the passions and injustices that enslave and afflict humankind.

May this Holy Week and Easter, whenever one celebrates it, bring a true participation in Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection.

Orthodoxy’s Kryptonite: Scandalous Silence

by Nicholas Denysenko

The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill (Gundaev), has justified Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from the pulpit. He went so far as to give the “Our Lady of Augustow” icon to the head of the Russian National Guard on the first Sunday of Lent, to lead Russia to victory over the Ukrainian “nazis.”  He defended Russia’s invasion as a necessary response to the alleged atrocities committed by Ukraine against the people of Donbas, parroting a popular accusation without a shred of evidence. Kirill’s public actions have consistently justified the war and shifted blame to Ukraine and the West. 

To be sure, many important Christian voices have condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Church of England, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the World Council of Churches have implicated Russia. Hundreds of individual members of the clergy and theologians have denounced the Russkii Mir ideology. The United Kingdom placed sanctions on Patriarch Kirill. 

Parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate expressed their displeasure by ceasing commemoration of Kirill during the divine services. Appeals from Churches that call Kirill to account have been sparse.

A Crisis of Indifference

In my estimation, as a lifelong, baptized and anointed member of the Orthodox Church, and as a deacon with nearly twenty years of service, the greatest scandal is the refusal of the sister Orthodox Churches to hold Patriarch Kirill accountable for his contribution to the violence. Only a handful of Orthodox Church leaders have condemned Kirill for his complicity, especially the Churches of the Greek tradition. Too many Churches have either remained silent or have treaded carefully by expressing concern about the war without mentioning the patriarch. 

The sad irony is that Patriarch Kirill’s justification of Russia’s violent war on Ukraine has exposed Orthodoxy’s kryptonite. Orthodoxy’s pathetic response to the war reveals a crisis. 

The crisis is one of indifference.

A religious ideology that has come off the rails and contributed to the transition from the exercise of soft to hard power is immune to humanitarian aid. Church leaders need to speak prophetically, and one component of using the voice God has given is to come together to call Patriarch Kirill to accountability for his complicity in the violence Russia has inflicted upon Ukraine. 

Burying the Gift of Prophecy

The loss resulting from burying the gift of prophecy is much worse than all of the other consequences combined. It is akin to denying the call coming from the Lord himself, to deny ourselves, carry our crosses, and follow him. Those called to protect the needy are abandoning the vulnerable. Those called to be shepherds are taking cover and allowing the wolves to tear apart the flock. 

The Orthodox Churches can recover the gift of prophecy so many of them have decided to bury, by the grace of God. The Church – the whole Church, all of Christ’s body, including the laity – has a lot of work to do to create mechanisms that limit the power borne by leaders and hold those who abuse their power to account. 

This essay is an abbreviation of a longer piece forthcoming in Worship. 

The Unnoticed

by Nicholas Denysenko

The paperwork for admission to the hospital was on his table. His last conversation with his son did not end well. They argued about a favor his son had requested, and hung up on each other. The old widower had been coughing up blood. He stared at his phone, and decided not to call.

He came home from church, having given his heart and soul to leading and preaching, and looked around his empty condo. His ex-wife and kids were in the house he used to live in. Overcome by emotion, he went for a drive, only to see families walking and biking together. He pulled over and wept bitterly.

She had a health scare and ended up in the hospital for a few days. Her kids were with their father. Her friends texted and called, but she spent most of the time alone in the hospital, yearning for a loved one to sit with her. This memory brought tears to her eyes.

His daughter had been home, sick, for several days. The doctor said it was probably COVID, despite the negative test results. As soon as she recovered, he became ill. She had a choir concert, so he rose from the bed of illness, watching the concert, hoping the people around him wouldn’t notice his dry cough. He kept his head down, unable to see parents, siblings, and grandparents supporting their kids as he, a widower, sat by himself.

Three of these episodes are real, and one is from a feature film. All of them provide snapshots into the cold loneliness experienced daily by the unnoticed.

The unnoticed are all around us. Divorced men and women learning to experience life all by themselves, often alienated from family members, living in tension with children, struggling to manage busy schedules of work, family, and newfound single life. Suffering with the pain of separation, coming to terms with themselves, tending to their own wounds of pain, working feverishly to assure their children of their love – the divorced unnoticed are expected to be at the top of their game at work and as parents and friends.

The prevailing view of widows in our culture is that they mourn their loss for a period of time before re-entering life. Many widows are learning how to handle daily tasks for the first time – managing finances, tending to a household, even learning new skills. I know widows who couldn’t cook and I taught a new widow how to drive some years ago.

Quick-hit reactions and web searches yield success stories. They tell us about divorced people who rejoice in their freedom, live it up, and find new love right away. We hear about villages rallying around widows, cooking for them, watching their children, mowing their lawns and shoveling their driveways. I read an essay in the New York Times written by a guest columnist who had advice for women who wanted to woo a new widower, arming them with strategies on timing and tactics.

In my experience as a widower and a confidant of other widows and divorced people, these stories do not represent reality. Divorced people searching for support find themselves grasping for straws to meet people for companionship. Widows and widowers wander through a multi-layered fog. Their friends imagine them sitting at home, missing their spouses. But there is that other fog, the one that overcomes one’s brain, making one freeze without moving. Preparing meals, dropping and picking up kids, working, paying bills, managing a household – the sheer volume of things that need to be done create a fog, and one can truly become momentarily frozen from not knowing where to begin.

The Church responds to widowed grief by emphasizing support from the time of death up until the funeral, and perhaps for a short period of time afterwards. Some parishes host support groups for people whose mourning has no expiration date. Christians offer this kind of support before those who suffered loss become unnoticed. In most cases, support is offered to survivors of a loved one’s death. Support for those suffering the loss of marital and family life can be rare, as if divorce did not inflict loss, pain, and fog. Indeed, it does.

