Former rector of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Krasnodar
By a decree of the ruling bishop dated February 28, 2024, followed by a decision of the court of the Ekaterinodar and Kuban Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) dated June 4, 2024, he was suspended from serving. The official reason provided was the unauthorized leaving of the diocese's boundaries. Unofficially, the suspension was due to his anti-war stance, his refusal to recite Patriarch Kirill's "prayer," his support for anti-war clergy, and his outrage over the initiation of repressions against dissidents, including the detention and death (murder) of Alexei Navalny. Currently, he has left Russia and has appealed to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to lift the canonical sanctions and receive him into the clergy.