Month: January 2021

Categories
faith

Christian morality and politics

Christian morality transcends all political ideologies and political parties. Truth itself is above all theological. Theology refers to the knowledge of God. Theological truth refers to the absolute truth of the universe which was created by God.

It is good that social conservatives espouse Christian teachings on matters such as marriage, pro life, and gender. It should not be forgotten however that there are other issues of morality that need to be addressed. Racism and anti semitism are also immoral.

The Holy Gospel commands Christians to “love they neighbor as theyself”. Saint Paul wrote that in Christ, “there is neither Jew nor Greek”. Racism remains a problem in America today and Christians have a moral obligation to condemn it without embracing the unreasonable demands and stances of groups such as “Antifa”.

The Orthodox Christian faith is the antidote to the problems afflicting the western world today. The truth of the holy Gospel emanates from the divine in contrast to secular political ideologies which are man made. Supporting one political faction or another is fine as long as it is understood that political parties (even conservative ones) can never serve as a substitute for the Church of God.

Extremism of all sorts is something to be condemned. At present, the political left in America and Europe seems to be the more anti Christian. The left however does not have a monopoly on anti Christian ideology. Take for example, the Golden Dawn Party in Greece which is now thankfully nearly extinct.

Golden Dawn was an openly Neo-Nazi and racist party. Not only did it advocate Holocaust denial and racism, it was openly pro pagan and pro satanic. Some Orthodox Greeks out of ignorance voted for this party under the assumption that it was preferable to the atheistic left, when in fact it was even worse.

Recent events at the capital in Washington D.C. indicate that extremism is not confined to the left. The attack on the capital was inherently irrational and stupid, and in the end succeeded only in angering and alienating much of the American population. In fairness, extremism on the American left appears to be more established than extremism on the right which has been disavowed by conservatives.

The Holy Gospel teaches us to “know the truth and the truth shall set you free”. Orthodox Christians should attempt to see things with as much objectivity as possible. Admittedly, this blog is more suspicious of the left at this time than of the right, but that does not mean that that it is not also suspicious of the right to a certain extent, as can be seen by the behavior of rightists several weeks ago.

The problems in America and the world today are above all spiritual. Political parties cannot address spiritual issues. Only the Church can properly address the spiritual crisis that has fallen upon the world. Therefore, the Orthodox Churches in America have a unique opportunity to rise to the occasion to bear witness to Christ and to offer the message of the Gospel.

Categories
political

The Democrats pagan agenda

“Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”

This is an excerpt from an executive order that came down from the White House. What this is saying is that boys in school who consider themselves to be girls should have access to the girls room, the girls locker room, and should be able to participate in girls sports. This is exactly what many of us feared was going to happen in the event of a democratic victory in Presidential elections. Without defending the attack on the Capital, one can honestly say that Donald Trump has already been missed.

From a conservative-libertarian standpoint, all consenting adults should be free to live as they like. This includes the right to have whatever surgery they like. The problem here is that this radical agenda is being imposed on the rest of society including children. It is an established fact of reality that a man cannot become a woman, and a woman cannot become a man.

If some people believe otherwise that is their right and it is their right to “transition” if they so desire. But they do not have the right to force the rest of us to abandon reality. They most certainly do not have the right to impose this agenda on children. Some years back the Democrats used to accuse the Republicans of waging a “war on women”.

That was amusing then considering that accusation was coming from the party of Bill Clinton and the Kennedys. That accusation is even more bizarre and hypocritical coming from a party that has supported permitting men to use the ladies room. Not being content with permitting men to use the ladies room, they are now ready to send boys into girls restrooms and locker rooms.

This is why it is difficult from a Greek Orthodox standpoint not to view the Democrats as a threat to freedom of worship. Christians believe that God has made man in his own image. Male and female he created them, as the Book of Genesis tells us. Any believing Christian (or Muslim or Jew) that objects to this madness is going to be considered a “transphobe”. Public life for Christians (and non Christians) has just gotten more difficult.

