ROCOR Bp Agafangel accused of being CIA Agent by his clergy!

[尼古拉前执事]

Former cleric of ROCOR diocese of Odessa accuses his bishop of working for CIA
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=2348

Odessa, December 7, Interfax – Archimandrite Veniamin Trepalyuk, a former cleric of the Odessa diocese of the Russian Church Outside Russia, has quitted it disappointed with its ruling Bishop Agafangel Pashkovsky.

According to the archimandrite, the bishop has shown ‘antagonistic hatred for Russia, its authorities and people’ while holding the CIA ‘the most humane organization in the world concerned for the welfare of its people’.

Moreover, the cleric maintains that ‘almost all the clergy’ of the diocese and its pro-active parishioners have guessed who patronizes the bishop. ‘Everybody has spoken plainly about your connection with the US special services. And you yourself have not concealed it’, the archimandrite writes in a statement published by the United Fatherland website in Odessa.

In support of his statement he tells a story about his own meeting, arranged by Bishop Agafangel, with a man who ‘introduced himself as a staff member of the American embassy in Ukraine’ and offered him ‘nothing else but cooperation with the US special services’. The offer refused, the supposed diplomat advised that the archimandrite should ‘think over it properly’ and after taking a positive decision ‘reach him’ through his bishop.

Father Veniamin reproaches his former bishop with ingratitude towards the Church Outside Russia, which ‘has shown a great deal of mercy and indulgence towards him’ (as the ROCOR Synod recognized as non-canonical Agafangel’s episcopal consecration performed by Valentin Rusantsov, who broke away from the Church Outside Russia to become leader of the so-called ‘Russian Autonomous Orthodox Church’ – IF).

According to the cleric, Bishop Agafangel intends to become the leader ‘of those forces who are ready to put up an open opposition to the decisions made by the majority of the ROCOR thus upsetting the balance of peace in the Church and carrying the people of God away into a pernicious space alien to brotherly love’.

The author of the statement believes the bishop rejects ‘the path taken by the hierarchy and the Orthodox people towards the church unity which was lost under the godless power and internal strife’ and is ready ‘to venture upon a split’ leading the faithful to ‘an isolated church existence’ in a ‘purely sectarian form’.

Besides, the archimandrite accuses the bishop of ‘inhuman hatred toward people both living and long dead’ including ‘holy martyrs and confessors now canonized by the ROC MP’, such as Archbishop Like (Voino-Yasenetsky) of the Crimea and Metropolitan Seraphim (Chichagov).

After the victory of the ‘Orange Revolution’ in Ukraine, the priest states, Bishop Agafangel used to say ‘Our power, our president, our mayor have come at last’ and expected that the ROCOR would be given new churches including ‘the reconstructed Cathedral of the Transfiguration’ in Odessa (which has been recently claimed by leaders of the unrecognized ‘Kievan Patriarchate’ – IF). In reality however, things were to turn out otherwise due to the attitude of the Ukrainian faithful themselves as ‘the people continued to come to the churches of the Odessa metropolia just as before, and your church continues to be empty just as before’, the archimandrite writes.

The shortage of parishioners, he continues, had to be made up by the aid from the American embassy, especially the former US Ambassador John Herbst. Bishop Agafangel regarded him as his ‘friend, patron and sponsor’, who generously, ‘almost every week’, presented his charge with ‘bountiful parcels’ which, ‘disappeared in the deep and safe cellars’ invisible for the parishioners.

In conclusion, Archimandrite Veniamin states that the principal reason for his withdraw from the Odessa diocese of the Church Outside Russia is the intention of its ruling bishop ‘to oppose the ROCOR Bishops’ Synod to the extent of schism’.

It was reported earlier that already in September Bishop Agafangel instructed his clergy to stop mentioning the name of the ROCOR first hierarch, Metropolitan Laurus, during the liturgy.

[尼古拉前执事]

ROCOR Bishop of Odessa denies accusations of cooperation with CIA
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=2408

Odessa, December 21, Interfax - The Russian Church Outside Russia’s Bishop Agafangel Pashkovsky of Odessa has denied the accusations of being politically engaged and maintaining cooperation with the US secret services.

‘I have never been in contact with either the CIA, or the KGB or FSB or SBU or any other such organization. In our episcopal oath, there is a pledge not to join any organization that has any, even the slightest spiritual dependence on them’, Pashkovsky claims in his statement entitled ‘A word to those who accuse and slander me’.

The bishop has elucidated that he has made this statement upon a request from the recent ROCOR Bishops’ Synod who charged him as their Church’s representative in Ukraine with ‘giving a response to the reproaches’ cast upon him.

At the same time, Bishop Agafangel has subjected to strong criticism ‘the forthcoming unification, or rather, the merger of the ROCOR by the Moscow Patriarchate, which he believes ‘is not ‘the union we seek’, but rather implementation of a political project’, initiated, in his opinion, as far back as 1922 (when the ROCOR was founded) and ‘now brought to its final stage with the help of President Putin’. The aim of this project, the author of the statement maintains, ‘is to do away with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia’, whose message was ‘a ray of the truth amidst the total darkness of the Soviet falsehood’.

Pashkovsky identifies as his principal opponents the Odessa-based public organization called ‘United Fatherland’ as well as ‘the group which names itself the Russian Truly Orthodox Church’, which was previously headed by Archbishop Lazar Zhurbenko, a former bishop of the ROCOR, and now by ‘certain Archbishop Tikhon Pasechnik’.

According to Bishop Agafangel, ‘regular methods of this kind of critics’ were used for the recent statement of Veniamin Trepalyuk, a former cleric of his diocese. The bishop, who refused to mention the head of the ROCOR, Metropolitan Laurus, at the liturgy already last September, believes Trepalyuk’s statement ‘was planned to coincide with the beginning of the December session of the ROCOR Synod’.

Bishop Agafangel claims that Archimandrite Veniamin, who accused him, his own former bishop, of political intrigue and contacts with special services, had earlier ‘renounced his priesthood and monkhood and feigned an attempt at suicide’.

At the same time, no mention is made in the bishop’s statement as to his intention to restore the liturgical mentioning of Metropolitan Laurus as the first hierarch of the ROCOR at his parishes - a requirement also made by the Bishops’ Synod, which completed its work on December 10.