The Patriarchate of Constantinople reinstated Priest John Koval, who was removed from service in February, as a cleric of the Church of St. Andrew the First-Called in Moscow's Lublin. As reported on the website of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the appeal against the decision of the ROC, filed by the priest, was considered at a meeting of the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Constantinople Orthodox Church.
The synod found that the reasons why the ROC punished Koval were not ecclesiastical and the ban on service was imposed because of the cleric's words against the war in Ukraine. In addition, at the request of Koval himself, the Patriarchate of Constantinople accepted him under its jurisdiction.
In February, it became known that Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia had personally forbidden Priest John Koval to conduct services. The reason was that the cleric replaced the word "victory" with the word "peace" in the prayer. In the Prayer for Holy Rus', instead of the words “rise, O God, to help Thy people and give us victory by Thy power,” Koval said “Rise, O God, to help Thy people and give us peace by Thy power.”
