Brooklyn, April 11, 2023
Another cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia has left and joined the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s Slavic Vicariate in America.
Archbishop Elpidophoros, head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, under whose auspices the Vicariate operates, recently signed a decree admitting Igumen Tikhon (Gayfudinov) into the Vicariate, the organization reports.
Like those who previously left ROCOR to join Constantinople, Gayfudinov did so without a canonical release.
The Vicariate was created in 2020 as a haven for Alexander Belya, a former archimandrite who was defrocked by ROCOR after he abandoned the jurisdiction without a canonical release in protest over not being chosen for the episcopacy. GOARCH has tried to make Belya a bishop, but the hierarchs of other jurisdictions have loudly protested.
His father, former Archpriest Alexander Belya, also left ROCOR and was later defrocked together with several clerics who followed him: Priest Vasyl Deiak, Protodeacon Rostislav Zadorozhny, and Deacon George Hero.
According to the new decree of Abp. Elpidophoros, Gayfudinov was received together with the Holy Protection Skete in Buena Vista Township, New Jersey, of which he has been the abbot since 2015.
Notably, Gayfudinov was very close with His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion (Kapral), the former First Hierarch of ROCOR who reposed in the Lord last May, whom he served as personal secretary for 10 years.
The site of his skete even has a video referring to Met. Hilarion as an elder and holy hierarch, and he is collecting donations to build a monument to the reposed hierarch.
However, now he is under the authority of former Archimandrite Alexander Belya, the dean of the Slavic Vicariate, who brought a lawsuit against Met. Hilarion, the ROCOR Synod of Bishops, the Eastern American Diocese, and a number of other ROCOR clerics after he failed to secure his election as Bishop of Miami in the summer of 2019.
Though Met. Hilarion has reposed, Belya’s suit continues.
It was also reported today that one hierarch of the Czech-Slovak Church recently concelebrated with the defrocked Belyas in America.
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