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In the nine thousand or so posts made here and about nineteen thousand comments on those posts, one of the most abiding things I have learned is this. When someone says “Watch out for that guy. You need to be careful about accepting him into your church.” they are almost always right. And I can’t think of a single jurisdiction that hasn’t learned that lesson the hard way. Sometimes the recovery through laicization or forced retirement or move is done quietly and sometimes it is done with much unwanted attention, but you can often see that when faced with a similar decision afterward the particular synod makes the safer choice. There are exceptions to this “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me” education and they are well-known and, for whatever reason, keep happening.
(Orthodox Times) – An announcement by the Holy Synod of the Church of Albania, on the occasion of the ordination of Fr. Theophan Koja as Bishop of Philomelion, refers to an unprecedented reward to someone who “undermines” the unity of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania.
According to the announcement of the Holy Synod, this is an unprecedented reward having in mind the unsuitability of this clergyman to shepherd an Orthodox flock.
In fact, it comments that during his ordination yesterday by Archbishop Elpidophoros of America at the Phanar, “he recited the Credo by adding the ‘filioque’.”
The Church of Albania is not the first time that has publicly shown its dissatisfaction with the clergyman in question.
At the beginning of the month, it had expressed “surprise and wonder” about his election as Bishop of Philomelion by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
It referred to himself as a “vanguard of divisive actions” who never apologized for them…
Complete article here.