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Western Orthodoxy Restored A Short History - VLADIMIR MOSS
Western Orthodoxy Restored A Short History - VLADIMIR MOSS
The Beginning
The Catholic truth has been preserved by the Orthodox Catholic Church, whilst
Roman Catholicism introduced innovations both in doctrine and discipline into the
old common deposit of truth. "No Popery" was a cry raised in the East five
centuries before the Reformation propagated it to the West. "No Popery! No
Protestantism!" is our cry, and we hope to awake all who seek after truth based on
a solid foundation, based on the Church which Christ founded and not man.
The Church has many branches. There is an Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church,
and there is a Western Orthodox Catholic Church (although now disfigured by
Romish errors, but to be purified and restored by God's help). Within the Eastern
Church there is a Greek, a Russian Church. Within the restored Orthodox Catholic
Church of the West there will be an Italian, a Gallican, a Germanic, an Anglican
Church. Every nationality will have its Catholic Orthodox Church according to its
national usages, but based on the common Catholic doctrine and holy canons.
Without the full truth there can be no claim to Catholicity. He who accepts one
truth and denies the other, or sticks to one truth as being fundamental, and
1
dispenses with others as being accessory, or unimportant, or doubtful, or even
injurious to sound belief—such a one is no Catholic 2.
2
Church agreed with his assertion, and provisionally allowed for a
purified Roman Mass to be used.
Many of the "Old Catholics", a group that had formed in protest of the
false dogma of Papal Infallibility, looked to Orthodoxy for their
protection, and this grouping was mentioned in the Patriarchal
Encyclical of 1895, in response to Pope Leo XIII on reunion with Rome,
as follows:
With these and such facts in view, the peoples of the West, becoming gradually
civilized by the diffusion of letters, began to protest against innovations, and to
demand (as was done in the fifteenth century at the Councils of Constance and
Basle) the return to the ecclesiastical constitution of the first centuries, to which,
by the grace of God, the orthodox Churches throughout the East and North,
which alone now form the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ, the
pillar and ground of the truth, remain, and will always remain, faithful. The
same was done in the seventeenth century by the learned Gallican theologians,
and in the eighteenth by the bishops of Germany; and in this present century of
science and criticism, the Christian conscience rose up in one body in the year
1870, in the persons of the celebrated clerics and theologians of Germany, on
used in documents, Councils of the Western Church, &c., would remain the Latin.
The sacerdotal garments (now partly curtailed and disfigured) to be restored to their
primitive Western shape and simplicity. No opera-music, but the dignified Gregorian
chant. Only icons to be used in Church. The Horae canonicae to be purified from
Romish stain; and to be said in full length by the Regular Clergy (Monks), but "ritu
paschali" by the Secular clergy."
3
account of the novel dogma of the infallibility of the Popes, issued by the Vatican
Council, a consequence of which rising is seen in the formation of the separate
religious communities of the old Catholics, who, having disowned the papacy, are
quite independent of it.5
4
Syrian Monophysites, which ended with Vilatte's union with Rome.
5
The incalculable amount of damage Meletios Metaxakis singlehandedly
brought into the Church through his introduction of the New Calendar,
as well as his ecumenical reforms, is well-known enough that it
requires no space here8.
For our purposes, only one thing is needed for notation here: Meletios
single-handedly attempted to change the Orthodox Church's view on
the "validity" of the Anglican Episcopate, recognizing them as part of
the Church9. For the Anglicans in America, their ultimate goal would
be stated at their meeting in St Louis, Missouri, confirming Meletios'
proclamation:
If all concur, Episcopal Bishops can have oversight of Greek parishes here when
there is no Greek Bishop and the Greek Hierarchy so requests, and there can be
other interchanges of assistance. ("Eastern Patriarch recognizes Bishops", The
New York Times, Sept. 17, 1922)
8 The author recommends the following: Macris, George P. 1986. The Orthodox Church
and the ecumenical movement during the period 1920-1969. Seattle, Wash: St. Nectarios
Press.
