Due to some erroneous interpretations of the document from the
Serbian Hierarchs to the Holy Synod of the Greek GOC in October of last year
(1/16 October 2015)
http://serbiantrueorthodox.blogspot.rs/2015/11/petition-for-establishment-of-canonical.html
, we consider it needful to clarify the Petition itself along with our position
in regards to this entire matter. Namely, among certain circles both here in
Serbia and abroad some assert that we Serbian hierarchs came to the Greek GOC
in repentance for causing a schism and supposedly asked that the Greek GOC
receive us back into their jurisdiction.
The very title of our petition, however, should answer the two questions
which are posed in the title of this text. From the title of the petition it is
clear that one Local Church is initiating entry into communion with another
Local Church. Furthermore, in the text of the Petition itself the word schism
is never used.
The contents of the Petition exclusively concern the cessation
of communion between two Local Churches along with a list of the reasons why
this break took place. In the spirit of
humility, the Petition attributes the
fault for the break in communion entirely to the Serbian Hierarchs without any
kind of accusations directed at the other side. This self-blame is despite the
fact that the other side’s unbending position, that the Serbian Orthodox people
and the Serbian Church should be under the Greek Church, is in large part the
cause of the situation.
The Petition seeks to establish communion between two
independent Local Churches with the same confession of faith and canonical
episcopacy, based on the Lord’s commandment that unity in love between His
disciples is one of the main confirmations of true loyalty to Him and His
Divine Will. In this spirit, we Serbian Hierarchs, zealous to fulfill the
commandment for the unity of the Church, humbly address our brother Greeks with
a petition to “do everything we can together in order to establish canonical
unity between our two sister churches to the glory of God.” As the foundation
for beginning to establish canonical unity between our two Churches we offer
our sincere repentance for the actions which we took of our own will in the
vital interests of the Serbian Church and the Serbian Orthodox people. These
actions were taken after several years of seeking a solution, during which we
tried every means possible to come to an agreement with the Greek
hierarchs. Thus, we repent exclusively
for the self-willed nature of our actions, in entering into communion with the
Russian True Orthodox Church (without
the brotherly agreement of the Greek Church) and receiving help from them in
renewing a canonical episcopate. It
should be recalled that the Greek TOC recognized the Russian TOC as the
canonical Russian Church which completely preserves a True Orthodox confession
of faith. Along with this repentance, in the Petition forgiveness is sought
“for any rough and hurtful words which we may have said or published” during
the polemics about a solution for the canonically unresolved (destroyed) status
of the Serbian Church. The Petition does
not contain a request that the Greek GOC hierarchs receive us under their
omophorion after we seek repentance for schism.
This idea cannot be found in any part of the Petition.
Let us mention something else. When my unworthiness went to a
preliminary discussion in Athens in the Greek GOC Synod office (Oct. 12,2015)
about our initiative to establish canonical communion between the Serbian and
Greek TOC, His Beatitude Archbishop Kallinikos and several metropolitans and
bishops were present. From the very
beginning of the conversation one metropolitan wisely and concretely asked me
what position I was addressing them from: was it as an ex-member of their
clergy who sought to be received back into the jurisdiction of their Church, or
as the representative of another autocephalous Church which sought communion
with their Church? My answer was
unmistakably clear: that I was coming as the representative of the
autocephalous Serbian TOC which is seeking to establish canonical communion
with the Greek TOC.
My answer was accompanied by an explanation, especially brought
forward because of the presence of new bishops (from the former Synod in
Resistance) who most likely were not familiar with our old problems. I mentioned that, in the beginning of 1995 as
believers (monks) of the Serbian Church we had already joined the Greek TOC in
the monastery of Esfigmenou on the Holy Mountain, as a result of the apostasy
of the Belgrade Patriarchate into the heresy of ecumenism and the apostasy of
Sergianisim. From the very beginning we
sought help from the Greek Church to accept the temporary administration of the
widowed Serbian Church. This implied brotherly help in the rebirth of Orthodoxy
in Serbia for which the establishment of a canonical episcopate was an
imperative. According to canonical
guidelines, the administration of one widowed eparchy (or in this case, Church)
must be of an absolutely temporary nature.
