standing in an old Orthodox Church in antalya With a Bible in one hand and a candle in the other, Reverend ioann koval led one of his first religious ceremonies in Türkiye after the leaders of the russian orthodox church decided to expel him after a prayer he said for the peace in Ukraine.
Last September, when the president Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of reservists, Cyril, the Patriarch of Moscow, demanded that his clergy pray for victory. Standing in front of the altar and dozens of his parishioners in one of the Moscow churches, Koval decided to put peace before the orders of the patriarch.
“With the word ‘victory’, the sentence acquired a meaning propagandisticshaping correct thinking among parishioners, among clergy, what they should think about and how they should view these hostilitiesKoval said. “That was against my conscience. I couldn’t put myself through that political pressure of the hierarchy”.
In the prayer that he recited many times, the 45-year-old priest only changed one word, replacing “victory” with “peace,” but that was enough for the church court stripped him of the priestly rank.
Praying publicly or asking for peace also presents prosecution risks by the russian state. Shortly after Russian soldiers invaded Ukraine, lawmakers passed a law that allowed thousands of people to be prosecuted for “discrediting the Russian army”, a charge that actually applies to anything that contradicts the official narrative, be it a comment on social media or a prayer in church.
Same as him Putin’s authoritarian regimeCyril built a tough hierarchy in the Church that demands total conformity, he told Associated Press Andrey Desnitsky, professor of philology at the Vilnius University, in Lithuania. If a priest refuses to read the patriarch’s prayer, he is suspected of his loyalty.
“If you are not loyal, then there is no place for you in the Church.”, added Desnitsky, a long-time expert on the Russian Church.
When the war began, most of the priests remained silent for fear of pressure from the ecclesiastical authorities and of the State; only a small fraction have expressed his opinion. Of the more than 40,000 clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, only 300 priests signed a public letter calling for peace in Ukraine.
But every public voice against the war is crucial, he said. Natalia Vasilevichcoordinator of the human rights defense group Christians Against War (Christians Against War).
“It breaks what seems to be a monolithic position of the Russian Orthodox Church,” he referred to the PA.
Since the war began, Vasilevich’s team has counted at least 30 Orthodox priests who faced pressure by religious or state authorities. But there could be even more cases, she says, as some priests are afraid to speak out about the crackdowns for fear of attracting more.
The Russian Orthodox Church explains that the repressions against priests who spoke out against the war are a punishment for their supposed involvement in politics.
“Clergy who go from being priests to being political agitators and people who participate in the political struggle obviously stop fulfilling their pastoral duty and are subject to canonical prohibitions,” he explained. Vakhtang Kipshidzedeputy director of the press service of the Church.
But in turn, the priests who publicly support the war in Ukraine do not face any repercussions and, even more, they have the state supportVasilevich said.
“He russian regime he is interested in making these voices sound louder,” he added.
Priests who refuse to join this choir or who remain silent may be reassigned, temporarily relieved of their duties, or expelled, losing their salary, housing, benefits, and most importantly, their apostolate to their flock.
“I never questioned the choice that I made,” Koval said. “I, with all my soul, all my being, opposed this war. It was impossible for me to support the invasion of Ukraine by Russian soldiers with my prayer.”.
After a Russian Orthodox Church court decided he should be expelled, Koval appealed to Bartholomew IEcumenical Patriarch of constantinoplewho has asserted a right to receive appeal petitions from clergy of other Orthodox churches, despite Russia’s objections.
In June, the Patriarchate of Constantinople decided that Koval was punished for his stance on the war in Ukraine and ruled to restore his sacred rank. The same day, Bartolomé I allowed him to serve in his churches.
The Rev. Ioann Burdin also wanted to leave the Russian Orthodox Church, after he spoke publicly against the war in a small church near the city of Kostroma and the local court fined him for discrediting the Russian army. He petitioned the patriarch to approve his transfer to the Bulgarian Orthodox Churchbut instead Cyril forbade him from rendering his services until he publicly apologized.
“My position, which I expressed first on the website, then in the church and later during the trial, was an expression of my religious convictions,” the priest said. “Since all people are brothers, then any war, any military conflict, one way or another becomes fratricidal.”
Not allowed to serve in the church, Burdin took his sermons to a Telegram channel where he guides orthodox christians confused by the patriarch’s support for the war.
During his more than two decades in power, Putin has greatly advanced the position of the Russian Orthodox Church, increasing its prestige, wealth and power in society after decades of oppression or indifference under the soviet regime.
In return, its leaders, such as the patriarch Cirilo, have supported its initiatives. The Church has given its full support to the war in Ukraine and it has been common to see their clerics bless the soldiers and equipment that go to the battlefield and invoke God’s blessings on the campaign.
The priest Iakov Vorontsov, a priest from Kazakhstan, was shocked and desperate when he first heard the news of the war. He hoped that the Church would step in to mediate the conflict. But neither his colleagues nor his superiors supported his calls to preach peace.
“I realized that no one listens to words about peace”, says the 37-year-old priest. “They should have been transmitted to the people, to our flock, but they were not. And then I realized that I have another tool: social networks”.
While his anti-war Facebook posts received support online, the reaction offline was hostile. His superiors reassigned him several times, forbade him from giving sermons and told parishioners to stay away from him. In the end, the priest lost hope and decided to temporarily stop serving in the Russian Orthodox Church.
“They wanted me to leave and in the end they got it,” says the priest, sitting in his apartment without the black robe he has worn for the past 13 years. “But I didn’t give up my rank, I just decided that for now I can’t be among these people in this situation.”
The patriarch’s influence extends far beyond the limits of his country, and his orders apply even to priests serving abroad. In February, Cirilo suspended Rev. Andrey Kordochkina priest of an Orthodox church in Madrid, for his stance against the war.
Kipshidze said that Kordochkin was punished for “incite hatredamong his parishioners. But the priest reports that it is a warning to dissuade him from further criticism.
“I don’t think I did anything wrong canonicallyKordochkin said. “If there is no canonical crime, then it means that canon law is used simply as a mechanism of political repression.”
Since the first days of the war, Kordochkin has publicly condemned the Russian invasion and regularly prays for peace in Ukraine. He believes that priests should not remain silent and should convey a Christian message to the people.
“We have a duty to speak up, whatever the cost of that,” he declared.
(AP)
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Source-www.infobae.com