With the coming to power of the Biden administration, voices from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in New York have responded with great enthusiasm. One does not not need to elaborate any further on this particular fact.

One recalls reading an issue of Time Magazine in 2016 to read about the Russian Presidents visit to Mount Athos. Another article in that same magazine had an article from a woman who wrote about her “pregnant brother”. The article was accompanied by a picture of a bearded woman breastfeeding an infant.

That is when the secularists and “social progressives” completely lost their minds. Normal people whether they are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, or atheists have always recognized a reality common to all. That it is impossible for men to get pregnant and to give birth.

Normal people recognize that an individual who can get pregnant and give birth is a woman! This fact should have confirmed the trans movement as farce. A woman who “transitions” into a man and gives birth is ultimately a woman because MEN DO NOT GIVE BIRTH!!!

Rather than bowing to reality, the political left chose to declare war on reality by insisting that men can in fact give birth. Furthermore, the political left and the lunatics who now control the Democratic Party consider people who live in reality to be “transphobic” because we do not believe men can give birth or that men and boys should be using female restrooms and locker rooms.

The Biden administration has just taken a shot at those who adhere to the Christian faith. The pagan agenda of the Democratic Party is being unveiled.

Postscript

Message to Donald Trump. All is forgiven. Fight Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats, stay healthy, and run again in 2024.

Categories
Letters

Letter to the Editor Orthodox Times

The following is respectfully submitted in response to the commentary by his Eminence Archbishop Sotirios of Canada, “Are there Taliban in the Orthodox Church?”I am a Greek Orthodox Christian under the omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarch in the United States. I happen to believe that the Ecumenical Patriarchate is completely wrong to have intervened in Ukraine which happens to be under the Russian Orthodox Church. The Ecumenical Patriarch is in fact “First among equals”as stated in the commentary. 


The Ecumenical Patriarchate is part of the one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church but is not above and beyond the authority of the universal Church. The Church founded by Jesus Christ existed for three and a half centuries before the Church of Constantinople was established as a Patriarchate at the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381 AD. The Ecumenical Patriarchate does not have the authority to dictate over the autocephalous and local Churches. The decisions of an Ecumenical Council are reached through consensus, the universal agreement of all.


If we are going to discuss the question as to whether there are “Taliban in the Orthodox Church” we might pose that question to the schismatic entity known as “Orthodox Church of Ukraine”. This alleged “church” consisting of unconsecrated bishops, unordained priests, and defrocked clergy are not a Church but they could claim to be a sort of Taliban. This group has the backing of the political leadership in Ukraine as well as various neo fascist groups and militias who have been terrorizing the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church for many years through acts of violence against clerics and laypeople and have forcibly seized Churches in complete violation of the spirit of love emanating from the Holy Gospel. 


 Church history has shown that Patriarchs, Bishops, and Priests, as well as laypeople are susceptible to heresy and other transgressions. This is why we have the Holy Canons which were ratified by the universal authority of the Church following the convening of the Seven Ecumenical and other Councils in Church history. The Patriarchate of Constantinople is answerable to Christ the head of the Church and to the universal Church as a whole. The infamous heretic Nestorios was a Patriarch of Constantinople who was deposed and condemned by the authority of the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. It should be remembered that Saint Cyril of the Patriarchate of Alexandria was the true champion of Orthodoxy in the dispute with Nestorius. 


Furthermore, during the iconoclastic crisis that raged for over a century the Emperor, Patriarch, and Bishops destroyed icons while the faithful (mostly women) and the monks protected and revered them. Are we to believe that the Patriarchs of Constantinople who destroyed icons were not heretics? The authority of the Seventh Ecumenical Council of Nicea in 787 AD which is commemorated during the first Sunday of Great Lent (the Sunday of Orthodoxy) exonerated those who resisted the heresy of the iconoclasts. 


