Injudicious, Unauthorized, Inexpert, and Destructive Opinions

The Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul [June 29 / July 12] 2014
To the Clergy and Faithful of the Metropolis of Etna:

Χρόνια Πολλά! Сь Праздником.

Ὁ Κύριος νὰ Σᾶς εὐλογήσει. Господь благословит.
Many Years! The Lord bless you.

I wish all of you a wonderful Feast, an especially important one in the wake of the union of the
Holy Synod of Resistance and the Church of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece, since the
two Saints whom we celebrate today (St. Paul as the Patron of our Holy Synod), in addition to
being paradigms of sanctity, are also perfect models of unity. The two Apostles resolved between
them a dispute in the early Church about the need for Gentiles who converted to Christianity to
adhere to certain Jewish laws. St. Peter proclaimed, in supporting St. Paul's work among the
nations, that there was no distinction between the Jews and Gentiles (and the Apostle James
likewise agreed that no difficulties should be placed in the path of Gentile wishing to become
Christian). Setting aside personal opinion for the sake of the Faith, unity was restored.

I must also, with whatever reluctance, comment on a brewing storm, instigated yesterday, on the
eve of this feast of two of the greatest Apostles, following on almost month-long period of fasting,
by a posting on the Internet that is irresponsible, provocative, and clear evidence of the demonic
nature of both the Internet and the posting itself. Already this morning, we have received protests
and inquiries about this vile, despicable posting, ranging from utter outrage to confusion. As most
of you already know, a website sponsored by a jurisdiction with which we have absolutely no
communion whatsoever hosted this posting, a commentary composed by a "laicized" Old
Calendarist clergyman. In it, he summarizes the ecclesiological statement that served to unite our
former Synod in Resistance and our Sister Churches with the Church of the True Orthodox
Christians of Greece.

In his summary, the individual in question represents the final English version of that
ecclesiological statement, from which he selectively quotes, as a "revision" of the document signed
by our unifying synods, concluding his comments with the following statement, which is wildly
presumptuous and peu judicieux: "In other words, New Calendarists and Ecumenists are heretics,
are outside the Church, and as such, [sic] are without mysteriological Grace." In a spirit of
petulance, this individual dares to offer his one-line précis of a carefully crafted document of some
twelve pages to express what in fact represents his own personal opinions and pet theories. There
follows a collection of commentaries on the posting that characterize our now-united Hierarchs as
virtual "ecclesiastical politicians" and those of us from the former Holy Synod in Resistance as
"Cyprianites" holding to an ecclesiological "heresy." The majority of these commentaries,
spawned by this vapid posting, raise mere petulance to a level of spiritual indecency, poor taste,
and a lack of common manners.

For the record:

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1) The final English translation of the Holy Synod's union document is not a revision of the initial
translation, but an annotated copy of it containing clarifications of terms and phrases that were
either difficult for some to understand or that were misunderstood. I can attest to that fact far more
authoritatively than anyone else, since both translations were made here at our monastery with my
participation and under my oversight.

2) Neither His Grace, Bishop Auxentios nor I—while certainly convinced that ecumenism and
those who consciously approbate a denial of the primacy of Orthodoxy are condemnable and of
the opinion that certain ecumenists have in some cases placed themselves outside the Church—
would ever attach, or have attached, our names to a document saying that "New Calendarists and
Ecumenists are heretics, are outside the Church, and as such, are without mysteriological Grace."
Thus, the claim of the individual who composed the posting in question, that the union document
that we translated can be reduced to such a statement, is bogus and vacuous; moreover, it is made
by someone who enjoys no synodal authority in making the claim that he does.

