Russian cleric SEIZES CONTROL of convent after being censured for calling Covid-19 an excuse to ‘chip population’
A Russian priest who believes Covid-19 is an invention by evil forces hellbent on “chipping the population” has apparently used Cossack fighters to seal off a women’s convent after church authorities prohibited him from preaching.
According to local media sources, Shiigumen Sergius ousted the abbess of the convent, Varvara, along with several nuns, and took control of the building after his ban. Prior to the takeover, he was an informal leader of the community but was subservient to the regional diocese.
Since the incident, the cleric has not allowed local religious leaders to visit, and journalists from the area have claimed that the site is being guarded by Cossacks loyal to Sergius.
Sergius was forbidden from conducting religious duties at Ekaterinburg’s Central Urals Monastery after criticizing the reaction of Russian authorities and Patriarch Kirill to the Covid-19 “pseudo-pandemic.” Due to the precarious epidemiological situation, churches in Russia have been ordered to close for the safety of parishioners.
Sergius claimed on many occasions that the pandemic was an excuse to microchip the public, and complained that the closure of churches during the crisis was done under pressure from “the atheistic authorities.”
“Mother Varvara, being a novice, built this convent from its first days. The other day, the legal abbess was actually removed from the convent’s management by Father Sergius, who is the confessor of the convent,” the Ekaterinburg diocese said.
Varvara, the mother superior, had led the community since it was founded in 2005. ‘Interfax’ reported that she left the compound voluntarily “to avoid unnecessary infighting, to which Father Sergius is prone, and give him the opportunity to come to his senses.”
Also on rt.com Russian Orthodox Church allows believers to offer confession by phone or Skype during Covid-19 shutdownSergius was due to face a Church trial on June 15, but the date was postponed until June 26. He is charged with disobeying Patriarch Kirill.
The priest, a former police officer who previously spent 13 years in prison for murder, is well known among Russia’s Christian community. Notably, he is the former confessor of Russian MP and former Crimean prosecutor Natalia Poklonskaya.
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