Nikolaos Sotiropoulos (1934-2014): The 15th Canon of the First-Second Council combats schism and is worthy of praise.

“When a hierarch preaches heresy, then the priest has the right not to commemorate the name of that hierarch.”

 

 

Nikolaos Sotiropoulos: You who are appointed unto eternal life. Brothers whom the Lord loved, for whom He became man and sacrificed Himself, and whom He ordained to obtain boundless eternity, to obtain His unshakable and indescribable Kingdom.

Your Church invited me to come and preach the word of God. I responded readily to your Church’s invitation. Your Church is accused of being schismatic. I came as an Orthodox theologian to refute this accusation. I came, as an Orthodox theologian, to defend the people of God who come to this church in order to worship the Lord of Glory. Your parish priest, the minister of the Most High, Father Alexander, has ordination from a canonical Bishop. He has canonical ordination, he has real priesthood, and he performs the Mysteries.

The congregation: Axios! Axios! Axios!

Nikolaos Sotiropoulos: The Patriarchate of Constantinople deposed Father Alexander, but it deposed him unjustly, incompetently; this Patriarchate did not have the competence to judge Father Alexander, and it did so without allowing him to defend himself, without summoning him to make a defense. For this reason, according to the Sacred Canons, his deposition is invalid, just as the notorious excommunication of the speaker is also invalid.

Those who govern the Church must learn justice; those who govern the Church must learn justice and respect the Sacred Canons, and not do arbitrary and dictatorial things within the Church of God.

What does the 15th Canon of the First-Second Council say, my brothers? When a hierarch preaches heresy, then the priest has the right not to commemorate the name of that hierarch, and to serve independently of that hierarch, and to commemorate—as I was moved when I heard earlier Father Alexander commemorating—“all Orthodox bishops who rightly divide the word of Truth.” Canon 15, I repeat, of the First-Second Council, concerning the priest who does not commemorate the heretical hierarch and serves independently of him, says that this priest does not cause schism, but combats schism, because he does not commemorate the heretical hierarch and because he serves independently of the heretical hierarch. I repeat: he does not create schism, but combats schism and is worthy of praise.

Congregation: Axios! Axios!

Nikolaos Sotiropoulos: Not of deposition. Even great Fathers and teachers of our Church were deposed, such as Athanasius, the pillar of Orthodoxy, and Chrysostom, the most universal Father and teacher of the Church. But the Fathers, although they were deposed by unjust fellow bishops, are the undeposed towers of the Church. We enjoy the Liturgy of sacred Chrysostom here on Sunday.

My brothers, your Church is not schismatic. It is canonical, Orthodox, and your parish priest is worthy of praise, because he declared: “I will serve independently of the Archdiocese of Australia, because the Archbishop preaches heresy!” Heresies. That is why I came here to speak; otherwise, I would not have come.

Do you know what another Canon says, the 31st Apostolic Canon? A priest may cease the commemoration of a hierarch and serve independently of the administration of the hierarch when the hierarch offends piety—that is, the Faith, and not only piety—and justice, when he does unjust things.

Do you know what another Canon says? If a hierarch does not combat the heresies, and all the more if the hierarch also preaches heresies, then another hierarch has the right, has the right to come and assume the pastoral care of his flock. Indeed! If there were heroic Bishops and heroic priests, they ought to have come here to Australia and assumed the pastoral care of the shepherdless flock of the Archdiocese of Australia.

Today we celebrate, the day before yesterday and today, Saint Paraskevi. After our Panagia, she is the most popular female saintly figure. Saint Paraskevi became holy, my brothers, because she had Faith. The first thing is Faith; all the other things come second. She believed, as the Apostle says today; she believed in Jesus as Lord, as God. She believed in the Lordship and the Divinity of the Author of our Faith, our Lord Jesus Christ. She also believed in the Resurrection of Christ, which the Apostle again speaks of. She believed in everything that the Church believes. She was a conscious member of the Church and struggled within the Church. And because the Church is a workshop of holiness, for this reason Saint Paraskevi, through her struggle and through the Grace of the Church, became a Saint and wonderworker.