Finally, we have the example before us of the faithful of the Great Church of Constantinople who took to the streets to protest when they heard that the Emperor, Patriarch, and Bishops signed the Union of Florence in 1439. History has shown that in 1439 as in earlier periods of Church history the faithful were right to challenge their hierarchs. Orthodox Christians are obligated to defend the faith at all times and on those occasions when their hierarchs are in the wrong. 

Theodore G. Karakostas 

Categories
political

Biden and Greece

President elect Joe Biden has been embraced by many Greeks and even media in Greece seem to have embraced the myth that Biden will conduct a pro Greek foreign policy. The problem here is that very few have actually done a real analysis of Biden’s foreign policy advocacy and the past record of the Democratic Party on Greek issues. There are serious obstacles facing Greek-American relations under the incoming Biden administration.

In the past, Democratic administrations have not been good for Greece. For example, the Carter administration despite proclaiming a pro human rights foreign policy lifted the arms embargo on Turkey that Congress imposed after the Turkish invasions of Cyprus during the summer of 1974. Furthermore, Bill Clinton promised he would not recognize the former Yugoslav Republic of Skopje with the name of Macedonia (more on the significance of this below).

The Clinton administration had the chance to demonstrate its friendly stance toward Greece on January 31, 1996 when Turkey claimed the islet of Imia in the Aegean Sea. Treaties and maps showed that this islet was Greek. However, Turkey’s strategic position outweighed Greece’s territorial rights in the eyes of the foreign policy established and Greece was forced to stand down against Turkish aggression. In August 1996, Cypriot protesters Tasos Isaac and Solomos Solomou were murdered in cold blood by Turkish occupation forces and no effort was ever made to bring their murderers to trial.

Like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, Barack Obama made promises to the Greeks. In early 2009, Obama travelled to Turkey and met with Patriarch Bartholomew but he met with the Patriarch in a hotel room away from media. Furthermore, Obama insulted Greece by comparing the treatment of Greek Christians in Turkey with the Muslims of west Thrace who are prospering. Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insulted Greece by saying the same thing to Archbishop Demetrios of America.

Returning to Clinton’s recognition of Skopje with the name of Macedonia. Greek interests were subordinated to the perceived greater interests of the Balkans at that particular time. The Clinton administration was intent on supporting Croatia and Bosnia against Serbia. The anti-Serbian foreign policy meant a pro Turkish foreign policy as Ankara was supporting Bosnia and shared the Clinton administrations foreign policy.

Therefore, Greek interests over the name of Macedonia were not considered important. In addition, Serbia was Greece’s closest ally in the region having fought with the Greeks in the Balkan Wars and both World Wars. The Clinton administration wanted Greece to be anti Serbian and was not interested in hearing about Turkey. Sound familiar?

The anti Russian hysteria today is similar to the anti Serbian hysteria of the 1990’s. Joe Biden has always been and remains a supporter of the foreign policy establishment because he follows what others tell him unlike Donald Trump who formulated his own foreign policy. Biden was a supporter of going to war with Serbia during the 1990’s, supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and is a supporter of provoking tensions with Russia.

Biden is considered an expert on foreign policy and once sat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Despite this, he is not a foreign policy expert. He is a politician with no historical knowledge or understanding of other countries. In this, he shares the ignorance and lack of sophistication of George W. Bush.

The American foreign policy establishment with the full support of the Democratic Party, the dominant left wing media, and others is fully intent on pursuing an anti Russian foreign policy. The problems that Greece and Cyprus face from an aggressive Turkey will be subordinated to the Biden administration’s anti Russian policies.

The intervention of the State Department in Church affairs in Ukraine is an example of what is ahead for Greece. Greece and Cyprus are intended to be on board for Washington’s anti Russian agenda. As with with the case of Serbia during the 1990’s, Turkey is going to be considered an ally against the Russians.

Historically, Turkey has always been a beneficiary of anti Russian hysteria. This can be seen by the outbreak of anti Russian hysteria in Great Britain at the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1853 in which the British and French backed the Ottoman Empire over Russia. During the Cold War, Turkey was considered an important ally against the Soviet Union and so in all likelihood the Biden administration will at least attempt to improve relations with Turkey in pursuit of an anti Russian coalition.

