Patriarch Kirill sacked Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev, known for his oppositional views, from the priesthood, as evidenced by a decree published on the ROC MP website. In 2020, he was banned from ministry.
In 2021, the Diocesan Court of Moscow confirmed the decision to defrock Kuraev, issued by him in 2020. At the same time, Patriarch Kirill imposed a moratorium on this resolution, which was in effect until he signed the relevant decree.
The decree of April 28, 2023 states that “for more than two years” the former protodeacon did not rethink his position and did not return “to the path of the Church.” “You have not shown signs of repentance, either in words or in deeds, and, among other things, you have not stopped your destructive activities,” writes the Patriarch.
In January 2020, the Diocesan Court of Moscow recognized Andrei Kuraev as subject to defrocking. He was charged with statements "carrying the character of a church offense." Their court qualified them as blasphemy against the Church, the accusation of the Patriarch and the Synod of a schism in Orthodoxy, the “repeated” accusations of sodomy of the priests of the Russian Orthodox Church, “not supported by irrefutable facts” and the “use of swear words” against Archbishop Luke of Zaporozhye. Kuraev repeatedly called him "Luka Mudishchev-Zaporozhsky."
At the beginning of 2021, Andrey Kuraev filed a request for a review of the case, which was rejected for lack of reasons for this.