ANTALYA, Turkey (AP) — Standing in an old Orthodox church in Antalya with a Bible in one hand and a candle in the other, the Rev. Ioann Koval led one of his first services in Turkey after Russian Orthodox Church leadership decided to defrock him following his prayer for peace in Ukraine.
Last September, when President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of reservists, Moscow Patriarch Kirill required his clergymen to pray for victory. Standing in front of the altar and dozens of his parishioners in one of Moscow’s churches, Koval decided to put the peace above the patriarch’s orders.
“With the word ‘victory’ the prayer acquired a propagandistic meaning, shaping the correct thinking among the parishioners, among the clergy, what they should think about and how they should see these hostilities,” Koval said. “It went against my conscience. I couldn’t submit to this political pressure from the hierarchy.”
In the prayer he recited multiple times, the 45-year-old priest changed just one word, replacing “victory” with “peace” — but it was enough for the church court to remove his priestly rank.
Publicly praying or calling for peace also poses risks of prosecution from the Russian state. Shortly after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, lawmakers passed legislation that allowed prosecuting thousands of people for “discrediting the Russian army,” a charge that in reality applies to anything that contradicts the official narrative, be it a commentary on social networks or a prayer in church.
Similar to Putin’s authoritarian regime, Kirill built a harsh hierarchy in the church that demands total conformity, Andrey Desnitsky, professor of philology at Vilnius University in Lithuania, told The Associated Press. If a priest refuses to read the patriarch’s prayer, his loyalty is suspect.
“If you are not loyal, then there is no place for you in church,” added Desnitsky, a longtime expert on the Russian church.
When the war started, most priests remained silent, fearing pressure from the church and state authorities; only a small fraction have spoken out. Of more than 40,000 clergymen in the Russian Orthodox Church, only 300 priests signed a public letter calling for peace in Ukraine.
But each of the public voices against the war is crucial, said Natallia Vasilevich, the coordinator for the human rights group Christians Against War.
“It breaks what seems to be a monolithic position of the Russian Orthodox Church,” she told AP.
Since the beginning of the war, Vasilevich’s team has counted at least 30 Orthodox priests who faced pressure by religious or state authorities. But there might be even more cases, she says, as some priests are afraid to talk about repressions, fearing it will bring more.
The Russian Orthodox Church explains the repressions against the priests who spoke against the war are punishment for their so-called engagement in politics.
“The clergy who turn themselves from priests into political agitators and persons participating in the political struggle, they, obviously, cease to fulfill their pastoral duty and are subject to canonical bans,” Vakhtang Kipshidze, the deputy head of the church’s press service, told AP.
At the same time, the priests who publicly support the war in Ukraine do not face any repercussions and moreover are supported by the state, Vasilevich said.
“The Russian regime is interested in making these voices sound louder,” she added.
The priests who refuse to join this chorus or stay quiet can be reassigned, temporarily relieved of their duties, or defrocked — losing their salary, housing, benefits, and most importantly their ministries to their flock.
“I never questioned the choice I made,” Koval said. “I, my whole soul, my whole being opposed this war. It was impossible for me to support the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine with my prayer.”
After a Russian Orthodox Church court decided he should be defrocked, Koval appealed to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who has asserted a right to receive petitions of appeal from other Orthodox churches’ clergy, over Russia’s objections.
In June, the Constantinople patriarchate decided that Koval was punished for his stance on the war in Ukraine and ruled to restore his holy rank. The same day, Bartholomew allowed him to serve in his churches.
The Rev. Ioann Burdin also wanted to leave the Russian Orthodox Church after he spoke out against the war at a small church near Kostroma and the local court fined him for discrediting the Russian army. He asked the patriarch to approve his transfer to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church but instead, Kirill banned him from service until the priest made a public apology.
“My position, which I first stated on the website, then in the…
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