An Open Letter to Archbishop Chrysostomos of Athens
OrthoNews
OPEN LETTER TO ARCHBISHOP CHRYSOSTOMOS OF ATHENS
Written by Vladimir Moss
East House, Beech Hill,
Mayford, Woking.
GU22 0SB.
Tel. +44-1483-763218.
e-mail: vlad...@aol.com
October 25 / November 7, 2009.
To: His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos (Kiousis)
I.M. Panakhrantou,
Megara, Greece.
Makariotate!
Evlogeite!
We are writing to you, first, to ask you to pray for our spiritual
father, Hieromonk Akakije, who is seriously ill, and secondly to express our
extreme alarm at the crisis situation that has been created in the Church by
the Holy Synod's reversal of its decision to enter into communion with the
True Orthodox Church of Russia (RTOC) under Archbishop Tikhon of Omsk.
We have decided to write to you very frankly and directly, without
diplomatic expressions. We hope that you will understand that this is not
out of disrespect for you, whom we believe to be the true and canonical
leader of Greek Orthodoxy. However, when an iceberg aimed by the devil has
hit the ship of the Church, and it is lurching heavily to one side, it is
too late to put on dinner jackets and make toasts and compliments and witty
speeches - we must act in accordance with the gravity of the situation.
When, on September 13/26, the Holy Synod decided that there was no
dogmatic or canonical obstacle to union between the True Orthodox Churches
of Greece and Russia, and a date for concelebration was set for November
13/26, the feast of your patron, St. John Chrysostom, many Orthodox
Christians around the world rejoiced greatly, and we believe that all the
Saints in Heaven also rejoiced. Immediately the decision was published in
the Russian ecclesiastical press, and Church commentators from other
jurisdictions agreed that this was a very important event, perhaps the
beginning of the end of the disintegration of True Orthodoxy throughout the
world. Imagine the surprise and the bitter disappointment when, only a few
days later, the Synod reversed its decision - so far, with not a single
official word of explanation or justification! One commentator who had
welcomed the original decision said that this new, completely contradictory
one proved that the Greek Synod was "out of control". In our view, this is,
tragically, a correct assessment. Another commentator said that now the
Russians should stop seeking union with the Greeks. We fervently hope that
this will not happen, but we cannot exclude that even more tragic
possibility.
On October 12/25 Metropolitan Kallinikos of Corinth came unexpectedly
to Serbia and said that the Greek hierarchs were "unanimous" in their
decision to stop the unification process. However, everybody knows that the
reversal of the original decision was dictated by Metropolitan Kallinikos,
and that the majority of the Greek bishops, including yourself, were in
favour of union with the Russians, but that you all submitted to the will of
Kallinikos for the sake of the internal unity of the Greek Church. He also
said in Serbia that the other Greek bishops who had been in favour of union
with the Russians were "inexperienced"!!! So Kallinikos is more experienced
even than you, Makariotate! We had no idea that he was so old, and had been
a leader of the Church for so long!
The metropolitan also said that in their reception of converts the
hierarchs of the RTOC followed the practice of the pre-revolutionary Church
in Russia. This is not true! It is obvious that he has not read the
decisions of the Council of the RTOC which took place in Odessa last year,
which already decree a practice that is considerably stricter than that of
both the Russian Church before the revolution and the Russian Church
Abroad - from which, of course, your Synod derives its apostolic succession.
Moreover, we know from Archbishop Tikhon himself when he was in Athens that
he firmly accepts the principle that everyone coming to his Church from the
Moscow Patriarchate who has not received a canonical baptism must be
baptized.
Of course, it is true that some of Archbishop Tikhon's priests who were
received by the Russian Church Abroad have not had canonical baptism. But if
Metropolitan Kallinikos is insisting that these priests must be baptized
before he can enter into communion with Archbishop Tikhon, then we would
like to ask him the following questions:
1, What right does he have, according to the Holy Canons, to dictate to
bishops of another Local Church how and when they should practice akriveia
or oikonomia? We believe he has no such right.
2. Will he now break communion with the Bulgarian priest of our Synod,
Fr. Ioann Vasilevsky, who has never received a canonical baptism, and with
another Bulgarian priest of our Synod, Fr. Martin, who was baptized by an
"unbaptized" priest (Fr. Ioann)? If he will not break communion with them,
then we consider his refusal to be in communion with the True Orthodox
Russians to be hypocritical.
3. Will he now accept that both he and all the bishops of the True
Orthodox Church of Greece received their apostolic succession from an
uncanonical Church, the Russian Church Abroad, because the Russian Church
Abroad contained many priests, and even bishops, who had not received
canonical baptism? If he does not accept this, then again he is being
hypocritical.
Makariotate!
We believe that if you do not resist the "zeal without knowledge" of
Metropolitan Kallinikos, there will be very wide and very serious
implications both for True Orthodoxy as a whole and for the credibility and
canonicity of the True Orthodox Church of Greece in particular, for the
following reasons:
a. The present situation is humiliating for you personally, and
detrimental for the whole structure of synodical government in the Church.
