R.P.Ts.
FINDS WAY TO
GET RID OF ANDREI KURAEV
Unfrocking
in church
court may await the blogger and evangelist
by
Milena Faustova
Nezavisimaia
Gazeta, 29 April 2020
On 29
April,
Patriarch Kirill issued an order according to which Archdeacon
Andrei Kuraev
was banned from clerical ministry. Believers viewed the order by
the head of
the RPTs as ambiguous. Kuraev may be deprived of his clerical
rank
subsequently.
"Because
of your
public dishonoring of the memory of the rector of the cathedral
church of the
Epiphany in the city of Moscow, Archpriest Alexander Ageikin, on
the day of his
passing, disregarding the sorrow of his wife and children, which
makes this
action not only immoral but also especially cynical, and which
provoked outrage
of bishops, clerics, and laity of the Russian Orthodox Church,
and also taking
into account your previous actions, regarding which I have
received complaints,
you are inhibited from clerical ministry until a decision is
made by a diocesan
church court based on a consideration of the aforesaid actions,"
the text
of the order says.
Alexander
Ageikin,
the rector of the cathedral church of the Epiphany in Elokhovo,
died from
complications of a coronavirus infection on 21 April. On the
same day, in
Andrei Kuraev's blog there appeared the following note: "In my
memory, this
not-quite-protopresbyter remains like a dumb careerist, who made
a career in
the area of VIP-service." Kuraev also explained why he called
Ageikin
not-quite-protopresbyter: "In the course of a half century, it
was the
rector of the Elokhovo cathedral who was the only protopresbyter
in the RPTs.
Ageikin was the first one who became the rector there without
have managed to
get this title at the same time."
A
petition appeared
on the portal Change.org, which was addressed to the
patriarchate requesting a
consideration of the issue of the expulsion of Kuraev from the
clergy. "One
would wish to call attention to the fact that this cleric had
regularly
conducted subversive work against the Russian Orthodox Church,
publicly and
without evidence accusing the hierarchy of sodomy and thereby
confusing
believers," the text says; it was signed by 123 persons.
"In
accordance
with law. And in accordance with conscience." Thus reacted to
Patriarch
Kirill's decision the chairman of the synodal Department for
Relations of
Church with Society and News Media, Vladimir Legoida. Kuraev
reacted to his
inhibition from ministry calmly. "Now I will take an awesome
teddy bear to
my grandchildren, and for me this is much more critical and
important," he
noted in a conversation with radio station "Moscow Speaking."
The
first
vice-president of the Center for Political Technology, Aleksei
Makarkin,
explained for "NG" that this decision by the patriarch was only
a
matter of time. "This was expected. The question was just what
will be the
occasion for it. Despite the fact that Andrei Kuraev even
earlier provided
adequate occasions for banning him from the ministry, he was
once rather close
to the patriarch and participated in his election campaign, for
which he
received the highest deacon rank. And therefore, despite the
fact that many
demanded his dismissal, it was in memory of his former service
that such a
decision was not made. And now the Moscow patriarchate has
decided that he has
violated ethical principles and finally the decision for his
removal was
made."
In
Makarkin's
opinion, it is not the inhibition from ministry itself that is
most important,
which is "a rather common thing in the church," but the
subsequent
decision of a church court at which Andrei Kuraev may be
unfrocked. (tr. by
PDS, posted 30 April 2020)
PATRIARCH
KIRILL
REMOVES ANDREI KURAEV FROM CONDUCTING SERVICES
Patriarch
Kirill
impeded from ministry (removed from conducting services and
sacraments)
Archdeacon Andrei Kuraev for "dishonoring the memory" of
Archpriest
Alexander Ageikin. The pertinent order was published on the
website of the
Moscow city diocese.
Patriarch
Kirill's
statement says that Andrei Kuraev's conduct may be viewed "not
only as
immoral but as especially cynical." " Because of your public dishonoring of the memory of the
rector . . . , and
also taking into account your previous actions, regarding which
I have received
complaints, you are inhibited from clerical ministry until a
decision is made
by a diocesan church court based on a consideration of the
aforesaid
actions," Patriarch Kirill said.
Archpriest
Alexander
Ageikin died on 21 April at the age of 48. The coronavirus was
found in the
clergyman. Andrei Kuraev wrote in LiveJournal about him: "One
can read
about one's character from the label. In my memory, this
not-quite-protopresbyter remains like a dumb careerist, who made
a career in
the area of VIP-service." After this, a petition was published
on the
internet demanding the unfrocking of the clergyman. Yesterday in
an interview
with Moskovskii Komsomolets, Andrei Kuraev made critical
comments about the situation
of the coronavirus in the RPTs.
Andrei
Kuraev
declared that he does not consider his ban from ministry as the
most important
event of that day. "Today is also a really bitter day in my life
and in
the church life of Mosow, because Father Georgy Breev died, who
was a
remarkable priest, the spiritual director of Moscow's clergy,
and a man who
once gave me a recommendation for entering the Moscow seminary.
This was a much
more significant event. I now am very upset and I am thinking
only about
this," he told Interfax.
We
recall that in
2013, Andrei Kuraev's activity in the public space led to his
removal from the
position of a teacher in the Moscow Ecclesiastical Academy. The
academy
concluded that the archdeacon was prone to provocative
statements, which were
inappropriate to the position of professor. (tr. by PDS, posted
30 April 2020)
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
If material is quoted, please give credit to the
publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit
this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please
include reference to the URL,
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.