On this occasion, my brothers, I shall briefly explain to your piety the article of the Symbol of Faith which refers to the Church, which brings forth Saints and wonderworkers and martyrs and great-martyrs. What did we say earlier, when reciting the Symbol of Faith? I believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. It is one. Christ is not in many churches. He founded one Church: the one that has the correct Faith. The others are heresies and schisms. Here you are the Church with the right Faith, the Orthodox Faith. You belong to the One Church of which Christ said: “I will build My Church upon the rock of Faith.” He said “the” Church, “One” Church. One is the correct Faith, one is the Church.

Again, Christ said to the Jews: I do not have only you Jews, Christ said; I also have other sheep: us Gentiles, the Greeks and others, who were idolaters. I am going to lead them also, and there shall be one flock under one shepherd. What is the one Flock? The One Church. And who is the one Shepherd? He who sacrificed Himself for the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Ecumenists speak of many churches. They say, Council, World Council of Churches. Let there be a union of the churches. Wrong! The Church is one: the one that changed nothing from the Faith of the first eight centuries. Many times, I challenge the heterodox, the heretics, to indicate and prove that we changed even one small Truth of Faith. They cannot prove such a thing. We changed nothing from the Faith. The Church is One; the others, I repeat, which are called churches, whether Papism, or Protestant confessions, or Monophysites, are heresies and schisms.

The Church is Holy. I believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Why is the Church Holy? Because her Founder is Holy; because the Spirit that gives her life is Holy, the Holy Spirit. Because the Gospel is Holy, the Scripture is Holy, her teaching is holy, her Tradition is holy. Because her Mysteries are Holy, because her purpose is holy. The Church is a workshop of holiness. Within the Church there is the Grace of God, which brings forth Saints, as it brought forth Saint Paraskevi. What am I saying? Millions of Saints and martyrs and great-martyrs and wonderworkers, whose holy relics also work miracles. The Church is Holy; she has produced millions of Saints. It does not matter that within the Church there are also impious and corrupt people. The impious and corrupt do not abolish the Saints and the holiness of the Church, the Church of God. The Church is not merely a human organism; she is a divine-human organism, and for this reason the enemies and betrayers of the Faith have not been able to tear her down.

The Church is Catholic. What does it mean that the Church is Catholic? The Papists call themselves the catholic church. Wrong; the Catholics are not a church, they are a Heresy. Their church, their so-called church, is not catholic. It is called catholic, but it is not; it has the name, but it does not have the Grace. Our Church is Catholic. Why? Catholic means that it has the whole Truth of the Faith. It has thrown away nothing from the truths of the Faith; it has distorted nothing from the truths of the Faith. Because our Church has the whole Truth of the Faith, which the Lord revealed for our salvation, for this reason our Church is called Catholic. The Papists, from the name “Catholic,” do not have the Grace. We Orthodox have both the name “Catholic” and the Grace.

The Church is Apostolic. What does this mean? God founded her through the Apostles. He chose twelve, thirteen simple, unlettered men; He sent them forth into the inhabited world; they preached the most beautiful words, words which the ages marvel at, incomparable words. The philosophers do not attain to the wisdom of the Apostles. And some years, and some decades, after the death and Resurrection of Christ, they founded in the inhabited world, among all states and above all states, the State of God, the Church. The Church has as her cornerstone, her very foundation stone, Christ Himself, and as secondary founders, the Apostles; and as stones of this edifice called the Church, the Church has all conscious Christians. We are living stones in the majestic edifice of Christ which is called the Church.

The Church, my brothers, is the ark of our salvation; it is the workshop of holiness; it is, to express myself differently, our mother, our sweet mother, who grants us hope and consolation and strength. Within the Church miracles take place; for this reason, the Church is not torn down. And what did one Father of the Church say? No one can have God as Father if he does not have the Church as mother. If he does not come every Sunday to this great family of Christ, to say, “Glory to Thee who hast shown us the light,” to say, “We hymn Thee, we bless Thee, we give thanks unto Thee, O Lord.”

My brothers, all things in the world are vain. The Church is not a vain thing. Let us remain faithful to the Faith, to Orthodoxy, to our sweet mother, the Church, until the end. And when we depart from this vain world, as children of the Church of Orthodoxy, we shall not go below, where the impious go. We shall go above, above the stars, above the galaxies, and we shall receive an unshakable, indescribable Kingdom, and we shall reign together with the King of kings, our Lord Jesus Christ, unto the boundless ages; and of our Kingdom there shall be no end. Amen!

 

Greek source: https://apotixisi.blogspot.com/2026/05/15_12.html