The canons strictly forbid lengthening the period of the temporary
administration in order to prevent abuse.
The duration of this temporary administration is strictly defined in
order to prevent the help turning into the abuse of episcopal authority by
taking over the church entrusted to it.
However, after fifteen years of the Greek Church’s
administration of the widowed Serbian Church, except for the help which they
did give, which was indeed meaningful and for which we are truly grateful, not
only did the Greek Church not fulfill the basic task of administration but they
even, against the canons, gave themselves the right to take the Serbian Church
and its entire territory under their own jurisdiction. To the disadvantage of the freedom and the
vital interests of the Serbian Church, they insisted on the inviolability of
their authority. When the Serbian
clergy, monastics and believers opposed this uncanonical state, the assumption
of all the rights of government and administration of the widowed Serbian
Church for the indefinite future, this opposition was declared to be the sin of
disobedience and rebellion against lawful bishops. Meanwhile, because of petty
personal interests, they accepted and defended as obedient and loyal those who
praised them. In this manner, over the
years, a very serious rift among the clergy and flock of the Serbian Church
arose which over time became almost insurmountable. This uncompromising stance as well as the
inadequate attention given to the flock and clergy by the administration at
that time brought the Serbian Church to a state of complete disorder and made
any progress impossible.
After many unsuccessful initiatives and petitions directed to
the episcopacy of the Greek Church, conscientious clergy, monastics and
believers who fought for the interests of their Local Church were forced to
seek help and mediation from another canonical True Orthodox Church to resolve
the the gravely harmful state created by the uncanonical indefinite lengthening
of the Greek Church’s administration of the widowed Serbian Church. When we established contact with the Russian
TOC we found that the Russian hierarchs completely understood us. They truly saw potential in the community of
the Orthodox Serbs for the rebirth of the Serbian Church, and they related to
them as such. They considered us as an individual, autocephalous, widowed
Church who was in need of brotherly help without interference in its
administration, which meant in the first place the renewal of Her
episcopacy. When the last attempts for
an agreement with the Greek bishops had been made with no success, the
Administrative Council of the Serbian TOC resolved (23/5 August 2011) that the
Serbian TOC should leave the temporary administration of the Greek TOC without
their agreement and to enter into communion with the Russian TOC. Soon after its entry into communion with the
Russian TOC, the Serbian Church’s
canonical episcopacy was renewed (through the consecration of Bishop Akakije in
Lesna Convent on the 2/15 August 2011). The Russian and Serbian TOC had
previously addressed the Greek TOC with a last appeal that the Greek TOC take
part in this act of renewal of the Serbian TOC, to which the Greek TOC
responded by angrily condemning the entry and interference of the Russian TOC
into the jurisdiction of the Greek Church.
The Synod of the Greek TOC formalized this condemnation in a Synod
Encyclical on August 9/22 2011 in which the Serbian TOC’s act of seeking help
from the Russian TOC was defined as an act of schism. In this encyclical the Greek TOC’s stance is
clearly confirmed that its governance over the Serbian Church is not temporary,
and even denies the very existence of the Serbian Church as Local and
autocephalous. The Greek Church
relegates the Serbian Church into one Greek eparchy, a metropolis to be exact,
and named the Archbishop of Athens the guardian of the patriarchal throne (the throne of St Sava).
What is the matter at hand here? Does the Archiepiscopate of Athens have the
canonical power to relate in such a way towards a Local Church in such
misfortune? The Serbian Church is a
Patriarchate. Thus, in rank and
historical dignity, it is higher than the Athens Archiepiscopate, and it is
known that the Serbian Church has never in its entire history been under the
Athens Archiepiscopate. It follows
that the Greek TOC has no right to
impose itself as a lawful and canonical church authority in Serbia. The Greeks claim that because the Serbian
people has fallen into heresy with its bishops and that the Serbian Church has
disappeared, the canonical territory of the Serbian Church now belongs to the
Greek Church. Even so, the logic of
taking territory according to the rule “first come, first serve” is not
applicable because the Greek TOC did not enter and missionize Serbia on its own
initiative. Rather, they responded to the call from the faithful from the
Serbian Church for help in its renewal, and that within the strictly defined
structure of a temporary administration.
