Kazakh Orthodox Christians seek separation from Moscow Patriarchate

A group of orthodox Christians in Kazakhstan are seeking to set up their own church independent from the Moscow Patriarchate, the group’s leader Father Iakov Vorontsov said.

“I and other Orthodox Christians, who have lost confidence in the ROC [Russian Orthodox Church] are looking for a legal, from the state’s point of view, and canonical, from the Church’s point of view, way to serve God, outside the Moscow Patriarchate,” Father Iakov said.

He said that the Committee for Religious Affairs has positively responded to his request, which he sent to President Tokayev, to allow the creation in Kazakhstan of an Orthodox church that would directly report to the Constantinople Patriarchate.

The ROC claims jurisdiction over all Eastern Orthodox Christians in the post-Soviet countries, except Georgia. 

The ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople (Istanbul) and New Rome is regarded as the spiritual leader and representative of all Eastern Orthodox Christians around the world.

Father Iakov has been an outspoken critic of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Russian Orthodox Church’s support of the Kremlin’s policies.

He called for a ban in Kazakhstan on any public or religious organisations controlled by the Kremlin.

Kazakhstan’s Orthodox Church has suspended him from service over his statements.

The Committee for Religious Affairs said in response to Father Iakov’s request that “citizens of Kazakhstan have the right to set up religious organisations for meeting their spiritual needs”, according to a scanned copy posted by the priest.  

At the same time, Father Iakov said some of the Christians who had expressed support for his idea had been receiving phone calls or invited for “a talk” by officials and asked questions about his “intentions and plans”.

Father Iakov said that he had no intention of doing “anything against the law”.

“I do not intend to get involved in any confrontation with the ROC. If they [Russian Christians] want to practice faith the way it is taught by Patriarch Kirill, it is their right to do so.

“Many are embarrassed [about his leadership]. Many see him as a heretic,” Father Iakov said.

In November, Father Iakov was questioned by Kazakh police over a Facebook post in which he said that the Russian Church was “the most repulsive of all the religions on the earth” that “has long since ceased to have anything in common with Christianity”.

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