GOC Synod responds to "consecration" of the Greek Old Calendarist by UOC-KP

"Hierarchs" of the UOC-KP (Chrysostomos Kallis – second from the left). Photo: cerkva.info

On February 16, 2022, the Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church responded to the “consecration” by the UOC-KP of the Greek Old Calendarist “Bishop” Chrysostomos Kallis of Mariupol and Dervenochoria, Romfea reports.

The statement of the press service says that the reaction of the GOC to this “consecration” is connected with “the appearance on TV channels of a man who introduces himself as ‘Bishop Chrysostomos of Mariupol and Feodosia’” (in fact, he is the “bishop” of Mariupol and Dervenochoria – Ed.).

The press service stated that on February 7, 2022, the Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church “noted that this is a former clergyman who was deposed in 2021 by the decision of the synodal court.”

The document also says that Kallis “first joined the non-canonical ‘bishops’ of the Old Calendarist faction and in violation of the Holy Canons was ‘ordained a bishop’ to be later ‘re-ordained a bishop’ in Kyiv, while the OCU considers his ‘ordination’ non-existent ".

“Therefore, Mr. Dimitrios Kallis, who introduces himself today as “Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Mariupol and Feodosia”, has no canonicity from the OCU and is in no way a bishop of the Orthodox Church,” the Synod of the Greek Church said in a statement.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the OCU called on the Greek Church to anathematize the Greek "hierarchs" of the UOC-KP, and later the Synod of the GOC considered Dumenko's appeal regarding the illegality of these "hierarchs".

At the same time, Filaret Denisenko believes that if he was under anathema, then the entire “episcopate” of the OCU is invalid: “If I was under anathema, it means that all these hierarchs (OCU – Ed.) are invalid. And Epifaniy not only cannot be a metropolitan – he is not even a priest. If the Ecumenical Patriarch removed the anathema from me in 2018, then the entire episcopate is invalid.”

In June 2019, Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol stated that he could not consider the members of the OCU to be bishops, since no repentance had been brought on their part, while Filaret “ordained” them being anathematized.

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