Greek cleric: Phanar once again violates canons

Archimandrite Savva of Mount Athos. Photo: YouTube

On December 1, 2020, a well-known preacher in Greece, a native of Mount Athos, Archimandrite Savva, said that during the Divine service in Phanar, due to the presence of Catholics, the canons of the Church were once again violated.

Archimandrite Savva, commenting on the presence of RCC Cardinal Kurt Koch on the Phanar’s feast day of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called, recalled the words of Jesus Christ, Who said to “the scribes, Pharisees and everyone else: ‘My Father's house will be called the house of prayer; but you made it a den of robbers’ (see Matthew 21, 13)".

“We were very upset when we learned that in Phanar once again there was a violation of the apostolic canons, and yesterday the festive service in honour of St. The Apostle Andrew the First-Called was attended by people who are not bearers of the Orthodox faith: heretics, papists,” the priest said.

He emphasized that “their clergy, who do not belong to the Orthodox Church, are none other than those robbers mentioned by our Lord Jesus Christ. Both the 10th and 11th canons of the Holy Apostles forbid the Orthodox to pray with them. There are also Sacred Canons, which prohibit heretics from entering an Orthodox church".

“We were also very saddened that on the same day in the city of Patras, Orthodox believers were forbidden to participate in Divine services and worship the relics of St. Andrew the Apostle,” said Father Savva.

In his opinion, “all this, of course, is a sign of impenitence and apostasy from the true God, seeing which we cannot remain in silence but raise our voice of protest”.

“We also pray to the Lord God to grant repentance to all of us, our patriarchs, our bishops and our priests so that they will come out to fight the damned heresy of ecumenism and not become its followers; so that the pious people of God are allowed to worship and pray to our saints unrestrainedly and to perform cross processions, especially necessary now, at a time when we are being told about serious problems in connection with the notorious pandemic,” said Archimandrite Savva.

According to the information available to the UOJ, Archimandrite Savva Agiorit was a resident of Mount Athos and asceticised in Kerasia (Greek ἡ Κερασιά). At the moment, he is a cleric of the Edessa Metropolis.

Holy Metropolis of Edessa, Pella, and Almopia are the diocese of the "New Lands" of the Greek Orthodox Church. Like other dioceses of the "New Lands" it is under the administration of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Kerasia is the oldest Kelliot settlement on Mount Athos, mentioned in the Life of St. Afanasy. It is located at an altitude of 600-700 m above sea level in a mountain valley 2 km wide, where a mountain trail leads, connecting the Kafsokalivia Skete with the Great Skete of St. Anna.
 

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