Moscow priest Alexei Uminsky, who was banned from serving, was summoned to a church court because of his refusal to read a prayer for the “victory of Holy Rus'”

Archpriest Alexei Uminsky, who was removed from the rectorship of the Moscow Trinity Church in Khokhly and banned from serving, was summoned to the Moscow Diocesan Court to give explanations and testimony. This follows from a document published by journalist Ksenia Luchenko.

The meeting is scheduled for January 11. The document states that Uminsky is being brought as a defendant in the case of “a church offense related to the refusal to read the established prayer for Holy Rus' during the Divine Liturgy.”

Luchenko also published a decree of Patriarch Kirill, which banned Uminsky from serving. The reason for this decision is not indicated there.

“We will not make predictions, but a precedent is the case of priest Ioann Koval. On May 11 last year, the same court in a similar case decided to defrock him. The church court does not imply either the defendant’s right to familiarize himself with the case materials in advance, or the presence of his defense attorneys,” writes Lucenko.

• the prayer “For Holy Russia” for the first time Patriarch Kirill read in September 2022. It was distributed throughout the dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church for compulsory reading. The prayer contains the following phrases: “Arise, O God, to help Your people and grant us victory through Your power” and “For You are the intercession, and the victory, and the salvation of those who trust in You, and we send glory to You.”
• Priest John Koval, a cleric of the Church of St. Andrew the First-Called, was banned from serving after he replaced the word “victory” with “peace” in the prayer “For Holy Russia.” The church court deprived him of his rank.
• On January 5 , it became known that Alexei Uminsky was removed from his position as rector of the Moscow Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Khokhly and banned from serving. Dozhd claimed that Uminsky was removed from his post because of his statements in an interview with the former editor-in-chief of Echo of Moscow Alexei Venediktov, which was published in November 2023 on the Living Nail YouTube channel. In it, Uminsky, in particular, advises believers who do not want to go to church where they pray for victory in the war with Ukraine to look for priests who “pray more for peace than for victory.” In February 2022, Uminsky said that he had an “unequivocal” attitude towards the war in Ukraine, that he could not support military action and was praying for peace.
• An open letter to Patriarch Kirill in defense of Uminsky and with a request to reconsider the decision to ban him from ministry was signed by more than five thousand people.