A Russian Orthodox Church priest has been suspended for leading a memorial service at the Moscow grave of Russia’s de-facto opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Dmitry Safronov prayed several times and conducted a service at the gravesite to mark 40 days since Mr. Navalny’s death in an Arctic penal colony.
At the ceremony the priest noted that Mr. Navalny had urged Russians not to give up. “Evil can be defeated only by one thing — by good. If we try to defeat evil with evil, then we multiply evil. So we will indeed remember Alexei, remember his testament to us and we will pray for him and hope he will pray for us at the throne of the Lord,” Dmitry Safronov said.
Supporters labelled him a “real hero.” Opponents considered him a “traitor.” And his church was unimpressed by his actions. He has since been demoted and banned from clerical duties, and ordered to serve three years of “penance”. No reason was given for the punishment which was signed off by the head of the Church, Patriarch Kirill, who is known to be close to President Putin.
“At the end of the period of penance, based on feedback from the place of obedience, a decision will be made on the possibility of his further priestly service,” the diocese said. The Reuters news agency reports the Church regularly punishes priests deemed sympathetic to the President’s opponents or Ukraine.
Ksenia Luchenko, an expert who writes a blog on the Russian Orthodox Church and is critical of its leadership, told the news agency the Church hierarchy was sending a clear message by suspending Mr. Safronov. “They just need the priests to be obedient and to support publicly the point of view of the Patriarch on the Ukraine war and to support the Russian state, to support Putin. And if somebody refuses, he will be punished.”
She added that the likely official reason for the priest’s suspension was his refusal to read a prayer asking God to lead Russia to victory in Ukraine, which Patriarch Kirill introduced in 2022 and has made compulsory at church services. Dozens of other priests have been punished for defying the Church’s line on the war – for example, by reading out prayers for peace, instead of victory. The most prominent was Aleksiy Uminsky, who was expelled from the Church in January and has now left Russia.
The Christian Post reports Patriarch Kirill who was initially hesitant about Russia’s invasion, has progressively condemned Ukraine and the West, attributing spiritual significance to the conflict. He mandated churches to recite a prayer for Holy Rus which designates Russia as the land chosen by God, with non-compliant clergy facing sanctions.
The World Russian People’s Council (WRPC) which is led by Patriarch Kirill, has labeled President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as a “holy” endeavour, seemingly aiming to bring the region under Russian dominion. The Christian Post explains the declaration frames the war as a key moment in Russia’s battle against the “criminal Kyiv regime” and Western “Satanism,” calling it a “special mlitary operation.”
The WRPC, while officially separate from the Russian Orthodox Church, comprises many church leaders and civil figures. Its decree published by the Moscow Patriarchate, emerged from a synodal congress in late March at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, with Patriarch Kirill presiding.
Addressed to Russia’s legislative and executive bodies, the document casts the war in Ukraine that began in 2022 as a spiritual crusade to preserve the unity of Holy Rus, depicting Russia as a defender against Western encroachment.
Antoine Nivière, a professor of Russian civilisation at the University of Lorraine in northeastern France, told Catholic newspaper La Croix International that the document is more than just a statement because it “outlines a sort of political program.”
“Its content is in total contradiction with the social doctrine that the Russian Church adopted in 2000, which notably rejected the notion of holy war and stipulated that religious leaders should oppose the government if it issued orders contradictory to the ethical and theological principles of Christianity. With Kirill, none of this is respected,” said Professor Nivière.
