Dear Readers –
It appears we are reaching a crisis point with the Greek Archdioceses in both Canada and the United States. The article below is by a writer who converted to Orthodoxy as an adult. However, his exasperation with the Greek Archdiocese and the Ecumenical Patriarchate is the same as expressed by many of Greek heritage and even Greek nationality. You can see examples of this at George Michalopulos’ blog and Orthodox Reflections here, here and here. It is clear that many are finally reaching a breaking point. May God have mercy on us all.
—-OR Staff
For what it’s worth, I believe that it is time for all of us in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOARCH) to leave our parishes. I myself will be gone by the end of the year. Most others will decide to stay, but it would behoove them to seek a change in leadership. The reasons that compel me, and many people like me, to leave are not trivial matters. In this article, I will list my primary reasons for leaving. These are not just subjective reasons, as though this problem were mine alone. Rather, they are objective reasons that should be persuasive enough to convince anyone that staying in the GOARCH is a fool’s errand at best or a matter of guilt by association at worst.
“To all things innovated and enacted contrary to the Church tradition, teaching, and institution of the holy and ever-memorable fathers, or to anything henceforth so enacted, ANATHEMA.”
Synodicon of the Holy Spirit
This may sound outrageous, but I submit that Patriarch Bartholomew has become a schismatic and a heretic. He didn’t always used to be one. In 1995, when Patriarch Bartholomew was still fresh on the throne, he made a statement that supported normative Orthodox church polity.
“This system of administration of the Church’s affairs, based on the joint responsibility and decentralization that our Orthodox Church applies, fundamentally explains the fact that as much as is humanly possible, she preserves the ancient tradition intact. Because, in the absence of centralized administration and responsibility, in order to introduce an innovation in teaching or praxis, this must be agreed upon by all the bishops…”
Patriarch Bartholomew
That was then, but times have changed.
Patriarch Bartholomew can now be called a heretic for one incontrovertible reason. His contention that the throne of the Patriarchate of Constantinople is primus sine paribus violates Holy Tradition. When Rome seceded from the Orthodox Church a millennium ago, the see of Constantinople took first place on the diptychs. Since then, the whole Church has been content to honor the patriarch of that city as primus inter pares, i.e., “first amongst equals”.
Bartholomew’s recent contention, however, is an innovation that cannot pass muster with the wider Church. Orthodox Church polity is one of conciliarity. The episcopal hierarchs together rule the local churches in a spirit of collegiality, and the clergy and laity have a stake in their governance. The novel notion of primus sine paribus, i.e., that the patriarch of Constantinople is somehow “first without equal” is an offense to the canons that establish equality amongst Orthodox hierarchs and an insult to other patriarchs and prelates.
Bartholomew has been thirty years on his gilded throne. Over that long period of time, he has changed his tune. By fiat he has arrogated unto himself near-papal powers. He seems to think that he is an Eastern pope in a confederation of Churches that repudiates papism. As such a potentate, he mistakenly thinks that he represents the plenum of the Orthodox world when he naturally sidles up to the man who is everywhere called Pope: Francis of Rome. God hasten the day, of course, when the Roman Catholics will be once again reunited with the Orthodox Church. However, there are glaring disagreements between the two communions that simply cannot be overlooked in the process toward reunion. The first is the existence of the papacy itself. It’s a false claim that any one man can somehow consider himself to be the Vicar of Christ, one who has hegemony over all the Christians in the world. That is Rome’s claim for itself, but such a claim is preposterous! We Orthodox don’t have a pope, and we don’t need anyone other than Jesus Christ himself as head of the worldwide Church.
Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople greet a small crowd.
