KARABANOVO, Russia — For years until the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Father Ioann Burdin served as a priest in the Russian village of Karabanovo, 370 km northeast of Moscow. Now he is a convicted heretic, banned from conducting services and hounded from his parish.
Russian Orthodox priest Ioann Burdin, who was banned from conducting services for denouncing the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which he called 'fratricidal' in a sermon to his parishioners and in comments on social media, walks in a field in Kostroma Region, Russia Aug 16, 2024.
As a consequence, he was fined for "discrediting the Russian army", and in June 2023 banned from conducting services by a Russian Orthodox Church court that convicted him of "heretical" pacifism and of undermining trust in Patriarch Kirill, head of the church and a close Kremlin ally. Burdin is among dozens of priests punished for opposing the conflict, according to Christians against War, an online group uniting believers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
Alexander, a church worker who did not give his surname, said some of the congregation had responded by asking Burdin to avoid politics, and focus instead on the spiritual lives of his parishioners. "He is a very good person for me. It never happened that I was hungry or had no clothes here. For me he is a normal and good man," he said.
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