Whether the Erdogan government is willing to change its foreign policy to take part in such a coalition is uncertain. Perhaps the Erdogan government will refuse which will be a good thing for Greece and Cyprus. However, in the short term it can be reasonably asserted that Joe Biden is no friend of Greece.

Based on the present set of facts that we have before us and following historical precedents there is no reason for Greeks to put any trust in Joe Biden. Greeks have the terrible tendency of listening to rhetoric and ignoring and forgetting actual facts.

Categories
Letters

Letter to the Orthodox Times

The following letter is in response to your article falsely accusing Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of “attacking” Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.This is an absolutely false allegation. The reality is that the American Department of State has intervened blatantly in ecclesiastical matters and has created a catastrophic schism in the Orthodox Church. As a Greek American I am outraged by the intervention of people such as outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and “Ambassador” Geoffrey Pyatt in the affairs of the Orthodox Church.


This collusion between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and certain Bishops in the Churches of Greece and Cyprus with the State Department has contributed to the spiritual decline of these three Greek speaking Churches. The primary foreign policy aim of the American government is to isolate and contain Russia which is the last real bastion of Orthodox Christianity in the world. Russia is the Orthodox country that proceeded to save the Christians of Syria from genocide which resulted from the American Crusades in the Middle East. Russia is the Orthodox country that has blocked the neopagan gay, lesbian, and transgender ideology from being imposed (by western backed think tanks) on its territory.


On the matter of Ukraine, it was always the position of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and all Orthodox Churches that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under Moscow was the authentic canonical Church. This stance did not change until the State Department meddled in Church affairs in 2018 and the Churches of Greece and Cyprus likewise refrained from entering into communion with Ukrainian schismatics until American officials all of whom are secularists or belong to certain Protestant heretical groups lobbied them to recognize the schismatics. 


The Russian Foreign Minister did not “attack” the Ecumenical Patriarch. He told the truth about Patriarch Bartholomew’s stance toward the Orthodox world. By tradition and by the teaching of Orthodox ecclesiology Patriarch Bartholomew is “first among equals” and holds a “primacy of honor” in the Orthodox Church. He is not an Eastern Pope and does not have the right to intervene in the internal affairs of any autocephalous Orthodox Churches. What he has done in Ukraine has violated canon law by attempting to restore”bishops” who were lawfully deposed by their own synods and has attempted to grab ecclesiastical territory (Ukraine) that has been part of the Russian Orthodox Church since 1686. 


 As a Greek, I also happen to love the city of Constantinople and the Great Church itself. However, I follow the example of Saint Mark of Ephesus who rejected the decisions of the Emperor John Paleologos and the Bishops of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1439 after they accepted the heretical decisions of the Council of Florence. The Orthodox Church has as its eternal leader the incarnate logos and word of God Jesus Christ! The Orthodox Church functions through the process of conciliarity in which the highest decision making authority emanates from an Ecumenical Council in which all Bishops from all local Churches convene to reach decisions.


Patriarch Bartholomew’s intervention in Ukraine undermines the conciliar tradition of the Orthodox Church at the behest of the atheist and heretical officials of the American State Department. Making this ecclesiastical crisis even worse is the violent persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Ukrainian Government and by various Neo-Nazi and anti semetic militias and groups in Ukraine. The Greek Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria and those Bishops in Greece and Cyprus who have entered into communion with defrocked Ukrainian shysters and unordained crackpots have committed serious ecclesiastical crimes against the Church of  Christ!


It is time for the Greek speaking world to come out of the slumber that it has been in since 2018 and to recognize that the State Department is using the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Churches as if they were political parties or non governmental organizations. The Ukrainian affair has to do with proper ecclesiology and canon law, with the validity or non validity of the consecration of Bishops and the ordinations of Priests. These are matters that American officials have no business discussing or commenting on. 


