The Russian Orthodox Church said on Tuesday it had defrocked the priest who conducted Russia's first reported gay wedding amid fierce worldwide debate over the Christian church's attitude to homosexuality.
Denis Gogolev and Mikhail Morozov have said they paid Father Vladimir Enert $490 to marry them last month in church -- an act the Church branded blasphemous.
"We defrocked him, prohibited him from serving and condemned the act itself, which we saw as pure blasphemy," said Father Igor Pchelintsev, spokesman for the diocese of Nizhny Novgorod, a historic city on the Volga river where the wedding took place.
He said the Holy Synod had confirmed the stand taken by the diocese in September.
"We have decided to expel Father Vladimir Enert from sacred office after he voluntarily carried out this blasphemous act," the Church said on its Web site www.orthodox.org.ru.
The Russian controversy comes as the 70-million strong Anglican Church faces one of the biggest crises in its history over the appointment of gay bishops. It is also torn over its attitude toward same-sex unions.
The Russian Orthodox Church not only bans same-sex marriages and homosexual priests, it advocates barring gays and lesbians from teaching jobs or senior positions in the army and prisons.
Debate over same-sex weddings is rare in Russia, which remains deeply homophobic although homosexual relations between men -- a crime in Soviet times -- were legalized in 1993.