R.P.Ts.
PREDICTS
INGLORIOUS AND TRAGIC END TO STORY OF SCHEMA MONK SERGIUS
ROMANOV
Diocese
warns that
all sacraments in Central Urals convent now are graceless
Interfax-Religiia,
24
August 2020
The
Ekaterinburg
diocese foresees a tragic end to the situation involving the
refusal by Schema
Monk Sergius to submit to the decision of church authorities.
"The
rebellion
is continuing, which was started by the former schehegumen
Sergius. The schema
monk is now administering the convent. No matter how strange it
seems and how
wild it sounds. This man has cut himself off from His Holiness
the patriarch
and has ceased commemorating the metropolitan of his own
diocese. And thereby
he has carried away into schism himself and those who remained
with him and
perhaps some parishioners, and he has removed them from the
bosom of the
Russian Orthodox Church," Archpriest Maksim Minyailo, the head
of the
diocesan Department for Relations of Church with Society and
News Media, said
on a Soiuz television broadcast.
Father
Maksim noted
that this story will "have an inglorious and very tragic" ending
with
"serious consequences for those souls who are participating in
it."
"A break
with
the church is a break with the church. It cannot be justified,"
the priest
said, emphasizing that the church is still waiting and will wait
for the
repentance of all participants.
The
representative of
the diocese noted that it is important to explain to people who
continue to
arrive at the cloister that there are no sacraments there, since
the inhibited
clergyman "dares to perform these sacraments contrary to the
will of the
bishop."
"Sure,
outwardly
there are churches and some kind of singing and the chalice is
brought out (for
communion—IF), but in that chalice there is bread and wine, and
the body and
blood of the Lord are not there. Because all priests who are in
that cloister
have all been inhibited from priestly ministry, because they
have committed
perjury. They have committed a canonical crime against the
church because they
have concelebrated and they are concelebrating with a man who
has been
unfrocked. And that means that divine grace is not present in
those sacred acts
that they are trying to perform there. And our task is to see
that people are
informed about this," Father Maksim explained.
He
acknowledged that
Christians should be loyal to their spiritual fathers, but, he
added, this
should continue so long as these fathers themselves are faithful
to God and the
church and "so long as they follow His Holiness the patriarch
and their
own ruling bishop,"
In the
opinion of the
representative of the diocese, the situation involving Father
Sergius
"shows that the church is being purified, and it highlights
those
shortcomings that we have, and it shows those false paths that
we can take
within the church."
On 3
July, a diocesan
court found Father Sergius to be guilty of violating his
monastic vows and
clerical oath and it unfrocked him; this decision was
subsequently confirmed by
the patriarch. Meanwhile Romanov declared that he does not
intend to abandon
the territory of the Central Urals convent, of which he has been
the confessor
over the course of many years. Recently supporters of the rebel
monk have held
demonstrations at the walls of the diocese, demanding that the
ruling bishop
quit his position.
Earlier
a video
recording of a statement by Father Sergius was distributed,
where he called the
coronavirus pandemic a myth and urged insubordination to the
church leadership
and the authorities. Among other things he cursed those who
close churches
during a pandemic and he warned of the creation of an
"electronic camp of
Satan."
Later
the Center for
Combating Extremism of the chief directorate of the MVD for
Sverdlovsk oblast
found evidence of administrative violations of law in the
cleric's actions. On
20 July Romanov was fined by a court 18,000 rubles for inciting
hatred, and
before this, on 7 July, a court fined the schema monk 90,000
rubles for
disseminating fake news about the coronavirus. (tr. by PDS,
posted 24 August
2020)
Background articles:
Disgraced
Orthodox monk threatens political power
July 12, 2020
Church
court rules conservative priest unworthy of clerical status
July 3, 2020
Radical
conservative Orthodox cleric defies church court
June 18, 2020
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