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Published
by the Greek Orthodox
Archdiocese of America, May 2004
Act
of the Major Holy and Sacred Resident Synod
Convened in Phanar
Following is the
translation of the Protocol No. 384 Act of the
Major Holy and Sacred Resident Synod Convened at
the Phanar on April 30, 2004, which accompanied
the original Greek text.
Protocol Number 384
Holy Canons ordain that actions which certainly
cause harm to canonical order and infringe upon
it, in constituting an encroachment on the
canonical territory of another Church, should be
decried and condemned.
For according to Holy Scripture and the Fathers of
the Church, order holds all things celestial and
terrestrial together. All are duty-bound to
maintain good order for it is the constitutive and
cohesive element of peace: especially those
presiding over the Churches, who, in full
awareness of their own measure and bounds should
remain within them. The holy canons of the Church,
in perennial concord, enjoin that “a Bishop should
not venture to effect ordinations outside of his
own bounds in the townships and lands that are not
subject to him, against the authority of those
that hold such townships or lands”. Those who
operate and act beyond their bounds are to be
dealt with severely (35th Canon of the Holy
Apostles, 2nd canon of the second Ecumenical
Council, and others that concur), since by such
encroachments on the provinces of others they
drive away concord and good order, and confuse the
Churches by becoming the tutors and perpetrators
of disorder.
The Most Holy Church of Greece, which in the first
place wilfully and against the canons seceded from
the Constantinopolitan Holy and Great Church of
Christ and presented a bad example to other
Churches, realized with the passage of time the
crooked path on which she was embarked and
contritely asked that she regain the straight and
orderly path. Thus on the basis of ecclesiastical
and canonical arrangements, the Ecumenical
Patriarchate granted her independence and
autocephaly by the Patriarchal and Synodical Tome
of 1850, which as her supreme ecclesiastical
authority designated not some primate but a
Permanent Synod, to be mentioned by the Hierarchs
of Greece, whilst its President, the Metropolitan
of Athens is not vested with the privileges of the
head and primate of a church, but with those of
the president of a local Synod, the Ecumenical
Patriarch remaining her primate, to whom “the Holy
Synod of Greece [should] refer on ecclesiastical
matters that concern both and require joint
deliberations and joint action ..., and the
Ecumenical Patriarch with the Holy and Sacred
Synod about Him willingly vouchsafes his
participation, announcing what must be to the Holy
Synod of the Church of Greece”. The Holy Synod of
the new Autocephalous Church obtained full
authority to regulate affairs pertaining to
internal ecclesiastical administration by
Conciliar Acts provided they would not contravene
the Holy Canons of the Holy and Sacred Councils or
the patrimony of traditional usage or the formulae
of the Orthodox Eastern Church.
Then the Septinsular provinces initially, followed
by the provinces of Thessaly were fully annexed to
the Autocephalus Most Holy Church of Greece, so
that “they should be spoken of, and be known by
all as conjoined and attached to her, and as being
an inalienable part of her” by the Patriarchal and
Conciliar Acts of 1866 and of 1882 respectively,
which released them from any dependence under the
Ecumenical Throne.
But subsequently, after the disaster of Asia Minor
and the flight or exchange of populations, as
times and circumstances took a turn for the worse,
and threatened the very existence of the Holy
Great Church of Christ, this common Mother and
protectress of the Orthodox, no longer able to
give a gift of her own without incurring danger,
made other arrangements in respect of the
Provinces of the so-called New Lands by means of
an Act appropriate to the occasion and
circumstances, with the consent of those in charge
of the Race, so that the Mother who from the
beginning has born fair progeny, who has thrived
as a vine in the gables of the house of the Lord
and has lavishly and unstintingly provided, by
diminishing her own but not thereby becoming
destitute, so that she might wither not and perish
not but continue to perform her role as the Church
with the prime throne amongst the Orthodox,
ministering to their unity and commonweal, and
continuously, through history as well as in the
present, magnifying the Race of the Greeks and of
the Orthodox generally. If other nations possessed
this most ancient, unique and majestic institution
of the Ecumenical Throne they would do their
utmost to reinforce it and to increase its status
and its influence.