3) There are spiritually immature individuals who, being incapable of admitting that others may
correctly hold views divergent with their own, would like to see the union of the Greek Old
Calendarists and our Sister Churches through the eyes of those who understand unity in the context
of polemics and contentiousness. They feel it necessary to make their views, often the product of
poor education, poor theology, and a lack of love and inner transformation, the litmus test for
"correct belief" and the criterion of the Truth. Thus, their simplistic opinions, interpretations, and
concepts are incapable of accommodation to the mystical, revealed, lofty, and often nuanced
teachings of Orthodoxy. Not wishing to appear overly offensive, let me retreat into a classical
Latin adage: Ne sutor ultra crepidam. Briefly, for those who are unfamiliar with it, this adage
advises the cobbler to attend to making sandals. It applies wonderfully to many of our self-certified
Orthodox traditionalist theologians.

4) These same individuals also attribute to others their inchoate and essentially political ideological
preoccupations, motivations, and tactics. Again, they are unable to rise above their
fundamentalistic interpretations of ideas that exceed their intellectual and spiritual capacities. In
the realm of the Church, lacking the spirit of piety and respect for their superiors that undergirds
proper ecclesiastical order, they divide the faithful between their friends and enemies, reckoning
as friends those who may share their ideological preoccupations and as enemies those who do not.
Superficially using quotations and excerpts from the Fathers, wholly ignorant of the Patristic mind
and consensus, they use these clumsily and unwisely unearthed gems to support their spiritual
nescience, in the same way that a child uses sand to build castles on the seashore, naively believing
them to be true structures that will stand forever as monuments to his childish inventiveness.

5) I would advise our clergy and faithful to ignore the posting in question as poisonous subterfuge,
to contemplate at great length what I have written in the four points above, pray for the
enlightenment and repentance of the individual who made this ill-advised posting, and avoid, as I
have consistently advised, irresponsible websites such as the one on which it appeared, as well as
the writings of reckless, impetuous individuals who, without peer review, make claim to insight
and knowledge that they simply do not have. The "cancer" of gossip in the Church, as Metropolitan
Cyprian of blessed memory so aptly called it, works in the minds and souls of such "experts,"
feeding their cognitive and spiritual malignancies with false piety, delusions of spiritual grandeur,

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and notions of a self-assigned sense of authority that is best served when intelligent, pious
Orthodox give it no more than the attention it deserves; viz., none.

If someone should fault me for addressing this issue, and perhaps harshly at that, I would point out
that it is my pastoral responsibility to do so; that one must, at times, clarify for the innocent
Christian materials that destructive Christians, under the sway of delusion, circulate; and that I
most assuredly take no delight in chastising others, paying, in fact, an immense price for doing so
by way of the slander, personal attacks, and disgusting epithets that my honesty earns me.*
Nonetheless, though I do not— being just one Bishop among many—have the authority to do so,
I would not hesitate for a moment to excommunicate anyone who took it.

Finally, I would also like to make our clergy and faithful aware of the fact that, should anyone
among you use our ecclesiological principles to attack our brothers who hold different views and
opinions, at least while I am still in the office of authority that I do hold, you will indeed be called
to repent publicly as an enemy of Church unity, as one possessed of demonic arrogance, and as a
schismatic in spirit. If you do not do so, and you are a clergyman, you will be suspended; if a
layman, you will be excommunicated. This is a free country. Anyone can say anything he wants,
thank God. The Church, however, is the realm of freedom through restraint. A member of the
Church must feel and be restrained by humility, obedience, love for the Faith, and a sense of duty
to the Church. Imposing the yoke of holy freedom, which does not act from ego and with the desire
to destroy unity, the Church acts always for the good estate of the Christian pleroma.

I am sorry that I have had to speak as I have. But that sorrow will never exceed my lamentation at
the ascendency of opinions and ideas offered by individuals who lack the education, spiritual
experience and maturity, and authority to speak as though they were true confessors of the Faith.
As for websites and "news agencies" that publish such rubbish as that which I am now addressing,
and thus help to destroy good Christians and good work, what can one say? They sponsor what is
old, ugly, demeaning, and cheap. What is new is the peace of the Gospel.

Least Among Monks,

† Bishop Chrysostomos
Metropolitan of Etna

* In so speaking, I am acutely aware of the fact that I reap spiritual benefits from those who react
so vulgarly against me for speaking with candor. They are, I must admit, in many ways my greatest
benefactors. In fact, knowing this to be true, I can more easily endure the consequences of acting
as I must when duty demands.

