The Chairman of the Synodal Information Department of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, Archpriest Sergei Lepin, wrote a letter of resignation of his own free will.
In an interview with journalists, he admitted that he did this at the request of the Belarusian Metropolitan, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Lepine was distinguished by liberal nationalist views. He has repeatedly publicly advocated for conducting services in the Belarusian language.
It is believed that it was Lepin who was behind the strange behavior after the presidential elections of the former Belarusian exarch, Metropolitan Pavel, who on August 10 congratulated Alexander Lukashenko on his re-election, and already on August 15 apologized for this to his flock.
Lepin explained the metropolitan’s behavior at the time: he said that the bishop considered his congratulations premature because he saw the video of the arrests of protesters and was “indignant, horrified and upset.”
But it was precisely these tossing-ups that became the reason that Pavel submitted his resignation, and Metropolitan Benjamin was appointed in his place, demonstratively maintaining neutrality in the current Belarusian confrontation.
Despite this, a month later, Lepin, who retained his place, publicly condemned the abbess of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary stauropegial convent in Grodno, Abbess Gabriela, who supported Lukashenko and the riot police.