Just as the Russian government does to opponents of the war, the Russian Orthodox Church attacks the last voices of dissent. On the eve of Christmas, Father Alexis Uminsky, who did not hide his hostility to the military operation of the Russian army in Ukraine, was immediately dismissed from his post as rector of the Church of the “Holy Life-Giving Trinity” in the center of Moscow. An ecclesiastical court decided on Saturday, January 13th to remove him from office.
Father Alexis Ouminsky, a well-known and respected figure in the Orthodox world, pays for his freedom of tone. “You cannot feel joy, happiness, or applaud a story about military operations. “This is causing so many people grief,” he said in November 2023 in an interview with Alexei Venediktov, the former editorial director of the independent radio station Echo Moscow, which was closed by the authorities. This interview may have been the “final straw,” according to some observers.
Since the offensive began on February 24, 2022, only a few priests of the Russian Orthodox Church have spoken out openly against the war.
Formally, the Patriarchate accuses Father Alexis Ouminsky of not reciting the prayer “for Holy Russia,” a text with warlike overtones that asks God to grant victory to Russia, during the liturgy celebrated in his church. Reading this prayer became a “test of loyalty” to church authorities, notes Ksenia Luchenko, journalist and expert on religious issues who knows the fallen priest well.
“For the majority of priests who take a different position than Patriarch Kirill on war, geopolitics and other issues, this prayer raises big questions. “If a person sincerely prays to God in a church service, he must not utter false, meaningless words,” emphasizes the visiting scholar as part of the “Wider Europe” program of the European Council on International Relations (ECFR) in Berlin. However, for Father Alexis Ouminsky, “it is very important to act in such a way that you are not ashamed before God and not before people.” He is a very free man inside and has always lived as a free man. “He is also a very kind man who always finds a word of support or comfort,” she notes.
Prayer to Holy Russia
This is not the first time that the Moscow Patriarchate has attacked priests who do not observe this prayer. In May 2023, the Moscow Church Court fired 45-year-old Father Ioann Koval and stripped him of his priestly rank for replacing the word “victory” with “peace.” He has now found refuge in Turkey, where the Patriarchate of Constantinople has restored his status as a priest, believing his actions were motivated by a deep conviction for peace.
Alexis Ouminsky, 63, comes from a family of disbelieving Soviet intelligentsia, has square-cut white hair and a well-groomed beard. He was a hippie in Moscow in the 1980s, was baptized as a Romance studies student and taught French. Ordained a priest in the early 1990s, he remained closely connected to the country's social and artistic life. The Church of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity in the heart of Moscow, of which he was rector for three decades, received many figures from the world of culture, journalists, lawyers and politicians who became his friends. In September 2022 he celebrated Mikhail Gorbachev's funeral.
No politics
In addition to his pastoral work, Father Alexis Ouminsky is a media figure. For many years he has hosted television shows, published numerous books and is heavily involved in charity work, taking care of incurable children, homeless people, prisoners, anonymous people or personalities such as the former head of the Yukos oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was imprisoned, or the Opponent Vladimir Kara-Mourza, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence. He appeared as a witness in the trial that led to the dissolution of Memorial, the most prominent Russian human rights association.
However, Ksenia Luchenko believes, “he never engaged in political activity.” He was asked to visit prisoners and he went, regardless of the profile of the person, whether a political prisoner or a real criminal. He simply lived according to the Gospel.” “His life and service to the Church follow the commandments of Christ,” adds Zoya Svetova, a journalist known for her human rights advocacy who has interviewed him several times. “He never refused to answer questions about issues that concerned him. He did it with the aim of helping people find their way in our world of tragedy and drama,” she explains.
Alexis Ouminsky also called on the authorities in a video in 2021 to “show Christian mercy and authorize a doctor” to examine Russia's most famous opponent and prisoner, Alexei Navalny. This statement earned him the nickname “criminal in a cassock” on the TV channel of the Russian Orthodox Church SPAS, which is the subject of sanctions by the European Union.
“The Russian Orthodox Church has established an unwritten rule according to which all priests must obey the word of the Patriarch,” points out Zoya Svetova. “It seems to me that the Patriarch imagines that all priests and clergy are his soldiers and that they must obey him as general. All the priests who are being pressured, who are being banned from ministry, dismissed from their parishes or even removed from office, are those who do not accept being soldiers of Patriarch Cyril.”
Father Alexis Ouminsky was replaced in his church by a priest more in line with the Moscow Patriarchate. Andrey Tkachev, a native of Lviv in western Ukraine, a defector from the Ukrainian church who fled to Russia in 2014 after the pro-European Maidan revolution, says: “Russian soldiers are in Ukraine to fight Satan.” In shock, one sent Group of believers sent an open letter to Patriarch Cyril, urging him to reconsider his decision. “Since 1990, Father Alexis Ouminsky has been a priest who has led many people to faith. He has created a large, vibrant and active community (…) that carries out important social work in particular, helping the seriously ill in adult and children's hospices, the homeless and prisoners,” said the statement, which collected almost 12,000 people's signatures on Saturday.
Also listen: War in Ukraine: The Orthodox Church is divided