ONLY THE NUNS WILL COMMUNE
On August 24th 2021 during the feast day of St. Kosmas the Aetolian, Archbishop Sotirios of Canada BANNED the laity from receiving Holy Communion at the monastery of St. Kosmas – established by the late Elder Ephraim of blessed memory just outside of Toronto in 1993.
The Archbishop announced during the service: “ONLY 
THE NUNS WILL COMMUNE – NO ONE ELSE!” After the sisters communed, the laity were NOT allowed to approach the Holy Chalice as can be seen in the video. Among the hundreds of faithful in attendance were also a very large number of children (of all ages) who remained “uncommuned”. As a result, the faithful respecting the mystery of Holy Communion taking place, waited patiently until after dismissal and began confronting the Archbishop with serious objections during the giving of antidoron, most of which can be heard in the recording.
The issue of Holy Communion in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada has been an ever-evolving subject since June of 2020, which interestingly – has not been a concern for most of the other Orthodox jurisdictions in the province of Ontario. Archbishop Sotirios is constantly applying immense pressure on the sisterhood to adopt the use of multiple spoons for the distribution of communion – we applaud the monastery’s uncompromising stance & stand by their side in defense of our Holy Tradition!
Full video below. Video description includes Greek description. Subtitles are in English.
Tony Farmakis and the Resisting Greek Orthodox Laity of Canada
For more information on the situation in Canada, please visit our category page for additional posts.
ANATHEMA
In Holy Church’s pre-communion prayers we beg the Lord that the Cup will not be for us condemnation. That bishop and the nuns did not have communion–they ingested condemnation when they put themselves far above the laity. The Lord hates pride and pride blinds the nous. That is why they can not see what they are doing to themselves as they attempt to coerce others.
Dear Isidora,
I couldn’t agree with you more. I love the sisters, that’s why I was so deeply hurt by their decision to receive Holy Communion from the very hands of the individual who forbade the laity to do the same. It was an act of abandonment, devoid of courage and holy inspiration. Far be it from a sinner like me to know whether the Holy Spirit actually transformed the bread and wine into the precious body and sacred blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ on that sad day when not even our children were allowed to receive the Holy Gifts. God have mercy on us all and may His will be done.
If Sotirios comes to your parish next Sunday, then you go to a different parish on that day.
May God have mercy on us and on our church!
Why is he wearing a Roman collar under his vestments?
The nuns are welcome to leave that apostate and come to ROCOR!
It is before his own MASTER that he stands or falls.
This applies to Canadians as well:
http://www.monomakhos.com/open-letter-to-the-assembly-of-bishops/
The Greeks of Toronto should be dragging Sotirios out of the chancery and into the street and not let him back in
Can’t agree with physical violence, but do understand the frustration. What is more likely is that more and more Greek faithful will depart for other jurisdictions.
Perhaps they could just walk him out of the chancery, into a very nice park.
It is no accident that he exhorted the laity to follow the teachings of Saint Kosmas.
It is not clear which teachings he chose for his sermon, but here are some of his teachings/prophecies that we would do well to learn and heed:
“A time will come when the harmony that exists now between clergy and laymen will not be.”
“Clergymen will become worse and more impious than everyone.”
“The time will come when your enemies will take away from you even the ashes from your fires, but don’t give up your faith as others will do.”
In my humble opinion, the sisters should have stood in solidarity with the laity. More than bad optics, Holy Communion being offered ONLY to the clergy and the monaxes is the very antithesis of the sacrament of sacraments. The sacred body and precious blood of our Lord and Saviour was never intended to be offered to an exclusive few but to all of God’s children for the forgiveness of sins. If the Archbishop’s goal is to draw a wedge between parishioners and the monastery, or punish us both, then the monaxes were a means to that end by willfully participating in his diabolical plan. I take no pleasure in writing this and it pains me to no end. The clergy has abandoned us and we are left to fend for ourselves. God is our only hope.
As I said before,its time to start building the life boat. The Titanic (everything under the EP, and others) is going down,and down this road. Too many jurisdictions have apostatized oversight; this cancer is beyond repair. If the Orthodox Faith is going to have a presence in America for your children long term, it would be wise to start the groundwork for a break away jurisdiction under other bishops to care for the new diaspora. These traumatized parishioners need a place to land when thrown out. Can we not see the handwriting on the wall?
We are insane for thinking there is going to be change for the better from these heretics; time to smell the incense, the only way things will get better is to make fundamental changes.
Not that I’m disagreeing, but under what bishop (s) would this happen? Are there any bishops in North America that didn’t support lockdowns, masks, the jab, no venerating icons, or all of the above?
You make a good point.
“What is impossible with man is possible with God.” You never know what might happen re “changing the crew of the ship” and so on. But I agree with you that it doesn’t currently look good.
In my opinion, the best course of action is to “hedge” ourselves against the hierarchy, so to speak. Learn how to do the reader services. There are plenty of good resources online and the Hours, Typika, Midnight Office and Compline especially are quite easy to put together. Then we should make contact with like-minded Orthodox people and, if need be, pray these services together. Even if we make mistakes, God will see our efforts. The point is not to introduce schism but offer God the divine service he commands us to offer in fellowship, regardless of the God-fighting decrees of the government or the hierarchs. If faithful priests and bishops appear and are willing to help – great! But if the bishops and priests in our area are truly lost, we don’t need them to be truly Orthodox Christians.
Outrageous! Anaxios!!!
We want to make it clear that: many of us attended our monastery’s feast-day foreknowing of the Archbishop’s liturgical presiding – in a spirit of support & courage towards Gerondissa Alexia & the Sisterhood, with the main purpose of defending our monastery’s stance against the ABS’ never ending persecution & the possibility of him trying to introduce the use of multiple-spoons again…as he failingly attempted one year ago during the monastery’s feast day.
Otherwise, we are to FLEE from being in the presence of such people!
It’s a great spiritual danger & canonical violation to knowingly join in prayer with erring bishops who bareheadedly preach heresy.
We the laity have the right to strip A.b.s of his vestments and position and defrock him. There are 2 ways to do this , first in the way i just mentioned and secondly by having a holy synod come together to declare his removal from power. This is what christians of the past did.
I hope and pray that soon God will interven and help us.Lord Jesus Christ have Mercy on us !
In my 76 years as a cradle Orthodox Christian did I ever think someone, especially a Bishop, would refuse Communion to an Orthodox. We don’t have to read Revelations, we are living in these times. This Bishop is telling the world he does not believe that Communion is the Body and Blood of Christ to heal all infirmities and grant salvation. He should be excommunicated. Bishops. Priest and the laity were exterminated during Russian tyranny for standing up for The Faith. An Abomination. Where are are Bishops? Their silence is deafening!