Condemnation by bishops’ councils of the Russian Orthodox Church of priests who deviated into schism

The condemnation of clerics by such high authorities as Bishops’ Councils was carried out twice in the last quarter of a century (in 1997 and in 2008) and was due to the significant role of clergy in the activities of schismatic structures. Currently, there is no coverage of the activities of the trials of such priests, as well as an analysis of these cases from a church-legal point of view, which makes this topic relevant. When considering this issue, the methodology of legal and canonical analysis of documents is used. The novelty of the study lies in the generalization and systematization of church judicial practice in the cases considered, which can be used to improve the church regulatory framework and law enforcement practice. The conclusion is made about the correspondence of the imposed punishments to the committed church offenses, despite the presence of some shortcomings in the application of the canons. At the same time, there are a number of problems in the procedural aspects of cases, the most important of which is that the conviction of clergy was provided for by diocesan bodies, while formal procedures for transferring cases to higher judicial instances were not applied. The use of anathematization in the considered cases is also noted, despite the extreme rarity of such a punishment in our days. The article was written on the basis of a report made by the author at the 6th Barsov Readings (St. Petersburg Theological Academy, December 14, 2022).