Wherever the Archbishop Appears, the Churches Are Empty!…

PHOTO: The Archbishop in St.Catherine’s of Astoria (Credit: Anamniseis.net)

By Nick Stamatakis

People have been telling me for a long time that “we need to do something to show this Archbishop that his time in America is up and that he needs to go.” They have proposed all kinds of protests and demonstrations. They have collected signatures, they have sent letters “to whom it may concern”, they have raised their voice in parish councils, and they have protested the heretic acts of Pat. Bartholomew. Above all, they have demanded Autocephaly of some sort for the Church of America. 

I was always open to any ideas.  After all, I was the one who coined the nickname Elpidoktonos on the day of his election in the Spring of 2019, two months before he even arrived to be enthroned.  “Will he prove to be Elpidophoros or Elpidoktonos?” (Hope-bearer or Hopekiller?) was the title of my article on the day of his election.  It was apparent then from the information we already had that: 1) He was a heretic, a “papist,” supporting the “primacy of the Patriarch” instead of the synodical Orthodox traditions. 2) Αt the minimum, he was tied to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, if not the Turkish Intelligence.  3) He was trying to show that he could act as an agent of the State Department, authoring a paper about “Religion and Geopolitics in Ukraine.  To me, the news about his arrival in America was terrible since day one…

It took him a couple of years to show his true colors to all – and the pandemic certainly helped… But it was his participation in the Turkish House inauguration in NYC, where he appeared next to the Turkish Cypriot leader (despite having been warned by the Greek and Cypriot diplomats in the US!!) that caused a massive “trauma” in our community:  “He is first a Turk and then everything else,” everyone realized.  Finally, his “Big, Fat, Greek Gay baptism” last summer was the straw that broke the camel’s back…  “He is up to no good; we need to get rid of him,” everyone thought… In between, countless actions by the archbishop showed self-centeredness, introduced novelties watering down the Orthodox Faith and Tradition (from the multiple spoons to everything else), and fully accepted and promoted homosexuality: the list is endless and adds a new item almost every month.

Finally, the faithful decided the course of action, the only effective way to protest in America: They abstained and kept abstaining from his appearances EVERYWHERE, especially in Churches.  Look what happened to powerful companies like Disney and Budweiser: they crossed the line of people’s approval and are on the way to being out of business…

Just yesterday, August 8, the Archbishop appeared in St. Catherine of Astoria, one of the two Churches of the historical parish, the parish that has produced tens if not hundreds of clergy (Metropolitans, priests etc.), cantors, and numerous other Church leaders over the past century of its existence and especially since the 1970s. The parish had thousands of active members just a decade ago.  Please do not tell me this is the summer season, and people are on vacation in Greece and elsewhere… Tens of thousands of Greek-Americans live within a 5-10 mile radius of this Church. At other times, many would go and hear the Archbishop himself and his message…

As you can see in the photos and video from the Greek-speaking website “Anamniseis.net,” the Archbishop presided over a service attended by about fifteen parishioners!!  It’s an unprecedented phenomenon: Once again, the priests, cantors, and helpers were as many as the parishioners… The message is clear: The faithful have voted with their feet, and as long as he is Archbishop, they will not step back into the Churches.  Many have already moved to other Orthodox denominations, especially the Russian (ROCOR) and the Antiochean.

The leadership, here and in the Phanar, suffers from the same disease with the beautiful Greek name (Hubris) that has pushed the Western leadership in the catastrophic course they have taken in Ukraine and everywhere else… The disease of hubris/arrogance has totally blinded them, and they do not even care if humanity will cease to exist as long as they do not admit their grave mistakes… God Help all of us!!

But one thing is for sure: Elpidophoros is done!!

BELOW ARE THE VIDEO AND PHOTOS FROM “ANAMNISEIS” – YOU CAN FOLLOW THE LINK FOR THE GREEK REPORT…