An Ecclesiological Statement from an Anti-G.O.C. Walled-off Priest

The Walled-Off Church of Christ is Neither Schismatic, nor "Old Calendarist," nor a Church without a Bishop

Protopresbyter Angelos Angelakopoulos | September 30, 2025

[Currently walled-off from Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus and the Official Church of Greece]

 

The walled-off (armored – fortified) Church of Christ cannot be accused either of being schismatic, or of being Old Calendarist, or even of being without a bishop.

1. Walling-Off and Schism

A schism within the body of the faithful is created by whoever distorts the integrity of the Christian faith and flagrantly violates the Holy Spirit, the Sacred Tradition, and the Holy and Divine Canons of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, Orthodox Church. This occurs, for example, with the acceptance of the arch-heretic Pope as a “canonical Bishop” of Rome; with the pseudo-council of Kolymbari in Crete; with the attribution of ecclesiality to the heretical Papists, Protestants, and Monophysites; with the recognition as a canonical Church of Christ of the unordained and unbaptized in Ukraine and Skopje; with all the blasphemous and anti-Christian measures during the coronavirus period; with the acceptance of the COVID vaccine, the new digital identity, artificial intelligence (AI), and the unified personal identification number; with the legalization of homosexuality, the disgraceful law in favor of homosexual marriage; with the eviction of the Crucified One from the Holy Altar; with the distortion and perversion of the meaning and content of the commemoration of the 1,700-year anniversary of the convening of the First Holy and Ecumenical Council; with the establishment of a common pan-Christian and fixed-date Pascha; with the slandering and twisting of the sacred act of walling off; and with all the blasphemous events and unbelievable innovations introduced and still being introduced by the heretical bishops of the pseudo-church of Greece and the ecumenistic and extinguished Phanar, yielding to the antichrist and Aquarian “New Age,” the “New World Order,” the woke agenda, and in general to the accursed, foul-smelling, and demonic inter-Christian and interfaith ecumenism. In the 15th Holy Canon of the First-Second Council, it is stated in the clearest and most categorical manner that it is not the walled-off priests who cause schism in the Church, but rather the heretical pseudo-bishops and pseudo-teachers. The Canon explicitly states that: “…οὐ σχίσματι τὴν ἕνωσιν τῆς Ἐκκλησίας κατέτεμον, ἀλλά σχισμάτων καί μερισμῶν τήν ἐκκλησίαν ἐσπούδασαν ρύσασθαι” [1] — that is, “they did not violate the unity of the Church by schism, but rather strove to deliver the Church from schisms and divisions.” Whoever claims the opposite is a distorter and violator of the above Holy and Divine Canon, and consequently a fighter against the Spirit, a fighter against the Fathers, contrary and post-patristic, contrary and post-canonical, contrary and post-synodical, contrary and post-Photian—in other words, schismatic and heretical—and is far removed from Holy Orthodoxy.

2. Walling-Off and Old Calendarism

Furthermore, the walled-off (armored – fortified) Church of Christ has neither established nor will it ever seek to establish its own altar, nor will it form its own “Holy Synod,” nor proceed to the ordination of priests and bishops—especially through irregular and outside walling-off procedures—as was most unfortunately and sadly done by the improperly “walled-off” in Thessaloniki. For such action would automatically lead to schism, like that of the Old Calendarist movement. The entire matter is left in the hands of the Holy Triune God, for Him to increase her ranks with Orthodox-ordained clergy, who will necessarily have ceased commemoration and will have walled themselves off. From this perspective, she neither behaves like nor has any relation with the zealous not according to knowledge Old Calendarist schismatic movement, and its countless factions, whose number is without end. They have both set up their own altar, and elevated their own Bishops and Synod, and they also reject any grace in the Mysteries of the bishops of the new calendar, whom they consider automatically deposed—both from office and from grace—without the need for a corrective Orthodox Council to judge the matter, thereby depriving them of the right to repentance.

The walled-off (armored – fortified) Church of Christ regards those who remain in heresy and do not wall themselves off as “brethren” according to Baptism, yet fallen according to the faith. For this reason, it does not require either their rebaptism or their chrismation when they come to the walled-off. Following the Holy Fathers, it holds that the pan-heresy of Ecumenism has divided the flock, and not the Church, into a sound and a diseased portion. The sound portion—that is, the walled-off—preserves the traditional Orthodox faith and constitutes the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Orthodox Church of Christ, which alone saves and which continuously prays and struggles so that the fallen members of the diseased portion of the flock, who are Orthodox baptized, may abandon the heresy and return in repentance to the bosom of the Orthodox Church. Whoever is baptized in an Orthodox manner retains always, intact, the right of repentance—it is never lost.

On the other hand, it certainly does not recognize that the full, salvific Grace is imparted in the Mystery of Holy Communion celebrated within the ranks of the heretical pseudo-church, because in that case we would be speaking of a divided Christ in two bodies—one Christ in the sound portion and another Christ in the diseased portion of the flock—which would mean Arianism. Only preliminary [προκαταρκτικὴ] Grace is imparted to them, which enlightens with additional knowledge of God those among the faithful who are worthy and purified, so that they may ultimately come to recognize the heresy and separate themselves from it by walling off.

For all these reasons, the walled-off (armored – fortified) Church of Christ cannot in any case be characterized as Old Calendarist.

3. Walling Off and a Church Without a Bishop

Within the same context, the view cannot be supported that the walled-off (armored – fortified) Church of Christ is a Church without a bishop. The walled-off priest is not a self-ordained cleric, but one who has canonical ordination from a Bishop, from whom he has received the command to celebrate the holy and wonder-working Mysteries. However, that Bishop placed himself outside the Church of Christ due to his continuous, incorrigible, and unrepentant doctrinal error in word and deed, despite the warnings and admonitions given to him. For this reason, the walled-off priest proceeded to the cessation of his commemoration, applying the 15th Holy Canon of the First-Second Council. This, however, does not mean that the Bishop does not exist, or that he is “absent,” and, consequently, that the walled-off (armored – fortified) Church of Christ is headless and without a bishop. The Bishop does exist, but he now belongs to the diseased part, that which has been severed from the Body of the Church of Christ, until either he repents and returns to it, or is deposed due to unrepentance by a corrective Orthodox Council.

 

[1] Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite, Pedalion, publ. V. Rigopoulos, Thessaloniki 2003, p. 358.

 

Greek source:

https://sotiriosnavs.com/i-apoteichismeni-ekklisia-toy-christoy-den-einai-oyte-schismatiki-oyte-palaioimerologitiki-oyte-anepiskopiki-ekklisia/