Byzantine, Texas

 

In the nine thousand or so posts made here and about nineteen thousand comments on those posts, one of the most abiding things I have learned is this. When someone says "Watch out for that guy. You need to be careful about accepting him into your church." they are almost always right. And I can't think of a single jurisdiction that hasn't learned that lesson the hard way. Sometimes the recovery through laicization or forced retirement or move is done quietly and sometimes it is done with much unwanted attention, but you can often see that when faced with a similar decision afterward the particular synod makes the safer choice. There are exceptions to this "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me" education and they are well-known and, for whatever reason, keep happening. ( Orthodox Times ) - An announcement by the Holy Synod of the Church of Albania, on the occasion of the ordination of Fr. Theophan Koja as Bishop of Philomelion, refers to an un...

BOSTON ( TNH ) – The clergy and laity of the Metropolis of Chicago expressed their opposition to the Charter proposed and distributed by Archbishop Elpidophoros in person during their recent meeting on Friday, July 7, 2023. He called the meeting to express his thoughts on a new Charter for the Archdiocese of American, referring to them “his personal” points of view, as he characteristically said. Specifically, at the meeting that took place at the Saints Peter and Paul parish in Chicago, there were about seventy priests from the communities of all the states that comprise the Metropolis. Reportedly, none of the clergy present agreed with what was proposed by Elpidophoros, who repeated what he has said in the past about transparency, the transformation of Metropolises into Districts, better coordination of ministries, and the like. After some questions put to him by the priests, and in order to avoid further exchanges that day, they told him that “our Clergy Association will send a lett...

( ROC ) - In his presentation at the Bishops’ Convocations of 19th July 20203 His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill noted that the Church’s saving ministry throughout her entire history has encountered a hostile power which has acquired and continues to acquire ever new means of countering the mission of the Gospel by appealing to the human passions of ambition, greed, pusillanimity and envy. “ Unfortunately, there are those too who call themselves ministers of God who are not free from the influence of the ‘spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places’ (cf. Ephesians 6.12) that have compelled them into destroying church unity,” said His Holiness. “I mean in the first instance the anti-canonical actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Ukraine which have paved the way for church disorder and to the long-term and at present serious persecution of Orthodox Christians within Ukraine.” As Patriarch Kirill noted, the Patriarchate of Constantinople has become ...

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region ( RUDAW )  - Days after the president of Iraq revoked a decree that formally recognized him as Chaldean patriarch, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako on Saturday announced he is relocating from Baghdad to the Kurdistan Region. “I decided to withdraw from the patriarchal residence in Baghdad… to one of the monasteries in the Kurdistan Region,” read a statement from Sako.  He said his decision was due to the “intentional and offensive” campaign by the Babylon Brigades and the revocation of the presidential decree, which he called “unprecedented” in the history of Iraq.  Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid on July 3 revoked a special presidential decree of 2013 that granted Sako powers to administer Chaldean endowment affairs and officially recognized him as the head of the Chaldean Church. Rashid’s decision came after he met with Rayan al-Kildani, leader of the nominally Christian Babylon Movement, a party and militia affiliated with the pro-Iran Popular Mob...

( SOC ) - THE HOLY SYNOD OF BISHOPS OF THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH ON DAILY POLITICAL THEMES AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION OF CLERGY “…do not take pleasure in listening to gossip or criticisms, or the calumnies, which some people spread about their brethren; but either stop them, if you can, or withdraw, so as not to hear them.” (Unseen Warfare) The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church issued Act No. 606/Min. 390 dated June 6, 2023, brought forth based on Decision No. 57/Min. 99 of the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which states: “When it comes to question of dealing with daily political themes and public participation of clergy – especially criticism regarding the archpastoral work of hierarchs, we kindly ask the Most Reverend and Right Reverend Diocesan Hierarchs to strictly take into account the ecclesiastical tradition and canonical order of the Orthodox Church, which does not allow for the same, as well as consistently adhering to all relevant ...

There was a section in the previous version that had some imprecise wording related to faiths that weren't Orthodox and salvation. It caused a bit of a stir online. I read it as needing some more care and not intentionally misleading or heterodox or even heretical. Do tell me what you think about the edits. ( OCA ) - The Departments of the Orthodox Church in America has released a partially revised version of “Essential Orthodox Christian Beliefs”  (PDF). As reported on June 9, the initial version of Essential Orthodox Christian Beliefs, compiled by the Departments of the OCA, was released. The announcement generated thousands of downloads across the English-speaking world. In fulfillment of the vision for the document to be “periodically refined and perfected,” the 1.1 version revises the second half of Chapter 11, the Orthodox understanding of non-Orthodox and non-Christian religions. “We are grateful for the interest that is being expressed in this groundbreaking project,” state...

Scheduled for July 9 th at 4 PM US Central time.

H/T: Orthochristian ( Albanian Church ) - Tirana July 5, 2023 - From the Secretariat of the Holy Synod Archimandrite Theophan (Arjan) Koja, known to the Orthodox of Albania as a leader of divisive actions, was born in Tirana in 1966. He attended for a while the seminary in Durrës and then went to Romania, where he was ordained a deacon and later a priest. Returning to the country, at the head of a group of ultra-nationalists, on October 8th, 1995, he expelled the celebrants of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy from the Holy Church of the Panagia in the Castle, in the old town of Elbasan. There he installed Nikolla Marku, “ordained” by a schismatic Bishop of the Church of Skopje, under the name “Independent National Albanian Orthodox Church of Saint Maria Elbasan” (Kisha Ortodokse e pavarur Kombetare shqiptare Shen Maria Elbasan). (For an account of this painful divisive action see the journal Ngjallja – November 1995). Thereafter,...

( GOARCH ) - Meeting of the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America participated in the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. His Eminence had the opportunity to brief the participants on the ongoing developments regarding the proposed revision of the Charter of the Archdiocese. His Eminence also proposed to the Holy and Sacred Synod that a Metropolitan be appointed as a hierarch for the current Metropolis of New Jersey. The Synod unanimously agreed.   Big news here. The conventional wisdom had been, following the forced retirement of Met. Evangelos, that Abp. Elpidophoros would consolidate authority and become the sole bishop with authority with auxiliaries under him. Under the existing charter, the hierarch with responsibility for the New Jersey Metropolis must be the Metropolitan of New Jersey. Accordingly, the Holy Eparchial Synod will be convened on July 5th solely ...