9 In fact, at least two national “official Churches” continue to recognize Anglican
orders as a result of those attempts:
http://anglicanhistory.org/orthodoxy/ru_doc_1937.html and here:
http://orthodoxanglican.net/downloads/cyprus.pdf
6
Meanwhile, the Church in Russia was undergoing a far worse trial: the
Communists had martyred the Tsar of Russia, and were intent on
turning Russia into an atheist state. Already they had created a
renovationist "living Church" to destroy the official Church under the
newly-restored Patriarchate under St Tikhon of Moscow. The Russian
Synod was collapsing, and agents of the Soviet State, under the aegis of
the "Living Church", were attempting to destroy the Orthodox Mission
in America. The renovationist reforms of the "Living Church" were not
lost on Meletios and his Anglican allies, who chose to recognize the
renovationists as the official Church of Russia, and "deposed" the
Patriarch at the "Pan-Orthodox Council" of 1923.
7
In Greece, the situation was significantly different. After the
Archbishopric of Athens imposed the New (Papal) Calendar upon the
people, many refused to attend the state Churches. In 1924, a miracle
confirmed the faith of the people: a cross appeared in the sky that
could be seen for many miles during the feast of the exaltation of the
Holy Cross. By 1935, three Bishops had left the state Church to form
the True Orthodox Church of Greece.
This made perfect sense; the Russian Church had historically placed
Churches in the West under her jurisdiction for some time. The
missionary work of St Innocent of Unalaska (later Metropolitan of
Moscow) and St Tikhon of America (later Patriarch of Russia) had
created Western parishes in the Americas; by the turn of the 19th
century, there were Russian parishes throughout the Americas, as well
as Europe. Russian theologians showed a keen interest in restoring
Orthodoxy throughout the West up until the time of the revolution,
and by the 1930's, the Russian Church Abroad had established even
more parishes for emigre Russians on western soil.
8
to turn to Russia, although Soviet. And the Russians were happy to
oblige. By the 1950's, dozens of Western-rite (mostly in France) and
mixed-use parishes had formed under the Moscow Patriarchate in
Europe and America, using the Roman ritual as clarified by Overbeck.
The work of Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) in England and Archbishop
John (Wendland) of the Moscow Patriarchate bore substantial fruit in
terms of restoring ancient usages among the parishes. In America,
Archbishop John of the Patriarchate allowed the use of Rome and
Sarum, as well as Mozarabic ritual in Western rite parishes.
Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) ordained Fr Eulogius (Hessler) using
the Ambrosian Rite of Milan.
The reasons for the Soviet Patriarchate taking such a deep interest in
Western rites seems at times unclear. Archbishop John (LoBue) of the
Milan Synod's Eastern Archdiocese, speculates that in fact, while
Archbishop John of the Patriarchate had been doing a good work, it
seemed to have been driven not so much by fidelity to the canons (as
even the Western Orthodox tradition was at times ignored for what
was popular, such as in the case of the use of the New Calendar) as he
was by getting as many parishes under the control of the Patriarchate
as possible. Whatever the case may be, with the rise of the Second
Vatican Council, many more parishes, this time disaffected Roman
Catholics, joined the Patriarchate, in the heart of the Roman Church
itself-- in Italy and Western Europe. In the heyday of ecumenism, this
could not last forever.
9
Vladimir Moss, no friend of the Milan Synod, acknowledges what
transpired with Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) in an open letter of
June, 2008:
....Some Italian parishes in Sardinia came under his omophorion when he was
exarch for Western Europe. However, these former papists in their zeal for
Orthodoxy began to attack the Pope. Then Metropolitan Anthony (as he told me
personally) received a phone call from Metropolitan Juvenaly of Tula (Agent
“Adamant”). “Drop your Italian parishes”, said Juvenaly. “We are having
negotiations with the Pope over the uniate question, and he has laid it down as a
condition of the success of the negotiations that you drop these parishes.” So he
dropped them...10
10 Moss, Open Letter to Valery Lukianov, June 2008. Moss argues that the parishes went
to the Cyprianites. This only partially is true in the case of Sardinia, but not all of
Italy, and there was no official "Cyprianite" body until much later.
