The Faith Rules Don’t Fit Him, So Elpidophoros Hides the Rule Book!!

EDITOR’S NOTE (Nick Stamatakis):  Searching through Google, we retrieved from Goarch.org the “Pastoral Guidelines,” (they happened to be dated 2008) which we have posted at the bottom of this article.

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Hiding the Orthodox Rule Book through Sleight of Hand Doesn’t Change the Rules about Orthodox Sacraments!!

By Anonymous Member of the Archdiocesan Council

 For those who have been watching the latest Elpidophoros debacle regarding the baptism of a gay couple’s children (https://www.helleniscope.com/2022/07/21/the-end-of-elpi/), it is interesting to see how the Archbishop of America has also been hiding, changing, and manipulating the rules and practices of the Orthodox Church.

Might this be due to his weak understanding of Orthodox theology? It is well known that he does not write any of the talks, sermons, or encyclicals that a staff member cranks out for him. Perhaps it is the result of his deep-seated Turkish way of thinking as if he were a sultan for whom there are no rules, at least none that apply to him. Or perhaps he wants to change the Orthodox Church in America into the Orthodox-Catholic-Episcopalian Church of America?

Let’s look at some of the ways Elpidophoros has “changed the rules” since he has been here.

1) Upon his arrival, he spread the word in the Archdiocesan District that he was “okay” with the non-orthodox spouses of Orthodox Christians partaking in the sacrament of Holy Communion. To some, this might seem to like an “inclusive” policy and a nice gesture to make everyone feel welcome. However, unless he has been granted divine authority to act as an Ecumenical Council of ONE, he cannot change the theology and the tradition of the church unilaterally, and certainly not through an idle and irresponsible off-the-cuff remark. (This is also the mark of a man who was made the Archbishop of America without any significant experience serving in a parish, with actual parishioners, but this is a topic for another discussion.)

2) Then there was “Spoon-gate,” a ridiculous exercise deserving a ridiculous name. Yes, it was Covid, and everyone was afraid, but the Orthodox Church has experienced more than a few plagues over the last two thousand years, and we can be pretty sure that disposable plastic spoons or multiple spoons were not used to distribute the Body and Blood of Christ to the faithful. That was not only a terrible decision, but it also raised doubts in people’s minds about the very nature of the Eucharist itself and turned our churches into farcical theaters of pseudo-hygiene.

3) Then, he decided to lie to both the Patriarch and the Holy Synod in Constantinople (https://www.thenationalherald.com/intense-rivalry-between-elpidophoros-and-hierarchs-of-the-eparchial-synod/) by telling them that the Eparchial Synod of America voted to request of the Patriarch that the Charter be “suspended and put in abeyance” when in fact no such vote ever took place.  So, of course, the Patriarch took the word of his favored hierarch and suspended the Charter, the governing document of the Archdiocese that was granted to the church in America by the Patriarch himself.  “Who’s on First, What’s on Second, I Don’t Know who is on Third …”

That lie caught up with him, which is to say that it blew up in his face, and he was finally confronted with it by both the Eparchial Synod and the Patriarch—one bishop even taking his case to the press. What took so long for these spinless Metropolitans of America to grow spines and finally stand up for their church in America?  Who knows, maybe honoring Archbishop Spyridon (Elpidophoros’ buddy) finally struck a nerve with the Metropolitans of America, and they finally opened their mouths. Now, magically, the Charter has been restored.

So, while Elpidophoros was working his sleight of hand, smiling his creepy smile, shaking hands, and kissing babies, he secretly “removed the rules” from the eyes of the faithful. What rules are these, you ask? Look at the “2020 Yearbook of the Archdiocese of America.”  Specifically, pages 269-273.  These are the “Pastoral Guidelines” provided for reference to clergy and lay people in America, including the Church’s position on:

• The Sanctity of Human Life
• Donation of Organs
• Cremation
• Medical Issues
• Sexuality
• Abortion
• Suicide
• Autopsy
• Weddings / Marriage.
• Day’s Marriage is Not Permitted
• Inter-Christian Marriage
• Inter-Religious Marriage
• Prohibited Marriages
• Divorce
• Baptisms
• Funerals
• Divorce
• Rules of Fasting

All these pages are now GONE from the new “2022 Archdiocese Directory”! 

Lastly—and most disturbing—is what went missing from p. 273:  Information on the Archdiocese Sexual Misconduct Policy and how one can report a case of Sexual Misconduct perpetrated by a Bishop, Priest, or someone in Church leadership. This is now no longer part of the “Directory.”

