A Response to Attacks on Archbishop Makarios and on HOCNA

A Response to Attacks on Archbishop Makarios and on HOCNA

May 28, 2013

Archbishop Makarios of Athens is an honorable man who knows the teachings of the Holy Fathers and rightly teaches the word of God's truth. Matushka Nina, who posted this recent attack piece, does not know the teachings of the Holy Fathers -- especially on the name of God, the essence and energies of God, or other theological topics about which she is so zealous to call her former brethren and loved ones "heretics." Fr. Panagiotes, who wrote the attack piece, DOES have the capability to read the Scriptures and the Holy Fathers in the ancient Greek texts, but he teaches the exact opposite of what those Orthodox texts say.

On the "Awake, Sleeper!" series of articles, written by Metropolitan Ephraim, about which Fr. Panagiotes became obsessed: the Holy Apostle Peter says clearly that our Savior preached the Gospel of life to disobedient souls in Hades. St. Cyril of Alexandria and countless other Holy Fathers taught explicitly that some of those souls -- especially those who were not blinded by their former lusts and idolatry -- obtained God's mercy. But Fr. Panagiotes, in his inexplicable zeal to condemn his former brethren and loved ones, refuses to accept the teaching of the Orthodox Church on this matter. He calls the teaching of the Apostles, Fathers, and prayers of the Church on Christ's destruction of Hades "heresy." In so doing, he has condemned the Apostle Peter, St. Cyril, and countless saints who taught this Orthodox dogma. Fr. Panagiotes even went so far as to endorse and distribute a theological essay that called our Savior's descent into Hades an apocryphal myth! Fr. Panagiotes has lost any credibility that he may have once had on doctrinal matters. What he is very good at is slandering the people he once considered brethren and once loved. Worse, he has condemned the teachings of Christ's Church. Fr. Panagiotes is no longer a serious man. No one can take him seriously. Especially on issues of Orthodox dogma, since he knowingly refuses to accept what the consensus of the Holy Fathers says on the issue of Hades.

Fr. Panagiotes is equally wrong on the issues of the name of God and the essence and energies of God. The Synodicon of Orthodoxy teaches that the essence and energies of God are distinct but not separate. Fr. Panagiotes, in his zeal to call his former brethren "heretics," has somehow managed to teach two completely opposite heresies: First, the heresy that the essence and energies are the same; and, Second, that the essence and energies are separate. The first heresy was taught in a theological paper that Fr. Panagiotes endorsed that was entitled "What a Name-Glorifyer Is." The second heresy is found in the writings of Fr. Maximus Marretta in which he defends the false 1913 Russian statement that separates the essence and energies of God. The Russians who wrote that mistaken statement (with Sergius Stragorodsky as main author, but with Archbishop Anthony Khrapovitsky also, ignorantly, in agreement) can be forgiven because they were ignorant of what St. Gregory Palamas, the Palamite/Hesychast Synods, and the full Greek text of the Synodicon of Orthodoxy actually taught on the essence and energies of God. But Fr, Maximus, Fr. Panagiotes, and the bishops, priests, and monastics of the Kallinikos faction have access to all those writings in Greek and English -- if they care to avail themselves of those patristic texts. There is no excuse for Fr. Panagiotes and his colleagues who hate HOCNA and hate Archbishop Makarios of Athens to teach heresies about the essence and energies of God simply because they want theological "weapons" to attack their opponents. These attackers have zero credibility on Orthodox theology.

In his attacks on the name of God, Fr. Panagiotes plagiarized an article from Wikipedia. The plagiarized passage -- about name-glorifiers allegedly using Plato as an authority -- was laughably inaccurate. But Fr. Panagiotes plagiarized it word for word, with no citation whatsoever. His dishonesty extends from plagiarizing historically-inaccurate content from Wikipedia to attacking Orthodox dogma on Christ's destruction of the power of Hades and Orthodox dogma on the essence and energies of God. Who can take Fr Panagiotes's dishonest propaganda seriously? Not any critically-thinking Orthodox Christian who loves the divine dogmas of the Holy Fathers.

