Patriarch Kirill defrocked Protodeacon Andrey Kuraev, the corresponding decree is published on the website of the Moscow Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.
As the decree says, for more than two years that Kuraev was defrocked, he “did not show signs of repentance either in words or in deeds, and, among other things, did not stop their destructive activities «.
Kuraev himself commented on this decision in his telegram channel as follows: “The right to co-serve with the current Patriarch Kirill, that is, with the way he made himself, is a dubious honor. I did not consider it and do not consider it necessary to achieve it.
In April 2020, Patriarch Kirill banned Andrey Kuraev from serving. The reason was the criticism of the rector of the Moscow Epiphany Cathedral in Yelokhovo Alexander Ageikin. He became the first priest to die from the coronavirus. After Ageikin’s death, Kuraev wrote on LiveJournal that the deceased would remain in his memory “as a stupid careerist who made a career in the VIP service industry.”
In April 2021, the patriarch supported the decision to deprive Kuraev of his rank, however, he postponed the publication of the decree indefinitely so that the protodeacon could return «to the path of the church».
After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kuraev was denounced by a man named Sergei Chichin. In his opinion, the protodeacon “regularly conducts anti-Russian propaganda,” and he also reposts Meduza. As a result, Kuraev was fined under the article on “discrediting” the army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).