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 INITIAL RESPONSE TO THE COMMON ECCLESIOLOGY STATEMENT
Source (since deleted): http://nftu.net/revised-ecclesiological-document-released/

Posted by Anastasios Hudson on Jul 10, 2014

Revised Ecclesiological Document Released

On July 9, 2014 (n.s.) the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece, under the
Presidency of His Beatitude Archbishop Kallinikos, re-released the ecclesiological document The
True Orthodox Church and the Heresy of Ecumenism – Dogmatic and Canonical Issues, in English
translation, replete with clarifying footnotes. The Greek version was re-released some weeks
earlier.
Originally published in March, this document was the basis for the union of the former Synod in
Resistance with the Church of the GOC of Greece under Archbishop Kallinikos, and with it the
union with the sister Churches of the SiR, the Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Romania and the
Russian Orthodox Church Abroad under Metropolitan Agafangel. Owing to some confusion over
the phraseology and to avoid unnecessary contention, the document was pulled and a revision
promised. Of note in this new version are the forty-nine footnotes, which provide sources,
definitions, and clarifications.
The most misunderstood passage occurs at Section VI.6 and states:
More specifically, with regard to the Mysteries celebrated in the so-called official
Orthodox Churches, the True Orthodox Church does not provide assurance concerning
their validity or concerning their soteriological efficacy, in particular for those who
commune “knowingly” [wittingly] with syncretistic ecumenism and Sergianism, even
though She does not in every instance repeat their external form for those entering into
communion with Her in repentance, in anticipation of the convocation of a Major Synod
of True Orthodoxy, in order to place a seal on what has already occurred at a local level.
Some had interpreted the statement, “the True Orthodox Church does not provide assurance
concerning their validity or concerning their soteriological efficacy” to mean that the Church does
not know whether New Calendarists and Ecumenists have Grace in their Mysteries (Sacraments),
and saw this as a softening of the GOC’s position as stated in its encyclicals of 1935, 1950, and
1974. The reposed president of the Synod in Resistance, Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Fili,
held to a view that New Calendarists were in error, but maintained Grace until a condemnation by
an Ecumenical Synod, a position similar to the position of ROCOR in the 1970s. As such, the
above statement was seen as a diplomatic compromise and weakening of the truth.
However, such an interpretation would mean that all that was said in previous paragraphs in the
document was overturned, because the document follows a logical progression where heresy and
schism is defined, that heretics are outside the Church and without Grace is made clear, and finally
New Calendarists and Ecumenists are categorized as heretics. In context, Section VI discusses the
reception of heretics and the principle of Economy, most eloquently elucidated by St. Nikodemos

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the Haghiorite in the Pedalion, and paragraph 6 in context is stating that the reception of New
Calendarists by economy (i.e. by means other than baptism) does not provide an assurance that
they are therefore in the Church, or that their baptism “counted” per se. The revised document
makes this explicit in footnotes 36-43, especially in footnote 39, which states:
“Provide assurance”: that is, assert as sure and indisputable, assert emphatically and
absolutely, certify, guarantee. • The meaning of this paragraph should be sought in
conjunction with that of the preceding five paragraphs, and not in isolation.
and in footnote 41, which states:
“At a local level”: by this is meant whatever has been properly and correctly done by local
Synods of True Orthodox Churches. This paragraph is to be interpreted and elucidated as
follows: When it so happens that the True Orthodox Church, in the case of those returning
and entering into Her, does not repeat the external form of the Mysteries of the so-called
official Orthodox Churches, She does not indicate thereby that She affirms their
Mysteriological, internal, or soteriological validity.
and finally, in footnote 42, which states:
With regard to the innovating ecumenists, the rupture of the “bond between confession,
Catholicity, and communion” mentioned here is already a fact and a reality, with all that
follows therefrom.
In other words, New Calendarists and Ecumenists are heretics, are outside the Church, and as such,
are without mysteriological Grace.