A Declaration Of Faith and Independence For Our Church!…

OUR PLEDGE

The undersigned Greek Orthodox Americans hereby declare an unwavering and unconditional commitment to our faith and to its self-governing independence in our beloved American homeland.

We declare our right to self-governance to be one and same with all other self-governing Orthodox churches worldwide, including Greece and Cyprus, who themselves are self-governing and canonical. We will remain apostolic and canonical, but within the framework of self-governance. We will not surrender governing independence, which is rightfully ours as a nation, even according to Church tradition.

Further, we pledge our commitment, our time, resources, and reputations to achieve unconditional self-governance and self-determination, free of secular and foreign interference and free of the foreign church corruption which has prevailed for decades. We will not yield to fraud, waste, abuse, corrupt leadership, and above all, the sinfulness of those who have plundered the Church for personal and political gain, including foreign policy intrigue.

OUR REASONS

• The Church in America was established as an immigrant church to serve immigrants a century ago. It is now an American church comprised of second, third, and fourth-generation assimilated immigrants and increasingly, over the last 50 years, converts of no other ethnicity than American. As time and circumstances change, so too must Church governance. We must be more and greater than a diminishing church of immigrants.
• The Greek Orthodox Church of America, if it is to be One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, must open its doors. Not everyone who is Roman Catholic comes from Italy. So too, those who are Greek Orthodox worldwide must identify with the religious tradition, not the geography. Cultural ties to the old country remain, but not as a matter of Faith. The mission of the Church, as it has been since Pentecost, is to evangelize the Gospel and grow the Church in the lands where the faithful exist.
• But before we open our Church’s doors to everyone, we, Americans of Greek descend, are ironically faced, two hundred years after the Greek Revolution of 1821, with a daunting task: To repel the financial exploitation and administrative oppression imposed on us by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Patriarchate is a legal entity in Turkey, a “Turkish Religious Institution”: as such, it was agreed about 30 years ago – upon the election of Pat. Bartholomew – that it would promote Turkish interests globally. After AB Elpidophoros’ enthronement, this initial agreement was expanded, aiming at the political “neutering” of the powerful Greek communities in the English-speaking world.
• The Patriarchate is not at all interested in guiding this Church spiritually; Most of its hierarchs live in luxury, advancing their own personal interests and wealth (although they are supposed to be “monks”), playing geopolitical games, and “kissing the hands” of their Turkish overlords. When they decide to deal with “ministry” they rarely talk about Christ’s message but promote political ideology. This is not a “Christ-centered Church”. When serving in America, the Patriarchate’s hierarchy and priests are a “foreign body”: they have minimal understanding and connection with the community they are supposed to serve. In the last three years, this problem has intensified.
• According to the most recent data, our church participation is declining sharply – over 20% between 2010-2020 and that was pre-pandemic! Today, the actual number of active participants is below 85,000… Our children and grandchildren, who are as successful educationally and financially as any other social group in America, have left the Church in droves! What might be the reasons? Overly materialistic approach and lack of spirituality? Wasteful, fraudulent, abusive policies? Lack of meaningful parish life? At some point, the “souvlaki stand mentality” aimed singularly at fundraising will have to subside in favor of evangelism and care for the suffering humans next to us.
• Failed GOA leadership, thanks to Fr. Karloutsos, has turned our Church into a country club for the very wealthy, who are being milked for funding mostly the Patriarchate, at the same time as they benefit themselves from the tax advantages. The majority of priests and hierarchs celebrate the wealthy in the altar of materialism they actually believe in. In the process, GOA imposes heavy “taxation” on the diminishing resources of the parishes, offering absolutely nothing in return. This materialist, self-serving, orientation of the leadership eventually produced huge financial scandals centered around the rebuilding of Saint Nicholas at Ground Zero: GOA is for the past 4 years under federal investigation!
• Neither the Patriarchate nor the GOA pays any attention to the decades-old demand for the establishment of rules of transparency and accountability. Thousands of Greek Americans spent limitless time and money (under well-intentioned organizations as GOAL and OCL) towards the establishment of such rules, to no avail. The GOA failed leadership, guided by Phanar, completely ignored the sacrifices of our parents and grandparents who notoriously sold their wedding rings to “burn their Church’s mortgage notes”.
• The whole organization of the Church is authoritarian and does not even pretend to follow democratic rules as set by the state laws regulating non-profit organizations in America. The “Sultans” of East 79^th Street impose or fire parish council members at will.

Our Greek-American community is more mature than any other “autocephalous” church, certainly more mature than Ukraine. We demand independence and self-governance now. In fact, we will NOT accept any duplicitous Phanariot plan for a fallacious, fake “autocephaly like Ukraine’s”.

Once this goal is achieved, we, Americans of Greek descent, true to our ancestors’ original cosmopolitanism that gave birth to Christianity, we will open our hearts and our Churches to all Orthodox of America, in fact to all Americans, to share our faith, to finally fulfill Saint Paul’s teachings and achieve Panorthodox unity in this wonderful country of ours.

The choice we have to make is simple: Stay under a Patriarchate subjected to tyrannical Turkish rule or demand a self-governing Independent Church in America NOW!!

STEERING COMMITTEE FOR INDEPENDENCE OF GOA

Email: independentGOA2021@gmail.com

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Helleniscope calls on each and every one of you, clergy and laity, to follow this link to change.org and sign this declaration 

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