Our Savior spoke of the name of God as the glory and power of Godhood that the Father and the Son share from before the creation of the world (see St Cyril of Alexandria's commentary on John 17). Fr. Maximus Marretta has issued "anathemas" against this teaching. Fr. Maximus Marretta has anathematized our Saviour! Fr. Panagiotes has distributed and endorsed at least one of Fr. Maximus Marretta's un-Orthodox writings on this topic. These people, in their zeal to condemn Orthodox Christians, have anathematized what they find in the Scriptures and Holy Fathers, because they are consumed with a passion to condemn those whom they once loved in the Faith.

Archbishop Makarios has written very capably about the uncanonical activities of the Kiouses/Kallinikos faction. If a person actually cares about what happened among the GOC in Greece, he can read Archbishop Makarios's book and his other writings on this topic. As far as I have seen, the Kallinikos faction does not have anyone who is intellectually capable of writing on Orthodox dogma and canon law in any way comparable to His Beatitude Archbishop Makarios. That is why writers from the Kallinikos faction have a well-established pattern of doing things like plagiarizing from Wikipedia, misquoting and even denying Orthodox dogmas, and, especially, making sleazy accusations. The Kallinikos people have also used the secular government authorities -- in both Greece and the United States -- to harass True Orthodox Christians who do not agree with their uncanonical and un-Christian behavior.

I, personally, commend Archbishop Makarios for cooperating with new calendarists and other citizens in Greece to oppose new laws on IDs that many citizens sincerely believed went too far and could be used to deny the right to full religious freedom for the True Orthodox Christians. The Archbishop is an educated man who can cooperate with other Greek citizens over concerns for religious freedom. He deserves our praise for this.

The attacks against His Beatitude are hatchet jobs. They are uncouth. They deserve to be ignored.

Thomas S. Deretich

What is Holy

What is Holy

There are two “kinds” of holy. There is holy by participation and holy by nature. Icons, the holy cross, relics, holy water and man are all holy or can be holy, by participation. We know actually that anything really can be holy by participation because by His Incarnation, God forever closed the chasm between the Creator and created. We know also that God dwells in these not in some kind of a symbolic manner but in reality; it is not man, or water, or an icon which work miracles but God who is present there.

But what about holy by nature. Of course, the only thing holy by nature is God.

Yet the questions arises…what do we know of God? How do we even know there is a God? Us, sinful, fallen critters of the earth…did we imagine Him? Did we think Him up? Again, you and I would agree of course not! We know God because God revealed Himself to us.

Not too long ago, I was reading the Mystagogy on the Holy Spirit by Saint Photios the Great. The introduction is really very good and here’s a small chunk of it.

“Were not the ‘knowledge of God implanted in us by nature’ as Saint John Damascus declared, and had He not revealed Himself in His ‘effects’ that is, His Energies and operations, and finally by His Incarnation, we shohuld have no knowledge of God whatsoever."

To be cut off from the Knowledge of Him, is death. So God revealed Himself to mankind first through His prophets then in His fullness; so we would know Him; this knowledge being Life itself, He Himself.  The most striking example of this revelation is when Moses literally asked Him “what should I call you? [what is the Truth about you?] and he answered “I am that I am, tell them, I am has sent me”. At the Revelation of revelations, His Incarnation, how did the Virgin know to call her son “Jesus”? Did not the Archangel, the messenger of God, tell her so? How do we know that Jesus was the Son of God? Did not God Himself say so at His baptism? “This is my beloved Son”.  How do we know that there is a Father? Did not Christ Himself tell us of the Father? How do we know the Holy Spirit…”I will send you a Comforter”, are Christ’s words.  “And this also it behooves us to know, that the names Fatherhood, Sonship and Procession, were not applied to the Holy Godhead by us: on the contrary, they were communicated to us by the Godhead.” Says Saint John Damascus.  It seems that every name we have of God and the Trinity was directly revealed to us by God; it is the God revealed Truth about Himself…how can that be created? How can this knowledge, if it is in and of itself Life (as Saint Athanasius puts it “when they [humans] lost the knowledge of God, they lost existence with it”) not be God?  It is this knowledge that enables us to say “I believe in One God the Father Almighty….and in One Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God…and in the Holy Spirit the giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father.” We could say a great many other variations of this yet this is our faith (and our salvation) and we know it to be Truth because the only Being who knew to tell us of it, is God.

