Changes at Top of Orthodox Church in Yekaterinburg and Kazan Presage Big Problems, Shaburov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 8 – The transfer of Metropolitan Kirill from Yekaterinburg to Kazan following the coronavirus death of the latter city’s Orthodox leader, Metropolitan Feofan, and  Kirill’s replacement by Bishop Yevgeny,  a radical conservative in church ranks, presage serious conflicts in both places, Aleksey Shaburov says.

            Kirill, who had been head of the Yekaterinburg church for almost a decade, has faced increasing problems not only with the political leadership and population over pandemic restrictions he opposes and the location of a new cathedral which the population does, the editor of the Politsovet agency says (politsovet.ru/68782-evgeniy-vmesto-kirilla-pochemu-v-ekaterinburg-smenilsya-mitropolit-i-chto-zhdat-ot-novogo-arhiereya.html).

            But worst of all, Shaburov continues, the metropolitan has not been able to solve the problem of dissident churchman Tsigumen Sergey, who even though he has been deprived of his status as a priest and expelled from the church, remains in control of the monastery from which he has been promoting his radical views.

            Moscow Patriarch Kirill isn’t happy about any of this, and so Kirill’s exit from Yekaterinburg was, in the view of most observers, only “a question of time.” It was likely accelerated by the death of Kazan church leader Feofan and the need to install someone who knows the Urals quickly.

            On the one hand, being shifted from Yekaterinburg to Kazan is not a demotion for Metropolitan Kirill. But there are problems aplenty in his new see, including a gay rights scandal and relations with Muslim groups and the Tatarstan government. The new man in Kazan is thus likely to face many of the problems his lack of political skills have provoked in Yekaterinburg.

            The bigger story is likely to be in Yekaterinburg because Kirill’s replacement, Yevgeny (Kudberg), is already infamous for his radical conservative views – he initially attracted attention for his role in the Moscow “Careful, Religion” exhibition in 2003 – and for his proclivity to use forceful methods to resolve disagreements.

            The new metropolitan almost certainly has been told to wind up “the Sergey problem,” and he will likely to so with means “harsher than Kirill ever used.” And then he will push for the new cathedral in the center of town, likely provoking a new wave of popular resistance that civic Moscow won’t like even if religious Moscow thinks is the only way forward.

            For Yekaterinburg, Shaburov says, “this is not the very beset news,” given that Yevgeny’s three predecessors all left because of “scandals and conflicts” and because Yevgeny’s hardline views mean that he is even less likely than they were to try to find any common ground with those who oppose him.