ΕΑΝ ΠΡΟΤΙΜΑΤΕ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ΠΑΤΗΣΤΕ ΤΗ ΣΗΜΑΙΑ ΣΤΟ ΚΑΤΩ ΜΕΡΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΟΘΟΝΗΣ
By Nick Stamatakis
In an age of confusion, compromise, and silence, Helleniscope stands as a beacon of truth — unafraid to speak out, unbowed before the “Sultans” of our Archdiocese and beyond, and unwavering in its commitment to the Orthodox faith and Hellenic ideals.
From the beginning, our mission has been clear:
To seek the truth—fully, fearlessly, and completely.
To defend the integrity of our Church and our Hellenic heritage.
To give voice to the voiceless in a community too often stifled by politics, fear, and corruption.
Helleniscope is not just a website—it is a movement of conscience. It belongs to all those who refuse to accept spiritual decay and cultural amnesia. Every article, every investigation, every truth we publish is a battle won for transparency, accountability, and faith.
And when the “powers that be” tried to silence us — dragging us through the courts, both here and in Greece — they failed. Every attack only made us stronger. Every attempt to intimidate us only confirmed that we are doing what is right. Truth cannot be suppressed; it always finds its way to light. In one of the cases (now closed), Judge Hagler made remarkable statements about yours truly and Helleniscope.
August 11, 2020: “…Mr. Stamatakis is the most widely known and respected figure within the Greek community…”
But we cannot continue this sacred struggle without your support.
Your contributions—small or large—are what keep our voice strong, independent, and unafraid. Without you, there is only silence. As we’ve said before:
A day without Helleniscope is a day without light.
We are entering a new phase in our journey:
We will participate more actively in the cultural and social life of our community, focusing on issues vital to Hellenism—our faith, education, culture, and the preservation of our spiritual identity. Our coordination of the historic premiere of the film “Kapodistrias” by Yiannis Smaragdis is just one example…
We will open our pages to the community, offering space for both social services (language and history lessons, mentoring, and cultural initiatives) and advertising, to support local, Greek-owned businesses and services.
This is the time to stand with Helleniscope—to strengthen the only platform that dares to tell the truth. Together, we can continue to shed light where others spread shadows.
FOLLOW THIS LINK TO SUPPORT HELLENISCOPE TODAY!
Join our mission. Defend our faith. Preserve our Hellenic soul.
Donate – Share – Speak Out.
Because without truth, there is no freedom. And without faith, there is no light.
I have seen great progress in Helleniscope’s research and production of its articles. It is appreciated, and it takes hard work and commitment, to produce articles day after day. I have just contributed $100.00, for a year.
Thanks Bob… I appreciate it.. But I have to admit it took a toll on me these last six years, since Hellenisope was established in 2019… On the one side I have to run my business to earn my living and after hours to write and research for Helleniscope… And on top of all this, to defend myself to Court against GOA and other “actors” for the 5 out of the 6 years Helleniscope exists… Thank God, I have many friends in the community and they helped me with all their heart…
It is very sad indeed, when our own church is treating us as if we’re enemies. I have been treated just as cruelly as you. Because we dare to tell the truth. Once, before Elpidoctonos took office, I had converted to Orthodxy more than 10 people. Now, I am ashamed of this church and would not reccomend this church. I even contemplatted of leaving it myself. But if good people leave, the church would be left in the hands of the anaxioi. Which means they’ll win. It really makes you wonder. Do these people have any fovon Theou? “Fear of God”.
The Church does not consist of Elpidophoros and people like him. She consists of people like you and the 10 people you brought to Orthodoxy. The Good Shepherd knows His sheep and the sheep know their Shepherd’s voice.
🛑 So WHEN is 2nd demonstration outside
Archdiocese 8 E. 79th Street???
Why hype + then nothing!
There is a lot happening in the background… stay tuned…
I live in central.N.J. I will attend the protest. I have “promised” the nasty people that work at tthe archdiocese, that I will protest. All the lazy bums that claim they “work” at the archdiocese should attend the McDonald universitty for customer service.
The mother of tthree that was evicted from St Basil’s had called and she was promised that Elpidoctonos would call her back. He never did. That has happened to me numerous times. At the archdiocese and the N.J. Metropolis. If you call for anything other than making a large “donation”, they don’t want to hear from you.
The faithful are considered bothersome nobodies, that have no business asking questions.