And yes, we use words which in and of themselves are holy by participation, but our belief that rests in these words, the Truth about God that He Himself told us, is uncreated, and in this sense it is His Energy and only in this sense is His Name God Himself; as he said “I am the Life, the Way, the Truth”.  Saint Basil says: “The name of God is said to be holy, not entirely because it has a certain sanctifying power in its syllables, but because the whole specific character of God and the thought contained in what is specially contemplated concerning Him is holy and pure”.

It is in this “deeper” sense that The Church often refer to the Name of God.  For example, the Name of God in services is not referred to in the same way as things that are holy by participation. In fact, sometimes in exchange for saying  “the Son” the service uses “Thine all-holy Name” (“That by elements, by Angels, and by men, by things visible and by things invisible, Thine all-holy Name may be glorified, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.”) Similarly, Saint Maximus the Confessor says: "the Name of the Father is the Only Begotten Son" (Since the Father is known through the Son).  

Yet you could still affix your mind to “name” and say that’s created over and over. Yet what about Light?, We know God is Light (among other things). But Light is photons and waves. Are we, Orthodox Christians, pantheists? Do we gaze up at the sun when the clouds scatter and fall on our knees worshiping the light that comes from it, confusing God with His creation? Of course not.  Yet at the same time, acknowledging that our Faith is that of mystery, we say God is Light, God is Love, God is Truth, Life, Grace. Saint Gregory dedicated his life to defending the Uncreated Light.

 The fact is that there is nothing new about our Faith. Our Faith is not created by man, nothing was ever added to it or subtracted from it. Unfortunately, however, we live our lives taking for granted the words we say in prayer, not fully knowing what it is we are saying. Then when a conflict arises within the faithful, we do not set aside our own rationality and logic but allow it to cloud us from fearlessly searching the depth of our Faith for the unadulterated Truth. 

More Pictures

Here is a link to photos of Archbishop Makarius at Holy Nativity Convent
Archbishop Makarius at HNC

Archbishop Makarius's Book

Here is a link to an English Translation of Archbishop Makarius's book on the schisms within the Old Calendar movement in Greece.

HOMILY OF HIS BEATITUDE

ARCHBISHOP MAKARIOS OF ATHENS

St. Anna’s Orthodox Church, Boston, Massachusetts

Sunday of the Myrrh-bearers, May 6/19, 2013

Your Eminence, Metropolitan Ephraim of Boston,

Your Grace, Bishop Gregory of Brookline,

Your Grace, Bishop Andrew of Markham,

Reverend holy Abbot Isaac,

Dear fellow clergy and God-loving faithful of our Church, 

CHRIST IS RISEN! 

Today’s Sunday of the Myrrh-bearers stands out in the annual cycle of feasts of the Orthodox Church. The Holy Fathers dedicated this day to the holy Myrrh-bearing women not without cause or reason. They dedicated it because these courageous women — starting with the Mother of our Lord, the all-immaculate Lady, the most-holy Theotokos, our Panagia — burning with divine love and zeal for our suffering and entombed Master, ran very early, even before day-break on the first day of the week to the Holy Sepulcher to lament over Him and to bring myrrh. And the just God rewarded these women not only with seeing and worshiping the Risen Lord-of-all, but also by making them, before the Apostles, co-apostles to them! 

Lo and behold! The authentic and chief Apostles are informed by the mourning Myrrh-bearing women of the jubilant event of the Resurrection! 

By the Grace of our Resurrected Lord, Who once again gives to us one more resurrection from human errors, weakness, negligence, or omissions of the past, and we come to you, our dear brethren, as apostles of a joyous event.

Today’s Sunday of the holy Myrrh-bearing women is singled out, and will remain deeply etched in our memories for another reason: because today we are here present with indescribable joy, as guests of your worthy Father and Bishop, Metropolitan Ephraim of Boston, to crown the unity, the consensus, and the Orthodoxy among us with this concelebration according to the hallowed tradition of the Holy Fathers. 

It is therefore relevant and befitting to cry out on this day the words of the Prophet Isaiah: “Rejoice, heavens and be glad, O earth; O mountains burst out with exhilaration for God has shown mercy to His people, and the humble hath He comforted”!

