Nikolaos Mannis: An Ecclesiastical Reevaluation – Declaration

 Monday, December 12, 2022

An Ecclesiastical Reevaluation – Declaration

by Nikolaos Mannis

"The slightest deviation from the framework established by the divine and holy Canons, set by the Holy Fathers, will render us accountable before God and history. It will also strip from us the most important shield of the Struggle, namely, canonicity and ideology."

(Saint Chrysostomos of Florina)

"The Struggle is not just about the issue of the 13 days, but because the patriarchs have become apostates, and the metropolitans sell out Holy Orthodoxy."

(Saint Leonty of Chile)

As is known, the administrator of this blog, from the moment of its creation, has been engaged in ecclesiological issues based on the foundations laid down by our spiritual fathers, theologians, and blessed guides: Father Maximos [Theodoropoulos] Agiovasiliatis (+2009), Father Theodoretos Mavros (+2007), Father Chrysostomos Spyrou [of Spetses] (+2014), and Aristotle Delimbasis (+2007). They were genuine representatives of the spirit of our first Leader in our Holy Struggle, holy Father Chrysostomos of Florina, who saved (at least in part) the Old Calendar Movement from a fall into reprehensible schism.

With these prerequisites, he struggled for the union of the two major factions of the Old Calendarists, namely the "Church of the G.O.C. of Greece" (Archbishop Kallinikos Sarantopoulos) and the "Holy Synod in Resistance" (Metropolitan Cyprian of Fili), on the basis of correct ecclesiological views as expressed in an article in March 2012:

https://krufo-sxoleio.blogspot.com/2012/03/blog-post_04.html

The above-mentioned article and the atmosphere it created (despite the dirty war waged against the undersigned by members of the "Church of the G.O.C. of Greece" - the evidence of which has been preserved in case anyone questions it) resulted in the initiation of an official Dialogue a few months later, specifically in January 2013:

https://www.ecclesiagoc.gr/index.php/%CE%B5%CE%BD%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%B5%CF%81%CF%89%CF%83%CE%B7/%E1%BC%80%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%BA%CE%BF%CE%B9%CE%BD%CF%8E%CF%83%CE%B5%CE%B9%CF%82/1054-prwti-koini-syskepsis-met-enistamenwn

This Dialogue lasted a little over a year and ultimately led to a Union, not due to agreement on ecclesiological issues, but for other reasons that were revealed later and are not the subject of this discussion (however, the evidence supporting them has been recorded).

Although this Union did not take place on the basis of correct ecclesiological views, the administrator of this blog welcomed and supported it because:

a. his initiative for Union was validated,

b. it was an act of unity in an area marked by division and discord,

c. he saw it as an opportunity for the "Church of the G.O.C. of Greece" to return, under the influence of the former members of the Holy Synod in Resistance, to the ecclesiological principles of St. Chrysostomos of Florina, which were abandoned under Archbishop Auxentios and afterward, and

d. the Common Ecclesiological Text, on the basis of which the Union took place, was written in such a way that it could be interpreted with a correct ecclesiological perspective, using sound reasoning.

The above circumstances led the undersigned to submit himself to the leadership of the newly united Synod of the Church of the G.O.C. of Greece and to compose the following article/invitation in March 2014:

https://krufo-sxoleio.blogspot.com/2014/03/blog-post_30.html

However, reevaluating all the data from the past eight years and what history has revealed since the great miracle of the discovery of the radiant figure of Archbishop Leonty Filippovitch, the second Leader of our Holy Struggle, I now observe with profound sorrow that:

1. In 2014, a union was not achieved, unfortunately, in which the Synod in Resistance benefited the G.O.C., as some naively hoped for. Instead, there was a "welding" (a term used by some Fathers and brothers) through which not only were the former members of the Synod in Resistance harmed (as they, on the one hand, adopted several G.O.C. errors and, on the other hand, missed the great opportunity to become a credible pastoral solution after the pseudo-Council of Crete), but we who desired a clear ecclesiological declaration, both in theory and practice, were also sadly ensnared, and

2. The Common Ecclesiological Text, in reality, proved (with the disappearance of any kind of effort for the convening of a Major General Synod) that it is ultimately interpreted exactly as the main proponents intended, namely, through the lens of a reductionist heretical ecclesiology (whether of the Matthewite or Sakarellian type), and not, as some naively hoped for, through the lens of Orthodox ecclesiology. 

Therefore, the undersigned is compelled (until a leadership with clearly Orthodox ecclesiology is found, which will restore the objective purpose of the Holy Struggle, as defined by its Pillars – St. Chrysostomos of Florina and Archbishop Leonty) to return to his pre-2014 condition, that is, to ecclesiastically commune only with those canonical hierarchs and clergy (either within the aforementioned Synod – kat’ oikonomia and temporarily - or outside of it) who possess not only unquestionable Apostolic Succession but also the Apostolic Faith, of which Orthodox ecclesiological convictions are clearly a part.

- Nikolaos Mannis

Source: https://krufo-sxoleio.blogspot.com/2022/12/blog-post_12.html