11 Pogodin, Archimandrite Alexis, Appendices, Vestnik Russkogo Khristianskogo
vizheniya (Messenger of the Russian Christian Movement) Paris-New York,
Moscow, Nos. 173 (I-1996) and 174 (II-1996/I-1997). The Patriarchal Synod’s
decision was on Dec. 16, 1969 and confirmed in the Journal of the Moscow
Patriarchate in 1983.
10
In America, the situation was somewhat different, due to the intense
jurisdictional splitting that occurred in the 1920's and 1930's.
Independent Bishops were on the rise, due to the actions of the Soviet-
sponsored "Living Church" and members of the "Holy Eastern
Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church of North America". This body
would have other effects on American Orthodoxy, through the
elevation of Ignatius (Nichols), a Western Rite Bishop who would
proceed to consecrate more Bishops with the help of the Living
Church12. This fact, combined with waves of immigration from other
countries, created even more jurisdictions in America, that made the
average American convert confused as to where to turn.
In 1934, Father William (Francis Brothers) asked and was granted the
freedom to act as an Orthodox "Old Catholic" Bishop by the Soviet
Patriarchate, and was made a Bishop, like many others during this
chaotic period, at St Nicholas Cathedral, by now a hotly disputed New
York property among the Russians. Father Raphael Johnson, a writer in
the Milan Synod who has studied the life of the Synod's American
Bishops in depth, briefly explained what occurred:
12 Despite miserable attempts on the part of the official Churches to rehabilitate the
memory and work of Abp Aftimios Ofiesh and Ignatius Nichols, the fact remains that
both men, consecrated as Bishops, married (requiring the canonical deposition from
office which in fact occurred), and ended with Nichols consecrating a number of
strange individuals to the "episcopate", such as two Rosicrucians, George Winslow
Plummer, and Stanislaus DeWitow. From this proud "heritage" came Bishop
Alexander Turner, whose group then became part of the Antiochian Diocese in
America, with Turned being accepted as a simple priest, thus necessitating such work
in rehabilitation.
11
Orthodox Cathedral in New York in 1934 and received into the Russian Orthodox
Patriarchate. William was then named exarch for the western rite under the
Patriarchate of Moscow. However, it was through the recently emigrated Bishop
+Palladios that William left the KGB dominated hierarchy and repented of his
association with them. Like the fraudulent “autocephaly” for the OCA, the
Patriarchate (at the time under Alexei I) was using the fact that America,
English speaking western rite Orthodox were under the “care and protection” of
the Moscow Patriarchate as a means of manipulating global opinion. In fact, the
entire purpose of resurrecting the “patriarchate” during World War II was to
legitimize the liquidation of dissenting faithful and to place a face upon the
assault on Orthodoxy that the Soviet Secret Police had been engaging in since
1921. By the time the Patriarchate was resurrected by Stalin in 1944, +William
wanted out, and Palladios wanted to receive him.
12
parishes-- which were now incorporated as the "Synod of Orthodox
Bishops of the Western Rite" through the assistance of Abp Palladios
(Rudenko)-- who, with Abp William, elevated of a set of traditional
Western Orthodox Bishops, ceased communications with
Constantinople in 196914.
It was only shortly thereafter that this Church, now isolated and
reduced in size, began delving into the work of studying, translating
and promoting pre-schismatic Western ritual, which finally bore fruit
in the early 1990's with the publication of complete service texts of the
Sarum15 use of the Roman Rite, the first complete service books in the
West which far predated the Tridentine ritual and reflected pre-schism
Orthodox Western use.
14 It was also in this year that Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky) of ROCOR both
wrote the first Sorrowful Epistle, and officially recognized the consecrations of the
Greek Old Calendarists' Bishops at the hands of ROCOR Bishops.
