www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Ukrainian sectarian, a pope hopeful, held on charge of rape

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=6602

Kiev, October 30, Interfax � The Kiev Police detained Oleg Kulik, a leader of the so-called �Ukrainian Orthodox autocephalous canonical church,� suspected in sexual violence against women of his parish.

Law enforcement agencies earlier received complaints from women who claimed that Kulik entranced them by reading prayers and then convinced them it was not a sin to have sex with him as they would give birth to �divine children,� Ukrainian edition of the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reported on Friday.

The paper further said that Kulik was a monk of St. Michael Monastery in Kiev in the 1990s, where he first told about his �specialness,� he called himself Christ, sprouted beard and grew long hair, then announced he would head �the Kiev Patriarchate� and the Russian Orthodox Church and afterwards become a Pope of Rome. Kulik, who now introduce himself as Moses, was exiled from the convent and left for the USA.

He returned in Ukraine in 2002 and started attracting people to his sect.

Moisey's group is really vagante, he has a very small following in ukraine (at most 3 or 4 churches), he was formerly part of the ROC in Ukraine, then departed to the USA, was removed from the EP Ukrainian jurisdiction and affiliated with Michael Champion's group (an American group claiming to be part of the UAOC-Mefodiy). He was sent as Champion's representative in Ukraine but later broke from him and announced he was founding his own Church.

He was joined by irregular clergy from all over the world (most of them were vagantes who had no real following but some did have followers). When they realized of Moisey's weird ideas and practices, all the serious bishops separated from him and founded the Ukrainian Autonomous Church in America (a non canonical but nevertheles serious group).

Those who remained with Moisey are vagantes (Internet bishops) with some exceptions.

In Mexico there's a small community in Veracruz (Mexico) led by Bishop Daniel, a former vagante who joined Moisey's group (they try to be Orthodox but they still lack discipline and seriousness).

In Colombia there's another Orthodox community founded by a former Roman nun (whose practices and ideas are also very strange such as health rituals and exorcisms):

http://iglesiacatolicaortodoxa.blogspot.com/2008/10/consagracion-de-la-madre-liz-como.html

I fail to understand why so many people prefer to join these groups instead of affiliating with the real Orthodox Churches.

Sad to say,I know this man.Rather,I knew him when he was here in Southfield Michigan at St.Mary's Ukrainian Orthodox Church,which was and is under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under Metropolitan Constantine.I thought Fr.Oleh was a traditionalist,based on his long hair and beard(just goes to show that appearances can be deceiving).Later,I heard things from some of the new Russians about some of his strange teachings;also he attempted to make trouble for my spiritual father here, a monastic priest,who was then with ROCOR and now in the Bulgarian Church.I did wonder what happened to Fr.Oleh's wife and daughter,when I heard of his elevation.What is really sad is that such charlatans make the rest of us Orthodox Clerics look bad.It's a tragedy that some unfortunate people in Ukraine and Russia have been taken in by the likes of him.

Father,

I don't understand why this person is referred to as "a pope hopeful"? Please tell me what this means?

God bless, Columba

Columba,

From the article that Alexandr posted


Many years,

Neil