From the G.O.C. Archives: Letter of Archbishop Leonty of Chile to Bishop Petros of Astoria

 

August 25, 1968 [1]

Santiago, Chile

Your Eminence and beloved Vladika Petros,

I received the letter and the copy concerning your appointment in America and Canada, concerning something about which, as you know, I wrote repeatedly, coming face to face with their [i.e., the Greek Synod’s] anger. But this does not give them the right to change what was said about me in their Hierarchical Synod — regarding me as an elder brother, commemorating my name in the Services, and that nothing important should be done without my approval, neither ordinations nor other important procedures. As long as they observed these terms and discussed all matters, and before receiving the ordination documents from me, everything proceeded smoothly; but behold, they took the wrong path and began to ignore me and to persuade others as well, and so God allowed them to find themselves on the anti-Orthodox side. Specifically, by their own invitation, from July 24 to August 1, the Serbian former bishop Dionisije [Milivojević], who had lost his title, arrived in Athens together with the self-styled “bishop” Irinej [Kovačević], who was ordained by the uncanonical Ukrainian Church. There they convened a Synod and signed the terms of ecclesiastical communion and all related matters, and for this reason they departed from the path of Orthodoxy and fell into the basket of the heretics, until the final and official severance of relations with Dionysios. [2]

No one has the right to concelebrate with and recognize unlawfully ordained clergymen. All this is very sorrowful. It is your duty, as soon as possible, to send a letter to them and not to have ecclesiastical communion with them, if you wish to remain Orthodox. I also have no ecclesiastical communion with the Serbian Patriarch German, [3] just as with the Soviet Alexy [I of Moscow].

This is all that I must say to you.

It is good that Fr. Niphon was hosted by you and returned to his homeland. I await your answer on the matter as soon as possible. May God protect you.

Greetings to your household, as also to your Clergy and your Flock.

Your intercessor before God,

Archbishop Leonty

 

1. Archive of Bishop Petros Astyfides of Astoria. [Greek] translation from the Russian language.

2. Ultimately, as was proven, there was then no official communion of the G.O.C. with the “Free Serbs.”

3. The commemoration of German of Serbia was discontinued a little later also by the new Saint of Serbia, Fr. Justin Popović (see the newspaper Orthodoxos Typos, issue no. 144/15-7-1971).

 

Source: Η Αλληλογραφία του Αρχιεπισκόπου Λεοντίου Φιλίπποβιτς με τους Έλληνες Παλαιοημερολογίτες (1961–1969), by Nikolaos Mannis, Athens, 2022, pp. 348-349.