Russian Orthodox Church defrocks rebel monk and raises questions about child abuse at monastery

A religious court in Russia has defrocked a controversial monk who has sabotaged coronavirus lockdown restrictions, with the chairman of the court also saying it had reports of child abuse at his monastery.

Father Sergei Romanov, abbot of the Sredneuralsk monastery outside the city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals mountains, has for years been running what many scholars described a religious cult worshiping the family of Russia’s last czar Nicholas II who were killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

As the coronavirus epidemic struck Russia, Father Sergei, previously known for hate speech, publicly cursed those closing down the churches in line with lockdown orders and urged believers to disobey the restrictions.

A court hearing of the Yekaterinburg Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church on Friday found Father Sergei guilty of breaking monastic vows and defrocked him.

Nikolai Maleta, chairman of the court, said at the hearing that the court received testimony about suspected child abuse at the monastery and will leave it up to law enforcement to study those reports.

The BBC Russian Service on Friday published an investigation, detailing how several children who have lived at the monastery faced beatings, intimidation and psychological abuse at the hands of the staff.

Church officials say they have contacted the victims and are studying their claims.

About a hundred people, mostly elderly women, gathered outside the court building in Yekaterinburg on Friday to rally in Father Sergei’s support, according to the 66.ru news website.

“We’re not going to leave the monastery, and none of you is welcome there,” one of the supporters told reporters in a video released by 66.ru.

The Russian Orthdoox Church pledged to send a new abbot to the Sredneuralsk monastery soon but they were not immediately able to say how they were going to remove the rebel monk.

The Russian Church is highly fragmented, and analysts say that senior clerics have largely lost control of fundamentalist priests who often peddle conspiracy theories.