Defrocked Urals clergyman Sergiy refuses to leave convent, calls flock to defend him
YEKATERINBURG. July 3 (Interfax) - Father Sergiy (Romanov), who has been defrocked by the Yekaterinburg diocese, said he has no intention of leaving the territory of the Sredneurtalsky Convent where he is now.
"I am asking all Orthodox Christians to stand in the convent's defense. I will not leave the convent," Father Sergiy said in a video published on the YouTube channel of his associate Vsevolod Moguchev.
According to earlier reports, Maxim Minyaylo, the head of the information department of the Yekaterinburg diocese, earlier told reporters the Sredneuralsky Convent where Hegumen Sergiy is living "will come back under the management of the Yekaterinburg diocese."
"The only canonical center of the Sredneuralsky Convent, the lawful administration of this monastic community is now Hegumeness Varvara Krygina, who has left the territory of the convent today, along with other nuns, and also priests, [they are] staying near the Ganina Yama monastery in a pilgrimage center," Minyaylo said. By being on the territory of the convent Father Sergiy violates an order issued by the ruling archbishop, which was one of the reasons for his trial and defrocking, he said.
As reported, a public sermon in which priest Sergiy (Romanov) dismisses the Covid-19 pandemic as a myth and calls for disobedience to the senior clergy and authorities earlier drew outcry on social networks and in the media. Father Sergiy also cursed those who have temporarily closed churches during the pandemic and warned of the creation of "Satan's electronic camp." Another video message from Father Sergiy was published later, in which he calls for reopening churches and warns of the danger of chipization, which would allegedly prove to be fatal for the majority.
In response, the Yekaterinburg diocese barred the priest from conducting religious services and deprived him of the right to wear a pectoral cross.
The counter-extremism center of the Russian Interior Ministry's branch for the Sverdlovsk region accused the priest of an administrative offence in the form of "distributing knowingly false socially important information in the media and on information and telecommunications networks under the guise of authentic information." The priest may face a fine of 30,000 rubles to 100,000 rubles if found guilty. A court in Verkhnyaya Pyshma will hear this case on July 7.