In response to an appeal for more support, theologians will be tempted to create a new liturgy. Assembling the Church to pray with the unnoticed would be a beautiful service, an important gesture, and an opportunity to reach out to broken people, limping through life, who have fallen off our proverbial radars.

As much as I would like to initiate the creative process of composing an office of prayer for the unnoticed, it is unnecessary. The liturgy of serving the unnoticed and lifting them up in support is right before our eyes in the Scriptures. This liturgy is one of action. It requires assembly, but the action does not draw the faithful from the world into the Church, but it flows in the other direction. It is an act of sending the faithful into the world, to be alert and aware, to hear and listen and see, to meet the unnoticed in their midst.

The liturgy is a service for the unnoticed with no expiration date. It sends Christians to shovel snow and mow lawns, to make meals, to assist with rides, to deliver groceries, to help with medical appointments and overnights, and to assist as needed.

Above all, this liturgy sends Christians to become the companions of the unnoticed – to walk with them, through the fog of grief and the brain fog that confounds and freezes. And finally, the service is free – it asks nothing of return because it is a free gift of grace and love that has no fee, and no strings attached.

The unnoticed are among us, bearing the weight of their crosses; may God send servants to ease their burden.

Holy Week, Pascha, and War: A Year of Reckoning

by Nicholas Denysenko

Two years ago, we thought we had endured a Holy Week and Pascha like no other when most of us prayed at home because of COVID. Now in 2022, we confront a new challenge, one no less formidable – observing the most solemn feasts of year when Russia, a nominally Orthodox country, brutally violates Ukraine, committing unspeakable atrocities and war crimes.

Many of us are weary from nearly two months of witnessing these crimes. We are saturated by bitterness, anger, and disappointment. We are weary and bleary-eyed. Our patience runs thin. Many people have told me that they have no enthusiasm for the feast.

Validating the Pain of the War

There is no single pattern or formula to make it through an unprecedented and extra somber Holy Week. As one still recovering from a massive personal loss, I was preparing myself to expect the unexpected this year, and to take it one day at a time. One of the essentials of coping with grief and loss is to refrain from stifling your feelings, and to validate your pain.

The intensity of Holy Week leads to the temptation to tell faithful to lay aside their thoughts about the war and concentrate on Christ.

This approach is mistaken because it creates a false dichotomy between the reality of the pain we are experiencing in the present and the saving events of Christ in the past. Holy Week invites us to focus on the love and faithfulness of Mary, who anointed Jesus’ feet with her hair, Judas’s betrayal of Jesus, the intimacy of a solemn meal of friends and disciples, the envy and hatred that led to the arrest of Christ, and Christ’s own passion, described in excruciating detail in the garden of Gethsemane. We hear of the fear of the disciples, the shock and lament of the faithful onlookers, Joseph and Nicodemus, and the women who come to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body.

The Gospels of Holy Week are a Window into the Present

As hearers of these biblical stories, we often tend to look upon the characters from an external perspective, from the outside looking in. The liturgy doesn’t work that way – the Holy Spirit creates a space that allows us to hear the stories as a way of looking through a window into the atrocity of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We see the traitors, we recoil from the hatred and jealousy, we are sickened by the raw grief of the survivors, we marvel at those who place themselves in danger and tend to the dead, the wounded, and the refugees.

If we refuse to acknowledge the pain of the war, remain silent in the face of vicious brutality, and hesitate to expose and condemn the perpetrators, we are rejecting God’s invitation to be witnesses to these things. We have missed the point of Holy Week, which is not to marvel at past events as if they were summarized in an educational film at a museum, but to recognize that Jesus Christ is in Mariupol, Bucha, and Borodyanka. In other words, the passion of Christ is quite real in the present – not only in our beloved rituals, but even more so among the victims of violence incited by hatred.

Observing Holy Week and Pascha while lamenting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is yet another opportunity for us to reconsider our own role in this catastrophe. Many are worried that a collective call to bring Church leaders to justice for supporting this brutality will be too costly. Instead, we continue to pray for peace, and dangle hope that God will intervene.

Divine Intervention in the Body of Christ

The events of Holy Week show that God did not stop the crucifixion of the only-begotten Son from taking place. God did not stay the hand of the soldiers who mocked Christ and put a crown of thorns on his head. God did not bring Pilate or Caiaphas “to their senses” to put an end to the madness. God did not set the disciples on fire with courage and fervor to remain with the master, friend, and Lord. In our context, God’s representatives – the body of Christ – have everything they need to find the courage to condemn this evil and call for trials for war crimes for both Putin and Patriarch Kirill.

The events of Holy Week revealed the inertia caused by fear. The task for Orthodox observers of Holy Week in 2022 is to recognize that we, too, have been frozen, and we, too, have a heightened fear of the unknown, of what could happen if we do not maintain neutrality.

The Dry Bones and New Life of Witness

The disciples were set on fire after the resurrection, after the risen Lord appeared to them. At that point, no earthly treasure was more precious than witnessing to the gospel, to the arrival of God’s reign. The Pascha of 2022 is the day of our reckoning. God is offering to rebuild our dry bones into the body of Christ that loves, serves, saves, and bears witness. God grant that we will have the courage to receive the gift of the Spirit on our day of reckoning, to bear witness by venerating the true presence of Christ in the longsuffering victims of Putin’s brutal assault on Ukraine.

Most Orthodox and Greek Catholic Christians begin Holy Week on Monday, April 18, 2022.