Then there is the laundry list of the other mistaken dogmas and doctrines that prevent the reunion of the Roman Catholics with the true Catholic and Orthodox Church. Number one is the filioque clause in the Nicene creed, the erroneous statement that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son. By unilaterally inserting the filioque into the Creed, the pope claimed an authority equivalent to that of an ecumenical council. There are other theological problems that simply must be solved before a true and honest unity can be declared between the two communions. Until then, any unity with Rome will be nothing more than a Potemkin village – all show and no substance. Constantinople may even be subordinated to a Uniate position like the Eastern Catholics. It seems that Bartholomew is an old man in a hurry to enter into a union with Francis without counting the costs for his patriarchal see and, indeed, the entire Orthodox Church.
Ukraine’s Philaret & Constantinople’s Bartholomew
Patriarch Bartholomew is also a schismatic. He opened Pandora’s box in January of 2019 by illegally granting a tomos of autocephaly to a band of Ukrainian schismatics, and for appointing prelates who are nothing of the sort. He reaped the whirlwind by this act of defiance against Metropolitan Onuphry’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Countless people have suffered the loss of their precious parishes, and some have even suffered physical violence. What shepherd would do that to another shepherd’s sheep? Ukraine has long since ceased to be Constantinople’s bailiwick, but Bartholomew has gone meddling in its internal affairs anyway. As an American, I am ashamed that our own department of state has made use of the patriarch’s influence in Eastern Europe to prop up Ukraine as a bulwark against Russian geopolitical advances. Shame on us for breaching the wall that should have separated state from Church. Shame on Bartholomew for violating the canonical prohibition against extramural exertions of influence in a metropolis that was long ago – three and a third centuries ago – ceded to the oversight of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). Now the ROC, which boasts 75% of the world’s Orthodox population, may soon cease recognition of Constantinople. The Church hasn’t experienced such a schism since the great one in 1054.
Archbishop Elpidophoros, being a loyal son of Patriarch Bartholomew, is also a heretic and a schismatic in my view.
Abp. Elpidophoros pontificating
Here is the primary reason that Elpidophoros is a heretic. It was he who made the spurious argument for Constantinople’s supremacy in the Orthodox world. In a misguided essay in 2014, he stated his hypothesis that Istanbul’s throne is primus sine paribus. To back that up, he assumed God the Father’s antiquity and supremacy over the other two persons of the Holy Trinity in an attempt to apply that metaphor to the prime authority of the Constantinopolitan throne over other patriarchates and metropolises. It does not work. The Athanasian Creed makes it crystal clear that the three persons of the Holy Trinity are coeternal and coequal, so using that argument to justify Bartholomew’s ambitions falls flat on its face. To deny that is heresy of the first order. Furthermore, his shoddy arguments betray Elpidophoros’ incompetence as a theologian. When the archbishop made his debut at our parish two years ago, I queried him on his hypothesis that Constantinople is first without equal, on Bartholomew’s Eastern papacy, and on his intrusions into Ukraine against the integrity of Metropolitan Onuphry’s Church. Elpidophoros had a rebuttal for every challenge, of course.
“One must not join in prayer with heretics or schismatics.”
Canon XXXIII of Laodicia
Elpidophoros is a schismatic. The most glaring example of that was his scandalous decision to celebrate the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist during Pride Month of this year in a blatantly unOrthodox house of worship, i.e. St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church. That was beyond the pale. What an abomination it was for him to place the holy antimins on the altar of a radical Protestant parish that not only tolerates the sexual licentiousness of the LGBTQ movement, but actually promotes it! As a cradle Episcopalian, a former Anglican priest, and a convert to Orthodoxy, I was utterly disgusted to read of such an abomination and to see him attempt to make nice with those who trample upon Biblical morality. Elpidophoros’ ill-advised stunt was an outrage.
St. Bart’s Episcopal Church, Manhattan
In a previous blog post, I reported on my recent pilgrimage to Orthodox sites along the West Coast. Over the course of a month, I was fortunate to be welcomed into parishes and monasteries of various Orthodox jurisdictions. I sought the opinions of the clergy and faithful along my way. One priest commented that the misguided conduct of the patriarch and the archbishop did not take away from the benefit of the Eucharist. That sort of sloppy thinking doesn’t hold water. We are not a Congregational communion, where each parish stands on its own, independent of a hierarchy. We are the Catholic Church, in the original sense. It is essential that we understand the import of this doctrine of ours. I draw your attention to Archimandrite Cyprian’s statement themed: “What is the Church?”
