- May 16 2008: "WHAT'S VLADIMIR MOSS & THE RTOC DOING IN SERBIA?" many Old Calender faithful have now been asking.
+CHURCH NEWS+ has learned that on Thomas Sunday on May 4 2008, Vladimir Moss, (who is either with the GOC-Kiousis or a new Jurisdiction, the RTOC-Abp Tikhon), was in Serbia giving lectures and selling his books to Serbian faithful of the GOC Church Of King Milutin in Belgrade.
"This was a pretext for Moss to take half of our GOC King Milutin parish in Belgrade and bringing them into the RTOC under Abp Tikhon," a Serbian parishioner of the GOC Church of King Milutin told +CHURCH NEWS+ this week.
"The priest monk Fr Akakios," the parishioner continued," established our Church 10 years ago. With the help of our present priest, Fr Athanasios, Fr Akakios built our Church into a parish of 300 people. But late last year when Bishop Photios of the GOC rejected Fr Akakios' request to become a Bishop of the GOC here in Serbia, Fr Akakios then brought his ambitious plans to Abp Tikhon of the RTOC.
"Apparently, Abp Tikhon has agreed to make Fr Akakios a bishop. So now there is a split in our Church with half of our parishioners leaving for the RTOC with Fr Akakios. And Vladimir Moss has helped to create this split. This is what Moss' book selling lectures on Thomas Sunday was all about," the GOC Serbian parishioner said.
Br Nathanael: I obtained this information through a series of emails over the last 2 weeks and even spoke with the Serbian parishioner over the phone. If anyone has more information on this apparent scandal please comment below.
This is the original text released on the site of "CHURCH NEWS OF BROTHER NATHANAEL", which is in fact a very well known "yellow newspaper" that is very hostile towards True Orthodox Jurisdictions. One of the Athanasyites with evil intentions informed brother Nathanail about the visit of brother Vladimir Moss and the promotion of his book, and told him, probably in poor English, his understanding of the situation. This "CHURCH NEWS" of Nathanael is delivered to many True Orthodox people around the world, since he infiltrates many e-mail addresses that are connected to True Orthodoxy with connections to his site: e.g. Vladimir Moss sends his e-mail to several addresses, Nathanael "picks-up" those addresses and sends his "Church news".to the same addresses.
This is some brief information on the source of this internet news, which has already encircled the world.
Though brother Nathanael is not considered trustworthy among True Orthodox, it is necessary to react to this news and write a rebuttal.
REBUTTAL
The information released on the internet site of "Church news" by brother Nathanael is incorrect.
Here follows correct information on Serbian True Orthodox Church, which is related to the incorrect information that has been released.
The Serbian True Otrhodox Church has existed in Serbia for 12 years now, and is under the temporary hierarchical omophorion of the Synod of the GOC of Archbishop Chrysostomos (Kiousis). True Orthodoxy was brought to Serbia by Hieromonk Akakios, and within a short time he founded three monasteries and several parishes. The total number of the True Orthodox faithful is approximately 300 persons. Three of his spiritual children have been selected and ordained: one as a priest and two of them as hieromonks, to serve the needs of the faithful people in these parishes. Simultaneously, a governing body of the Church was established consisting of priest, monks and lay people, which was designed to organize, and deliver the decisions on, Church life in Serbia at the level of a Council of Church people.
For 10 years Greek bishops took no consideration of their Sister Church in Serbia, which was under their temporary hierarchical rule. In those ten years no bishop visited Serbia, no document or epistle or suchlike was sent from the Greek bishops to Serbia, not a single sign of consideration was shown to the faithful in Serbia who were temporarily trusted to them. This behaviour caused the Serbian priests and laymen to become displeased. Hierarchical care for Serbia was of the utmost importance. So they filed a request to the Greek Synod to ordain a Serbian bishop who would, naturally, take care of the faithful people of Serbia. Unanimously, Fr. Akakios was nominated as a candidate, though he firmly rejected the nomination. But the faithfull people put great pressure on him to accept the nomination. Explaining that Serbia still has only a small number of faithful people, the Greek bishops have delayed their answer to this question for some time.
In the mean time, Fr. Athanasius, the priest of the Holy King Milutin parish in the city of Smederevo (not in Belgrade as "Church news" says) left his spiritual father Fr. Akakios and his post on the Governing council of the Serbian True Orthodox Church. With his closest associates he started a fierce struggle against any kind of Church rule which would exist in Serbia. In accordance with this attitude, he proclaims his parish to belong to the GOC of Greece and recognizes only the rule of Greek bishop. At this point it is necessary to recall the information given above: that NOT ONE of the Greek bishops has come to Serbia or sent a single piece of information to the Serbian faithful throughout the ten years of the existence of the True Orthodox Church of Serbia. His rule over Serbia and his care for the faithful was only formal. For this reason, anyone deciding to reject his spiritual father Fr. Akakius was free to leave and do as he pleased without any control. The Governing Council of The Serbian True Orthodox Church asked the GOC Synod to appoint a temporary bishop for Serbia. As a replacement for Metropolitan Kallinikos of Corinth, whose health was poor, the Council asked for a younger bishop who would visit Serbia more often and supervise Church life in Serbia. Fr. Athanasius obstructed this activity too. This request from Serbia was also rejected by the GOC Synod. These actions of the GOC Synod caused the beginnings of anarchy, which has begun to tear down the freshly built building of the Serbian True Orthodox Church.
Soon, a split arose: those who were loyal to the Governing Council and their spiritual father Fr.Akakios and those who believed in the intrigues of Fr. Athanasius and his associates. It was at this point that the parish of Smederevo completely abandoned any cooperation with, and membership of, the Governing Council of Serbian Church.
Concerning brother Vladimir and the parish of St. Archangel Michael from the city of Guildford (England), the True Othodox Church of Serbia has close connections with them and there are frequent mutual visits. Recently, the book by Vladimir Moss "The History of the Orthodox Church in the 20th century" was published in a Serbian translation. In connection with this, the publisher of the Serbian translation, the Monastery of Novi Stjenik, organized a promotion of the book, to which the author of the book was invited. The promotion was organized on Thomas Sunday.
About Archbishop Tikhon and the Russian True Orthodox Church. The Serbian True Orthodox Church has saluted the idea of the union of two True Orthodox Synods: Greek and Russian. If the union of the two Churches does become reality, the Serbian True Orthodox faithful will ask to move to the temporary rule of Russian bishops, who are closer to the Serbian people because of their Slavic origin and whose language is less of an obstacle than Greek. And then the ordination of a Serbian bishop may become much closer to reality.
Brother Stefan from Despotovac, Serbia
http://sbn-nathanael.livejournal.com/
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