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 unprecedented reward to someone who “undermines” the unity of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania.According to the announcement of the Holy Synod, this is an unprecedented reward having in mind the unsuitability of this clergyman to shepherd an Orthodox flock.
In fact, it comments that during his ordination yesterday by Archbishop Elpidophoros of America at the Phanar, “he recited the Credo by adding the ‘filioque’.”
The Church of Albania is not the first time that has publicly shown its dissatisfaction with the clergyman in question.
At the beginning of the month, it had expressed “surprise and wonder” about his election as Bishop of Philomelion by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
It referred to himself as a “vanguard of divisive actions” who never apologized for them...
Complete article here.
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I just cant understand this, the Patriarch could have quietly cancelled ordination, he could have made him apologize publicly or privately, or publicly/privately published a letter explaining/defending. Instead your making a bit of an enemy of one our daughter churches. I hope this bishop is a holy man and is God's will for this handful of parishes, but the way this handled was not great and casts a cloud over the entire process and sabotages the new bishop.
ReplyDeleteWe should not pass over the allegation that the filioque was used. That is very serious if true.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a feature of his consecration not a bug. The more insecure and controversial Koja’s episcopacy the better for the Phanariot hegemon.
DeleteAt this point we must assume that the choice of Koja for the two parishes and bookstore that make up the Phanariot satrapy of the Albanian Diocese has been made for the sake of punishing the Albanian Autocephalous Church Under Abp. Anastasios for his noncompliance in the Dumenko ‘Orthodox Church of Ukraine’ adumbration. Abp. Nathaniel Pop of ROEA (OCA Romanian Episcopacy) is also to blame for cosseting this malefactor who alienated a large church in Elbasan that still maintains its schism from the Albanian church. When he should never have been ordained a deacon much less consecrated a bishop, the church is held hostage by bad politics of a Phanar which will never be secure and wholesome.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion is that the EP plan for all lands ‘of the diaspora’ is to multiply ethnic dioceses to emphasize ‘diasporic’ identity to prevent the natural arising of Local Church. It was Bartholomew who quashed Ligonier 1994, for the same reason. The thrust of Phanar activity during his entire tenure is consistently divisive. This gives his office power over ineffectual micro-jurisdictions separates by personal ambitions of influential laymen and careerist clergy like Koja.
It's frustrating, everything you say is true. And everything mentioned can be stopped on a dime. Say no. Do not send a dime to the patriarch. Nothing. Don't reply to calls, email, letters. If he's gone he will not be missed for a minute. Parish and diocese life will go on just fine. He is completely unnecessary.
DeleteTell it to the Archons! Have you noticed that elevations to Protopresbyter and Archimandrite are now termed ‘... of the Ecumenical Throne’? They are doubling down on Phanariotism. It’s the way they promote Hellenism and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople among the donor class that calls the shots in GOARCH. Look at the Charter. It states its goal is to promote Hellenism first, then Orthodoxy. It should come as no surprise. Anyhow 85% of Greek-Americans have already voted with their feet and have nothing to do with GOARCH and the Phanar.
Delete"Anyhow 85% of Greek-Americans have already voted with their feet and have nothing to do with GOARCH and the Phanar."
DeleteLet us be honest and admit this is because they have been *secularized*, *nominalized*, and are otherwise converts to the American Way. They in truth were/are not moving away from the deficiencies of ethno-Orthodoxy, but to the attraction of bourgeois western "values"...
"...everything mentioned can be stopped on a dime. Say no. Do not send a dime to the patriarch....Parish and diocese life will go on just fine. He is completely unnecessary...."
DeleteYet, Orthodoxy does not have an ecclesial *ontology* outside of this highly dysfunctional and anachronistic Patriarchal system that was built for (and should have died with) the Roman Empire. Nobody (lay or clerical) has even the presence of mind to seriously question it, let alone do anything about it. Indeed, almost everyone (particularly those with in leadership) justifies it as God's will, Scriptural, Traditional, etc. "After all" they will say "look at what happened to the western Church".
"I am convinced that the further I depart from him [the Patriarch] and from those like him [the Latin-minded], the closer do I draw near God and all the faithful and the holy Fathers; and the more I am separated from them, by so much more am I united to the truth and the holy Fathers."
ReplyDelete+ St. Mark of Ephesus, PG 160:536