Federal judge dismisses defrocked Belya’s defamation case against ROCOR, citing 1st Amendment

New York, April 1, 2025

Though defrocked by ROCOR, Belya still acts as a priest within GOARCH’s Slavic Vicariate. Photo: Slavonic.org     

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian has dismissed a lawsuit brought by defrocked archimandrite Alexander Belya against senior clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

The case, which dates back to 2019, centered on allegations that Church officials defamed Belya by suggesting he had forged documents related to his purported elevation to Bishop of Miami.

“Despite the dismissal of this case, there is some consolation to Belya,” wrote Judge Subramanian in his March 31 opinion-order. “Throughout their papers and at oral argument, defendants have disavowed that they ever said or intended to suggest that Belya forged the December 10 [2018] and January 11 [2019] letters,” which purportedly confirmed Belya’s election as Bishop of Miami and requested approval from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill.

The dispute began when the Moscow Patriarchate announced Belya’s election as Bishop of Miami, which came as “a surprise to ROCOR’s senior clergy” who claimed they “hadn’t elected Belya, a necessary step in the elevation of any American bishop.” Suspecting impropriety, they sent a letter to the ROCOR Synod stating that “Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America & New York knew nothing about the written appeals directed to Moscow containing a request for confirmation of the ‘episcopal election’“ of Belya.

This letter, which later became public when church member Olga Tsibin posted it on Facebook, was followed by religious news coverage accusing Belya of forgery. As Judge Subramanian explains, “News of the ROCOR letter got out and went viral in the religious press. The reports accused Belya of old-fashioned forgery.”

Belya’s lawsuit was eventually narrowed to hinge on a single statement from that letter—that Metropolitan Hilarion was unaware of communications to Moscow regarding Belya’s election. However, the court found Belya failed to prove that the defendants were responsible for the letter becoming public and therefore that they were responsible of any defamation.

“Without ratification of Tsibin’s post, Belya’s case fails against every defendant,” Judge Subramanian writes. “He’s got no other avenue to show they published the allegedly defamatory statement to a third party.”

The court also addressed Facebook posts by some defendants that linked to articles about the controversy, ruling that “reposting an article link doesn’t suffice as republication for a defamation claim.” Judge Subramanian explained that “a hyperlink simply references the publication, making it the twenty-first century equivalent of the footnote.”

The court found that Belya hadn’t shown evidence that these Facebook posts reached any new audience beyond those already exposed to the allegations through Tsibin’s original post, noting that “a reiterated statement generates new reputational harm only if the statement is repeated with an intent and ability to expand its dissemination beyond its previous limits.”

Perhaps most significantly, Judge Subramanian determined that the First Amendment’s church autonomy doctrine barred the lawsuit from proceeding. “Trying this case would be impossible without violating the church’s autonomy,” he wrote. The judge noted that key figure Metropolitan Hilarion died in 2022 before being deposed, and resolving the case would require examining internal Church matters. Notably, Belya vs. ROCOR: Supreme Court refuses to hear Church’s argument, Belya’s suit moves aheadThe Supreme Court rejected on Monday the call from the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia to hear its objections to lower court rulings allowing the case of the defrocked Alexander Belya to be brought against the Church jurisdiction.

“>in June 2023, the Supreme Court declined to hear ROCOR’s objections, based on the church autonomy doctrine, to lower court rulings.

“To get at what Metropolitan Hilarion knew and when, defendants’ testimony would invariably cross over into core church functions: the proper election procedures of ROCOR bishops; what was said among senior church leaders about church disciplinary procedures; and communications among senior clergy about internal church governance,” the judge explained.

The ruling emphasizes that “asking a jury to weigh in on this would be exactly the sort of interference the First Amendment forbids.”

In his conclusion, Judge Subramanian noted that while Belya “isn’t entitled to further relief in the courts of law, defendants’ assurance [that they never accused him of forgery] may provide him solace in the court of public opinion.”

***

In terms of ecclesiastical court rulings, after the affair with his supposed episcopal election, and given a number of accusations against him, Belya was Little Philaret: ROCOR archimandrite leaves for Constantinople after being passed over for bishopThe open letter notes that Belya was suspended from his priestly duties but refused to submit to his ruling hierarch and that he and his younger brother Ivan Belya, who is forbidden to commune, have ignored summons to be questioned by a diocesan investigative committee.

“>suspended from priestly functions by ROCOR on September 1/14, 2019, pending an investigation.

However, he instead fled to the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America without a canonical release from ROCOR. He was subsequently defrocked by ROCOR in ROCOR Holy Synod laicizes archimandrite who joined Constantinople after not being chosen as bishopMeeting at the Synodal Headquarters in New York on February 5/18, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia came to a decision in the case of Alexander (Belya), the archimandrite who left the jurisdiction without a canonical release after failing to get himself elected as a bishop.

“>February 2020, and thus is canonically only a lay monk.

Greek Archdiocese creates Slavic vicariate with multiple defrocked and suspended clericsAll of the Vicariate clergy are either canonically defrocked or suspended or associated with the defrocked or suspended clergy.

“>GOARCH later created a “Slavic Vicariate” and placed Belya at its head. The Vicariate is largely made up of defrocked and suspended clerics.

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America was forced to GOARCH postpones plans to make defrocked Belya a bishopIn response to the repeated protest of leading hierarchs of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese announced the postponement of its plan to consecrate a defrocked former priest to the episcopate.

“>postpone its plans to consecrate Belya to the episcopate in the summer of 2022 after the hierarchs of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of America threatened to quit the Assembly if he became a bishop. The hierarchs affirmed that they recognize his suspension and subsequent defrocking by ROCOR, and also pointed to issues with the former cleric’s moral fiber.

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