June 12, 2025, 5:58 p.m.
(PHOTO: Intent)
TheIntent continues a series of video conversations with clergymen from southern Ukraine, which aims to show as broad and complete a picture of the religious life of the region as possible. We have already visited Father Oleksandr Smerechynsky, and now we offer you a conversation with Seraphima Shevchyk, abbess of the Holy Archangel Michael Monastery of the UOC (MP). We asked her, among other things, whether her church helps the Ukrainian Defense Forces.
Before the full-scale war, the abbess of the Holy Archangel Michael Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), Seraphima (Nadia Shevchyk), was third on the list of the most influential women of the Russian Orthodox Church, a member of the Party of Regions, and took Ukrainian children to see Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev. Now she expresses a patriotic position and condemns the Kremlin authorities and the top of the Moscow church. Is this an opportunistic "change of shoes" or a sincere rethinking?
A big interview will be released on our YouTube channel on June 12, at 18:00. There will be many answers to the questions the community is concerned about, so don't miss it!
Earlier, Inten spoke with Father Oleksandr Smerechynsky, a well-known naval chaplain in Odesa, a local Euromaidan confessor and deputy head of the UGCC's Department of Maritime Apostolate, about how he supports sailors who survived rocket attacks, why war makes people act instinctively to survive, how to preserve humanity in the most terrible conditions, and whether the state should prepare citizens for psychological shocks. Interviews about sailors and preparations for war, why the UGCC will not join the OCU, how the Moscow Patriarchate manipulates signs, and what to expect from the new Pope are also available on Intent's YouTube channel.
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