1. The Church is the Assembly of the People of God for the celebration of the Mystery of the Divine Eucharist, wherein the local Church actually becomes and is revealed as the Body of Christ, as a Theandric organism, in which the Holy Trinity dwells. (Cf. Ephesians 4:5-6 and I Corinthians 10:15-16)
2. The visible center and head of the Eucharistic Assembly is the Bishop: It is he who leads the Assembly and preaches the word of God; it is he who offers the Eucharist, as an Icon of Christ, the Great High Priest, and as the one who presides in the place of God, according to St. Ignatios of Antioch. (Epistle to the Magnesians, VI.1)
3. In the early Church, only the Bishop offered the Divine Eucharist in each local Church; that is, there was only one Eucharist, and this was centered on the Bishop. (Epistle to the Magnesians, VII.2)
4. The Bishop, when he offers the Divine Eucharist, offers Christ in His wholeness, imparting the Holy Mysteries to the Faithful with his own hands; in ancient times, the People of God partook of Christ only from the living Icon of Christ, the Bishop. (St. Hippolytos of Rome, The Apostolic Tradition, 22)
5. Therefore, the Bishop not only embodies the local Church, but also expresses in time and space the Catholic Church, that is, the whole Church; for that which embodies Christ in His wholeness, and wherein one receives Christ in His wholeness, is that which embodies the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Wherever Jesus Christ is, says St. Ignatios, there is the Catholic Church. (St. Ignatios, Epistle to the Smyrnans, VIII.2)
6. For precisely this reason, when one is united with the Bishop in the Mystery of the Divine Eucharist, then he is also united with the Catholic Church. St. Cyprian of Carthage emphasizes this ecclesiological truth in the following striking terms: The Bishop is in the Church and the Church in the Bishop; and if one is not in communion with the Bishop, he is not in the Church.
Archimandrite Cyprian
We are one interconnected Body of Christ. The ordinations and the other sacraments of the Catholic Church flow from Christ through the bishop to the priest and the deacon. The principle of ex opere operato still applies. In other words, the efficacy of sacramental actions does not depend upon the moral uprightness of the celebrant of those sacraments. Nevertheless, there is a point at which the locus of sacramental validity, i.e., the bishop, once duly elevated to his office, has subsequently strayed so far from Tradition that the sacraments celebrated under his omophorion no longer have validity. Where and when that happens is impossible to tell unless the Church makes a declaration as to such. It is a thorny theological question indeed whether the sacraments of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese are still valid, led as the Church is by Bartholomew and Elpidophoros. That gives one reason for pause.
Metropolitan Onuphry of Ukraine
The bishop is the sine qua non of the Church. Without him, there can be no Church. Extrapolating from Archimandrite Cyprian’s definition of the Church and his high view of the episcopacy, I cannot help but find my spirit outside of the Church – or its Greek Orthodox expression in my country – for I cannot wholeheartedly embrace my bishops’ leadership of her. So, I find myself in a vexing conundrum. After all the water that has gone over the dam in the last three years, I am a sheep who no longer recognizes its shepherds’ voice, for I do not perceive in their words and actions the voice of our great and good shepherd, Christ himself. God forgive me if I am wrong, but since I cannot bring myself to honor our bishops, I cannot go on as a member of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. I have written to Abp. Elpidophoros to ask him why he did what he did at St. Bart’s. He has not answered me. I have dithered for months, hoping that he would repent, but since he has not it’s time for me to leave. And, since Pat. Bartholomew has recently finished his victory lap in our country without a hint of penitence, I have even more reason to leave. His arrogance astounds me.