Those Greeks who support Patriarch Bartholomew in his Ukrainian venture are in fact undermining the Ecumenical Patriarchate. As one who is under the omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and who has authored a book about its glorious history and has been active in raising awareness of its plight in Turkey, I say that I am against the activities of Patriarch Bartholomew in Ukraine. These activities and claims of supreme authority have destabilized and undermined the Church of Constantinople and its place in the Orthodox Church. Those who love and appreciate the great spiritual heritage of Constantinople are obligated to speak against the betrayal of this heritage by what is occurring in Ukraine. 


I conclude my letter by recalling the great irony in this entire affair. The State Department hypocritically claims to be protecting the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Anyone familiar with the history of the Church of Constantinople is aware of the fact that in the aftermath of the anti Greek pogroms of 1955  and the ethnic cleansing of Greeks from Constantinople and the islands of Imbros and Tenedos during the 1960’s surely recalls that the State Department refused to condemn or protest the atrocities against the Greek Orthodox population by the Turkish authorities. It should also be recalled that Archbishop Spyridon of Athens bravely condemned the Turkish government and the American and British governments for their passivity in the aftermath of the 1955 pogroms despite enormous pressure from the Greek Government and the American Embassy to keep silent. 


The Ecumenical Patriarchate’s strength has been spiritual, not political. Its strength throughout the hardships of the twentieth century emanated from its spiritual ties with its sister Orthodox Churches. As a result of Constantinople’s unwise and uncanonical invasion of the territory of the Russian Church in Ukraine it has cut itself off from the Russian Church and badly strained its relations with the other local Orthodox Churches. 


By harming the canonical and spiritual unity of the Orthodox Church through its invasion of Ukraine, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has also harmed itself by damaging the spiritual foundations upon which it was founded  and which has enabled the Great Church to survive since 1453. 

             Theodore G. Karakostas 

Categories
political

Imia Twenty five Years Later

January 31 will be the twenty fifth anniversary of the notorious Imia affair. Imia is the name of a Greek islet in the Aegean Sea that Turkey claimed. The Treaty of Peace with Italy that was signed in 1947 gave the Dodecanese islands along with all islets in the Aegean Sea to Greece. There is no question that Imia is a Greek islet.

Despite historic treaties and maps affirming Imia as Greek, Athens was pressured by the United States government to withdraw the Greek flag from Imia. This was a major defeat and setback for Greece and a victory for Turkey. It should be remembered that it was the Democratic administration of Bill Clinton that neutralized Greek sovereignty over Imia.

Over the past half a year or so, Turkish aggression has been manifested against Greece and Cyprus. Turkey challenges Greek sovereignty in the eastern mediterranean and claims outright several Greek islands that belong to Athens according to international treaties and are populated by ethnic Greeks. There are two factors in the year 2020 that were different from 1996.

The first difference was that the internationalist Prime Minister Costas Simitis and his PASOK party are gone from the political scene. Simitis was an anti Greek Prime Minister that was more interested in being European. Greece today is led by New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis who has proven to be more of a nationalist and is more committed to the defense of Greece than Simitis was.

The second difference between 2020 and 1996 is the difference between the Trump and the Clinton administrations. In 1996, Undersecretary of State Richard Holbrooke “negotiated” between Greece and Turkey. In reality, he pressured Greece to back down and the Greek flag came down from Imia.

In 2020, the Greek Government under the leadership of Mitsotakis stood up to the Turks and has refused to give away Greece’s sovereign rights. There is no evidence that the Trump administration in any way attempted to bully Greece into making concessions to the Turks.

Just something for Greeks to consider carefully before the inauguration of Joe Biden.

Categories
faith

The Orthodox Church must Address the problem at the root

In a recent interview, Patriarch Kyril of Moscow stated that Patriarch Bartholomew recognized the schismatic “church” faction in Ukraine because of pressure from “powerful political forces”. It remains a mystery why the local Orthodox Churches have refrained from confronting the American government through their embassies in their respective capitals? At this point, the primates and bishops of all Orthodox Churches should begin raising awareness among their flocks as to what has transpired.