15 The Sarum use of the Roman Rite is a collection of local uses dating back to the mid-
11th century, the time of the schism between East and West.
13
Auxentios in 1978, he was immediately recieved in and baptized (as
was common in Greek practice.) He was then reordained by
Archbishop Auxentios before being made a Bishop of the newly-
established diocese of Lisbon on June 18, 1978 by Archbishop
Auxentios, along with three other Bishops of the Synod: Maximos of
Kephalonia, Gerasimos of Thebes, and Kallinkos of Lamia. 16
16 Vladimir Moss, in a number of documents, makes two claims that we will deal with
individually. On the one hand, Moss claims that Fr Joao Rosha was upset with the fact
that no Portuguese diocese was created in ROCOR. Certainly this would not be
enough to have the True Orthodox Church of Greece not only accept in Fr Joao, but
then suddenly consecrate him Bishop for Portugal. The answer can be found in the
fact that Fr Joao likely recognized, as Moss himself does in other publications, that
Archbishop Anthony of Geneva was, at the time, a rare but very involved ROCOR
ecumenist (Fr Alexander Lebedeff pointed out that Archbishop Anthony went as an
observer to the Second Vatican Council), and would do little that would upset the
Roman Church.
14
waste by the Moors in 716. There were Bishops of Lisbon during the
Mozarabic period, but it is unclear as to whether they could take
possession of their sees. The restoration of the diocese of Lisbon was in
1147, well after the great schism. (The elevation of the "Patriarchate"
did not occur until centuries after the great schism). Secondly, unlike
previous elevations of Bishops by the Orthodox in Western Europe,
which were more along the lines of national embassies in Roman or
Protestant countries, this was specifically the erection of a parallel
Orthodox see in a Roman country, which had significant missionary
progress.
Thus, for the first time since the Roman schism of 1054, the parties in
question applied Canon CXIX of Carthage, which states:
It seemed good that if anyone after the laws should convert any place to
Catholic unity and retain it for three years without opposition, it should not be
15
taken away from him afterwards. If however there was during those three
years a bishop who could claim it and was silent, he shall lose the opportunity.
But if there was no bishop, no prejudice shall happen to the see, but it shall be
lawful when the place that had none shall receive a bishop, to make the claim
within three years of that day.
16
Bp Tiago of Coimbra
The Portuguese Bishops acted quickly, and with the blessing of their
First-Hierarch: On the 9th and the 23rd of September (Old Style), the
17
Bishops elevated Bishop Eulogius to the see of Milan, Italy and Bishop
Gregorio (Bacolini, +January 20, 1997 OS) to the see of Turin, Italy.
On September 27, 1984, sixty-nine years after the Miracle of the Cross
in Athens, the Archbishop blessed the Western European Church, with
a tomos of autonomy:
I, Auxentius, by God’s grace Archbishop of Athens and all Greece, acting within the
boundaries of our territory of Western Europe (which I created on June 7, 1978) have
decided to give permission to the Metropolia of Portugal, Spain and Western Europe to
govern itself, having as their principal headquarters the God-protected metropolitan city
of Lisbon. This Metropolis will be under the direction of the GOC of Greece.
P.S. The above Metropolitan with his vicar bishops is obliged to present himself to the
Hierarchical Synod each October17.
18
On October 31, 1987, the Synod consecrated Bishop Vigile to the see of
Paris, France, giving the Autonomous Western European Metropolia
seven Bishops by the end of 1987.
19
America and Canada
18 The Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate continues to the present day to present Roman
Catholic and Protestant services with minor modifications as “Orthodox”.
Unfortunately, this can also be found now in the parishes of the ROCOR that joined
with the Moscow Patriarchate.
20
body which refrained from communion with innovators, communion
and contacts with other Traditionalists increased, while “liberals” in
the Synod grew increasingly vexed with a rise of Traditional Orthodox
behavior in Europe and America, consequently making deals with
certain World Orthodox quarters to come under their protection. The
past few years have thus seen the original Synod now split into two
parts: one small and submissive to the Moscow Patriarchate,
destroying Her mission of Free Orthodox Traditionalist Parishes in the
Western Lands, and the other establishing and strengthening Her
communion while preserving her missionary spirit.