I myself will sound arrogant to some. They may think that I should stay and pray. May they please note that I have not reached this conclusion hastily, but rather have tried to give the hierarchs every benefit of the doubt. In the 1980s and ’90s, I was an Anglican who was devastated by the heresy and rapid downfall of the Episcopal Church (TEC) and the ill effect that it had on the whole Anglican Communion. I was pushed out of TEC because I would not sign on to their immoral agenda. It broke my heart, but I had to leave. Others may have the stomach for what they now see the hierarchy doing to the Greek Orthodox Church in this country. It may sound like an exaggeration, but like a combat veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, I find myself flinching at the outrageous claims and misguided actions of these two high-profile hierarchs, Bartholomew and Elpidophoros. Having seen what is plain for all to see, I for one am suspicious of every action that they take. For me to go on in submission to such heretical and schismatic bishops would be an act of continued support when, in truth, I no longer support them. I don’t want to gamble with my eternal salvation.
What about you, dear reader?
When I became Orthodox, I committed myself to Holy Tradition. I am endeavoring to remain committed to that Tradition. I cannot in good conscience remain under the omophorion of Bartholomew and Elpidophoros for that reason. What is needed now is for the hierarchs outside of GOARCH to condemn Bartholomew and Elpidophoros for deviating from Tradition and to call upon them to renounce their heresies and schisms.
Finally, to the affairs of my own parish. I sit on the parish council, of which I am the secretary. For the last two years, I have been in the uncomfortable position of cooperating in the shutting down and subsequent reopening of the parish during the current pandemic. I witnessed the utter capitulation of Metropolitan Gerasimos, and our priest and council to the strictest of all health mandates set forth by the ecclesiastical, state or local authorities. For several weeks in the Spring and Summer of last year, our people were denied access to the life-giving Body and Blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ simply because attending the Divine Liturgy was a perceived threat to their health. That’s double-speak. How can the prime agent of Life make one sick, unless it is not received in the proper disposition? Even now, with the spread of the viral variants, there are still cumbersome protocols in place that have the net effect of obstacles in the way of worship. These things ought not to be. How long will this go on?
Church closed
In so doing, our parish leadership has strained a gnat to swallow a camel. In their ostensibly responsible effort to protect the physical health of the people – or simply to avoid the liability of lawsuits – they have denied spiritual health to the people by restricting reception of the medicine of immortality. Auwe! My own objections have been ignored by the worldly mindset of the other people who sit on the parish council and the docile nature of our parish priest. In GOARCH, it doesn’t take much provocation for the priest to mysteriously disappear overnight, so he has been cautious. The sheep have been scattered and their shepherd is tasked with gathering them back into the sheep pen. Our attendance has been decimated. Who knows if it will ever recover?
Orthodoxy is the Faith of the martyrs. The martyrs were those who stared down death so that they could testify to their faith in the one true God and his Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They received a crown for their loyalty unto death. What about us? It’s embarrassing to think that, although Orthodox Christians should know better, there are few who are willing to stand up in the face of this lunacy and call it what it is. They need to oppose the error and take the appropriate action to save themselves and their families. Those who should know better but decide to relax and stay where they are will be in danger of being as spiritually compromised as the hierarchs that they follow.
I am one of the fortunate believers who doesn’t have to retreat to the wilderness to maintain his Orthodox integrity. There is another parish not far away that has taken a bolder stance to maintain the normative Orthodox life in the midst of the pandemic. I can leave my parish and go there. Not all laymen have that option, since their Greek Orthodox parish may be the only one for dozens of miles around. To the laymen who feel trapped I say, Don’t give up hope! Reach out to others. Reach out to hierarchs outside of GOARCH and implore them for help and spiritual care. Surely God will hear your cries.
Hawaiian myrrh-streaming Iveron icon
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Mt. 7: 13 & 14
Lawrence B. Wheeler – Originally published at Handwritings on the Wall
Until any Patriarch or Metropolitan is officially condemned, anathematized, excommunicated, etc. by a Holy Synod or Council, he is still a canonically ordained bishop. So he must be commemorated. I can’t comment on whether God would send down His grace for the Eucharist when the Divine Liturgy is served in such a place though.