Primarily, of course, because the Resurrection of our Lord opened the heavens (which before were shut), for the whole human race, bringing us redemption, divine grace, and reconciliation with God. With double joy today, heaven and earth rejoice, because the present day brings us the seal of Church unity and communion between brethren who up until recently were separated, although they were, and are, Defenders of the same Faith, visionaries of the same sacred purpose, and guarantors of the same Holy Tradition, and followers of the same Lord and God.

Today takes place a happy and pious end of a long series of dialogues, research, and anguish over the possibility — or impossibility — of our unity. 

Today affirms our common enlistment, with the help of our Holy God, in our struggle for Orthodoxy against various heresies, the first being the omnivorous heresy of ecumenism — you here in America, which is distant for us, and we in our episcopal see in our beloved Greece, the common homeland of many of you. 

Today the dividing wall and the distance have fallen and the common faith, love, and agreement reign. 

Today, the Grace of the Holy Spirit visits us richly and generously, co-celebrating with us the fellowship that, although we delayed and neglected to achieve it in the past, today, however, we jubilantly announce to the whole world. 

Today, the Leader and Guide and Teacher of love, peace, and correct Faith, our God Who for our sake became Man and taught here among us and suffered and was crucified and was buried and triumphantly rose again with His own power, the Lord Jesus Christ, co-celebrates along with us with abundant joy as the Offered and the Offerer and as common Validator of the peace between us. 

Today, common joy rises in the earth, uniting the heavens of America and Greece under the common and beneficent umbrella of our common Mother, spotless Orthodoxy, as the Apostles preached, the Martyrs validated, the Holy Fathers delineated, and age-old tradition carried down to our own days. 

This is the Holy Faith in which we live, preach, breathe, and for which we are ready to die, if occasion requires it. 

This Holy Faith, which with joy and satisfaction and certainty we actually found to be professed and defended in this distant land of America, by your Metropolitan Ephraim of Boston with his venerable co-workers in the vineyard of the Lord, the bishops, the presbyters, and the deacons. 

“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein” (Psalm 24) as the Prophet King David says! 

In every land, at all times, in every nook and locale God maintains, raises, and supports His faithful servants, teachers, and followers of the Holy Apostles within the Church of “Him which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth” (I Timothy 3:15). 

And we praise God, who in the person of your holy Shepherd, Metropolitan Ephraim, we found and verified all those qualities that need be in this position, and with immeasurable joy and satisfaction we accomplish today the final union, and peace, and brotherhood in Christ Jesus, between us.

For He is “our peace, the maker of the two into one” as the Apostle Paul says (Ephesians 2:14), which were before separated and divided, now are one body and one unity “having, in him, destroyed their enmity. And He came and preached peace unto you, which were far off and to them that were nigh” (Ephesians 2:16–17). 

Today, we, by the grace of Christ, the Author of Peace and Peacemaker, we have come here before you, as messengers of the Gospel and we bring this peace and grace, together with His Eminence, our brother and our co-celebrant and shepherd, your Metropolitan Ephraim, building together as we assembled in one holy body of the Orthodox Church of Christ, overcoming geographical boundaries and various obstacles. 

And we, being far away from you, at the request and pleadings of the faithful members of our Church, we re-examined the events of the unfortunate separations of 1985 from our predecessor, Archbishop Auxentius of Athens, of blessed memory, whose holy prayer and blessing we invoke. So now, today, we praise God, who enlightened us in an appropriate time and we investigated without fear and passion all the information that we were able to collect, which showed clearly how unfairly His Beatitude [Archbishop Auxentius] suffered unjust punishment. We praise God, because our Holy Synod was the first to restore the reputation of the blessed Archbishop Auxentius without hesitation and with a loud voice to restore his place that he deserved in the history of the Church. After us, other bishops examined the same events and they also reached the same conclusion in favor of the blessed one, which increases our joy, to redress this injustice. 

So today, as Messengers of peace and concord, we stand before you, each one of you separately and all of you together. 

Today, we are sharers of the joy of the brave Myrrh-bearing women, emulating their courage, determination, and perseverance so that they might achieve their purpose, since it was not easy for us to remove from our midst all that was separating us or those things that we thought were separating us, which ultimately were simple misunderstandings and misconceptions of the actual truth. But, with a selfless attitude that comes when there prevails godly love, the difficulty becomes easy and apparently impossible things become possible! Glory be to God for all things! 