21
Seraphimo-Gennadite Catacomb Bishop in Bukovina, which is split
between Romania and Ukraine, full communion was established with
his Metropolitanate as well.
How admirable Your Gifts are, Our All-Holy Mother Theotokos, we could
rightfully cried our towards Her, for the Lavish Grace She granted us during this
period of time!
As all of the Ecclesiastic World already know, our Holy Synod was established by
the Will of God, obviously, since we had made everything possible in our powers
to find out a viable ecclesiastic course. Since then, we proceed very carefully and
after much of prayer, having the tactic of the "Open Door", like Apostle Paul used
to do. As a result, we are -first of all- in the pleasant position to announce that
the Hierarchs consisting our Holy Synod, are already 7, after the join ing of two
famous (for their spiritual work) Caucasian Hierarchs: Metropolitan of Abhazia
and Sconditsky IOATHAM and (future-be) Metropolitan of Tbilishi and
Khartlinsky CHRISTOPHOR. But for them there will be an extended article in the
near future...
22
A big, wide opened and very clear Door, has been opened for us, with the Blessing
of our Lord. His almighty Hand, led us in an Historical Ecclesiastic Communion.
Here is the Chronicle of this unique event:
In the beginning of February, our Metropolitan together with His Vicar, Bishop
Porfyrios of Martyropolis, visited Moscow especially for this matter. Because,
since the middle January, we had a very immediate and clear proposition for
Ecclesiastic Communion, coming from the Legendary Catacomb Church
(nowadays Genuine Orthodox Church of Russia) under the Omoforion of His
Sanctity, Metropolitan Raphael. Being to Moscow, we were proposed to discuss
face to face this issue.
In the first place, the Archisecretary of this Holy Synod, Archimandrite Daniel,
visited us to our Hotel and gave to us all the documents about the Russian Synod.
Being satisfied with what he read, our Metropolitan agreed to proceed further
more.So, we continued our discuss, at the Director's of Foreign Affairs,
Metropolitan Sergii's resident. His Eminence proposed we arrange a Co-
Celebration. After a short discussion, we ended up like this:
And first of all, a few words for the Russian Church itself.
This very church, is coming from the historic Church of Catacombs. The CC was
23
founded by two Metropolitans: Joseph of Petrogrand and Kyril Smirnof, with the
written permission of St Patriarch Tychon. Joseph and Kyril were exeuted in
1937. (They recently Canonized as SAINTS by the Russian Patriarchate). Then,
other Churches from Abroad, helped them by concecrating Bishops for them.
Such Churches were, Ukrainian Autocephalous Church, Patriarchate of Georgia
even the ROCOR (Metr. Vitalii). Nowadays' Bishops, come from this very line,
having canonical succession. As a proof, the Russian state has recognized the
canonicity of this particular Synod, by registering it, which is a unique act of
recognition!
Finding out all these, our Metropolitan was pleased enough to give his blessing
for the first Co-celebration. Thus, on 26 of March, we (the present Holy Synod)
under the leadership of our Father, went to the International Hellenic Aeroport
to welcome the Russian Delegation, consisting of :
The next day, Sunday of Cross Veneration, the majestic event of the impressive
Co-Celebration occured.
During the Matins, the ritual of Signing the Document of Agreement for
Communion, took place. Metropolitan Sergii on behalf of the Russian Church and
24
Bishop Porfyrii on behalf of the Greek Church, signed the Document, after His
Beatitude our President Mgr Angelos, blessed the Communion by reading a
special prayer.
The Metropolitan of New York shall perform his holy duty to the churches,
communities and parishes which would be directed to him and his brother
Hierarchs of the Metropolis. This Metropolis will be under the primacy of the
Orthodox Metropolitan Church of Milan and Aquileia.