Shock horror, convertodox extremists aligned with the moscovites advocating jurisdiction hopping
Ecumenist is not sufficiently descriptive of the pathology at work. The Patriarch and Archbishop are typical gnostic psuedo-intellectuals, i.e. ideologues, who dress up their progressivist ideologies that they have adopted, no doubt from their academic influences, with a VERY think patina of Christian sentiment. The Patriarch’s Paschal letters have always grated on me. In them he scolds us over the fact that there is still sin in the world. When he comes to the U.S. he worships at every left-wing political shrine. His environmentalism is neo-pagan pantheism. That the Archbishop would praise him because Al Gore of all people called him “the Green Patriarch” is laughable in the extreme. Global warming, now climate change, is a classical apocalyptic symbolism in secular form. Christ will return in ten years! The hockey stick will appear in ten years! But it’s not too late to be saved! Just turn over your lives and your property to us! Then we can achieve a “sustainable,” i.e. immortal and eternal planet in which everything and everyone lives in harmony, just like those first few moments in the Garden! It’s all gnostic immanentism. Ecumenism is just one of many symptoms. The covid response is another. In the most recent statement the Patriarch admonishes us against religious fanaticism, thereby repeating the talking points of the “Democrat” Party. My own bishop sent out a letter saying that his primary duty was to keep us all safe and healthy. I emailed my priest and said that his primary duty was to get me killed, either figuratively or literally. That’s the purpose of a Bishop: to get us killed, confessing Christ and carrying His cross, whether it’s the martyrdom of everyday existence in the world, or the literal martyrdom when we are all put in prison and tortured for our beliefs that are standing in the way of historical progress. My priest said he understand my point. But he is not very good at defending our traditions.
I have read in reliable sources, the EP is employed by the US state department to go against the ROC in order to diminish Russian influence in the region. That certainly explains his actions in Ukraine. No doubt, the Russians know it as that is reflected in some actions taken pre-COVID. Beyond that, yeah, he is in the tank of the globalists obviously. But, if no bishops or clergy are willing to buck the system, then expect the Greek church to go like the Episcopalians; it is a take down.
Dear Mr. Wheeler,
No worries about posting my comment on your blog. My intent was to offer you a bit of encouragement; whether others see it or not is not my primary focus.
As for my thoughts on your choice; and these are only my personal thoughts, not the “official statement” of anyone in authority. Albeit, God willing, my opinion is within the Tradition of the Church.
During the Divine Liturgy, an Orthodox Priest will open the Antimension on the Holy Table and venerate (kiss) the signature of the Bishop who has blessed that Liturgy to be served. With that veneration, that Priest, regardless of his personal piety, opinions, or commitment to the Orthodox Faith and Tradition, is saying, “I believe what he (the Bishop) believes”.
If that Bishop is an ecumenist, and/or is in communion with hierarchs and local Churches which have embraced (either openly or by their silence) ecumenism, then that Priest supports ecumenism. He may never act upon it, and may actually speak against it, but unless he is able to dismiss the cognitive dissonance which such a position creates, he will eventually be infected by it.
From what I have seen over the years, ROCOR is filled with very fine clergy and laity who have a history of maintaining the Faith. Great Saints have found their home in ROCOR, and have entered into the universal veneration of the Church.
Making no judgement about the salvation of any individual Orthodox Christian (which is in God’s Hands), I think that their union with Moscow has created issues for them in that they are now in communion with those from whom they had been (at least to some degree) separated for reasons of the Faith, i.e. the ecumenists and syncretists.
I fear that those issues will inevitably drive ROCOR further down the wrong path, but, having convinced themselves that “all is well; nothing to see here because we have a good Priest”, few will notice.
Again, how one can be in communion with a jurisdiction (Constantinople and their confreres) which refers to the papal/Vatican organization as a “sister church” is beyond me, but there we are.
My advice: continue to pray and seek God’s guidance, maintain your commitment to the Truth, and realize that “canonical Orthodoxy” is poorly understood as being in communion with some officially-sanctioned Church.
