The Church Court of the Russian Orthodox Church declared pacifism alien to the church heresy. This is stated in the case file of the church court on the defrocking of the priest John Burdin, who spoke out against the war - in his sermon he said that "we Christians do not dare to stand aside when a brother kills a brother, a Christian kills a Christian."

the decision to deal with the priest was made personally by Patriarch Kirill

"Pacifism is not compatible with the actual teaching of the Orthodox Church"

The publication studied the materials of the case. In them, the ROC calls pacifism a heresy that is alien to it.

“...the pacifism with which Priest Burdin tries to hide behind accusations against him is not compatible with the actual teaching of the Orthodox Church, in particular, set forth in the Fundamentals of the Social Concept. Pacifism in different eras of church history was present in heretical doctrines ...”

the clergy also accuse Burdin of "pseudo-pacifism." In particular, it says that Burdin criticized the Russian authorities, not the Ukrainian ones,

“So his pacifism is imaginary, one-sidedly oriented, his anti-Russian political position is clearly visible behind him, which is perceived in our country as unacceptable, and, what is important to emphasize, is radically at odds with the position of the Russian Orthodox Church, which he undoubtedly knows.”

In addition, the church court writes that Burdin violated many canonical rules. All of them deal with the topic of submission to superiors.

“84 canon of the Holy Apostles: “If anyone annoys the king or prince, not in righteousness, let him be punished. And if such is from the clergy: let him be deposed from the sacred rank; if a layman: let him be excommunicated from the fellowship of the Church.