"Confession of Faith" of former Metropolitan of Paphos, Tychikos

Paphos, June 18, 2025

 

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father, through whom all things were made; Who for us men and for our salvation came down from the heavens, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. And was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried. And rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures. And ascended into the heavens and sits at the right hand of the Father. And shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke through the prophets. In one, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. I await the resurrection of the dead. And the life of the age to come. Amen.

Moreover, I hold fast to and accept the seven holy Ecumenical Councils, as well as the Local Councils which they approved and confirmed, convened for the safeguarding of the Orthodox dogmas of the Church. I confess all the definitions of the right faith and the Holy Canons set forth by them, as by those guided by the illuminating grace of the All-Holy Spirit, which those blessed men composed and delivered to the Church for the adornment of the Holy Church of Christ and the good order of morals, according to the apostolic traditions and the intent of the divine teaching of the Gospel. I embrace them, and I shall diligently direct the ministry allotted to me by divine will according to them, and I shall continue, according to them, to teach the chosen people of the Lord.

I confess most earnestly that I shall keep the unity of the faith in the bond of peace, believing and professing all that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of the Orthodox confesses and dogmatizes, adding nothing, subtracting nothing, changing nothing, neither of the dogmas nor of the traditions, but abiding by them and teaching and preaching them with fear of God and a good conscience. And all that she condemns and rejects as heterodox teachings, these also I reject and from these I shall keep myself entirely distant at all times. [1]

I confess that I remain immovably within the secure walls of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, as these were defined and built through the ages by the God-bearing Fathers of the Orthodox Church, having full awareness that schism constitutes a great evil in the Church, which not even the blood of martyrdom of the one who has separated himself or of the one who has led others into schism is able to heal.

Likewise, I have full awareness that, according both to the spirit of the 31st Apostolic Canon, which has received ecumenical authority, and to the 15th Canon of the Holy First-Second Council of Constantinople (in the saving year 861), during the time of Saint and Great Photios — a canon which has indeed been incorporated into the Corpus Canonum of our Orthodox Church and which summarizes the content of the preceding 13th and 14th Canons: “What has been defined concerning presbyters and bishops and metropolitans applies much more to patriarchs. Therefore, if any presbyter or bishop or metropolitan should dare to separate himself from communion with his own patriarch and cease to mention his name, as is appointed and established in the Divine Mystagogy, but before a conciliar and definitive condemnation of him should create a schism — the holy council has defined such a one to be entirely alien to the priesthood, provided only that he is found to have acted unlawfully. But these [canons] have been sealed and defined concerning those who, under pretext of certain accusations, separate from their presidents and cause schism, thereby disrupting the unity of the Church. However, those who on account of some heresy, condemned by the Holy Councils or Fathers, separate themselves from communion with their president — that is, when he publicly proclaims the heresy and teaches it openly and bareheaded in the Church — such persons not only are not subject to canonical censure, even before a synodal judgment, for walling themselves off from communion with the one called bishop, but they shall also be deemed worthy of the honor due to the Orthodox. For they did not condemn bishops, but pseudo-bishops and pseudo-teachers, and they did not divide the unity of the Church through schism, but rather strove to deliver the Church from schisms and divisions.”

I am aware that this canon indeed grants the right to a clergyman or bishop (which it designates as a commendable walling off), to cease the commemoration of his ecclesiastical authority (but not to commemorate another bishop or ecclesiastical authority), provided, however, that his own bishop publicly and with boldness teaches in the Church a heresy condemned by the Holy Councils or by the Holy Fathers. The exercise of this right prior to a synodal decision concerning a bishop preaching heresy presupposes discernment and divine illumination. For if this is done out of undiscerning zealotry, and without the conditions foreseen by the above-mentioned sacred Canons being present, it is possible to lead to schism, which, as easily as it is created, just as difficult is it to be resolved.

I therefore make it known that I have never, on my own, considered the possibility of ceasing commemoration, and for this reason I have continued to concelebrate until now with the Archbishop of Cyprus, as well as with the other Hierarchs of the Synod, and I have always commemorated the name of the Most Blessed Archbishop of Cyprus in the sacred Services and Divine Liturgies which I celebrated. Furthermore, I have never covered for any walling-off individual, nor have I ever encouraged any clergyman or layperson to implement walling off.

I confess that I ecclesiastically and without exception condemn as schismatics, according to the divine and sacred Canons, all those who, under the pretext of walling off, being overtaken by a spirit of love of power and “under pretext of certain accusations against their own superior,” that is, “over ecclesiastical matters that are curable,” according to the God-inspired Great Basil, separate themselves from our common Mother and Saviour, the Orthodox Holy Church of the East. Equally, I condemn all heretics anathematized by the Church either synodally or by the consensus of the divine Fathers throughout the ages; for “a heretic is also one who is subject to the laws against heretics, even if he deviates but slightly from the Orthodox Faith,” according to Orthodox ecclesiology as expressed in the Nomocanon of Photios.

I also confess that I shall willingly be obedient, in accordance with the guidance and the provisions of the God-inspired Dogmas and Canons of our Holy Catholic Orthodox Church, to the decisions of the Holy Synod of the Church of Cyprus.

 

Sealing all the above also with my signature, I remain
With brotherly love in Christ and respect,
the (former) Metropolitan of Paphos, Tychikos

 

Emphasis added.

[1] The above, up to this point, are from the Archieratikon, Apostoliki Diakonia of the Church of Greece, Athens, 1999, pp. 110–112.

Translated from the original Greek (pages 3-5):

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