Meditate on the fact that it is the “Official Churches” who have embraced the heresies from which you have fled, and have taken upon themselves to define “who’s in and who’s out”.
Given your limited options, please attend your local parish in order to calm your soul, and share the struggles of life with others until such time when a Church which has rejected ecumenism in every sense of the word becomes an option, then join that parish.
I cannot, personally, attend any parish which continues to accept ecumenism as part of its confession of Faith (to any degree), and would pray at home until an opportunity to live out my life in a Confessing Church was possible. Again, that is me.
You, and those suffering like you, continue in the prayers of myself and my family.
Fr. Deacon James,
We need to clarify one of the comments…
What Antimension did the priests that the Apostles tonsured use? At the end of the day, The Apostolic Canon about episcopal “jurisdictions” was created for a specific reason…to stop confusion from “multiple non-aligned teachers”, as well as childish squabbles between bishops…Now, does this mean we are “kissing a signature”, or the antimensio which is made from fabric that is considered sanctified after wiped down myrrh during a consecration of an altar, or (in some cases) having sewn a fragment of relic within?
The explanation they are providing to you and you are in return quoting above appears illogical.
When a bishop falls asleep in the Lord on a Saturday, who does the priest commemorate on the next day – Sunday morning – and whose signature does he “kiss”? This scenario occurs often, and yes, they use the antimension of a “dead” bishop because they don’t have another one…this proves that the Antimension is the holy object, and not the signature.
The introduction of the bishop’s name in the commemoration is a later addition to our Liturgies. A priest can revert to the original phrasing (without commemoration of the name, or saying “for our pious and Orthodox Archbishop[s]), and it would maintain historical validity. However, the Bishops have gradually taken advantage of eras of reduced education, high suffering (wars, poverty, etc), to strip away the original authority granted to the laity by the Apostolic Canons (and as we read in Acts) to select “good men” to the episcopate.
This is how power gradually got to their heads, and they treat their clergy like slaves today, threatening them with suspension if they don’t “kiss the name”…that does not mean this action is correct, nor that a parish priest is Ecumenist by default…it just means the parish priest has to decide where the limit is before his conscience can no longer bear what he is being “forced” to do…
Fr. James,
It seems to me that if we apply too much fastidiousness to our selection of a parish, the only parish that we may have left to meet our qualifications will be our family and the only altar our icon corner. I’ve been in that position in years past and found the isolation to be unhealthy. Especially now in the midst of this never-ending pandemic, I know that I need to be with the wider family of God.
I sent a note/comment to Mr. Wheeler’s site, and will briefly repeat some of it here.
It is only those for whom the truth matters, and that truth being an objective truth found only in Christ Jesus, that agonize over these challenges to the faith, i.e. the Orthodox Faith.
Mr. Wheeler is one of those people, and I both sympathize with him and keep him, and those with him, in my prayers.
I would only proffer one observation/suggestion for him. Given the heresies he so cogently expressed which the Greek Archdiocese has embraced, and preach “with bared head”, going to another parish which is still in communion with the Archdiocese (and with the World and National Council of Churches) will not resolve his conundrum. Even one that is more pious and traditional than the modernistic jurisdiction he is leaving.
I pray that, instead of simply rearranging the deck chairs on the ecumenist “Orthodox Titanic”, he seek a home in a local Church which preserves and lives out the Orthodox Faith. In essence, I suggest he seek a parish of the Confessing Orthodox Church in either the Greek or Slavic tradition. I think he will find a home there.
In Christ,
Father Deacon James
Father, I’m away from my desktop and I’ve had technical difficulties approving your comment on my ‘blog. Sorry.
Your point is well taken. My only option within canonical Orthodoxy is a ROCOR parish. I plan to start attending there. Your opinion?