Therefore to this purpose the ecclesiastical
provinces that have been mentioned of Crete, the
New Lands and the Dodecanese, to which should be
added the Holy Mountain Athos and the other Holy
Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monasteries in Greece
continue under various degrees of dependence to
constitute canonical territory of the Church of
Constantinople which, until now, has not ceded her
full jurisdiction over them to any other Church ,
nor is she intending so to do. They all lie within
the canonical boundaries of the Church of
Constantinople. In consequence, the person who
proceeds with elections and ordinations of Bishops
without the opinion and consent and agreement of
the Ecumenical Patriarchate, who acts thus
arbitrarily and without invitation, perpetrates
the most grievous canonical offence of acting
beyond his bounds and outside his see, thus
encroaching on another’s provinces, and usurping
and robbing another’s rights.
Now, wherefore His Beatitude Christodoulos, our
brother the Archbishop of Athens, from the moment
of his accession to the Archiepiscopal Throne of
Athens, repeatedly and frequently did wilfully
transgress against the Patriarchal and Synodical
Tome of 1850 on the one hand, by seeking to be
mentioned as Primate both within the Autocephalous
Church of Greece and in the New Lands without the
concurring opinion of the Holy Great Church of
Christ, and against the Patriarchal and Synodical
Act of 1928 on the other hand by failing to
observe its Terms and, despite the express and
stated objection of the Ecumenical Throne, by
intervening arbitrarily with the ordination of
Bishops in those provinces, wherein the supreme
canonical rights of the most sacred Ecumenical
Throne remain entire, and wherefore by all he
does, despite the warnings and canonical claims of
the Mother Church, he persists in disorder, and
harms himself and the pleroma of the Church,
becoming thus the cause of scandal and division in
the Hierarchy and the laity, and therefore, in
order to arrest any further progress of this evil,
and in the hope of achieving the swift restoration
of canonical order which has been disturbed:
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;
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.
Thereupon in proof and attestation of the
foregoing this, our present Patriarchal and
Synodical Act was done, drawn up in this Sacred
Codex of our Holy Great Church of Christ.
In the year 2004, the 30th in the month of April
XII in the epinemesis
+ Bartholomeos of Constantinople
+ Chrysostomos of Ephessos
+ Photios of Heraclea
+ Ioannis of Nicaea
+ Aemilianos of Cos
+ Demetrios of America
+ Evangelos of Pergi
+ Kallinikos of Lystra
+ Gregorios of Thyateira and Great Britain
+ Gennadios of Italy
+ Jeremias of Switzerland
+ Constantinos of Derkai
+ Germanos of Theodoroupolis
+ Avgoustinos of Germany
+ Athanassios of Helioupolis and Theira
+ Germanos of Tranoupolis
+ Pavlos of Sweden and all Scandinavia
+ Panteleimon of Tyroloe and Serention
+ Panteleimon of Belgium
+ Eirinaios of Cydonia and Apokoronos
+ Nectarios of Leros and Kalymnos
+ Chrysostomos of Syme
+ Amvrosios of Karpathos and Kasos
+ Cyrillos of Imvros and Tenedos
+ Apostolos of Miletos
+ Michael of Austria
+ Ioannis of Pergamon
+ Iacovos of Pringeponnesa
+ Eirinaios of Lambi, Syvritos and Sfakia
+ Nectarios of Petra and Cherronesos
+ Meliton of Philadelphia
+ Demetrios of Sevasteia
+ Soterios of Korea
+ Evgenios of Hierapytna and Seteia
+ Eirinaios of Myriophyton and Peristasis
+ Apostolos of Moschonisia
+ Anthimos of Rethymnon and Avlopotamos
+ Emmanuel of France
+ Theoleptos of Iconium
+ Andreas of Arkalochorion
+ Epiphanios of Spain and Portugal
+ Cyrillos of Rhodes
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