source – newsbreak.gr

A letter containing 15 signatures of Hieromonks and Monks of the Sinai Monastery addressed to the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos , requesting the removal of Archbishop Sinai Damianos from his position, a move that is already being characterized as an ” ecclesiastical coup ” within the Church.

According to the information, the reason for this letter was the Greek bill for the creation, for the first time, of a Legal Entity of Public Law at Mount Sinai. It had been preceded by an out-of-court lawsuit by the Sinai Brotherhood against the Zacharakis bill .

For his part, Archbishop Sinai Damianos, in a lengthy statement, denounced the ” coup against the Church “, while also using a verse by Dionysios Solomos to describe the situation:

Mr. Damianos attacks the fathers of the Holy Monastery of Sinai who, ” were moved, deliberated, studied tradition , with the aim not of observing but of conspiring to violate the Divine and Sacred Canons and the Fundamental Regulations of the Holy Monastery of Sinai .”

And Archbishop Sinai Damianos continues: ” However, now their uncanonical actions scandalize the faithful people of God, undermine the unity of the Brotherhood, lead the Monastery into ‘ Babylonian captivity ‘ and, above all, offer the best service to those who wish that the Golgotha of the Holy Monastery NOT end .”

” I must do what the Divine and Sacred Canons provide, in the conciliar character of which they will be delivered ,” Mr. Damianos also emphasized regarding his reaction to his resignation moves.

The full statement of Archbishop Sinai Damianos

In 2012, following an appeal to the Egyptian justice system by the then Mayor of the city of St. Catherine and the then Governor of South Sinai, the Golgotha of the Holy Monastery of Sinai began. This incomprehensible and completely unjustified questioning of the centuries-old status quo of the Holy Monastery (which was also reflected in the decision of UNESCO in 2002 to declare the Holy Monastery a World Cultural Heritage Monument) after the decision of the Ismailia Court of Appeal on 28/5/2025 threatens the very existence of the Holy Monastery of Sinai.

From that day on, a titanic effort began to save the Holy Monastery and ensure its future.

After much effort, this effort began to bear fruit. The submission of the bill by which the representation of the Holy Monastery in Greece acquires legal personality in Greece and the unanimous support of all parties was the moment when hope returned because the Holy Monastery of Sinai became a point of unity of Hellenism and Orthodoxy. Hellenism everywhere extended its hand with its heart to the friendly country of Egypt for the need for cooperation and coexistence centered on high ideals such as religious freedom.

And the friendly country responded as His Excellency the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt will visit Athens on August 6, when we rightly expect the end of the Golgotha of the Holy Monastery.

And yet at this moment when hope returned, when efforts began to bear fruit, the verse by D. Solomos was to prove true once again: “The discord that endures is a cunning scepter. Everyone smiles, take it and say so too.”

Certain fathers of the Holy Monastery of Sinai “were moved, deliberated, studied tradition” with the aim not of observing but of conspiring to violate the Divine and Sacred Canons and the Fundamental Regulations of the Holy Monastery of Sinai.

I closed my eyes and ears to what they did so as not to distract our attention from the major goal of preserving the centuries-old status of the Holy Monastery.

However, now, their uncanonical actions scandalize the faithful people of God, undermine the unity of the Brotherhood, lead the Monastery into “Babylonian captivity” and, most importantly, offer the best service to those who wish for the Golgotha of the Holy Monastery NOT to end.

“Today Judas betrays the teacher and receives the devil. He is blinded by the passion of the phlegm, the darkened one falls from the light.” What they do without fear of God, shame and awareness, constitutes a coup against the Church that we will not allow to have the disastrous consequences for the integrity and unity of Hellenism that other coups have had.

As their spiritual father, I have the duty to make every effort so that they understand their mistake and do not become rebellious.

After prayer and with indescribable heartache, with a hand trembling not from the weight of 91 years of earthly life but from the responsibility for the future of the Holy Monastery, I must do what the Divine and Holy Canons, to whose conciliatory character they will be delivered, foresee, so that they have the opportunity to repent and thus all together, united, far from ephemeral and vain egoisms, we can save the Holy Monastery.

Let us all be inspired by the unity that the Greek Parliament is showing from one end to the other these days for the rescue of the Holy Monastery of Sinai.