Mr Stamatakis,
congratulations for your continuous efforts to give us real and uncompromised information. I understand you must be very tired after 6 years with all these attacks of GOArch against you. Why don’t you combine your forces with mr. Likomitros of Kalami website? Your websites are of similar content. The only difference is that Kalami is not open to comments, which is preventing it to grow more. I really don’t know any other Greek American websites that speak the truth and any of you 2 quitting would hurt all of us!
We have cooperated for about a year (around 2018-19) right before I started Helleniscope. My choice had more to do with the bilingual character of the website…
Niko, Glory to God for things like your website. May He keep you healthy and strong in body, heart and mind, and may He protect you and your family! Just out of curiosity, how many people are working for Helleniscope? How many on your staff?
I don’t have staff – it’s me. But there are many contributors whose names you see. And there many other friends and many faithful in the community who provide feedback and information of all kinds. Helleniscope is practicing “people’s journalism” in many ways. We have eyes and ears in many places.
Now that you mentioned it mr Stamatakis, I have some reporting to do: Yesterday I was in church and among the people attending the liturgy was the chancellor of the Metropolis. The priest of that church has introduced a number of “novelties”, like polyphonic chanting instead of original Byzantine music, the use of more languages than English and Greek etc.
Additionally, every Sunday during the liturgy the priest invites whoever wants to read the Father’s Prayer in a foreign language! And he uses this phrase: “As it is our custom” etc. Of course, there is not such custom in Greek Orthodox tradition. Such “customs” exist only in the sick minds of some heretic ecumenists of our clergy…
As a result, every Sunday the parishioners of that church hear the Father’s prayer in 10+ languages! Nobody reacts and they have mostly accepted it, although it violates the traditional liturgy. But yesterday, the ecumenists pushed it further, they read the Father’s Prayer also in Latin!
When at the end of the liturgy I asked the chancellor of the Metropolis to comment on the introduction of Latin in our liturgy, he said “it was wonderful”!
All these incidents are not a coincidence. When Elpidophoros last year brought in a church a Catholic cardinal, who started spraying the surprised parishioners, that was not a coincidence. They are testing our reactions and our reactions till now were not strong enough…
I remind you that on November 30th 2025, the Pope and the Patriarch will meet in Turkey and the agenda of their meeting has not been revealed…
Bartholomew knows that he is at the end of his tenure and he won’t hesitate to start a unification process with the Catholics, creating one more schism in the Orthodox world…
How you think we should react?
BB, I find your post troubling. Obviously, the use of multiple languages in the Lord’s prayer is to make people from various backgrounds feel welcomed. I question the veracity of your statement that 10 languages were used. I can’t imagine a parish in the GOA that is represented by 10 different ethnic groups. My GOA parish, which is predominately non-Greek, uses 5 languages which include Greek and English in the recitation of the Lord’s prayer. Additionally, latin was an important language in the early church and was used by several Fathers of the church: Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine to name a few. Possibly, you need to evaluate your position and value the guidance and enthusiasm of the chancellor.
Jk,
What is troubling is modifying the ancient liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom according to your marketing needs… Orthodoxy is all about tradition, not about stewardships and money! The clergy that is after stewardships and money, I am afraid chose the wrong job…
Latin is not a spoken language and is used only by a part of the Catholic Church. If you and the chancellor miss Latin, you can join the Catholic Church. You are not authorised to impose it on us…
BB, how is adding languages to the recitation of the Lord’s prayer modifying the liturgy? Besides, the liturgy of St John has been modified several times with multiple accretions. I don’t understand the connection between stewardship and lords prayer. I still challenge your the veracity of your statement about 10 languages. Please, let me know the 10 languages used, I would like to visit that parish. Also , the resurrection gospel on pascha is read in multiple languages including latin, yes latin. Clearly, you are wrong and ask that you modify your position based on the wisdom of the chancellor. I eagerly await the list of the 10 languages used and completely discard anything additional you say without the list.
Jk,
The job of a priest on Sunday is to deliver the liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom as it is in that small book. His job is not to improvise! Adding more things and time to the liturgy is modifying it! And that is not respectful to the Greek Orthodox tradition, that it is his duty to keep.
The root problem is that unfortunately there are priests in the GOA that don’t know Greek and they are not adequate to keep the Greek flock. So, in order to justify their salary, they try to attract other orthodox ethnicities or converts from other dogmas.
The multiple languages during the Father’s prayer is clearly a “marketing novelty” in that direction. There is no real need for multiple languages, since all people attending understand English.
