TO THE HOLY
SYNOD OF THE CHURCH OF THE GENUINE ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS OF GREECE
Petition
for the Establishment of Canonical Communion
Your
Beatitude, Your Eminences, and Your Graces, Hierarchs of the Holy Church of the
Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece:
Moved by the
commandment of the Lord that unity and love between His disciples is one of the
main confirmations of true loyalty to Him and His Divine Will, and zealous to
fulfill the commandment of the unity of the Church, we humbly address You with
a petition to undertake with us all that is within our power to establish
canonical communion between our sister Churches to the Glory of God.
We owe you
immeasurable gratitude for the brotherly help which you have offered us from
the very beginning of our holy battle for the rebirth of True Orthodoxy among
the Serbian Christ-named Orthodox people by ordaining canonical, True Orthodox
clergy for the needs of the Serbian Local Church, which due to the fall of the
Belgrade Patriarch hierarchy into the heresy of ecumenism was left without a
canonical episcopacy and clergy.
To the great
sorrow of all of us, communion between our two Local Churches ceased owing to the
arising of a misunderstanding and disagreement about our desire and urgent need
for the establishment of a national (Serbian) episcopacy to shepherd the
Serbian TOC. At the time these disagreements seemed unresolvable and
insurmountable, which forced us to take measures which were not in accordance
with your judgment and position.
Without your
agreement we entered into communion with the Russian TOC, which, although
canonical and Orthodox, is not in communion with your Church. Also without your agreement, the Russian TOC
granted us a hierarchy in the form of two bishops. Such actions, though made with the best of
intentions, with the vital interests of our Serbian Local Church in mind, were
nonetheless inopportune, hurtful, and ungrateful towards you, our
benefactors.
For this offence
we humbly beg your forgiveness with the most sincere sorrow and repentance. Also
with sorrow and repentance do we beg forgiveness, with a deep prostration, for
all the rough and hurtful words that we have spoken or published about you.
We hope that you will have merciful,
magnanimous, brotherly understanding and condescension towards us. From our
point of view, the above-mentioned actions were made purely in the interests of
our Local Church, and were never consciously or with ill intention directed
against you and your Church. You were and have remained our true benefactors
and helpers in the great work of the rebirth of Orthodoxy within the
jurisdiction of the Serbian local Church, which through the machination of
tragic historical circumstances fell into a very difficult and nearly
inescapable position. It was inevitable
that our Church would need the help of other Local Churches, without which even
the smallest progress would have been impossible to realize.
We Serbian hierarchs sharply oppose
every sort of fanaticism (zeal not according to knowledge), isolationism, and
sectarianism, destructive and delusional phenomena which have inflicted
painful, difficult-to-heal wounds in the True Orthodox world. We admire your supremely God-pleasing work
towards the establishment of unity among the True Orthodox which magnificently
bore fruit with the great union made in March of 2014. Our wish is that the Serbian TOC unite with
the newly-established front of the True Orthodox Churches so that the battle
against heresy and for the Truth of the patristic faith be strengthened to the
joy of the faithful, the strengthening of the weak, and the shame of the
ecumenists.
In the coming
year of 2016 we will celebrate the twenty-year anniversary of the beginning of
the holy battle for True Orthodoxy in Serbia, and it
would be a great blessing if this jubilee, so meaningful to us, would be marked
by a concelebration of our hierarchs, which would be a great comfort to all of
Orthodox-minded Serbia.
With deep respect and gratitude as
the youngest among hierarchs in the family of the True Orthodox Churches we
greet you with the brotherly liturgical kiss of peace and love:
CHRIST IS IN OUR
MIDST! HE IS AND SHALL BE!
Hieromartyr
Dionysius the Areopagite
1/16 October
2015
+Bishop Akakije of Uteshiteljevo
President of the Hierarchal Council
of
the Serbian True Orthodox Church
Bishop Nektarije of Shumadia
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