Introduction

Knowledge of the Orthodox Christian faith is growing in Latin America; there is an increasing number of clergy, parishes, and monastic institutions, and more and more materials are being published in Spanish and Portuguese, as well. This is a cause for rejoicing, as more and more people are able to find the original Christian Church, especially in an age where modernism and relativism obscure the Truth and hinder man’s salvation.

However, as Latin American people become more and more familiar with Orthodox Christianity, there is likewise a growing confusion regarding what exactly constitutes authentic and legitimate Orthodox Christianity. On the one hand, there are numerous so-called “official” jurisdictions which teach and practice things at variance with authentic Orthodox Christianity, but excuse these abuses based on their supposed canonical legitimacy and authority; on the other hand, there are numerous charlatans who take advantage of the ignorance of the common people, and set themselves up illegitimately as Orthodox clergy, without, however, having any legitimate training or the blessing of an established Orthodox Synod.

Formerly, such deception was common among Roman Catholics and Anglicans, where “independent” clergy would pose as Roman Catholic or Anglican bishops or priests, but as the Internet has helped weed out such imposters, they have taken their game to the Orthodox “scene,” where the lack of information available and the perceived exoticness of Orthodoxy has allowed them to have moderate success. In more recent times, they have even taken advantage of the schism between traditional Orthodox Christians (Genuine Orthodox Christians [GOC] or Old Calendarists) and the New Calendarist, Ecumenist heretics, in order to present themselves as traditional Orthodox Christian clergy who are separate from the “official” and “canonical” New Calendarist/Ecumenist Churches due to reasons of faith, rather than due to canonical infractions, scandals, lack of qualifications, or self-will. They are “Genuine Orthodox” in name only, but are able to manipulate the faithful with their sophistry.

Due to this confusion, I intend to begin a series of posts on this blog categorized as “Traditional Orthodoxy in Latin America.” A thorough analysis is needed, and many sub-topics can surely be explored, but for the time being, I will present one historical document and several contemporary links to photos demonstrating a link between the Church in Greece and the Church headquartered in the United States (which has jurisdiction over Latin America) due to a pressing request by our priest living in Colombia, the Rev. Fr. Félix Piñeros, pastor of St. Nectarios of Aegina Mission Parish in Bogotá, Colombia, who left the New Calendarist Church only to find himself in an uncanonical, pseudo-Old Calendarist jurisdiction, and finally made his way to canonical Orthodoxy some years ago. If you are reading this post and have further questions, please leave your comments in the section below, so I can consider them for future posts in this series.

The Origin of the Hierarchy of the GOC of Greece

In an English-speaking context, church websites which advertise their origins and apostolic succession are generally automatically assumed to be spurious. No legitimate Orthodox jurisdiction would need to defend itself by posting a lineage on a website; those who do so are often defensive and trying to establish themselves based on legal arguments of “who ordained whom”; arguments which are foreign to the Orthodox view of apostolic succession and ordination.

Nevertheless, it is occasionally necessary to demonstrate the historical connection that our Old Calendarist Greek Orthodox Church has with the universal Church, given the doubts that are raised by the arguments, claims, and actions of others. This is especially true in Latin America, where good-quality information is difficult to obtain. Therefore, in this post, I will share one historical document about the origins of the Greek Old Calendarist Church here:

ROCOR Recognition of the GOC, Russian Original

ROCOR Recognition of the GOC, English Translation