And there is no need for Latin in the liturgy, because nobody is speaking Latin and only few understand it.
The multiple languages used in the resurrection gospel is a once a year tradition. And we respect it. You should also learn to respect the Greek Orthodox tradition!
I won’t comment on the rest you are writing, because you pretend you don’t understand…
JK,
I have personally seen at least 2 parishes engage in this practice as well… apart from the standard Greek, and English, they had parishioners lining up to the microphone by ethnicity, and you also heard the Lord’s Prayer recited in Slavonic, Romanian, Albanian, Ethiopian, Georgian, Spanish, Arabic, and even French (depending on who showed up that week)…that’s 10 right there that I have heard at a single parish (although not every week, again due to attendance)
While perhaps well-intended, this situation also introduces a problematic disruption and delay to “common prayer”, by individualizing it. Turns into kind of a “serialized individual exhibition of language skills” that causes a “pause” in the natural flow of Divine Liturgy, much like the other unacceptable hiatus we see in several parishes where the priest pauses Divine Liturgy, and waits for the parish’s “well-dressed modern-day extortionist tax collectors” to apply psychological guilt tactics, row by row, passing the tray while everyone watches who will and who will not put something in there…
And while we are at it, the terrible custom of “holding antidoron hostage” in order to turn the Church into a “theater” of speeches, presentations, “awards”, children’s pageants, etc is also a terrible practice. That’s what the hall is for, and at least distribute antidoron first, so that only those who actually want to remain for that “show” remain….
So bottom line…BB raises a valid point.
Marcos, you should not try to defend an indefensible position it makes you complicit in his lie. BB stated that he went to a liturgy where the Lord’s prayer was recited in 10+ languages. Marcos, I seriously doubt that you have heard the Lord’s prayer in all the languages you stated. Please let me know the parish where you have heard all of the stated languages, especially French.
Indefensible position is to defend the modification of the holy liturgy by unworthy priests who think that liturgy is their own show! Jesus runs the show and you all the distorters of Orthodoxy will find out the hard way.
Additionally to what Markos nicely pointed out, I witnessed a priest interrupting the liturgy for an AHEPA presentation(!) and concluding it after that. As the gospel of Sunday was saying, you cannot serve 2 masters!
JK,
I intentionally do not disclose on a public forum where I attend or do not attend services. It would be a very stupid thing to do, in the era we are living in. We’ve stated that before.
And whether or not you feel it’s a “hard pill to swallow”, this is the truth, and it’s happening in GOARCH…
I just looked on youtube (since there’s a lot of live-streaming still going on these days), and just this past Sunday the Lord’s Prayer was recited in 8 languages in one of the two parishes I allude to…a couple of folks were missing that Sunday (unfortunately for you, one of them was the guy that shows up from time to time and says it in French, and I also did not see the lady that recites in Albanian) – which is what I said ealier…”depending on attendance”)…
I am not going to spend time looking at the Youtube channel to find the exact number of Sundays in the past year where maximum attendance was achieved, and all 10 aforementioned languages were recited…but feel free to do just that on your end until you are “enlightened” about reality on the ground.
While well-intended, it’s not a good thing to disrupt the flow of Liturgy to that extent..so I’m not “defending” it, by the way…
So now that you falsely accused me and BB of being liars, feel free to scavenge the dozens of parishes that record their liturgies on youtube channels, and I’m pretty sure you will find several more like this.
You can call me a liar all day, but I’m pretty sure you’ll believe YouTube when you “see” it (maybe we should refer to you as “Digital Thomas” as an online nickname from now on)… :)
Please let me know which parish you reference on Utube where the Lord’s prayer was recited in 8 languages. Thanks.
Marcos, I agree that trays should not be passed in church-a minor and unusual agreement.
Marcos, I eagerly await the name of the parish that you referenced that this last Sunday recited the Lord’s prayer in 8 languages. Your ability to recognize those that participate in Albanian and French confounds me. BB, I also ask that you forward the name of the parish you referenced where the Lord’s prayer was recited in 10+ languages. If I can see this or confirm it in another way, I owe each of you an apology. If not, I continue to challenge the veracity of your statements. Please respond so this issue can be resolved.
How many times does Marcos needs to explain that he can’t and won’t allow you or anyone to know the name of this parish? Figure it out!!
Nick, as I suspected, you did not post my last statement. As I stated, I am seeking truth.
I consider the issue closed. There is nothing else for me to do.