 (The removed pages are on the Archdiocese Website – but look quickly before they are also scrubbed from there and thrown into the waste bin of history!)

 Current Archdiocese “Directory”

https://www.goarch.org/directory

Past Archdiocese “Yearbooks”

https://www.goarch.org/directory/archive

Do we not see a pattern emerging from all of this from the “most transparent archbishop of all time”?  Elpidophoros continues to eliminate the rules, practices, and traditions of the church so that he and his merry and gay band of thieves can rape and pillage our Archdiocese. God forbid a priest stands up to question what is going on since his head will be lopped off by Elpidophoros or one of his thugs like Bishop Athenagoras, Fr. Villas, or any of the other members of his corrupt clergy mafia.

Now that Elpidophoros has his days numbered, if Bartholomew is again looking to Karloutsos as his Orthodox Christian moral compass to find another successor, he’s looking in the wrong direction. The simple fact is that Karloutsos has no moral compass. He is motivated by power, money, and self-aggrandizement, and makes choices based solely on self-interest or opportunity. Sadly, Bartholomew and Karloutsos and his “Saturday morning breakfast club” minions are birds of a feather. Not a shred of moral fiber left in any of them (though one of them seems badly in need of some fiber with his meals).

It has been known for some time now that Karloutsos has been violating Orthodox practice as well as the above-mentioned Spiritual Guidelines of the GOA. He often performs unorthodox sacraments at his elitist country club—also known as the Southampton Church, Dormition of the Virgin Mary—usually on the grounds “outside” to give the illusion of following the rules. All for a handsome price, of course! Some examples are:

• mixed marriages of Jewish individuals and Orthodox Christians (according to canon law, both the Jewish person and the Orthodox person would be considered ex-communicated in the Orthodox Church)
• same-sex marriages (again, according to canon law, a man and a man, or a woman and a woman, are ineligible for the sacrament of marriage in the Orthodox Church)

Our Orthodox Christian faith has been handed down to us through Apostolic succession. We cannot and should not alter our faith and beliefs for thirty pieces of silver.

Surely today, we all have friends, relatives, and loved ones who are not Orthodox and/or are homosexual. We should love and respect them and accept them in our lives. They are free to make their own choices. But should we be forced to abandon our faith and tradition to accommodate—and indeed be forced to “celebrate”—their choices? Orthodox Christianity has been our faith in practice for more than two thousand years. In what dark cloud of arrogant delusion must people like Elpidophoros and Karloutsos live where they think they can corrupt our faith and question the words of Christ, the Apostles, and the Saints of the Church?

If you are not Orthodox but wish to be Orthodox, repent, convert, open your heart to Christ, and accept all the mysteries of the Orthodox faith and tradition. If you are Orthodox and want to marry a Jewish person, make a choice. Orthodox marriage is the sacred union of two Orthodox Christians blessed by Christ and centered on Christ. And the mystery of marriage—as the Church publicly proclaims through the Epistle of St Paul read at the sacrament—is that “the two become one flesh” (Ephesians 5:31, citing Genesis 2:24). You cannot be Christian and Jewish. They are opposites. It is illogical. It insults both faiths and makes a mockery of them both.

If you are sexually active outside of your marriage, or if you are a sexually active homosexual, you are living a life contrary to the Gospel. You do not live a life rooted in Orthodox faith, tradition, and practice. Your actions are not Christ-centered, and thus, to seek an Orthodox marriage or seek to baptize children that you may have acquired and which you cannot raise in the faith is to place yourself in conflict with God. And this does not change simply because you have millions of dollars and pay Elpidophoros to betray Christ for thirty pieces of silver.

If you want to see a list of those who receive special “favors” from Karloutsos and Elpidophoros, look no further than the names of the absurdly pompous and self-important Archons and “Donors” who are listed on the website of the “Bartholomew Foundation.” This foundation was created by Karloutsos to cement his hold over and gain good “favor” not only the Patriarch of today but also the Patriarchs of tomorrow. https://members.archons.org/bf-founders/

Tragically, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, under the inept, incompetent, and corrupt rule of a handful of godless bachelors living in a ghetto in Istanbul, has been bought and paid for and will only be free when, by the grace of God, the faithful clergy and laity of this Church rise up, without fear, and speak out against the corruption, abuse, and lies that are now tearing apart the Body of Christ. The word “devil” means “he who divides,” and who are greater dividers of the Body of Christ than Karloutsos and Elpidophoros.

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PASTORAL GUIDELINES