After the ecclesiastical developments with the GOC during the last months, from which there have been created justified concerns for many clergy and laity concerning whether the Orthodox mind exists any more in the sacred camp of the GOC, the clergy attached to the Metropolitan of Mesogaias and Islands κ. Christophoros drafted and agreed on the following Confession of Faith so that everyone knows their ecclesiastical mind. You may download the pdf version of the text here.
Confession of Faith
In the name of the Tri-hypostatic and Undivided Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit of our One True God. Amen.
Following statutes and guidelines given down to us by the Fathers, during these last times, it does not seem unfitting to refer to the words of St. Basil the Great the Revealer of Heaven who, speaking about the then ecclesiastical misery writes, “The dogmas of the Fathers have been disregarded, apostolic traditions have been debilitated, inventions of modern men are being mixed into the Church,”[1] and the Saint adds, ”the dogmas of the pious have been turned upside down, statutes of the Church are being confused.”[2] Therefore, as a matter of duty we should make clear our own ecclesiological stand and position.
We believe, preach, and profess, all that the most sacred Holy Apostles and God-bearing Holy Fathers decreed, ordered, and established in the Church, neither adding nor removing anything.
We also accept all of the Canonical Synodal decisions of the local Orthodox Churches that were made before 1923 (the calendar innovation). Through these decisions every novelty and deflection from the Orthodox Faith and patristic tradition is condemned.
We also agree with and faithfully follow the declarations of our predecessors in the Sacred Struggle for the Faith which were declared in the encyclicals of the years 1935, 1950, 1973 and also in the year 1997.
We condemn and turn from the heresies and innovations both of old and of recent times that attack the Orthodox Church: and specifically the damned Ecumenism through which the total and revelational truth of the Orthodox Church is abrogated and Sergianism which reduced the authenticity of the Church into a subordinate of the godless political system in Russia.
We renounce likewise the calendar innovation in the Orthodox Church which has been rejected and anathematized by the Synods of the years 1583, 1593, 1848. Through this innovation of the calendar began the distortion of our Orthodox Faith and the introduction of papal treacheries into the Eastern Church of Christ.
We also reject the newly-appearing of delusional teachings and heresies in the sacred camp of the Orthodox, and mainly the so-called “Cyprianism” which seeks to make a deterioration in the pious confessions of faith and announces an “Orthodox” Ecumenism; the condemned by synodal decisions[3] cacodoxy of the “Jesusians” or “Name worshippers” the deifiers of the name “Jesus”; likewise, the ecumenistic theory of “repentance in Hades”[4] which says that those who died outside of the Church as heterodox and heathen can be saved!
Those who wish to enter our resolute Orthodox Church are accepted by Holy Baptism if they are coming to us from a known heresy. [5] If they are coming to us from one of the so-called “Orthodox” Churches that partake in ecumenism, then we receive them through a confession of Faith and through chrismation with Holy Chrism as long as their baptism had been done with the correct form of the Orthodox Church, in other words, by three immersions and emersions in water. If however the form was insufficient, then we baptize these ones also. [6] As far as schismatic clergy goes, we receive these ones after their written application which must contain a confession of Faith and by heirothesia.
Also we receive through a confession of Faith those who come to us from Orthodox jurisdictions which have altered the confession of Faith and have wavered from the standard line of our predecessors in the Faith.
Proclaiming all of this, we magnify and piously commemorate all those of our reposed Fathers and Confessors of the Faith who endured all calamities and needs and were persecuted for the Faith and we cry out: “May their memory be eternal!”
We anathematize and condemn as enemies of the Church of Christ all those who shook the Church through heretical beliefs, blasphemies, and innovations and deviations from the Orthodox Faith and Holy Tradition.
Also, we assure that with the help of God we shall remain custodians of the Orthodox Faith, preserving it undistorted and without innovations so as faithful and beneficial soldiers of Christ we may reach unto the day in which we may say to the rewarding Lord, ”I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness….”
March, 2014
In Jesus Christ our Lord,
+ Metropolitan Christophoros
Archim. Germanos Tserpelis, protosygelos
Archim. Nikiforos Grοce
Archim. Philaretos Klimakitis
Archim. Pavlos Apostolopoulos
Archim. Nektarios Voriniotis
Archim. Nektarios Dikaios
Archim. Nikanor Kazafaniotis
Archim. Sosipatros Yusuf
Hierom. Moses Ginis
V.Rev. Lyudmil Petrov
Rev. Kleomenis Kefalas
Rev. Marian Agelov
Tags: Confession of Faith
