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Patriarchal
Letter to the Orthodox Churches about the Dioceses of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate in the Nothern Greece and the islands of the Egean
Sea (09/05/2004)
The many centuries old canonical
tradition of the Orthodox Church, declared by means of the resolutions
of Ecumenical or Local Councils, and attested by ever consistent
Ecclesiastical practice, constitutes the unshakeable criterion
of the healthiness of the gracious and dignified relations of
the local Orthodox Churches with one another within the communion
of faith and the bonds of love. Thus, any deviance from hallowed
canonical tradition has always introduced a major or minor anomaly
not only into the harmonious operation of those relations, but
also into the very unity of the Church itself, because both
the major and the minor criteria of its internal good order,
bear direct or indirect reference to the very nature or the
realization of the spiritual mission of the Church within the
world. This is inferred resoundingly from the historical experience
of the Church spanning two millennia, and is attested both in
the formulation and in the practical implementation of the Sacred
Canons.
Under this spirit, the Ecumenical
Patriarchate, in its concern to perform its duty in upholding
Orthodox canonical order, has ever, at home and abroad, urged
the fundamental principles thereof, with the purpose of putting
a check to any occasional deviations or confusions that might
prove perilous for the unity of the Church. Thus, the perilous
confusion between the canonical criterion of a strict territorial
demarcation of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and secularized
ideologies propounding ethnocentric Churches that, in recent
years, have been introduced into the Orthodox Church from outside,
having struck a grievous blow against the harmonious Ecclesiastical
operation of inter-orthodox relations that accords with the
canons, was deplored and decried as a grievous Ecclesiological
aberration by the Great Council convoked in Constantinople (1872).
This resolution constitutes the authentic interpretation of
the principles of Orthodox canonical tradition both in respect
of the organizational structures of, and of the mutual relations
between the local Orthodox Churches, and therefore the dialectic
between the legitimacy determined by state authority and the
obedience to the canons upheld by the Church has become a salient
issue, often with painful implications for the life of the local
Orthodox Churches.
Such
confusion underlies the recently emergent – yet uncalled for
– tension in the relations between the Most Holy Autocephalous
Church of Greece with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, mainly by
reason of the arbitrary and flagrant contestation by her of
the latter’s rights in the Provinces of Northern Greece, which,
by common consent, were upheld and safeguarded in the Patriarchal
and Synodical Act of 1928. This Ecclesiastical Arrangement,
effected by common consent under specific conditions, such that
were dictated both by the inviolable canonical rights of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate in those provinces and by the agreement
between Greece and Turkey for the exchange of the populations
of Eastern Thrace, Asia Minor and Pontos, expressly concerned
the assignment of trusteeship to the so called “Church of Greece”,
namely to an Ecclesiastical unity differing from the “Autocephalous
Church of Greece”, only of the administration, and solely for
the subordinate affairs of the Holy Metropolitan Dioceses of
the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the territorial region of which
had been incorporated into the Greek state, on account of the
turbulent circumstances of the times, the “supreme canonical
rights of the Ecumenical Patriarchate” thereto being irreducibly
preserved.
Therefore, the persistence of H.B. the Archbishop of Athens,
from the moment of his accession to the Archdiocese of Athens,
in pursuing his arbitrary and defiant, direct or indirect contestation
of this paramount canonical prerogative of the Mother Church,
as determined by means of the ten terms of the Patriarchal and
Synodical Act of 1928, did reasonably cause repeated interventions
on the part of the Ecumenical Throne in order to avert the perpetration
by word and deed of such un-canonical acts. Regrettably, the
exhortations and suggestions of the Mother Church, that were
offered in much love, to the effect that the terms of the Patriarchal
and Synodical Act merited dutiful respect, were not only defiantly
ignored, but also intentionally exploited by His Beatitude the
Archbishop of Athens to cause confusion, and to establish the
preconditions for the arbitrary incorporation of those Provinces
of the Ecumenical Patriarchate under the absolute canonical
jurisdiction of the Most Holy Church of Greece, a fact which
in itself constitutes a violation of Orthodox canonical order,
and an un-canonical encroachment on another Ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
Thus
the Mother Church, having exhausted her efforts in urging peace
and due respect for canonical order, could no longer countenance
the refusal on the part of H.B. the Archbishop of Athens to
implement the consensus agreement that had finally been achieved,
and therefore resolved to convoke the Major Holy and Sacred
Resident Synod in its extended composition, in order to deal
with the crisis that was growing ever more intense by means
of the assumption of the measures stipulated in the Sacred Canons.
The resolutions reached constitute an ultimate appeal for the
compliance of His Beatitude the Archbishop of Athens with the
terms and conditions of the peaceable resolution of the matter
proposed by him and accepted by the Mother Church in a spirit
of dispensation, in accordance also with the spirit of the relevant
appeal launched by their Beatitudes the Patriarchs of Alexandria
and Jerusalem, that what has fared ill should not grow worse,
and run as follows:
a)
we deem the recent elections and translations to be invalid,
having been held and effected in violation of the specific Terms
of the Act of 4 September 1928, through acts passing beyond
proper bounds and impinging within an another’s jurisdiction,
and consequently un-canonically, and the holy sees of Thessaloniki,
Eleftheroupolis, and Servia and Kozani still vacant;
b) with unutterable sadness and pain we resolve the interruption
of communion with His Beatitude Christodoulos, Archbishop of
Athens, his name being stricken from the Diptychs of our Holy
Great Church of Christ, and himself being rendered unable to
commune with us, or with the clergy and monks who are subject
to our Church, either in worship or in administration;
c) we enjoin those thus “elected” not to assume their provinces:
otherwise communion will be interrupted with them as well;
d) we earnestly beg the Honourable Hellenic State not to assist
in the dissolution of canonical order by the promulgation of
the pertinent Presidential Decrees recognizing those elected
as legitimate Metropolitans of the Holy Metropolitan Dioceses
to which they were elected un-canonically;
e) we express the most intense displeasure and sorrow of the
Mother Church to those Hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate,
fortunately few in number, who assisted in the “ordinations”
of those thus elected; and
f) we make it known that in the event that this canonical anomaly
should continue, the Ecumenical Patriarchate will be forced
to proceed with the abrogation of the Patriarchal and Synodical
Act of 1928.
Your
Beatitude,
Under
this spirit, and in keeping with the canonical order that has
always prevailed in the Orthodox Church, we dispatch to You,
as is our duty, for Your direct notification in respect of Your
course of action the entire text of the resolution reached,
and remain hopeful that You will also hold the same view regarding
the validity and stature of the Sacred Canons in respect of
the overall operation of the mutual relations of the local Orthodox
Churches, so that through the assistance of all, the irrefragable
unity of the Orthodox Church and its reliable witness within
the contemporary world may become more fully manifest.
Brother
in Christ,
+ Bartholomew of Constantinople
The
same Patriarchal Letter was sent to all local Orthodox Churches.
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