He will not go. Alexei Uminsky, one of the few Orthodox priests who have publicly spoken out in Moscow against the Kremlin's “special military operation” in Ukraine, will not attend the diocesan court summons in the Russian capital on Friday, January 12. In this very opaque ecclesiastical justice system, five archpriests have been waiting for two days to judge him. And confirm the decision made on January 5 by the Patriarchate, loyal supporter of Vladimir Putin's regime, to dismiss him from his post as rector of the Holy Trinity of Khokhly.
Alexeï Uminski served for thirty years in this small church in the historic heart of Moscow. In recent weeks he had refused to read a prayer “for the victory of Holy Russia.” A challenge for Patriarch Kirill, the sixth figure in the state protocol, who regularly calls on believers to rally around President Vladimir Putin and his “special operation” to fight “external and internal enemies”.
On the contrary, cautiously but firmly, Alexei Uminsky expressed his opposition to the Russian offensive outside his community. Indirect but sharp criticism of the authorities' discourse to justify a military attack officially aimed at fighting “the fascists in Kiev” and defending “values” in the face of a West portrayed as decadent. “War does not make anyone better,” emphasized Alexeï Uminski in a November 2023 interview with Alexeï Venediktov, editor-in-chief of the now closed radio “Echo Moscow”, who himself was classified as a “foreign agent”.
Read also the interview: Article reserved for our subscribers Alexei Venediktov: “Hate has invaded every Russian family”
“As a result of this war, no people will become better, nobler, more intelligent, more generous. None of this is happening,” the cleric said. “In some churches, priests prefer to pray for peace rather than victory in the liturgy rather than talk about the struggle. They understand that every victory is a Pyrrhic victory, tantamount to self-destruction. Such priests should be encouraged by the Orthodox. »
Brave speech
Two months later, summoned by his fathers at the Moscow Diocesan Court for the first time on Thursday 11 January and for the second time on Friday 12, Alexeï Ouminski could be summoned a third time from this Saturday. The archpriest was accused of “failing to comply with the order of the hierarchy of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill to read a prayer for Holy Russia during the Divine Liturgy,” and has already been de facto removed from his post and banned from ministry.
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