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The dark day has come. I know everyone has been hoping to avoid it. You are going to have to learn how to spell Elpidophoros.
All kidding aside, Met. Elpidophoros has been the presumed candidate for years now; groomed by positions given and proximity to His All-Holiness, he was destined to take up an important role in the Ecumenical Patriarchate at any moment. So here we are with a very rushed, unanimous decision made without the necessary consultations from the American Church. On the one side, you can be saddened that this was rammed through a normally methodical and plodding process. On the other side, you can see that this was all arranged well ahead of time and is part of a larger plan.
Googling "Elpidophoros" is going to get you a few results (for those interested he even has a Twitter account). Almost all of them have to do with this hierarch. Many of them have to do with his speaking points vis-à-vis his "first without equals" writings. It was all the rage for discussion in 2014 and 2015 (you can read the original document here [PDF]). I fully expect Russian news sites to once more parse through everything he has written or said in the last decade and post some of the more... strident... bits. As well they should, because running the Greek Archdiocese is one of the most high profile ecclesiastic positions in the world. But divisive bits aside, we also have a wealth of things he has said that we should read not for confirmation of preconceived opinions, but to really understand the cleric. Let us not forget that his name does mean "hopeful" (or "hope-bearer"), so we should pour out a dram of hope and see what the man actually does with the august position.
Many years to the hierarch and God's blessings upon his new flock.
NEW YORK (GOARCH) – The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America announces to the faithful the election of His Eminence Metropolitan Elpidophoros of Bursa as the new Archbishop of America. The official announcement of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in translation follows below:
ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE
Announcement of May 11, 2019
Today, Saturday May 11 2019, the Holy and Sacred Synod, continuing its work, proceeded to fill the vacated seat of the Archdiocese of America following the voluntary resignation of its shepherd, His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios Geron of America.
Therefore, following the suggestion, permission and exhortation of His-All Holiness, the holy synodical members upon invocation of the Holy Spirit, duly casted their votes and unanimously elected as Archbishop of America His Eminence Metropolitan Elpidophoros of Bursa, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Halki and Professor of the Theological School of the Aristoteleian University of Thessaloniki.
From the Secretariat of the Holy and Sacred Synod
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What a disastrously bad selection. The inventor of the first without equals line. An utter disaster for Orthodox Unity in America.
ReplyDeleteThis is not good. He is virulently anti-Russian. He believes that the EP can grant and revoke autocephaly at his own pleasure. He subscribes to the EP as first without equals. This man is an arch-ecumenist and a neo-papist. Lord have mercy on holy Orthodoxy!
ReplyDeleteI just cleaned up after some painting & saw this news. Whoa, I literally feel like I've been suckered punched in the gut, and I don't know whether to throw up, cry or both.
ReplyDeleteI met him once when I drove to St. Vladimir's Seminary (OCA) in NY to hear him give a talk. I went because he had written some incredibly controversial things that I disagreed with, and I spoke with him afterwards. I was surprised that he was rather kind & sincere. However, I believe he's a heretic based upon his ecclesiological innovations, and I'm confident he's one of the people behind Patriarch Bartholomew's warp-speed focus on insisting that Constantinople is the necessary center of the Orthodox Church & that Orthodoxy cannot exist without the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which is rubbish, of course.
I'm not sure I'll be able to suffer continuing on in the GOA, but I'm not sure what to do because there aren't any good options in my neck of the woods. I wish this were merely about Church politics, but is essentially about doctrine & practice, i.e., virtually all facets of ecclesiology (the nature of the Church, the episcopate, authority, primacy, concilarity, etc.)
Christ is risen! Lord, have mercy.
So, it's probably worth going back and reading the Archbishop-elect's greatest hits. Bonus game- try to find if he ever mentions 'Jesus' or 'Christ' without it just being part of a name for the Church of Constantinople:
ReplyDeleteHis enthronement speech as metropolitan of Bursa: http://www.ec-patr.org/docdisplay.php?lang=en&id=1315&tla=en
"Challenges of Orthodoxy in America and the Role of the Ecumenical Patriarchate": http://www.spc.rs/eng/challenges_orthodoxy_america_and_role_ecumenical_patriarchate
"Greek Orthodoxy, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the Church in the USA": http://www.aoiusa.org/greek-orthodoxy-the-ecumenical-patriarchate-and-the-church-in-the-usa
And his no. 1 single, "First Without Equals": https://www.patriarchate.org/-/primus-sine-paribus-hapantesis-eis-to-peri-proteiou-keimenon-tou-patriarcheiou-moschas-tou-sebasmiotatou-metropolitou-prouses-k-elpidophorou
At the 1:50 mark, you will see here as he serves and speaks at a uniate service that he says, "We have two fathers...Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew."
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/zp15aaXPCWM
My guess, this guy has been tasked with “unifying” all the jurisdictions under GOARCH and reporting straight to the Phanar, under the guise of a future Autocephaly, which will probably never come, due to loosing that compilation of revenue from all jurisdictions. See Ukraine for example
ReplyDeleteMetropolitan hilarion
ReplyDelete@HilarionAlfeyev
Metropolitan Elpidofor, the main ideologist of the legalization of the Ukrainian schism and the main hater of the Russian Church in the Patriarchate of Constantinople, became the head of the American Archdiocese. And this is a direct path to the Patriarchate. The restoration of unity seems to be postponed for a long time.
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5:18 AM - May 11, 2019
Time for the Greek parishes to find refuge in the oca as they did 100 years ago. Great news for the oca
DeleteThat’s surely a premature hope. 2020 marks the first half century of OCA Autocephaly under the Tomos granted of Moscow. The Phanariot is sure to conduct a toxic media campaign against the OCA as Russian collaborators against all that just and decent.
ReplyDeleteA Masonic, Ecumenist, Papist agent in service to the Globalist Agenda. Intentionally creating chaos and division among the Orthodox people.
ReplyDelete