The Spas na Krovi (Church of the Saviour on the Spilled Blood) in Yekaterinburg
The Russian Orthodox Church removed a bishop who was accused of sodomy and extortion, officials said Thursday. The Holy Synod, the church’s supreme body, ruled earlier this week that Bishop Nikon of Yekaterinburg retire to a monastery far away from his diocese in central Russia. He is one of the highest-ranking church officials to be removed in recent years.
The Synod said in a statement that the decision was prompted by Nikon’s “mistakes”, which “led to a division between clergy and lay people and caused confusion among believers and the public”. It said Nikon himself asked to be relieved of his duties “for the sake of church peace”. The Synod did not mention allegations made by other priests that Nikon engaged in sodomy and extortion. The church has also set up a special commission to investigate the charges against Nikon, and may consider punishing him further. “If found guilty of sodomy, he must be defrocked”, Fr Hilarion Alfeyev, a priest with the Moscow Patriarchate, told The Associated Press.
Nikon was appointed to preside over the Diocese of Yekaterinburg, one of the church’s largest, in 1993 when he was just 33, an unusually high position for such a young man. He gained notoriety last year when he confiscated writings by Orthodox theologians he did not agree with, and then publicly burned the texts. The Synod then sent an inspection team to check reports of Nikon’s alleged misbehaviour, including allegations that he demanded money to resolve disputes and tried to seduce young men in his seminary. The team said it did not find sufficient evidence, and the Synod in April ruled to keep Nikon on the job while removing some of his most vocal foes. But, the protests continued, and Nikon’s critics leaked some of their allegations to the media, prompting the Synod this week to change its stance and send him to a remote monastery.
22 July 1999
Associated Press
As quoted in PDS Russia Religion News
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/9907e.html
