I do not know very much about a true orthodox presence in Hungary. It seems to be quite small. Part of this presence is represented by the church mission of Sain Thomas. The church is headed by Fr. Istvan (Stephen in Hungarian) and is currently under GOC-Makarios since November/December 2024 (civil calendar). From what I remember, the evolution of this parish was the following.
Initially, it was under Bishop Akakije of the STOC but left following the break of communion between STOC Akakije and RTOC. The parish went with the RTOC because it perceived the acceptance of the priests of Omsk by STOC as an acceptance of cyprianism. The priest of Omsk wrote in one of their letters that they believed that the Moscow Patriarchate had the grace in its mysteries.
As RTOC parish, the bishop for the parish was Bishop Philaret of Pallini (who runs the site https://trueorthodox.eu/).
However, in November /December 2024, Father Istvan and the parish left to join the GOC Makarios without receiving previously a canonical release. they explained the reasons in their Facebook pages and blogs with the following :
Statement of Hungarian True Orthodox Mission of St. Thomas the Apostle about severing communion with Russian True Orthodox Church, under Archbishop Tikhon of Omsk and Sibera
We could no longer bear that the hierarchs of the RTOC hipocratically call other synods heretical when the same problems were/are also presents in their synod.
When we joined the RTOC and our priest was ordained by them in 2020 we were made to believe that the Russian True Orthodox Church which was founded by Archbishop Lazar Zhurbenko had a different, more strict, confession of Faith than that of ROCOR from whom they received their apostolic succession, and that they entered into communion with the heretic Cyprianite “Synod in Resistence” out of ignorance. But after we have discovered an interview with Archbishop Lazar on the internet where he stated that he considered the Moscow Patriarchate to be with Grace. And he even wanted to join the Cyprianite synod after he broke away from ROCOR so obviously he knew very well who they were.
Our reason for severing communion is not just based on these past events but also on the recent behavior of their hierarchs. For example Bishop Philaretos of Pallini and Western Europe who likes to appear as if he was a strict confessor of the Orthodox Faith but in reality he doesn't mind to break the Holy Canons when it serves his interest. One exapmle for this is when Fr. István was serving in Guildford a father brought to him his children for Holy Communion but when he aksed him which church they belong to he didn't want to reply, apperently they belonged to the Moscow Patriarchate. So Fr. István told him that he wont give Communion to his children if they are not True Orthodox, their father responded “but why? Your Bishop always does”. When Fr. István asked bishop Philaretos about this he told him he didn't know who they were... But how can he give Holy Communion to someone he doesn't know, especially in a parish which doesn't have more than 10 people at a liturgy?
The second upseting event happened in Romania at the consecration of a new monastery to some hieromonks who left Slatioara. We were shocked by what happened there as apart from the clergy everyone was a newcalendarist and at the end of the consecration they allowed these people to enter the Holy of Holys to kiss the Holy Altar. And after they we went to the house of a new calendarist woman, who gave accomodation to the visiting Bishop and clergy, they blessed her house and allowed her to pray with them and the bishop didn't say anything but participated.
Bishop Philaretos also likes to be very strict regarding who can be considered a saint of the Orthodox Church, for example he doesn't accept St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain, who gave us the Holy Rudder and the Philokalia which revived hesychasm in the Orthodox World, but again at the same time he doesn't mind to break the Holy Canons and live in the same building with a nun, for which we have several wittness to prove our claim.
Also him ordaining Fr. István as a priest in Greece was against the Holy Canons as he is a bishop of the Russian True Orthodox Church which shouldn’t interfere in the territory of another local church, in this case the True Orthodox Church of Greece.
And another thing we have been lied about is that Bishop Philaretos Klimakitis (Bassett) was not defrocked by the Chrysostomos synod because he didn't want to sign over the ownership of his monastery to the synod but because of his explosive behaviour that was always looking for arguments and even shouting with people.
So because of the above mentioned reasons after careful consideration the Hungarian True Orthodox Mission of St. Thomas the Apostle has decided to break eucacharstic communion with the Russian True Orthodox Church.
This was originally published on Decemer 6th, 2024 on https://www.facebook.com/tamasapostol.b ... hgtLXzTwnl
Another statement published at this link https://ortodoxhit.blogspot.com/2023/12/statement.html has been removed
The interview of bishop Lazare is the following :
https://nftu.net/catacombs-interview-ar ... zhurbenko/
https://www.roca.org/oa/volume-x/issue- ... catacombs/
We can read
Fr. Victor: Vladika, on one hand you do not recognize the Moscow Patriarchate; you did not become a member of the M.P., but, as I understand, you do not deny the sacraments of the Moscow Patriarchate. Your branch of the Catacomb Church does not rebaptize, it does not re-ordain priests.
Bishop Lazarus: This is not my Personal opinion; it is the position of those well-educated priests with whom I associated. Fr. Vladimir Krivoliutsky belonged to a group led by Metropolitan Cyril of Kazan, a moderate. Fr. Sergius Tigrov was of like mind. They recognized the Mysteries [of the Moscow Patriarchate] because dogmatically there were no violations concerning the Orthodox teaching about the Holy Trinity, and the Mysteries were performed according to the rules of the office. True, they do not immerse, but after all, there were Periods in the Church’s history-in the time of Hieromartyr Cyprian, for example—-when the Church recognized baptism by sprinkling by virtue of necessity. Not because this was the only way: it should be performed by immersion, and we immerse. But this is not always possible. When I was moving about the country, sometimes there was no water, sometimes there was no suitable vessel, and yet I had to perform the baptism; it couldn’t be postponed. And so we would simply pour water over the head, in the name of the Holy Trinity. And we accept the Mystery of Chrismation as a lawful baptism.We likewise do not deny their ordinations. Re-ordinations were performed only for renovationists, following the instructions of Patriarch Tikhon. And there were exceptions even here. If a renovationist bishop renounced his monastic vows, or if the bishop were married, the ordinations he performed were not considered canonical. But if he were an old bishop, that is, if the bishop performing the ordination were a monk who hadn’t renounced his vows, in that case Patriarch Tikhon accepted the ordination.The Arians weren’t all rebaptized, the monophysites weren’t rebaptized; all that was required was that they renounce their heresy. The iconoclasts weren’t rebaptized… One can find many examples. Roman Catholics were and were not rebaptized, depending on the times and the local Church. Even in Russia there was no consistent policy with regard to receiving Roman Catholics: some patriarchs in the 17th century rebaptized, others did not. And inasmuch as a final judgment on the Moscow Patriarchate has not been made, we consider that the grace of God has not left the people. After all, there are many pious people [within the Moscow Patriarchate], many good priests grieving, tormented. Not everyone knows of the Catacomb Church, and not everyone can emigrate; they are, after all, in bonds, in prison. For this reason, with respect to those living in the Soviet Union there are no such strict demands. Those in freedom, however, are of course to be faulted for belonging to the Moscow Patriarchate; with regard to them it’s an entirely different matter. But for those in bends there is a certain condescension. After all, not everyone is to blame; a long time has passed.
