As reported, the Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople reinstated priest John Koval, who had been banned for “self-righteousness” because he read “grant us peace” instead of “grant us victory”.

Vakhtang Kipshidze, deputy head of the church’s department for relations with society and the media, called the decision “a propaganda action that has nothing to do with the canons” in a comment for Kommersant.

“It is a well-known fact that the head of the Fanar head publicly supports the Turkish military operation in Syria, so the pacifist pathos of Patriarch Bartholomew is oriented only on uneducated and ignorant of international politics,” Kipshidze said.

He called “the former priests of the Moscow Patriarchate, who received an “amnesty” from the Fanar, as expendable material in Bartholomew’s political games”.

Archpriest Vladislav Tsypin, deputy chairman of the Moscow diocesan court, who decided to strip Father John of his ministry, also accused him of sectarian thinking because of his commitment to pacifism, calling this phenomenon “a common element of heretical doctrines.”