I think this short video from Father Heers regarding these things were traditionally handled, titled “Patristic and Canonical Treatment Toward a Local Church Whose Hierarch Preaches Heresy”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUM5ividbGE&ab_channel=TheOrthodoxEthos
How people like Elpidophorus take over institutions is because they aren’t opposed. We shouldn’t forget that this is hardly the first time a heretic has had the reigns in Constantinople, Nestorious being one of the more infamous for example. If we were to just turn tail and run at every turn, you get the situation we’re in today where there’s nowhere to turn. It’s one thing to make a run for it if there’s no option, as ROCOR had to do, but we’re not there yet by any means. We must look to the church’s own patristic traditions for how to deal with this.
Although you are very correct in spotting and publishing the totally unacceptable stance and beliefs of the Constantinople Patriarch, I urge you to stay within your parish and fight the devils in their foxhole, rather than departing and depriving yourself of every right to speak the Truth and hammer on the head the traitors of our Faith, the only TRUE faith, which is proved in a number of ways.
Only the Orthodox priests can expel the evil and the daemons, from those carrying them inside them
The lighting of the Holy Light by the Holy Spirit, on Good Saturday afternoon at the Holy Temple of Christ Reserection, is a unique privilege for the Orthodox. Why?
Personally, I follow elderly father Gavriel of the Agios Oros, who wrote repeatedly to the said Patriarch, exposing him to his wrong doings that endanger of our Orthodox Church.
No wonder, why the “servants” of the Patriarch and those who took his side, are giving a hard time to elderly father Gavriel and some more Holy men, to abandon the Holy Mountain.
To conclude, the prophecies of Saint Paisios, saint Porfyrios, late elderly father Savvas Achilleos, and many more, are proving correct that at these terminal times, most priests and high rank bishops, Archbishops and Patriarch will go crazy and betray our Faith.
We all have the obligation to pray for them…
Please, please, do not retreat, stay and fight within your parish.
This is your right and I’d say obligation to protect Orthodoxy, from the satanic, globalistic, talmudic, plutocratic, nepotic illuminati, servants of Lucifer.
When we all one day pass away and we will be called in Heavens to give account and justify of what we did on earth to support Christ, we will be able to say that we advocated in His favour, so as he will do the same for us then.
Amen.
✝️✝️✝️
Mr. Andreou, Staying to fight is tempting, but discretion is the better part of valor. I will make my point and then leave the parish. Why? Because I am too fond of our priest, who is stuck between the proverbial rock and the hard place. He now has a chronic disease. I don’t want to cause more trouble for him than this pandemic has already caused.
Further, I don’t want to fight simply for a testosterone rush. I have to consider the tenuous nature of the recovery from the pandemic. Key people know how I feel about all these things. I don’t want to be so disruptive that it prevents the weaker in faith to get back to church.
Mr. Wheeler,
Many thanks for considering my points in the comments.
I’m not the right person to advice other, but the advice I received by Saint Paisios, Saint Porfyrios, lately elderly fathers Savvas Achilleos and Iosif Vatopedinos, all urge us to stay in and fight.
Please go to YouTube and search for their teachings.
A holy man on earth, elderly father Gavriel of Mount Athos, urge us NOT to surrender.
Himself is a victim of the satanic clan within our Orthodox Church, and he does not abandon the Holy Mountain.
He have to stay put and fight them,with all our power, will and strength.
If we, those who truly love Christ and the Holy Trinity, abandon the front line and surrender our faith in the Living God to them, then how are we going to give account for this when we all pass away and we will have to be judged by Christ.
Even if,I’m the last one holding back the front line,I will never surrender to them
(warning: sarcasm alert!): Speaking of “testosterone rush…”
In view of current events, the most important Orthodox factoid that comes thundering down through the ages is that…(drum roll…): the very FIRST canon of the VERY FIRST Council was regarding the practice of self-castration by clergy (no joke). It was a practice started by Origin, which explains some of his bizarre thinking. It was based in the assumption that, having no kahunas (being soft, conciliatory, always agreeable) was somehow holiness (actually, more likely a Manichae/Gnostic hangover: spirit=good; testosterone=bad).