Thus, today, with a God-pleasing and peacemaking assembly and concelebration, we initiate the unity among us and the restoration of love and communion, and happily, without cowardice and fear, but with awe, we by our internal satisfaction embrace again and strengthen our brotherly bonds, loudly proclaiming the Orthodox faith in our unity. 

We humbly pray to our common Master, the Risen Lord, to keep us with His rich Grace of being thus reconciled and assembled under a common shelter and confession, in peace and love and unity, having in our midst our Lord Himself, Jesus Christ as He Himself promised us — “Where there are two or three gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst of them” — who, at the proper time, will give us eternal life and glory and the Kingdom. 

Which we wholeheartedly wish that we all achieve through the grace and love for mankind of the peace-giving God, our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be all glory, honor, and worship, together with His beginningless Father and the life-creating Spirit, unto ages of ages, Amen! 

CHRIST IS RISEN!

HOMILY OF HIS BEATITUDE

ARCHBISHOP MAKARIOS OF ATHENS

St. Anna’s Orthodox Church, Boston, Massachusetts

Sunday of the Myrrh-bearers, May 6/19, 2013

Homily of Archbishop Makarios of Athens

At. St. Anna's

Σεβασμιώτατε Μητροπολίτα Βοστώνης κ. Εφραίμ, 

θεοφιλέστατε Επίσκοπε Μπρουκλάϊν κ. Γρηγόριε, 

θεοφιλέστατε Επίσκοπε Μάρκαμ κ. Ανδρέα, 

πανοσιολογιώτατε άγιε Καθηγούμενε κ. Ισαάκ, 

αγαπητοί συμπρεσβύτεροι, θεοφιλές πλήρωμα της Εκκλησίας ημών.

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ!

Η σημερινή Κυριακή των Μυροφόρων ξεχωρίζει μέσα στον ετήσιο κύκλο των εορτών της Ορθοδόξου Εκκλησίας. Οι Άγιοι Πατέρες μας την αφιέρωσαν στις αγίες Μυροφόρες γυναίκες, όχι χωρίς αιτία και λόγο. Την αφιέρωσαν, διότι οι θαρραλέες αυτές γυναίκες — με πρώτη την Μητέρα του Κυρίου μας, την Πανάχραντο Δέσποινα Υπεραγίαν Θεοτόκον, την Παναγία μας — φλεγόμενες από τον θείον έρωτα και ζήλο για τον παθόντα και ταφέντα Δεσπότη μας, έτρεξαν πολύ νωρίς, πριν ακόμα χαράξει «η μία των Σαββάτων», στον Πανάγιο Τάφο, για να μοιρολογήσουν και να του προσκομίσουν μύρα. Και ο δίκαιος Θεός μας τις αντάμειψε, όχι μόνο με την θέα του και την προσκύνηση του Αναστάντος Κυρίου των απάντων, αλλά και με το να γίνουν πριν τους Αποστόλους, Συναπόστολοι προς αυτούς!

Ω του θαύματος! Οι καθαυτό και κυρίως Απόστολοι πληροφορούνται από τις κλαίουσες μυροφόρες γυναίκες το χαρμόσυνο γεγονός της Αναστάσεως!

Χαρμοσύνου γεγονότος όμως απόστολοι ήρθαμε και εμείς σήμερα προς εσάς, αγαπητοί μας αδελφοί, με την χάριν του Αναστάντος Κυρίου μας, ο οποίος για ακόμα μια φορά μας χαρίζει μια ακόμα ανάσταση από ανθρώπινα λάθη και αδυναμίες ή παραλείψεις του παρελθόντος.

Η σημερινή Κυριακή των αγίων Μυροφόρων Γυναικών ξεχωρίζει, λοιπόν, και θα παραμείνει βαθιά χαραγμένη στις μνήμες μας για έναν ακόμα λόγο: γιατί σήμερα βρισκόμαστε εδώ παρόντες με απερίγραπτη χαρά, καλεσμένοι από τον άξιο Πατέρα και Επίσκοπο σας Μητροπολίτην Βοστώνης κ. Εφραίμ, ώστε να στεφανώσουμε την ενότητα και ομοφωνία και Ορθοδοξία ανάμεσα μας με τούτο το Ιερό Συλλείτουργο, κατά την Πατερική καθαγιασμένη παράδοση.

Είναι λοιπόν αρμόδιο και κατάλληλο να εκφωνήσουμε για τη σημερινή ημέρα τα λόγια του Προφήτου Ησαΐου: «Ευφραίνεσθε, οὐρανοὶ καὶ ἀγαλλιάσθω ἡ γῆ, ρηξάτωσαν τὰ ὄρη εὐφροσύνην, ὅτι ἠλέησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ τοὺς ταπεινοὺς τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ παρεκάλεσεν»!

Πρωτίστως βέβαια, γιατί η Ανάσταση του Χριστού μας άνοιξε τους ουρανούς, που πριν ήταν κλεισμένοι για όλο το ανθρώπινο γένος, φέρνοντας μας την απολύτρωση, τη Θεία Χάρη και την συμφιλίωση με τον Θεό. Με διπλή χαρά όμως σήμερα ευφραίνονται γη και ουρανός, γιατί η σημερινή ημέρα μας φέρνει και την επισφράγιση της Εκκλησιαστικής ενότητος και επικοινωνίας μεταξύ των αδελφών που μέχρι χθές ήσαν χωρισμένοι, παρόλον ότι ήσαν και είναι της ιδίας Πίστεως προασπιστές, των ιδίων ιερών σκοπών οραματιστές, της ιδίας αγίας Παραδόσεως εγγυητές, του ιδίου Κυρίου και Θεού ακόλουθοι και εισηγητές.

Σήμερα λαμβάνει αίσιο και θεάρεστο τέλος μια μακρά σειρά διαλόγων, ερεύνησης και αγωνίας για το εφικτώς δυνατον — ή αδύνατον — της ενότητός μας.

Σήμερα βεβαιώνουμε την κοινή μας συστράτευση, με την βοήθεια του αγίου Θεού ημών, στον αγώνα μας υπέρ της Ορθοδοξίας κατά των ποικίλων αιρέσεων, με πρώτη την παμφάγο αίρεση του Οικουμενισμού, εσείς εδώ, στην μακρυνή για εμάς Αμερική, και εμείς στην ανέκαθεν έδρα μας, την αγαπημένη σε όλους μας Ελλάδα, την κοινή πατρίδα πολλών εξ ημών.

Σήμερα η μεσοτοιχία της διαίρεσης και απομάκρυνσης καταρρίπτεται και βασιλεύει η εν τη κοινή Πίστει αγάπη και συμφωνία.

Σήμερα πλούσια και γενναιόδωρα μας επισκέπτεται η Χάρις του Αγίου Πνεύματος, συνεορτάζοντας μαζί μας την συναδέλφωση, που αν και αργήσαμε και αμελήσαμε να επιτύχουμε, όμως σήμερα πανηγυρικά διαγγέλλουμε σε όλο τον κόσμο.

Σήμερα ο αρχηγός και οδηγός και διδάσκαλος της αγάπης, της ειρήνης και της ορθής Πίστεως, ο Θεός που για χάρη μας έγινε άνθρωπος και δίδαξε εδώ κοντά μας και έπαθε και σταυρώθηκε και ετάφη και αναστήθηκε με τη δική του δύναμη θριαμβευτικά, ο Κύριος ημών Ιησούς Χριστός, μαζί μας με άπλετη χαρά συνεορτάζει και συλλειτουργεί ως προσφέρων και προσφερόμενος και ο ίδιος, ως κοινός επικυρωτής και συμμηστής της ειρήνης μεταξύ μας.

Σήμερα κοινή χαρά ανατέλλει στη γη, ενώνοντας τους ουρανούς Αμερικής και Ελλάδας κάτω από την κοινή και αγαθοποιό σκέπη της κοινής Μητέρας μας, της αμωμήτου Ορθοδοξίας, καθώς οι Απόστολοι εκήρυξαν, οι μάρτυρες εβεβαίωσαν, οι Άγιοι Πατέρες οριοθέτησαν, και η μακραίωνη παράδοση έφερε μέχρι τις ημέρες μας.

Αυτήν την αγία πίστη για την οποία ζούμε, κηρύττουμε, ανασαίνουμε, και έτοιμοι είμαστε να πεθάνουμε για αυτήν, αν το καλέσει ο καιρός.

Αυτήν την ιερή Πίστη που με ευφροσύνη και ικανοποίηση και βεβαιότητα πραγματικά βρήκαμε να πρεσβεύει και υπερασπίζεται ευόρκως και ο ιερός σας Ποιμένας και Διδάσκαλος στη μακρυνή αυτή γη της Αμερικής, Μητροπολίτης Βοστώνης κ. Εφραίμ και οι τίμιοι συνεργάτες αυτού στον αμπελώνα του Κυρίου, Επίσκοποι, πρεσβύτεροι και διάκονοι.

«Τοῦ Κυρίου ὅμως ἡ γῆ καὶ τὸ πλήρωμα αυτῆς, ἡ οἰκουμένη καὶ πάντες οἱ κατοικοῦντες ἐν αὐτῇ» (Ψαλμ. 23) ως λέγει και ο Προφητάνακτας Δαβίδ!

Σε κάθε γη, σε κάθε χρόνο, σε κάθε γωνία και τόπο διατηρεί και εγείρει και στερεώνει πιστούς του δούλους, διδασκάλους και ακολούθους των Ιερών Αποστόλων εντός της Εκκλησίας του, «ἥτις ἐστὶν ἐκκλησία Θεοῦ ζῶντος, στύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα τῆς ἀληθείας». (Αʹ Τιμ. γʹ, 16)

Και εμείς δοξάζουμε τον Θεό που στο πρόσωπο του αγίου ποιμένος σας, Μητροπολίτου Εφραίμ, βρήκαμε και διαπιστώσαμε όλα εκείνα τα χαρίσματα που θα έπρεπε να έχει στη θέση αυτή, και με άμετρη χαρά και ικανοποίηση κάνουμε σήμερα οριστική την μεταξύ μας ένωση και ειρήνη και αδελφωσύνη εν Χριστώ Ιησού.

Καθότι αυτός είναι «ἡ εἰρήνη ἡμῶν, ὁ ποιήσας τὰ ἀμφότερα ἕν» όπως λέγει ο Απόστολος Παύλος (Εφεσ. βʹ, 14), αυτός δηλαδή που έκανε τα δυο ένα, τα πριν χωρισμένα και διαιρεμένα, τώρα πια ένα σώμα και μια ενότητα, «ἀποκτείνας τὴν ἔχθραν ἐν αὐτῷ. Καὶ ἐλθὼν εὐηγγελίσατο εἰρήνην ὑμῖν, τοῖς μακρὰν καὶ τοῖς ἐγγύς» (αυτ. 16–17). Και σε αυτούς που είναι μακριά και σε όσους είναι κοντά.

Σήμερα και εμείς, με την χάρη του ειρηνάρχη και ειρηνοποιού Χριστού, έτσι ακριβώς ερχόμαστε εδώ μπροστά σας, ως αγγελιοφόροι και προσκομιστές της Ευαγγελικής αυτής ειρήνης και χάριτος, ομού με τον Σεβασμιώτατο αδελφό μας και συλλειτουργό μας και ποιμένα σας τον Μητροπολίτην κ. Εφραίμ, συνοικοδομούμενοι και συναρμολογούμενοι εις εν άγιο σώμα της Ορθοδόξου Εκκλησίας του Χριστού, υπερνικώντας γεωγραφικά όρια και περιστασιακά εμπόδια.

Και εμείς, όντες μακριά από εσάς, προ 15 περίπου ετών, κατόπιν παρακλήσεως και αιτήσεως πιστών μελών της Εκκλησίας μας, επανεξετάσαμε τα γεγονότα των δυστυχών χωρισμών του 1985 με τον μακαρία τη λήξει γενόμενον αείδημον προκάτοχον ημών στον αρχιεπισκοπικό θρόνο των Αθηνών μακαριστό Αρχιεπίσκοπο κυρόν Αυξέντιο, του οποίου την αγία ευχή και ευλογία επικαλούμεθα. Έτσι σήμερα πλέον δοξάζουμε τον Θεό, που μας φώτισε την δεδομένη χρονική στιγμή και ερευνήσαμε χωρίς φόβο και πάθος όσα στοιχεία μπορέσαμε να συλλέξουμε, τα οποία καθαρώς έδειξαν με πόσο άδικο τρόπο είχε υποστεί ο μακαριστός ποινές άδικες. Δοξάζουμε τον Θεό, γιατί η Ιερά μας Σύνοδος ήταν η πρώτη που χωρίς δισταγμό και με δυνατή φωνή απεκατέστησε τη φήμη του μακαριστού Αρχιεπισκόπου Αυξεντίου και του ξαναέδωσε στην ιστορία της Εκκλησίας την θέση που πραγματικά του άξιζε. Μετά από εμάς δε, και άλλοι Επίσκοποι εξέτασαν τα ίδια γεγονότα και έφτασαν και αυτοί στα ίδια συμπεράσματα υπέρ του μακαριστού, γεγονός το οποίο μεγιστοποίησε και μεγιστοποιεί την χαρά μας για την αποκατάσταση αυτής της αδικίας.

Σήμερα λοιπόν ως Άγγελοι ειρήνης και ομονοίας παριστάμεθα ενώπιον σας, εναγκαλιζόμενοι αδελφικά έναν έκαστο εξ υμών και όλους μαζί.

Σήμερα μέτοχοι γινόμαστε της χαράς των γενναίων Μυροφόρων γυναικών, μιμούμενοι το θάρρος, την αποφασιστικότητα και την επίμονή τους για να πετύχουν τον σκοπό τους, καθότι δεν ήταν εύκολον εις ημάς να άρουμε από τη μέση όσα μας εχώριζαν, ή όσα νομίζαμε αφελώς ότι μας χώριζαν, τα οποία τελικώς ήταν απλές παρεξηγήσεις και παρανοήσεις της πραγματικής αλήθειας. Αλλά με ανιδιοτελή διάθεση, όταν υπάρχει και κυριαρχεί η θεοποιός αγάπη, τα δύσκολα γίνονται εύκολα και τα φαινόμενα αδύνατα γίνονται δυνατά! Δόξα τω Θεώ, πάντων ένεκεν!

Έτσι λοιπόν, σήμερα και εμείς, με την θεάρεστο και ειρηνοποιό αυτή σύναξη και συλλειτουργία, εγκαινιάζουμε την μεταξύ μας ενότητα και αποκατάσταση της αγάπης και της κοινωνίας, και με χαρά, χωρίς δειλία και φόβο, έκθαμβοι όμως και εμείς από την εσωτερική μας ικανοποίηση που εναγκαλιζόμαστε ξανά και σφίγγουμε χέρια αδελφικά, διακηρύττουμε δυνατά την εν Ορθοδόξω Πίστει ενότητά μας.

Προσευχόμαστε ταπεινά στον κοινό μας Δεσπότη, τον Αναστάντα Κύριο, να μας διατηρήσει με την πλουσία χάρη του έτσι, συμφιλιωμένους και συναθροισμένους κάτω από μια κοινή στέγη και ομολογία, με ειρήνη και αγάπη και ομόνοια, έχοντας στο μέσο μας τον ίδιο τον Κύριο ημών Ιησού Χριστό, όπως αυτός ο ίδιος μας υποσχέθηκε — «οὗ γάρ εισι δύο ἢ τρεῖς συνηγμένοι εἰς τὸ ἐμὸν ὄνομα ἐκεῖ εἰμι ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῶν» — ο οποίος και στον κατάλληλο καιρό να μας χαρίσει την αιώνια ζωή και δόξα και Βασιλεία.

Της οποίας ευχόμαστε από βάθους καρδίας όλοι να επιτύχουμε, χάριτι και φιλανθρωπία του ειρηνοδώρου Θεού και Κυρίου ημών Ιησού Χριστού, εις τον οποίον πρέπει κάθε δόξα, τιμή κράτος και προσκύνηση, συν τω ανάρχω αυτού Πατρί και τω ζωοποιώ Πνεύματι, εις αιώνας αιώνων, Αμήν!

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ!

The Sub-deacons Confession

This link was sent to me some years ago by Fr. Rodion Laskowski

http://centralpennsylvaniaorthodox.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/the-subdeacons-confession/

Miracle of St. Haralampos during WWII

This link will take you to a marvelous account of the power of the intersessions of St. Haralampos

http://readernilus.150m.com/saintharalambos.htm

Orthodox America

Here are some links to information on some of the earliest Orthodox Americans

http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/history/orthodoxy_in_colonial_virginia

http://orthodoxhistory.org/author/ngrchapman/

http://orthodoxhistory.org/