Church of the G.O.C. of Greece
The Holy Synod
8 Botsaris Street
121 31 Peristeri
Athens, Greece
January 18/31, 2006
Protocol No. 3223
To: His Eminence Kirikos
Koropi, Attica, Greece
Dear One:
Giving ear to the word of the great Apostle Paul,
who said, "I have become all things to all men, that I may save some,"
(I Cor. 9:22), and bearing always in mind our Episcopal responsibility
as least of the Bishops of the Genuine Orthodox Church, we do not make
any excuse even if this excuse were true, to ignore or reject your
letter, Protocol No. 201/26-10-2005, even though we should have.
We therefore answer this letter after studying what you have written
and having discussed it in the Holy Synod of 14 December 2005, and with
the unanimous decision of the Bishops, we inform you of the following:
In words, you assert that you defend piety and that indeed you struggle
for unity and peace more than anyone else! But in reality, you are
simply commending yourself that you do these things, ignoring the wise
assertion of the Apostle Paul concerning "those who commend themselves"
which states, "They, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing
themselves among themselves, are not wise." (II Cor. 10:12)
We remind you of the words of the Divine Gregory the Theologian who,
speaking precisely concerning piety and peace, which you assert that
you are struggling for, says these things appropriate in this occasion:
"They belong to God and are found close to the Divine who accept and
honor the luminous good of peace and despise and grieve for its
opposite, that is strife. But to the opposite party (of the evil one)
belong they who are aggressive in their manner and attempt to succeed
using strange arguments, and are proud in their shame." (Sixth Sermon
on peace)
These things describe you, who, while you appear as the only one who has
and maintains purely the Apostolic succession, which you received by
our unworthy hands, you forget or are ignorant of, and you hide in any
case, the fact that piety, that is, the unchanged faith of the Holy
Apostles and the Holy Fathers precedes, and after it follows Apostolic
succession. Without the first, that is Apostolic Faith, the second,
that is Apostolic Succession, cannot exist.
Behold, what the same Godbearing Father of the Church and great
theologian teaches in this matter, "Truly this is the par excellance
succession, the identity of faith and the identity of the Throne. The
one is in the name (Throne), while the other is the true succession (faith). And the
successor is not he who forced others to accept him, but he who was
forced to accept. He is not legitimate who transgressed, but he who
was placed. Neither he who believes the opposite, but he who has the
same faith. He who does not understand in this manner the succession,
then we have a succession of health from illness, of light from
darkness, of peace from dizziness, of prudence from imprudence."
(Twenty-first sermon to Athanasius the Great)
And you, beloved, can claim only the name of successor (throne), but not the
fact (faith). For, as we shall say further on, unfortunately you are not any
longer of the same faith, neither with us, nor with the Holy Fathers.
To begin with, therefore, (henceforth) we do not name you with any Ecclesiastical
title, which you had so long as you were in spiritual and
ecclesiastical communion with the rest of the Bishops of the Church of
Christ as an Orthodox Bishop yourself. Besides, you, yourself, refer to
us and to the rest of the Bishops of the Church as "former brethren in
Christ."
We certainly do not do this out of spite. Besides all of this, while
reading your letter and in our answer to this letter, we overlook that
for one more time the former Bishop of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki, kyr
Kirikos, is the self-called District Attorney and Examiner of the
Bishops of the Holy Synod. However, we are not able to overlook, and we
do remind you of the fact, that the Synod of Bishops is the appropriate
authority to deal with Ecclesiastical matters, upon the suggestion of
the Archbishop or other Bishop or Bishops, and having placed these
matters before the Holy Synod makes decisions in each matter and in
each case. The Holy Synod does this using the rule of the Canons and
the Tradition of the Church, having always before them the protection
of the rational flock, and acting conscientiously and with fear of God.
Nor can the Synod of the Bishops give an account to self-called
District Attorneys, a role which, for some time now, the former
Metropolitan of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki and those around him have
assumed, while they serve, through you, their own profit and purposes.
Beyond, however, and above the matters which you call upon in a
diversionary manner, the main matter which exists, and which concerns
you, yourself, is your quarrelsome support of the innovation concerning
"The Communion of the Three Divine Persons as the First Beginingless
Church." This is a matter of Faith, which even in this letter before
us you assert is your own confession of faith. For the Holy Synod's decree concerning this innovation, go here.
