By Sultan Musayev | 2025-09-03

A Kazakh cleric traded his cassock for a cause, losing his place in the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) for defying the Kremlin.

Vladimir Vorontsov, once known by his clerical name Hieromonk Jacob of the Astana and Almaty Diocese, was defrocked after condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and urging Kazakhstan to cut ties with Moscow-backed alliances.

Vorontsov broke ranks with the ROC soon after the full-scale invasion. In March 2022, he joined roughly 300 clergy in signing an open appeal calling for reconciliation and an immediate cease-fire. Many of the signatories, according to media reports, were later suspended from the priesthood or prosecuted under Russia's wartime censorship laws.

But Vorontsov went further. He pressed Kazakh authorities to withdraw from regional blocs such as the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Eurasian Economic Union to "shut [Kazakhstan] off from the aggressor." He also wore a Ukrainian flag pin in public to signal his solidarity with war victims.

The costs came quickly. By 2023, Vorontsov said harassment from clergy within the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District, a body subordinate to Moscow, forced him to step down. He was accused of "politicking" and "inciting interreligious and interethnic hatred." In July 2024, the ROC formally defrocked him.

In an open letter dated February 2024, Vorontsov denounced what he called a "bloody, fratricidal war" that had "set Orthodox Christian neighbors against one another, divided families and disrupted the peaceful lives of tens of millions of people in both countries."

He warned that "many have lost relatives and friends, have become refugees by leaving for other countries, or have become forced migrants in their own country, have been injured and traumatized -- not only physically and psychologically, but also spiritually."

A secular agenda

The ROC has backed the war in Ukraine from its early days, calling it a "sacred" struggle against outside forces trying to weaken Russia. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, born Vladimir Gundyaev, said those who die in the war will be forgiven all their sins.

The church's stance reflects its long subordination to the state. Last April, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe labeled it "an instrument of Russian influence and propaganda by the Kremlin regime."

Vorontsov argued that Moscow's church has abandoned Christian teaching for politics.

"Christianity must remain above national boundaries, while the Russian Orthodox Church is a politicized organization that promotes the ideology of the 'Russian World' and imperial narratives," he told Kontur.

Nationalist rhetoric from Russian Orthodox clergy has fueled such criticism. In a June 2024 interview with Spas TV channel, priest Maksim Serpitsky said Central Asian migrant workers in Russia were "sucking out the lifeblood” of the country and compared them to parasites. Russians, he said, should have the jobs held by foreigners.

Building an alternative

Vorontsov often voiced sharp criticism of Russian aggression and the church's role in backing it on Facebook. One post in late 2023 led parishioners in Kazakhstan to file a complaint with police. Authorities opened a case against him for allegedly inciting religious hatred and insulting believers but closed it last spring for lack of evidence.

Now he is trying to build an alternative church independent of Moscow. After a campaign to collect signatures, Vorontsov submitted an application on August 11 to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul to open a representative office of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Kazakhstan.

He stressed the group would not replace the local branch of the ROC but provide a new option.

"This will be a church for people who are anti-war, who hold different morals and Orthodox beliefs," Vorontsov said.

International non-governmental organizations are backing Vorontsov's effort. Peace Unto All, which aids clergy punished for opposing the war, and ValEUs, an environmental project that supports civic initiatives, have both offered assistance. Kazakhstan's Committee on Religious Affairs has said it does not plan to interfere.

Vorontsov has built a following in Kazakhstan, drawing support not only from Orthodox Christians but also from Muslims and members of other faiths.

"We want to be able to go to a church that doesn't support war and mass murder," Almaty resident Elena Vostrikova told Kontur.

Sergei Duvanov, head of the Information and Monitoring Center of the Kazakhstan Bureau for Human Rights, told Kontur that the Kremlin has for decades used the ROC as a tool to manipulate public opinion and advance its agenda, and does not want its authority to diminish anywhere.

Kremlin-linked media and bloggers are attacking Vorontsov, accusing him of trying to split the Orthodox Church in Kazakhstan and fuel nationalist provocations. But he shows no sign of backing down.

"They forced me to leave the church. They defrocked me, but no one will bar me from serving God," he said.