Military medic Natalya carried a jug of water blessed by priests at the Sviatogirsk monastery in eastern Ukraine as she celebrated Orthodox Epiphany in a Russian-affiliated church, despite the war.
Ukrainians have largely moved away from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) – which sits under the Moscow Patriarchate – since the full-scale invasion, with a majority now following a Kyiv-led Church that adheres to a different calendar.
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But some still celebrate Epiphany on Jan. 19, including followers of the UOC, threatened with a ban over its links with Moscow. “A holiday is a holiday. No matter the faith,” Natalya said, walking next to the monastery, riddled with shrapnel.
Like many near the eastern front, she found respite in the familiarity of religious rites. “There are explosions here, bangs there, we always expect something bad. But now we just stood still, forgot about everything, and prayed to God,” the 52-year-old said.
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Some indulged in the traditional icy plunge, jumping from the monastery into the murky river that had marked the front line for much of 2022, before a Ukrainian counter-offensive. “As a local, you know everything here, where things fell, where battles took place,” said Ruslan Zdelnik.
“Locals are not afraid!” he said, flushed as he emerged from the freezing water. He dismissed the debate over which calendar Orthodox Ukrainians should follow – it offered him the possibility to take the celebratory dip twice, rather than once.
‘Love your enemies’
The controversy over the status of the UOC shrouds the monastery in Sviatogirsk. The Church has denounced the war and denies that it depends on Moscow.
It has however not carried out autocephaly, the process of formally breaking off from Moscow’s leadership, despite Russian Orthodox leader Kirill calling the Kremlin’s invasion a “holy war.”
“Patriarch Kirill may make mistakes, he is a human being,” the monastery’s acting head Archimandrite Theophan told AFP in a rare interview. “But he remains a patriarch.”
Unless the Church distances itself further from Moscow in the coming months, it could be banned under a law passed in the Verkhovna Rada last year – which opinion polls say has widespread support.
Asked whether he was afraid, Archimandrite Theophan pushed back. “We haven’t established our own rules, they’ve been set for thousands of years. These rules are sacred,” he told AFP.
For Kyiv, the debate over religious affiliation goes beyond theology. Ukraine’s SBU security service arrested monastery head Metropolitan Arseniy, accusing him of tipping off Ukrainian positions to Russian forces. The case is among dozens opened against UOC clerics since the February 2022 invasion.
Archimandrite Theophan denies the accusations against the Metropolitan. “Some forces are trying to divide our people,” he told AFP, issuing a call for unity. “What does the Bible say? Love God. And it says something you cannot imagine – love your enemies.”
‘Pray for the victory of Ukraine’
That is far from a consensus position even within the UOC. “Everyone during the service prays for peace as soon as possible, for our motherland Ukraine, that all enemies leave our land,” said Father Sergiy, who said his congregation in the nearby town of Lyman had nothing to do with Moscow.
His congregation – almost entirely elderly women – had gathered for an Epiphany service in an underground part of the church, better protected from Russian bombardment.
Muffled explosions echoed throughout the service, audible above the chants and rattling of an incense burner intermittently waved by Father Sergiy.
“People who aren’t afraid of something exploding right next to them simply don’t exist,” he said. “Sometimes it feels like we’ve gotten used to it, and then sometimes less.”
Shelling from renewed Russian attacks regularly cuts power in Lyman, forcing Father Sergiy to use a battery-powered portable lamp to read the scripture.
He said he would leave if the situation deteriorated further, but wanted to stay for his community. “These people who come to the church are also my family. I can’t leave them, I can’t abandon them,” he said.
One of those, 72-year-old Liuda Storozhuk, had seen her apartment obliterated by a Russian strike. She asked Father Sergiy how to restore an icon, inherited from her great-grandmother, that she had dug out from the ashes of her destroyed flat. “Religion calms me,” she said.
“I lie alone and think – I am not alone, I have icons, God is with me. And I fall asleep.”
Russians take epiphany dip in contaminated waters
Officials said Russians in the southern city of Anapa took their traditional Epiphany dip in waters affected by a major oil spill, despite concerns about the toxic pollution. Orthodox Russians across the country typically plunge into icy seas, lakes and rivers to mark the occasion.
Anapa Officials said the festivities went ahead on the city’s beach, despite the entire area being contaminated by an ongoing major oil spill. Heavy fuel oil has been washing up on hundreds of kilometers of beaches along Russia’s southern coast and on the annexed peninsula of Crimea since two aging Russian tankers were caught in a storm in the Kerch Strait on Dec. 15.
The regional task force overseeing the clean-up operation posted videos on social media of believers wading into the sea off Anapa in the pitch black to take the Epiphany dip.
“The water is very clear, I even dived underneath. Look, my hair is wet, and you can see there is nothing there. The water is pure, even the temperature is comfortable,” an Anapa resident, Vladimir Balukov, said in the video published on Saturday night.
Priests oversaw the ceremony, while lifeguards accompanied those going into the sea. Russian officials said the water had been checked in advance.
But hours later the task force said an overnight storm had “brought new [deposits] of fuel oil to the coastline of Anapa.”
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