I bless everyone and I wish that the grace of Saint Catherine and the Theobadist Mount Sinai will cover our homeland and each one of us individually.

==============================

source – newsbreak.gr

Sinai Brotherhood’s legal warning against Zacharakis’ bill for Mount Sinai

The Minister of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports, Sofia Zacharaki, submitted a bill earlier this month , which, according to the government, “regulates” the critical issue that arose with the Sinai Monastery . The rulers, however, apparently counted… without the hotelier, as evidenced by the bailiff they received from the Sinaitic Brotherhood of the Greek Orthodox Holy Basilica and Autonomous Monastery of the Theovadist Mount Sinai.

Specifically, according to a report by documentonews.gr, 15 members of the Sinai Brotherhood sent a letter of protest to the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Parliament, political leaders and the Minister of Education, through which they express their opposition to the controversial draft law that provides for the establishment of a Legal Entity Under Public Law (N.P.D.D.). ” We do not consent to the establishment of the said N.P.D.D. ,” note the members of the Brotherhood and warn of ” investigable issues of criminal liability for the offense of infidelity against the Holy Monastery and its property .”

As noted in the court order, which reportedly has the discreet support of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Sinai Brotherhood had expressed objections to the Minister of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports’ bill from the very beginning , through a relevant letter. However, the minister proceeded steadfastly with the launch of its passage next Thursday, July 31 .

They reveal that ” the Archbishop of Sinai, Mr. Damianos, who is already in his 90th year of age, on the same day of 25.07.2025 and while he has rarely, for many years, come to the Holy Monastery, suddenly went to Egypt, and specifically to a place outside the Holy Monastery, where a meeting with us, the members of the Sinaitic Brotherhood, took place the next day, 26.07.2025, in which we were given the condition that the lawyer accompanying the Archbishop must always be present, while at the same time unjustified restrictions were placed on us regarding the in-person meeting with the Archbishop of all the Hieromonks and Monks who had come for the intimate meeting .”

According to the court order, the Archbishop requested the revocation of the signatures from the letter sent on 22/7, with his request being rejected, because the bill entitled: “Establishment of a legal entity under public law with the name “Greek Orthodox Holy Royal Autonomous Monastery of the Holy and Theobadist Mount Sinai in Greece”” constitutes a ” very serious spiritual, but also secular, mistake ” because :

1. contradicts the principle of the autonomy of the legal entity of the Holy Monastery, which permeates all legal systems and the operation of the Holy Royal and Autonomous Monastery of Saint Catherine of the Holy and Theobadist Mount Sinai;
2. illegally abolishes the administrative and functional autonomy and the self-existence of the Greek Orthodox Holy Basilica and Autonomous Monastery of the Holy and Theovadist Mount Sinai;
3. Any implementation of the establishment of the aforementioned Public Legal Entity also gives rise to immediately investigateable issues of criminal liability for the offense of infidelity against the Holy Monastery and its property, for any person who will not object, and rather will consent, to the passage and implementation of the said bill, which unlawfully includes provisions:

1. 1. for the assignment of rights, namely without consideration, on the property of the legal entity of the Holy Monastery to the above-mentioned legal entity under establishment ∙ but also
   2. for the dissolution/abolition of two additional legal entities -Institutions, which is contrary to the law, namely:

1. 1. 1. of the Public Benefit Foundation established by the Presidential Decree of 15.10.1986 under the name “MOUNT SINA FOUNDATION”; and
      2. of the Public Benefit Foundation established by the Presidential Decree of 28.4.1993 under the name “MOUNT SINAI, EUROPEAN CULTURAL CENTER”, and all of the above without the consent of the Members of the Sinaitic Brotherhood being obtained and despite the objection expressed before its submission for discussion and voting, who were not even called to a hearing by the first of you before the drafting and consultation of the controversial bill.

Under these new circumstances, the debate on the bill in the Plenary Session of the Parliament next Thursday is expected with particular interest, as the competent minister will have to respond to the criticisms and clarify the motivations behind the legislative initiative to establish the relevant Legal Entity of Public Law.

• See here the full exodus of the Sinaitic Brotherhood of the Greek Orthodox Holy Basilica and Autonomous Monastery of the Theovadist Mount Sinai.