Moscow, April 5, 2021
Photo: u-f.ru
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has confirmed the ecclesiastical court decision to defrock Archdeacon Andrei Kuraev. At the same time, he has ordered a temporary moratorium on it coming into force, to give Kuraev time to reflect and repent.
Formerly an influential figure in the Russian Church whose books brought many amongst the intelligentsia to the Church, Archdeacon Andrei has upset many in recent years with repeated inflammatory statements made about the Church in the media and on his personal LiveJournal blog. In late 2013, he was dismissed from his position at the Moscow Theological Academy for his continued agitation.
The Patriarch’s notification from Saturday reads:
I affirm the decision in case No. 53-57-2021, according to which the diocesan court found no cause to review case No. 50-52-2020. I affirm the decision in case No. 50-54-2020, according to which the ecclesiastical court recognized the suspended Archdeacon Andrei Kuraev as subject to defrocking from holy orders. This decision will come into force after the decree on the defrocking of Andrei Kuraev is issued.
A moratorium is imposed upon the issuance of the decree for the time being, for Protodeacon Andrei to rethink his position and return to the path of the Church that he chose at one time.
The archdeacon earlier wrote that he was sure Pat. Kirill couldn’t wait to defrock him and would confirm the court’s decision immediately. Instead, His Holiness gave him time to file for appeal and now more time to repent.
Archdeacon Andrei was suspended by the Patriarch on April 29 in connection with the latest scandal surrounding him after he insulted the memory of Archpriest Alexander Ageikin, the former rector of the Theophany Cathedral in Moscow who reposed in the Lord on April 21 at the age of 48 due to complications from the coronavirus. In late December, the ecclesiastical court of the Moscow City Diocese found him guilty of blasphemy and slander against the Church. Kuraev asked for the case to be postponed several times, and in the end, he still never appeared in court. The court later denied his appeal, saying it found no cause for review.
Deacon Kuraev earlier wrote that the Patriarch couldn’t wait to defrock him and would immediately affirm the court’s initial decision. Instead, the Patriarch gave him time to appeal the first decision, and is now giving him more time to repent.
Taking to his LiveJournal to respond to the Patriarch’s announcement, Deacon Kuraev wrote: “I’m glad that unprecedented novelties have appeared in the Church because of me.”
“I really wanted (and still want) to walk together with the Church of Christ, that is, with the Church of the Nicene Creed, having such attributes as One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.”
However, he goes on to seemingly embrace the invisible Church theory: “What relation this Church has with the concrete legal entity called the ‘Moscow Patriarchate’ in its current is hard to say. But it’s definitely not a 1:1 relationship. You could say the Church is present in the church, but how exactly, in what, in whom, in which aspects of the life of the Church?”
“The question of who, when, in what, and to what extent and with what consequences has departed from the ‘path of the Church’ is not easy, and until the Last Judgment, it’s indecisive,” Kuraev writes
“Since time has been given for ‘rethinking,’ I will think about it again and again. But it’s interesting that this time the name of a certain departed Moscow cleric (RIP) is not even mentioned. He has finally found peace,” Kuraev concludes, referring to the priest whom he slandered on the very day of his repose last year.
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