Isn’t that interesting? If you study the Ecumenical Councils, testosterone was the last thing in short supply; every issue was fought tooth and nail.
BTW: there was a priest–probably others as well– who refused his bishop’s orders regarding masking, altering the liturgy etc. So, it does happen.
(Rabbit trail) So, why do we have only man-priests and not woman-priests? This can be understood in terms of covenant: this is because—like Christ; the TESTATOR (mediator/executor/initiator) of the New TESTAMENT/covenant— the man-priest stands before God—at the altar; at the ark of covenant— bejeweled with TESTICLES (two in number), the bodily manifestations of God’s TESTAMENTS(Old and New), a TESTAMONY of God’s two-fold voice of His Everlasting Covenant/ TESTAMENT with Man. Additionally, TESTOsterone (hormone of the covenant) drives the priest-craft with gusto—as David danced before the ark wearing the priestly garments —, potency, and a deep voice of authority seeding the world with Spermatikos Logos. The facial identity of that TTESTAMENT/covenant priesthood rests in the beard, not found on women, children, or even any image of angels; it is only peculiar to the human male. For that reason, the masculine principle is the God-ordered definitive motif in the ceremonial demonstrated priesthood because of its cosmological covenant implications, encouraging priests everywhere to keep growing their beards!
And show some courage when you have to; just say NO to the foolishness.
“You shall know them by their fruits” and at this point, the fruit is rotten and stinks for miles around. You are not the only one with PTSD dear Lawrence. I, a cradle Greek Orthodox in Toronto cannot stomach looking at a Church icon with a “Do not touch” sign on it. I have never seen a multiple spoon communion because I cannot stomach the very idea of it. I don’t want to watch it because I will never be able to get rid of the image in my head and it may give me nightmares at night. Many people say to me that it’s still the Body and Blood of Christ, but is it? How do they know? Of course they don’t know whether or not the grace of God has completely left us, but if not, then all the worse for us! How dare we treat Him in this manner! And the spoons was just the beginning of all of this, or so it seems.
Rumour has it that Bartholomew and the Roman Pope have already signed UNION but are breaking it to us (not so) gently. Not wanting to be responsible for schism, some are waiting for this very act to be publicly consummated before the anathemas start flying around, but I agree that the writing is already on the wall in capital letters.
I. too, have left the Greek church in my area when the spoons first came out. Then, I met people who had left in 2016 after the pseudo synod in Crete! and some had left even sooner, joining ROCOR. Thank God we have other jurisdictions to go to which have embraced us, but I cannot express how angry this whole thing makes me feel – I feel betrayed because my Lamb is betrayed – and not by accident – systematically and step by step! This has been planned for years. What I really want to know is WHY?
Roya, I hear the cry of your heart. You are a cradle Orthodox who has been betrayed by your own Mother.
You raise a couple of questions to which I still don’t have the answers. Perhaps others do now. Perhaps I will later.
Thank you for an incisive article. Under whose omoforion are you now?
Mr. Black, I’ll be attending services at our island’s ROCOR parish. Unlike our GOARCH parish, their numbers have actually grown. I don’t wonder why.
Axios
Many of us have already left the GOA. I agree as well that the Archdiocese is at a breaking point, spiritually and financially, and has been “rearranging chairs on the titanic” for quite some time but is now spiritually and financially bankrupt.
Any serious Orthodox should leave the GOA because the rot will reach the parish level.
I’m confused why the Ephraim monasteries are still with the GOA, does anyone know why?
Peter, I didn’t touch upon GOARCH’s financial malfeasance in my article. I am curious as to why, after 20 years and $100,000,000 expended, little St. Nicholas Church at the World Trade Center in New York City has not been completed. That’s only one burning question that many of us have about GOARCH’s monetary affairs.
About the Ephraim monasteries, I can’t answer that question. Maybe they are waiting for the equivalent of Northridge earthquake or Hurricane Irene before they part company with Constantinople.