Naughty Archbishop's Defrocking Not Ruled Out: Church

Winnipeg Sun
April 3, 2014

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2014/04/03/naughty-archbishops-defrocking-not-ruled-out-church

Orthodox archbishop Seraphim Storheim.

The final decision has yet to be made in the defrocking of Archbishop Seraphim Storheim, says the Orthodox church.

According to a statement from the Orthodox Church of America, the convicted sex offender's fate will be decided after the final report from the Synodal Commission, at which time a spiritual court will be convened.

The decision to retire Storheim does not rule out eventually defrocking him.

"The Statement in no way indicates or implies that the Holy Synod refuses to depose Archbishop Seraphim. To the contrary, as noted above, it clearly states that a Spiritual Court will indeed be convened, as required by canon law as well as the Statute of the Orthodox Church in America," it reads.

The decision to retire the archbishop was announced publicly by the OCA at its spring session in order to make way for a new ruling bishop, a position left vacant after Storheim was suspended in 2010 when the allegations of sexual abuse first surfaced.

The archbishop still awaits sentencing after being found guilty in January of sexually assaulting a pre-teen boy in the mid-1980s while he was the rector at Holy Trinity Sobor in Winnipeg.