We remind you, therefore, of the decision of the Holy Synod of Bishops
of 4 February 2005, by which your "Confession of Orthodox Faith" was
rejected Synodically for the main reason, as the decision states, that
by this confession "there is supported the ecclesiological and
Trinitarian innovation 'concerning the Communion of the Three Divine
Persons' as 'the First Beginningless Church' in support of which you
misquote and misinterpret Scriptural passages and Patristic texts,
while adopting further heresyologies of persons from New Calendarism
and Ecumenism." You were called upon to publicly withdraw "the text of
your confession of Orthodox Faith, and within three months, at the
latest, to reject the aforementioned innovation, confessing the pure
faith of the Holy Fathers, ceasing thereby to scandalize the faithful,
and nullifying the danger of self-separation from the Body of the
Church."
Instead of this, and as an answer, at the expiration of this period,
you chose to reject not the innovation, as you should have, but the
Holy Synod, underlining in that manner your remaining in a cacodoxy as
"your Orthodox confession of faith" thereby essentially cutting
yourself off as a heretic from the Body of the Church.
We tell you, therefore, that already according to the teachings of the
Holy Fathers, you have ceased to be Orthodox because you have taken as
your own the heretical opinion concerning the Holy Trinity as "First
Beginningless Church" of your co-worker and the initiator of this
heretical opinion in our Church, who, foolishly and demonically is
leading you to destruction. Despite the repeated invitations of the
Holy Synod, you never wanted to reject these teachings and come to
yourself. You did not wish, in other words, to reject the heretical
and ecumenistic theory concerning the Holy Trinity and "the Communion
of the Three Divine Persons as the First Beginningless Church," and to
return to the Orthodox teaching of the Holy Fathers of our Church.
If, according to St. Athanasius the Great, he who has fallen from the
Orthodox Truth "is not and cannot be called a Christian." (PG 26,
596A) even more can he not be called a bishop. This is self-evident.
For as St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain writes, "Heretics have no
priesthood. Therefore, their services are but common acts without
grace and sanctification". (Pedalion, pg.91)
But there is yet another reason. After your condemnation of June, 2005
by the Holy Synod, and your tearing away from the Church, you are
without any priestly grace and authority, no longer able to serve the
Divine Mysteries, to ordain clergymen, or in general any priestly act.
It is a basic dogmatic teaching of the Church that outside of Her, the
Grace of the Holy Spirit does not act. The Church has always rejected
all mysteries served outside of Her. Not only those, which are served
incorrect in form, but even those which have kept, unchanged, their
external form.
The unanimous opinion of the Holy Fathers was that wherever is the
Church, there also is the Holy Spirit; and that whoever does not have
the Church as Mother, cannot have God as Father. The Church is the Ark
of salvation as was the Ark of Noah, and outside of Her there is no
life or salvation.
Concerning the above, the Great Basil orders that whoever shall dare to
receive ordination from a bishop who has fallen into heresy, as is your
case, is not worthy to ever be considered an Orthodox bishop. (Letter
VI, P.G. 32, 897AB) A heretical bishop is not a bishop, but a
"wolf-shepherd" according to St. Ignatius the Godbearer. In one of his
letters he writes, "He who says anything other than that which is
accepted, though he be trustworthy, though he fast, though he be
chaste, though he perform signs, though he prophesies, is but a wolf in
a sheep's skin working for the destruction of the sheep." (Letter to
Heron, 1-3)
If, according to St. John Chrysostom, "True teachings concerning God
sanctify the soul." (P.G. 59, 443) then false teachings, heresies and
schisms separate from Christ and lead unto death. The Great Photios
says, "In matters of Faith, even a small error is a sin leading to
death." (P.G. 102, 604) and St. Maximos the Confessor councils, "Let
us guard the great and first medicine of our Salvation, which is the
inheritance of Faith, confessing it with our souls and bodies with
boldness as our Fathers have taught us." (P.G. 91, 465D) as well "as
every man is sanctified by the exact confession of Faith." (P.G. 90,
165A)
We have received from God this inheritance and confession through our
Holy Father Matthew, and we have kept it until today. And we must keep
it until the end, by the Grace of God. But you have distorted it and
betrayed it, that there might be fulfilled the words of the Holy
Apostle Paul that say, "For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine; but after their own desires shall they heap to
themselves teachers having itching ears; and they shall turn away their
hearing from the Truth and shall be turned unto fables." (II Tim. 4:3)
Wherefore, only by returning to the Orthodox Faith and Confession
concerning the Church and concerning the Holy Trinity, and by rejecting
the heretical position concerning the Holy Trinity as "the First
Beginningless Church," which is supported by those who advance the
pan-heresy of ecumenism, will you be able to return to the Unity of
Faith with the rest of the members of the Holy Synod and of the Church
in general. Only then will you have the right to call upon our
Ever-memorable Confessor, Hierarch and Father Matthew, and to say that
you follow his teachings "which are the one direct and unwavering line
of the Holy Fathers." For he struggled for the Traditional Faith and
against all innovation without compromise, and no one was ever found
who was able to accuse him in a matter of Faith.
