Russian Orthodox Church gives sex offender a boost toward the priesthood

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A registered sex offender who served more than a year in prison for sexually abusing minors is wearing robes that signal he has taken a first step toward priesthood in the Russian Orthodox Church.

Terenty Dushkin, 26, was installed as a lay reader of the liturgy last month by Bishop Nikolai, the church’s highest-ranking official in Alaska. Church officials say they did so knowingly.

“This is not a scandal in any way,” said Chancellor Archimandrite Isidore, the church’s No. 2 official here. But Dushkin’s investiture appears to violate the Orthodox Church in America’s policy on such matters, which states that “no layperson shall commit, attempt to commit, or engage in any act of sexual misconduct.”

Alaska church officials knew about Dushkin’s past when they “tonsured” him as a reader for St. Innocent Cathedral at a ceremony in early December.

In 2004 — the year he was charged with 11 sex crimes —
Dushkin was a student at St. Herman’s Theological Seminary in Kodiak, which prepares students for Orthodox priesthood.

In a plea agreement with prosecutors, Dushkin was convicted on two counts of sexual abuse of a minor and one count of exploitation of a minor, a charge that came from a sex tape featuring him and two females, one of them 17 years old. It was filmed with Dushkin’s camera and found by police.