Will Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev be defrocked?

December 29, 2020 diocesan church the court decided on the eruption from the rank of protodeacon Andrey Kuraev.

The reason was the publication of Kuraev in the "Live magazine” dated April 21, 2020 about the deceased from coronavirus infection Archpriest Alexander Ageikin. The court considered it offensive and saw in it blasphemy against the Russian Orthodox Church.

In addition, the court considered that Kuraev led slanderous activities against the church, in particular, accusing it of “organizing schism,” and continued this activity after “exhortations” from the diocesan spiritual father, Archpriest George Breev and members of the disciplinary commission in 2015.

The case was considered in absentia, because the protodeacon did not appear in court.

In the evening of the same day, Andrei Kuraev published on his blog the full text of the letter to the chairman of the Church Court at the Diocesan Council of Moscow, Fr. Mikhail Ryazantsev, in which, among other things, he indicates that he was not familiar with the accusations of the court and, in his opinion, was summoned to court "not to take part in the study of the essence and arguments of the prosecution, not for judicial debate, but simply to listen or an already pre-prepared verdict, or an ultimatum.” This is what the letter said: “ The court had 8 months to prepare the prosecution (from the day of the decree on April 29 until today, December 29). I was not given a single minute and not a single document. At first, I considered this vagueness of the accusation to be a mere protocol omission. But then the secretary of the court, Fr. Alexander Mironov explained that my request to give me access to the prosecution materials was considered by the court, and a decision was made to reject it. I was also informed about the refusal to have a pre-trial meeting with a representative of the court (= prosecution) and about the impossibility of “pre-trial reconciliation”. It was also explained to me that I could not come to court with a lawyer or an expert in church law acting on my side, I would not be able to invite witnesses, and I would not be able to use the telephone, the Internet, a computer, that is, I would be deprived of access to databases data. This means that I will not be able to check even certain words attributed to me (if they are the ones discussed in court), their context and my own clarifications of their meaning during a discussion on social networks. <...> All these refusals were motivated by the fact that "the consideration of cases in the church court is closed." However, the accusation cannot be closed to the accused himself. It is all the more strange that the subject of the accusation, most likely, is just the words I publicly said “The patriarch will make the final decision on the defrocking of A. Kuraev.

January 11, 2021 Kuraev filed appeal against the decision of the ecclesiastical court. He turned to the patriarch with a request hold a retrial due to "non-compliance diocesan court of the established order of ecclesiastical legal proceedings.

The court session on Kuraev's appeal was scheduled for March 4, 2021. The defender of the protodeacon is not allowed to participate in the session.

March 4 Church Court of the Diocese of Moscow confirmed the previous decision regarding Kuraev and refused to review orders to deprive him of his dignity.

Sources

• By the decision of the diocesan court of Moscow, Protodeacon Andrey Kuraev was recognized as subject to defrocking // Official site of the diocese of the city of Moscow. December 29, 2020
• Not my court // Andrey Kuraev's blog. December 29, 2020
• Kuraev filed an appeal against the decision of the church court to deprive him of his dignity // RIA News. 2021. January 12.
• The Moscow Diocesan Court of the Russian Orthodox Church MP has scheduled a hearing on the appeal of Fr. Andrey Kuraev on March 4 // Credo.Press. February 25, 2021
• The Church Court refused to change its decision to defrock Protodeacon Kuraev // Interfax-religion. 2021. March 4.
• Decision of the Diocesan Court of Moscow in case No. 53-57-2021 of Protodeacon Andrey Kuraev, protodeacon of Moscow // Website of the Moscow diocese. 2021. March 4.