Contrary to this, you hide or appear to forget that in the Holy Synod
you were accused as supporting a heresy: the ecclesiological and
Trinitarian innovation "concerning the Communion of the Three Divine
Persons as the First Beginningless Church," which, as mentioned before,
you were called upon to reject, confessing the unchanged Faith of the
Holy Fathers; but that you, instead of this, chose to reject the Holy
Synod essentially cutting yourself off as a heretic from the Body of
the Church.
We say these things not to shame you, but from love and a genuine
caring for you and in respect towards the truth which we must confess.
This is the reason that the Church never wanted to minimize your
heresy, despite your frequent attempts to hide them and to misdirect in
this manner the attention of the faithful, in this way imitating the
heretics of the time of the Great Athanasios, concerning whom he
writes, "For they have not the courage to say it aloud, but rather,
they hide their blasphemous words, it being obvious that they know that
this heresy is strange and the opposite of the truth. But because they
hide and are afraid to say it out loud, it is necessary for us to
uncover the impiety and to show forth the heresy." (St. Athanasios the
Great, EPE 10, pg. 51)
Therefore, as a schismatic and as one who supports a heresy, you are
responsible and stand condemned before the Church, which you dare to
replace, declaring yourself as supposedly Her only representative, as
did all who before you, by God's permission, fell away from the truth
of the Faith.
You, your director, and your followers, are not the Church. But "a
synagogue of evil-doers" as says the Great Photios as he writes, "One
is the Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ, no more, not two." All
gatherings and synods, which gather outside of Her, are but "synagogues
of evil-doers. Thus do we true Christians think, thus do we believe,
and thus do we preach." (St. Photios, Against the Heresy of the
Theopaschitae, Letter 284)
This fall of Kyr Kirikos does not surprise us. It is the
consequence of the Grace of Christ having abandoned him as the result
of his repeated and persistent support of the heresy concerning the
Holy Trinity as the First Beginningless Church.
From the time that the Grace of God abandons someone, as in the case of
Lucifer who fell because of his pride and ambition, such a one is led
to schisms as the golden-tongued divine Father says, "Nothing can
divide the Church as a desire to lead. Nothing so incurs the wrath of
God as the division of the Church. Even though we do myriads of good
works, those who divide his Body, shall give account as having divided
the ecclesiastical pleroma." (P.G. 62, 85)
Who would disagree that all of the faithful, but especially the
Shepherds, have the responsibility to remember and to act according to
the exhortation of the Holy Apostle Paul who says, "Now I beseech you
Brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the
doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such
serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words
and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." (Romans 16:17-18)
We have written enough concerning the matter of the former Metropolitan
of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki, kyr Kirikos and unless we receive a letter
of your repentance and confession of the Orthodox Faith, we are not
inclined in the future to revisit this matter, obeying the word of the
Divine Apostle who orders, "A man that is a heretic, after the first
and second admonition reject, knowing that he that is such is
subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself." (Titus 3:10)
Dear one:
"The Lord says, remember therefore, from where thou art
fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I will come unto
thee quickly." (Revelations 2:5)
For the Holy Synod