Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2023 20:17:41 GMT
Metropolitan Jonathan (Yeletsky) of Tulchyn in western Ukraine has been sentenced to five years imprisonment.
The 74 year old native of Voronezh, who has lived in Ukraine since 1988, was charged with "denial of armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, glorification of its participants", and "actions aimed at the violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order or at the seizure of state power", amongst other charges.
Metropolitan Jonathan, a well-regarded church composer whose teacher and mentor was Konstantin Mikhailovich Feodorov, who graduated from the Imperial Court Chapel Conservatory in 1906, has had his compositions performed in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Europe, and the USA. His mentor Konstantin Feodorov was one of the greatest of the Soviet-era church composers. He died at age 95 in 1977, and the future Metropolitan Jonathan was in his final years a devoted student and assistant.
Metropolitan Jonathan's sentence is a result of a few pamphlets the SBU "found" in his diocesan chancery last year. For example - pamphlets with pictures of Putin and Patriarch Kirill on them. Nonsense of course. Either they were planted or pulled out from a old drawer not touched in ten years.
Metropolitan Jonathan, who cannot speak Ukrainian, apologised to the Court that he had to give his statement in Russian. He denied all the charges, said he is a patriotic Ukrainian, showed poems he had written about Ukraine.
In his final statement to his flock, he said:
"Stand and keep the Tradition of the Holy Apostles and Doctors of the Church until the end of the years of your earthly life, abiding in the expectation of the bliss of life in the never-ending Future Age of the Kingdom of Christ!
At the same time, I give you all my hierarchal blessing for the exploits of faith in the name of the consubstantial, inseparable and divine Holy Trinity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen."
The 74 year old native of Voronezh, who has lived in Ukraine since 1988, was charged with "denial of armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, glorification of its participants", and "actions aimed at the violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order or at the seizure of state power", amongst other charges.
Metropolitan Jonathan, a well-regarded church composer whose teacher and mentor was Konstantin Mikhailovich Feodorov, who graduated from the Imperial Court Chapel Conservatory in 1906, has had his compositions performed in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Europe, and the USA. His mentor Konstantin Feodorov was one of the greatest of the Soviet-era church composers. He died at age 95 in 1977, and the future Metropolitan Jonathan was in his final years a devoted student and assistant.
Metropolitan Jonathan's sentence is a result of a few pamphlets the SBU "found" in his diocesan chancery last year. For example - pamphlets with pictures of Putin and Patriarch Kirill on them. Nonsense of course. Either they were planted or pulled out from a old drawer not touched in ten years.
Metropolitan Jonathan, who cannot speak Ukrainian, apologised to the Court that he had to give his statement in Russian. He denied all the charges, said he is a patriotic Ukrainian, showed poems he had written about Ukraine.
In his final statement to his flock, he said:
"Stand and keep the Tradition of the Holy Apostles and Doctors of the Church until the end of the years of your earthly life, abiding in the expectation of the bliss of life in the never-ending Future Age of the Kingdom of Christ!
At the same time, I give you all my hierarchal blessing for the exploits of faith in the name of the consubstantial, inseparable and divine Holy Trinity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen."