In the name of the Holy, Life-giving, Consubstantial and Indivisible Holy Trinity, the Unoriginate Father, together with the Only-Begotten Son and the Holy Spirit.
The Holy and Sacred Metropolitan Synod of the Patristic Calendar of the Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece, acting in the Holy Spirit, upon the recommendation of His Beatitude its President, Elder and Metropolitan of Avlonos & Viotia , His Beatitude, ANGELOS, publishes its Ecclesiology, for the information of the Holy Local Orthodox Councils and Synods and for all Christian communities.
ΕCCLESIOLOGY
Our Holy Synod, accepts, implements and preaches purely, only whatever was passed on to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church via Holy Scripture and the Sacred Tradition, by the Holy Apostles, and the God-bearing Fathers, through the Holy Ecumenical and the Local Councils, as they are included in the “Sacred Pedalion” (the “Rudder of the Church”).
As Ecumenical Councils, we recognize and confess the Seven Ecumenical Councils, as follows:
- First Ecumenical Council: 325 AD in Nicaea, gathered by Constantine the Great, condemned the heresy of Arianism.
- Second Ecumenical Council: 381 AD in Constantinople, by Theodosius the Great, condemned the “Pneumatomachia” or “Fighters against the Spirit” of Macedonius.
- Third Ecumenical Council: 431 AD in Ephesus, by Theodosius the Minor, condemned Nestorianism and dogmatized the appellation “Theotokos” as referring to the Virgin Mary.
- Fourth Ecumenical Council: 451 AD in Chalcedon, by Marcianus and Poulheria condemned Monophysitism.
- Fifth Ecumenical Council: 553 AD in Constantinople, by Justinian the Great, condemned mainly the heresy of Origenism.
- Sixth Ecumenical Council: 680 AD in Constantinople, by Constantine Pogonatus, condemned the heresy of Monothelitism.
The Quinisext Council (“Penthecte” or “in Trullo”, 691 AD in Constantinople by Justinianus the Minor), though its decisions are accepted across the Church, is not considered a separate Ecumenical Council, because it simply completed the previous two (5th and 6th).
- Seventh Ecumenical Council: 787 AD in Nicaea, by Constantine and Irene, condemned the heresy of Iconoclasm.
We also recognize as Ecumenical the following Councils:
- Eighth Ecumenical Council: 879-880 in Constantinople, by Basil the Macedonian, condemned the Heresies of the Filioque (and thus of Papism).
- Ninth Ecumenical Council: 1341 in Constantinople, by Ioannis Kantakouzinos, condemned the rationalism of Barlaam the Calabrian (and thus, for a 2nd time, the Papism) and affirmed the theology of Hesychasm of St Gregory the Palamas.
We believe and follow that which was decided in all of the panorthodox synods, thus we condem the cursed ecumenism and the new (Gregorian) calendar which was invented by the popes to replace the genuine Julian calendar, which Julian calendar was approved by the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. Hence we declare, that no other “Doctrine” or other “Confession”, is entitled to be called the “Church”, even if it distorts “by only a little” the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Traditions.
We remain:
Faithful and Dedicated, by the grace of the Holy Trinity, to the one tradition of the God-bearing Fathers and have and hold and preserve the faith “once delivered to the saints.”
We proclaim that:
We significantly differ from those who follow by any means or excuse the all-cursed ecumenism of the new-calendarists and false old-calendarists alike.
We don’t hold communion with the new-calendarists or false old-calendarists because, according to St. Theodore the Studite, we have abandoned them canonically, according to the 31st Apostolic Canon and the 15th Canon of the First-Second Ecumenical Councils, saying that it is obligatory for the clergy as well as the lay people, to cut off the commemoration and the communion of those (bishops, priests, confessors, and elders) who preach heretical doctrines.
St Nicodemus the Athonite, the author of the Sacred Pedalion, says in The Rudder, that the ones who abandon those that preach Heresy (these are the Ecumenists), even before a verdict is made, not only should not be condemned, but, on the contrary, they must by honored, for they didn’t enter into schism, but they kept the Faith alive (Sacred Pedalion, publ. 1886, p.292).
Heresy, is a Deadly Sin and he who follows Heresy (and the Heretics) is already dead. He has no relation with god. He is bonded to the devil. He is an enemy of god. The ones who follow the new-calendar (as imposed in 1924), are schismatics and, furthermore, heretics.
Heresy, according to St. Ignatios Brianchaninov (1867) is an attempt to cancel out the energy of Holy Spirit!
Thus, those who follow or commune with or agree by any means with the ecumenists, papists and other heterodox, lack the sanctifying grace of Holy Spirit.
By applying full economia, the New Calendarists wishing to join our Holy Synod and the Genuine Orthodoxy may be received as follows:
We admit them only after Confession and watching the Divine Liturgy (as Catechumens), giving them Holy Communion only after they fully become members of the Genuine Church of Christ.
We also condemn, Sergianism, Modernism, Post-Patristic Theology and “development” of dogma, New Age philosophy, and all the others methods or means of Globalization, Atheism in all its forms, Witchcraft and Magic as well as all other Apocryphistic craft or cult and in general, everything that opposes the Genuine Patristic Theology and the Genuine Orthodox Faith of ours.
We are, in good and clear conscience, absolutely aware of our solid Validity, Canonicity and Succession through our venerable Father, the Holy President and Elder Metropolitan, His Eminence, ANGELOS, who received his Episcopacy from the dignified hands of certain Bishops of ROCOR, acting under the agreement and mandate of Metropolitan Vitaly (Ustinov), the last and undoubtful Genuine Russian First Hierarch. Despite though this solid fact, we don’t claim Uniqueness for ourselves nor do we claim to “monopolize” the Divine Grace of Holy Spirit.
As a result, and because we sincerely fear God as well, we do not Reconsecrate those who have Canonical Consecration, nor do we repeat the Sacraments.
May the All-Holy Queen and Lady Theotokos, intercede for us, for our Holy Synod, the Holy Clergy and the Orders of Monk and Nuns, as well as for the all of the faithful.
The Holy Synod
Note: The statement was compiled from a translation edited by Bp. Irineos. Any errors in the editing are solely the responsibility of Bp. Irineos.