ALMATY: A popular Kazakh cleric opposed to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine said Thursday he was attempting to start a new church independent of Moscow, after the Russian Orthodox Church defrocked him over his criticism of the Kremlin.
The row has become another headache for Russia, which has already seen other former Soviet states cut ties with the Russian Orthodox church.
Vladimir Vorontsov, a former priest at the Moscow-governed Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan, was dismissed last year after describing the war in Ukraine as a fratricidal “sin” on social media. He also called for Kazakhstan to “fence itself off” from Russia.
Vorontsov said Thursday he was collecting signatures to start a new church outside of Moscow’s orbit which he would send to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the highest governing authority for the Orthodox Church outside of Moscow.
“I plan to send this letter next week,” he told AFP.
Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic of around 20 million, is a majority Muslim country but home to a sizeable Orthodox Christian minority — around three million people, most of them ethnic Russians.
The Orthodox Church in Kazakhstan, the country’s largest Christian church, is subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church and its pro-Kremlin leader Patriarch Kirill.
The Kazakhstan branch of the Russian Orthodox Church said earlier this week that Vorontsov had been dismissed for “serious canonical crimes.”
It accused him of attempting to create an illegal, “schismatic” church to rival the Moscow-governed one.
“Any of his speeches on behalf of the Orthodox Church are illegal. He misleads people, cunningly posing as an Orthodox priest,” it said.
The Russian Orthodox Church has itself been in schism with the Patriarchate of Constantinople since 2018 over the latter’s decision to grant autonomy to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Since Russia launched its Ukraine invasion, several former Soviet countries — including Lithuania and Estonia — have cut ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate.
The Russian Orthodox Church last month reminded its subordinate members in Kazakhstan and Belarus to include “Russian Orthodox Church” or “Moscow Patriarchate” in their official titles.