All Orthodox Churches should publicly denounce the State Department and its intrusive policies in Church affairs. It is time to break the silence of the past two years. Patriarch Bartholomew has been justifiably criticized from throughout the Orthodox world. This criticism along with appeals from some Orthodox primates to the Ecumenical Patriarch to convene a council has failed to achieve anything.

There have been reports over the past year indicating that the Orthodox primates in Georgia, Serbia, and elsewhere have been visited by American diplomats who asked them recognize the fake “church” in Ukraine. To their credit, these Churches have refused to establish communion with the fake “bishops” of Ukraine. One wishes the Archbishops of Athens and Nicosia, along with the holy kinot of Mount Athos had followed the examples of the Georgian and Serbian Churches.

The inter Orthodox fighting has produced nothing. Patriarch Bartholomew has refused to listen to reason and the reality is that he is simply not free. Making appeals to the Ecumenical Patriarch to convene a council has failed because Patriarch Bartholomew is under pressure from the American government. Therefore, the defenders of Orthodoxy need to redirect their criticism to those “powerful political forces” that instigated this entire crisis.

A council should be convened in a similar way as that which was convened by the Patriarch of Jerusalem last year. This time, the subject of the council should address the American problem. It is very clear that a resolution to the ecclesiastical crisis in Ukraine will not be forthcoming until secular political interests have removed themselves from the spiritual and canonical life of the Orthodox Church.

A council should be convened to discuss very simply the involvement of secular interests in the Church and how the free Orthodox Churches should react to the encroachments of the secular world into the spiritual domain. The council could be convened once again under the Patriarch of Jerusalem or it could be convened under the presidency of the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia.

It does not really matter under whose presidency such a council occurs as long as it convenes and addresses the destructive intrusion into Church life of the secular powers. This does not have to be a formal council with binding decisions as it will not be dealing with either dogmatic, doctrinal, or canonical issues. The restoration of the application of canonical law and norms in Ukraine is a long way off and will have to be dealt with sometime in the future.

Last year’s council in Jordan was not binding but it was productive in the sense that several local Churches took a step forward in discussing the crisis. The next step should be for the local Churches to discuss and to condemn the secular intrusions into the spiritual life of the Church of Christ. As the Churches of Constantinople and Greece are presently not free, they should not be expected to attend such a council.

In any case, the synods of the free Churches should gather among themselves to coordinate protests among the faithful in their own countries and to ask their own governments to protect religious freedom before their local Churches follow the path of the Churches of Constantinople, Greece, and Alexandria. It is time for Orthodoxy to shake off the blows that have been inflicted upon it since 2018 and begin the process of defending the faith.

The above suggestions may not sound like much but at the very least it is time to address the origin of the whole Ukrainian crisis. This is a much needed first step on the road to restore Orthodox unity. The work of the State Department in attempting to influence the Church as if it were a political party or non governmental organization is an outrage and a a violation of religious freedom.

The Orthodox Church must react toward Washington as if the State Department were actually closing closing Churches and suppressing the freedom of Orthodox Christians. What it has done by fomenting schism in the Church and targeting the Russian Church and its daughter Church in Ukraine is just as evil as more open and more direct forms of persecution.

The free Orthodox Churches must go beyond criticizing Washington in interviews. They must begin discussing ways of uniting with one another to resist the ongoing efforts to drag more local Churches into recognizing the schismatics and must openly confront the evil.

Only when the State Department has withdrawn from its meddling in the Churches will peace and unity be restored in the Orthodox Church. Perhaps the Ecumenical Patriarch and the others who have recognized the schismatics will repent?

Categories
faith

Church of Greece and the Pandemic

The Orthodox Church of Greece is confronting the Greek Government over the complex issue of closing Churches for the impending feast of the theophany on January 6. Closing Churches is always a painful matter but in the middle of a worldwide pandemic the Church needs to consider the matter of permitting large numbers of people to congregate in Church. The Bishops of the Church of Greece need to be more flexible with the government and need to consider the expertise of doctors and scientists.

