Washington, D.C., January 23, 2024
Photo: state.gov
The United States Department of State recently announced the recipients of the Secretary of State’s International Religious Freedom Awards for 2023.
Among the recipients is a group of Orthodox clergy from Lithuania who were defrocked for schismatic activity and then taken in by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.
The State Department site presents the group of clerics as anti-war heroes who were punished for going against the stance of the Moscow Patriarchate.
While this is the story the former clergy have presented to the media, in fact, His Eminence Metropolitan Innokenty of Vilnius and Lithuania and His Grace Bishop Ambrose of Trakai are themselves strongly against the war. The Lithuanian Church assembly of clergy and laity held in December 2022 also adopted a statement against the war.
The clergy were, in fact, defrocked for schismatic activity and the organization of the transition to another Church jurisdiction without the blessing of the bishop, which is precisely what the clergy did, being received into the Patriarchate of Constantinople rather than accepting the canonical measures of their ruling hierarch.
With state assistance, the former clergy have been organized into a formal exarchate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The State Department writes about them:
Under pressure from Moscow, this group of nine Orthodox clergy were cast out of their churches because of their vocal opposition to Russia’s war against Ukraine. Five priests (Fathers Mockus, Seliavko, Ananiev, Dauparas, and Sungaila) and two deacons (Deacons Miniotas and Ovchinnikov) from the Moscow-aligned Orthodox Church in Lithuania, vigorously and publicly condemned Russia’s war against Ukraine and were defrocked. Two priests (Fathers Kakhta and Roi) from the Moscow-aligned Belarusian Orthodox Church, similarly condemned Russia’s war against Ukraine and fled to Lithuania after Lukashenka’s regime forced them to leave Belarus. They built a new religious community in Lithuania that welcomes Orthodox believers seeking to worship free from Moscow’s influence, including Lithuanians, Ukrainian war refugees, and exiles fleeing oppression in Belarus and Russia. Their bravery demonstrated the importance of faith separated from politics in the midst of war and dictatorship. This group now works to combat Russian disinformation and propaganda among Orthodox believers through their blog Ortodoksas.lt, which has become an information platform for religious leaders worldwide dismissed from Moscow-aligned Orthodox churches for their anti-war beliefs.
Follow OrthoChristian on Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, MeWe, and Gab!
