Father Ioann Burdin, the priest of a small village in central Russia, began his first sermon since the outbreak of war with a promise to pray for the people of Ukraine, and for an end to their suffering.
One parishioner spoke up, objecting angrily to the priest’s words, delivered on a Sunday in March. Another, he noticed, did not repeat prayers after him during the mass. Then someone denounced him to the police. In early April, Fr Burdin read his final mass.
The clergyman’s stance, condemning the bloodshed in Ukraine, was at odds with the Russian Orthodox Church, which has thrown its ideological weight behind the Kremlin’s war. In doing so, the Moscow-led church has not only risked alienating independently-minded clergy at home, but also many Ukrainians.