This is absolutely the wrong time for the Church of Greece to confront the Greek government. Back in 2017, when the Tsipras government legalized gay marriage and introduced legislation favoring transgenderism, the Bishops barely protested. Of course, Church services must continue but under the circumstances it is understandable if the Church is not filled with faithful.

The possibility of the spread of covid 19 from one individual to another necessitates that steps be taken to prevent large numbers of people from congregating. Some sort of compromise could be reached such as ensuring only a certain number of people be permitted to attend Church services and all should be required to wear a mask.

It is ironic that the Bishops of Greece have taken a hard line stance now. The possibility of closed Churches is a temporary phenomenon and with scientists predicting the end of the pandemic at some point during 2021 (possibly by fall) this situation will be rectified. The Bishops of the Church of Greece have ironically abandoned their ecclesiastical responsibilities for over a year now and are suddenly presuming to take positions on matters of public health which are the domain of secular authorities and scientists. The Holy Synod of the Church of Greece should be more preoccupied with the ongoing schism within universal Orthodoxy over the Ukrainian affair which threatens the unity of the Orthodox Church over the long run. The Ukrainian schism preceded the pandemic and appears likely to remain a problem when the pandemic disappears.

American officials such as outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and “Ambassador” Geoffrey Pyatt have intervened blatantly in the internal ecclesiastical affairs of the Churches of Constantinople and Greece by urging them to recognize the pseudo-church in Ukraine that consists of hierarchs and priests who were either defrocked or never ordained and consecrated by the canonical Orthodox Church. American officials have made a mockery of Orthodox ecclesiology and canon law and the Bishops of the Orthodox Church of Greece failed to stop them.

The Bishops of the Orthodox Church of Greece should have erupted in anger and rebellion in 2019 when American officials approached them and asked them to recognize the Ukrainian pseudo-church. The Bishops of Greece need to focus on spiritual affairs and to get their house in order. Certainly, it is wise to maintain a healthy distrust of the motives of the Greek government but faced with the reality of the pandemic it is not unreasonable for the Church to make certain non dogmatic concessions in the interest of public health.

The Bishops present confrontation with the government cannot hide the fact that they failed to defend Orthodoxy at a time when it truly mattered and allowed the secular interests of the State Department to intrude into the sacred affairs of the holy Church of Jesus Christ!

The Orthodox Church of Greece should work with the Mitsotakis government in the Justinian tradition of “symphonia” (meaning synergy or harmony). “Symphonia” refers to the traditional alliance between Church and State that was formalized under the Emperor-Saint Justinian of Constantinople during the sixth century. The present Greek government is preferable to both PASOK and Syriza both of which would have been pursuing very aggressive anti Church and anti Christian policies had they been in power at the present time.

The Bishops of the Church of Greece should proceed with prudence and wisdom, and above all with faith. All Orthodox Christians have faith that the healing power of Jesus Christ will end the pandemic! In the meantime, the Church should witness to Christ to both the faithful and to its enemies through fidelity to sacred worship and holy tradition within the present realities that this fallen world finds itself in.

Throughout history, the holy Church of God has always had enemies. This remains unchanged up to the present day. The Bishops of the Church of Greece should respect the opinions of those in the secular sphere such as doctors and concentrate on spiritual matters such as the great spiritual crisis which has created a terrible schism in Orthodoxy.

Categories
faith

Happy New Year!

Mercifully, the year from hell is finally over. The year that brought us the coronavirus, the murder of George Floyd and riots throughout the country, and the victory of Joe Biden in the Presidential election is gone! The year that saw Hagia Sophia and the great Chora Church of our Savior in Constantinople become Mosques is gone!

May the light emanating from the birth of the most glorious King of Israel in Bethlehem shine brightly in the new year! May the incarnate logos that was born of woman and dwelt among men heal the world of the afflictions of disease, madness, and extremism. Glory to Jesus Christ our King and our God, vanquisher of death and disease!