25
We further nominate and bless the present ruling Archbishop of New York, the
Archbishop John as the First Hierarch of the Autonomous Orthodox Metropolitan
Church of North and South America and the British Isles of the Synod of Milan
and Aquileia, and bequeath to him the rank of Metropolitan and the appellation
of His Beatitude.
This has been done in our Holy Synod for Western Europe the day of the
celebration Saint Evloghios, Pope and Patriarch 26/13 - II - 2011.
Evloghios I
First Hierarch of the Holy Synod
Archbishop of Milan and Metropolitan of Aquileia
Primate
With the Tomos in hand, the new Metropolitan began the dual task of
strengthening the bonds of communion between Milan's regional
Sister-Churches in Greece, Russia, and Bulgaria, as well as defining
certain requirements for new clergy entering into the Synod, such as
the formal rejection of ecumenism, modernism, and Sergianism.
Although Metropolitan John had made his position clear concerning
refusal to commune with World Orthodoxy for a number of years, the
American Dioceses had long had a largely quiet dispute between the
traditionalists and modernists looking for an Old Calendarist Synod to
gain the appearance of legitimacy, the silent battle only rearing its
head publicly occasionally on the Internet.
26
The Synod eventually learned the extent of the organization of the
modernists: approximately a half-dozen clergy were working to try to
bring the Synod under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate
without the knowledge of the Bishop. What appeared to be a random
group of modernists in the Metropolia were in fact an organized body,
in some cases secretly commemorating Metropolitan Hilarion of the
Moscow Patriarchate (in one case for a couple of years) 19.
Milan Responds
27
branch. Further, on certain social networking sites, Archbishop
Abundius highlighted television interviews between himself and
reporters in Romania discussing the need for recognition of
homosexuality in Ortodoxy20.
28
taking place through the “independent” ROCOR-Moscow Patriarchate
Bishops21. Further, Metropolitan Evloghios, according to phone
conversations with Greek and American Bishops, indicated that he had
no control over these actions and nothing to do with them; further he
stated he never had any intention of breaking communion with
anyone.
By June, discussions began over how to ultimately deal with Milan and
the European Synod's sudden moves to be received into the Soviet
Patriarchate. On June 25/July 8, 2011, lacking any options in the face of
the brazen support which the Synod in Italy now showed towards the
Sergianist Moscow Patriarchate, the True Orthodox Church of the
Patristic Calendar officially ended her communion with the Milan
Synod.
21 Although the word of negotiations were public on the Milan Synod's websites, the
only person receiving in clergy from the Milan Synod appears to be Metropolitan
Hilarion of ROCOR.
29
True, Ancient Western Orthodox Christianity Today: An
Invitation to the True Church of Jesus Christ
But this does not answer the question: which Western Orthodox
comprise the True Church? Do not despair! In the midst of confusion
over what is the True Church of the West, one need only look to the
Church Fathers to see the answer, for St Vincent of Lerins clarified it
best and for all times in the Commonitorium:
Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken,
that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by
30
all. For that is truly and in the strictest sense “Catholic,” which, as the
name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all
universally. This rule we shall observe if we follow universality,
antiquity, consent. We shall follow universality if we confess that one
faith to be true, which the whole Church throughout the world confesses;
antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is
manifest were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers;
consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the
consentient definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of
almost all priests and doctors.
Thus, having Tradition as our sure guide, we invite all of those in the
West who seek the True Church to return to Her and to rejoice in the
Truth (1 Cor 13:6). We invite all Westerners to return to their ancestral
home, in the traditions that nourished their forefathers before the
Western schism, to receive the Body of Christ, the medicine of
Immortality, who, as Our True Shepherd, for love of the sheep, went to
face the death which was threatening the sheep, that being himself captured
he might by new device lead captive the Devil, who is the author of death;
being conquered, might conquer; being slain, might punish; and by dying
might open to the sheep a way of conquering death (St Gregory
Chrysologus)
31
For more information about True Western Orthodox Churches in North
America, call or write:
http://western-orthodox.info
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