Bishop Diomid of Anadyr and Chukotka (1961- ), renegade bishop deposed and interdicted by the MP Archpastoral Council and Holy Synod
On Monday, the Moscow Patriarchate denied reports that a bishop who was deposed for attempting to provoke a schism filed a complaint with the MP ecclesiastical tribunal. Bishop Diomid, the head of the diocese covering the sparsely-populated Chukotka Peninsula in Russia’s extreme northeast, who was put under an interdict on Friday, as well as being deposed, was reported to have lodged an appeal. He refused to express repentance, which was one of the conditions laid down by the Holy Synod to suspend his deposition, and he served a liturgy publicly on Sunday.
“We have received no documents relating to his appeal and have only heard about this from media reports”, said Fr Vladimir Vigilyansky, head of the MP press service. He said the ecclesiastical tribunal would not have accepted the complaint, as Bishop Diomid had been deposed by the Archpastoral Council, the Church’s top judicial authority. Fr Vladimir said the bishop could lay out his case again at a Holy Synod session. Earlier reports said the Church’s ruling body would gather in mid-July.
Diomid had criticised the Church for backing the current government’s “anti-national” policies and contacts with other faiths. In a letter published in a leading newspaper, he also called the Group of Eight, a forum for leading industrialised nations, a body of global Masonry, designed to pave the way for the arrival of a single global leader, or antichrist. The bishop also called for an end to taxpayer identification numbers, modern passports, and cell phones. Speaking on Sunday at liturgy in Anadyr, the capital of Chukotka, Bishop Diomid said he would not repent, as he did not concede he did anything wrong.
In a resolution, the MP Archpastoral Council denied the bishop’s accusations, saying the Church has always expressed its concern over negative social trends, and that Bishop Diomid’s calls for rejecting contacts with other religious groups are a display of sectarian ideology aiming to cause a schism. Fr Vladimir expressed doubt that the renegade cleric was seeking “Orthodox purity”, saying many of his steps were in violation of the Church’s canons and rules. The cleric moved to allay fears of a Church schism, saying that Diomid only has “a small and marginal group” of supporters. He said the Church has already experienced several schisms since the collapse of the Soviet Union in early the 1990s.
Priest Gleb Yakunin, also a lawmaker and prominent human rights activist, was deposed after refusing to obey the Church’s ban on clergymen running for parliament. In an open letter to the patriarch he also raised other sensitive issues such as the Church’s deep involvement in politics despite official teachings, the spiritual health of the hierarchy, a need for a church administration reform, and the need for a public repentance by the hierarchy for their complicity with the Soviet regime. Rev Yakunin established the schismatical Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church.
30 June 2008
RIA-Novosti
Voices from Russia 
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