RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


Notorious Orthodox clergyman banned from active ministry

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

Kommersant, 29 April 2020

 

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)

 


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