The Church offers For Sale a prime parcel of land in West Texas. Located on Hwy 84 at the Sudan City limits this property is, according to the apprasial about 4200 Sq Ft. In good repair. Use as apartments, a seminary, convent or whatever you need.
Many in the Independent Movement have heard about us at some point. Some claim their lines come from us, some claim our Charter was issued to them, and some have even claimed they are us under a different name. On the internet you can find all sorts of information - some true, some false and a lot of fairy tales. To avoid all the junk that exists here is an outline about this Church.
The independent movement for the most part seems to exist for the title seekers. They want to be in Holy Orders but do not want to have to follow orders or directions so they want to be the "boss" over others. Many will ordain those who have no vocational calling, education or temperment for the Holy Office. There are some good active clergy in the independent movement but they are independent clergy and not part of any historic Church.
We are the same Church that was chartered in 1927 and headed by Archbishop Aftimios Ofiesh of blessed memory.
All the groups calling themself the "American Orthodox Catholic Church", our short name, are not associated with us in any way. Others using similar names like "American Orthodox Church" are also not associated with us.
A group that was started up after a few former clergy left our Church [called a major internal Schism by some ethnic clergy] made false claims that they were us under a different name, that the Metropolitan was the "former primate" of their new group, and later certain rumors of a claim they excommunicated me was traced back to them. All claims are proven false and documented on our website. Many pages are no longer linked to the public but the information is still available on request. Example: Clergy left this Church, one resigned in writing, one by phone and another just walked away without a word. After they harassed us the synod issued decrees against the 4 involved since they had in one way or another been associated with us at one time and they violated the canons and claimed they were us. This was not a major internal Schism, just some clergy who wanted to do things as they saw fit and in an unorthodox manner
Today we have a Synod of well trained and educated individuals. One has over 25 years with the Byzantine Orthodox, earned degrees and continues to work on a doctorate degree, another has numerous earned degrees including a Ph.D. Two are well trained in the Byzantine liturgy. We have Chaplains who can offer the Tridentine Latin Mass to Catholics on request. One who has retired from this Synod for health reasons had been a Uniate mitred Archpriest.
We will not seek communion with Schismatic groups! To this day their clergy rewrite our Church history. That, to me, is like having some Nazi General rewrite World War 2 to make them look like the good guys! The ethnic orthodox acted similar to the Nazi of WW2 by deciding to continue to act within our canonical jurisdiction, by stealing our cathedral in court (a violation of the canons), by attacking our clergy, attempting to and stealing our parishes, rewriting our Church history, removing the remains of +Sophronius then claiming after he was reburied next to St. Raphael that he violated the canons, and their continued unchristian attack and acts against this Church, our clergy and members.
Since they are Schismatics we do not recognize any sacramental authority within these groups!
We do not seek or need any recognition by these groups!
We are canonical!
Canonical does not mean you must be in communion with someone! It means we follow Holy Scripture, the Orthodox Canons and Orthodox Traditions. It does not mean we must wear a certain vestment style, offer a certain liturgy share the Mysteries (Sacraments) with a specific group especially when that and other groups have violated the Canons for about 80 years, attacked this Church and clergy, tried to end this Church, proclaimed the Church does not legally or morally exist, and continue to act in an unchristian manner against this Church. The unchristian attacks that have continued all these years after the death of Abp. Aftimios show these individuals to be unholy and mercenary and they do the devils work for their own greed.
We are recognized by the Episcopal Church USA!
We are recognized by a number of independent Churches!