After reading another message from Colorado I thought I would make a few comments. I say this and ask this as a member of a synod who has seen all of these things, and fear I am about to see them all again. And I write this as a warning to anyone who is tempted to follow one whom the Lord has been most generous, but who appears ready to once again cause great scandal and destruction on the faithful.
For me and my Synod, he is just gregory.
By using the same method as Gregory and by applying exactness, one can prove that all the bishops of the Church at every moment in time are uncanonical. Clearly Gregory himself, the self-proclaimed pinnacle of canonical perfection is even uncanonical for invading the canonical territory of other bishops, departing other synods without release, for leveling charges in public against other members of the clergy, for lying and intentionally deceiving the flock of Christ, and for unbecoming and absolutely vulgar personal attacks against them. What an easy thing it is indeed to make these charges, and like gregory, am completley capable to defend them loudly, publicy, and expand on them until the end of my days.
Where Gregory utterly fails however is in his notion of the canons and what they mean. For him “canonical” is that which complies with the canons of the Church. But as it is with the administration of the canons, the Bishop becomes a simple representative of the entire faith together of which the canons are only a part. He is important not in himself, not as the charismatic bearer and guardian of “righteousness”, but as means of subordination to the Will of God. At no time can the canons carry any weight by themselves as if we can cite one or several canons to prove a Bishop is supposedly “uncanonical”, but they may only be taken in the context of the entire faith which has as a primary concern the unity and pastoral care of the flock: Christ said, Woe unto you priests who tend to the little things of the law but omit the weightier matters of the law; these He says, are blind guides who “strain out the gnat, and swallow a camel!” (Matt. 23:23—24). Therefore it is possible for something to be uncanonical in one situation and not in another. Orthodox is filled with antithesis.
I am not of course suggesting that the canons are impossible to understand or use as a guide. I am say that they can be very easily taken to an extreme, to the letter, and appear in the context of civil law which our rational minds always seem to gravitate.
So how are the faithful to be zealous in such a situation? Saint John Chrysostom replies: "And what if a (Bishop) is not good? Does that mean one does not have to be obedient to him? Not good in what sense? If it is in relation to faith [ie. heresy], then run from him.”
This does not refer hoever to the personal sins of a priest or even grossly uncanonical acts of a bishop. St. John Chrysostom writes that a believer suffers no detriment in the Mysteries, even if the priest who has celebrated them be extremely depraved. Personal sins and even canonical violations do not justify proclaiming other bishops as false. Sins can deprive a priest of salvation, but his service is performed within the Church and by a member of the Church. In the case of public heresy however, the service takes place outside the Church and outside the current of the grace of the Church, even though the priest's personal life may be virtuous. St. John did not just talk the talk, he walked the walk, literally to his death.
In 404 AD, a long list of the most ridiculous accusations was drawn up against St. John, as it is easy to accuse even the most righteous of saints. St. John the Chrysostom was "uncanonically", "unrighteously", and as a result of the most depraved acts of Orthodox Bishops, was deposed . And because he was loved by all the people, riots ensued in the streets causing damage to many buildings. A group of Bishops followed St. John and encouraged him to break with the violators of the canons and start his own synod. But saint John refused and said it did not matter what happened to him, the unity of the Church was much more important! He was then forced marched to exhaustion and death. The minority of bishops who for unity's sake and at the request of St. John deserted him were made to feel the guilt of having once been his supporter, being compelled to leave their sees and take other dioceses in the inhospitable regions of Thrace.
So which canons are those which are worthy to cause schism or even declare an entire Synod of Bishops fallen? And by whose measure do the faithful decide the legitimacy of rumors and hearsay of canonical violations, when a man calls for the tearing apart of Christ's Body His Church? This is what Gregory has done and appears ready to do again.
May the light of the Holy Fathers show the way!
to this slander and flesh eating diabolic communication.