According to Apostolic Canon 34, the bishops of every nation must have a
head, an archbishop, and the archbishop must confer with the other bishops,
and the other bishops must confer with the archbishop. "For in this way
there will be unanimity and God will be glorified". However, we now see that
there is a second head of the Synod, Metropolitan Kallinikos, and that he is
more powerful than you. He overrules the opinions of the other bishops, whom
he calls "inexperienced", and then proclaims the lie that they all agree
with him. This situation was perhaps not well known outside of Greece
before, but now the whole world knows it. If you are to restore the
credibility of your Synod, and of your personal position as head of the
Synod, then it is necessary to put Kallinikos in his place. In any case,
what have you gained by surrendering to Kallinikos' blackmail? You have
certainly not gained the support of our American bishops and clergy, who are
furious - but whose excellent letter of protest has been suppressed for
diplomatic reasons. You have certainly not gained the support of your West
European and Serbian flock, who are very isolated and need the communion of
the True Russian Orthodox. And you have alienated the best representatives
of the great Russian Church and nation, which provided you with your
apostolic succession. What a terrible price you have paid already! And this
is only the beginning.
b. Formally speaking, if you refuse to be in communion with the Russian
True Orthodox Church, you place yourselves in a schismatic situation in
relation to the Church of Russia. Bishop Photius has already thoroughly
examined the dogmatic and canonical situation of the RTOC, and has come to
the conclusion that they are Orthodox. We believe that this conclusion is
correct, and that your decision (as we have heard) to make a further review
of their canonical status is simply "excuse for excuses in sin" - an attempt
to cover up a lack of love for the Russian Orthodox, and fear of the threats
of Metropolitan Kallinikos, with the fig-leaf of canonical rectitude. Since,
as we have heard, many of the bishops have not even read Bishop Photius'
40-page report, why should another report bring any more enlightenment? And
why should another report by another man be any better, since Bishop
Photius, we are convinced, knows more about Russian Orthodoxy than anybody
else in the Synod? Therefore if you refuse to be in communion with the True
Russian Church, you place yourselves in schism from it. This will weaken
your authority throughout the Orthodox world.
c. Although your Synod's decision has publicly hurt and humiliated the
hierarchs of the RTOC, and through them the whole of Russian Orthodoxy, we
are not sorry for them, because we know that they have acted for the sake of
the Unity of the Church, in truth and love, and so God will not abandon
them. But what will happen to you? In the seventeenth century the Russian
Old Believer schism was created because the schismatics did not want to be
in union with the Greek Orthodox, suspecting that they were still heretics
and their rites incorrect. Are you not now repeating the same mistake in
relation to the Russian Orthodox? We know that Metropolitan Kallinikos has
already for several years been a "Greek Old Believer", a phyletist and an
enemy of the Slavic Orthodox. We know this because he wrote this in "Themata
Pisteos: Orthodoxoi kai Ellines", volume 1, nos. 4-5, July-October, 1994:
the Slavs - unlike the Greeks, who believe "first in Christ, then in
Greece" - believe "first in their fatherland, and afterwards in Christ". And
so, he continues, the Slavic peoples ". have used Orthodoxy as a means for
the realization of their national interests. This means that they were never
good Orthodox. Such are the various people of Slavic descent, as are, above
all, the Russians" (pp. 57-58, 60). This terrible attack on Slavic Orthodoxy
and the Slavic saints was never punished by your Synod. And now you are
reaping the fruits of that refusal to correct Kallinikos: he has destroyed
the union between Greek and Russian True Orthodoxy - unless you act now to
restore canonical order and uphold the Unity and Catholicity of the Church.
Finally, we should like to place some questions before the whole of the
Holy Synod. Both of us have already received communion in the Russian True
Orthodox Church, with the full knowledge and blessing of hierarchs of the
True Orthodox Church of Greece, and we know that the American bishops allow
intercommunion with the Russian True Orthodox in America. But Bishop Photius
has announced in Serbia that the Holy Synod has now decided to forbid
communion with the Russian True Orthodox Church. In view of this, we wish to
ask the Holy Synod: does the True Orthodox Church of Russia have the grace
of sacraments? If not, when did it cease to have that grace? If, on the
other hand, it is agreed that the Russian True Orthodox Church does still
have that grace, what right has anybody to order us to break communion with
our brothers and sisters in the Russian Church to whom Christ continues to
give His Most Holy Body and Blood?
Asking for your holy prayers,
With love in Christ,
Schema-Nun Euphrosinija, superior of the convent of Novostjenik, Serbia.
Reader Vladimir Moss.
Alexander Arnakis
<Orth...@orthodox.net> wrote:
>http://www.orthodoxchristianbooks.com/articles/article.php?article_id=285
>
>OPEN LETTER TO ARCHBISHOP CHRYSOSTOMOS OF ATHENS
>Written by Vladimir Moss
>
><snipped for merciful brevity>
Good Lord! This is the lunatic extremist Moss writing to one
schismatic/vagante "bishop" over whether he should have intercommunion
with another schismatic/vagante "bishop." Now we're getting into
Twilight Zone territory. What's bizarre is the convert, wannabe
Tsarist Moss teaching "true Orthodoxy" to the Orthodox. Since when is
he a mediator among the Orthodox?
Polynesia@pacific-rim.tf ~AGG~
"Alexander Arnakis" <inv...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:df8ef5heuk8b8793m...@4ax.com...
***He's more bizarre now than he used to be.
++
> On Sun, 8 Nov 2009 12:26:04 -0500, "OrthoNews"
>
> >http://www.orthodoxchristianbooks.com/articles/article.php?article_id...
>
> >OPEN LETTER TO ARCHBISHOP CHRYSOSTOMOS OF ATHENS
> >Written by Vladimir Moss
>
> ><snipped for merciful brevity>
>
> Good Lord! This is the lunatic extremist Moss writing to one
> schismatic/vagante "bishop" over whether he should have intercommunion
> with another schismatic/vagante "bishop." Now we're getting into
> Twilight Zone territory. What's bizarre is the convert, wannabe
> Tsarist Moss teaching "true Orthodoxy" to the Orthodox. Since when is
> he a mediator among the Orthodox?
Alexo!
You got it!