It follows that if the condition of temporary administration for the
sake of help is not fulfilled, or what is more, prevented, then we who had
called upon the Greek Church for help have the right to call upon another Local
Church which has no less right than the Greeks to come to the territory of our
canonical jurisdiction and help in its renewal. The Greeks’ claim that the
Serbian Church does not exist and that the Serbian people have ceased to be
Orthodox, ie that we have regressed to the level of an unenlightened people for
whom evangelization is again necessary, is simply unacceptable to us. We maintain the position that despite the
fall of the Belgrade Patriarchate into the heresy of ecumenism, the majority of
the clergy, monastics and faithful have remained faithful to Orthodoxy and do
not accept ecumenism as a doctrine. On
the contrary, in fact, there is a significant opposition to ecumenism as a
modern heresy. Nor do the majority of
the Orthodox Serbs accept adopting the New Calendar, and out of fear of
creating a large division the official hierarchy does not dare to introduce
calendar reform. Thus, the only sin of a
large majority of the clergy, monastics and especially the ordinary believers
is only the unwilling, and sometimes unconscious communion with heretics. In order to encourage the cessation of communion
with the heretical hierarchy it is necessary that a canonical Serbian True
Orthodox episcopacy exist in Serbia whose first interest is the Serbian Church.
Joining them would not be leaving the Serbian Church and joining the Greek, as
many have understood, but rather leaving a heretical hierarchy and joining the
True Orthodox, all the time remaining in one’s own Local Church and remaining
under one’s own episcopacy. Unfortunately, the Greeks had no understanding of
this problem for an entire fifteen years. Their insistence that Serbia be under
the Greek Church and that entry into the True Church implies joining the Greek
Church inflicted such wounds in the holy battle for the rebirth of the Serbian
Church that it will take much time to recover from them. The Greeks’ insistence on akrivia in receiving
people from the official to the True Church, by re-baptizing all and sundry
without any sort of discernment, and the immeasurable harm done by this stance
we will not examine in any further detail here.
Today the Greek TOC, despite the existence of the Serbian TOC’s
canonical episcopate, has a parish (Panchevo) and a monastery (Bosnia) in the
canonical territory of the STOC with a corresponding number of clergy members,
thus continuing to create division among the Serbian flock. We bishops of the Serbian TOC were ready to
make a compromise and accept this uncanonical situation. That is, upon the
entering into communion of our two Local Churches, this parish and monastery
would remain under the temporary jurisdiction of the Greek TOC. This would be under the condition that the
Greek TOC would no longer have the right to broaden its jurisdiction in the
canonical territory of the Serbian Church by creating new parishes or
monasteries, ordaining new clergymen or accepting clergymen from the official
church. Yet despite all of our efforts
to reach canonical unity between our Churches, the reply from the Greek Church
to our petition of December 1, 2015 was devastating to us. The Greek TOC, after all the debates,
polemics, initiatives and petitions from us again sought that we should submit
to some kind of Greek Belgrade Metropolis and a Greek guardian of St. Sava’s
patriarchal seat. Of course, such a
suggestion was not even taken up for official consideration. All who read this suggestion were extremely
insulted by the Greek Church’s unscrupulous stubbornness in trying to keep
power over Serbia at any price. Our last
initiative thus only received an echo of similar responses, where we found
ourselves again coming up against a wall of a complete lack of understanding or
sympathy.
Nonetheless, we are not
giving up on seeking that the Lord’s commandment for unity in love between His
disciples be fulfilled in deed. Thus we will make every effort for the unity between
all the True Orthodox. We cannot, however, for that purpose give away the
independence of the Church of our Serbian Fatherland, something which we have
no right to give.
Sunday of the Myrrhbearers, May 2016
+Ak
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