No matter what your intentions may be, you are causing a schism.

A schism was perpetrated a while back, in 2014 by Met. Agafangel. Due to the unfair punishments at that time, two bishops, Dionisiy and Iriney, and several priests with their flocks stopped commemorating the Metropolitan. It must be noted that they announced that they are not splitting off from the Church, but are compelled to adopt self-administration.

The same situation has now repeated itself; with B. Andronik and B. Sophroniy being punished. In this way the Metropolitan is cutting off one part of the Church after another. Why is this happening? Met. Agafangel is imposing his will on the Church, which inevitably results in the church members resisting. This resistance does not arise from some lust for power or disobedience. Piety is preserved in the Church by its members, and any attempts at violating the spiritual freedom of the Church will be rejected. This is a healthy reaction of the church body.

Truly, it is incorrect to call what is happening to us a schism. Usually when a schism occurs, the church administration tries to do everything possible to stop those stepping back from leaving. With Met. Agafangel is doing just the opposite, he is pushing out the dissenters to be rid of them. To what end is Met. Agafangel meting out punishments of bishops, priests and laypeople? To cast them out of the Church. For example, when he censured all three priests in Izhevsk, what did he want, but for them to leave.

The Metropolitan always follows the same, simple scenario: he levels unfair punishments on the dissenting priests, which they cannot obey (for example, how could the Izhevsk priests leave their flock without church services?). Then when the punished do not submit, he announces that they have gone into schism. What hypocrisy! Just as Met. Agafangel has made the Synod his obedient device, is exactly how he wants to co-opt the whole Church for himself; by ridding himself of those who do not obey him and promote his followers.

Therefore, this is not a schism, but an endless “cleansing ” of the Church from “undesirable elements” perpetrated by the Metropolitan to transform it into a subservient flock.