An Orthodox archbishop who exchanged friendly greetings and gifts with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska has apologized to “those who have experienced pain, suffering, or confusion because of my actions.”
However, Alaska Archbishop Alexei did not directly apologize for the meeting itself, which took place in Anchorage following Putin’s Aug. 15 summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, which was focused on the war in Ukraine.
Alexei’s superior in the Orthodox Church in America, Metropolitan Tikhon, distanced his church from the meeting. Tikhon said the archbishop failed to inform him of his plans to meet Putin, despite “canonical tradition” requiring a bishop to do nothing without informing his metropolitan.
Tikhon said the meeting doesn’t represent the OCA’s position, which he said has been to “clearly and repeatedly condemn the aggression against Ukraine.”
Critics said the meeting, with its exchange of smiles and Orthodox icons, conferred legitimacy on Putin. The Russian president faces an arrest warrant issued in 2023 from the International Criminal Court, accusing him of war crimes in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Leaders of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, a separate jurisdiction, called it “a betrayal of the Gospel of Christ and scandalous to the faithful.”
The OCA is descended from the Russian Orthodox Church, whose missionaries brought the faith to Alaska when it was a czarist territory. The OCA became self-governing in 1970 but retains ties to Russia, and Alexei told Putin about his and his priests’ regular visits there. Putin has drawn on the strong support of the Russian Orthodox Church in seeking to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Alexei initially defended his meeting with Putin, emphasizing the religious elements of the exchange and saying it wasn’t political. But as criticism mounted in the days afterward, he posted another statement. It expressed “my sincere apology to those who have experienced pain, suffering, or confusion because of my actions in recent days. I am deeply sorry for the scandal that I have caused.”
The statement doesn’t include any specific regrets about the meeting itself, focusing on its impact.
He said he greeted Putin in “a peaceful spirit of hospitality,” following three days of prayer at parishes across Alaska for the summit between Russia and the U.S. to bring peace.
“Since then, I have heard from many who viewed that moment as a missed opportunity for a rebuke or demand for peace amid ongoing conflict and suffering,” Alexei wrote.
The Rev. Cyril Hovorun, an Orthodox priest, Ukraine native and outspoken critic of the Russian Orthodox Church’s support for the war, said Alexei’s statement “was not exactly an apology, because no regret for the meeting as such was expressed. There was only regret for the outcry it caused.” Hovorun is a professor of ecclesiology, international relations and ecumenism at University College Stockholm.
Tikhon’s and Alexei’s statements were posted on the OCA’s website.
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