We do not state that any one group is not who or what they claim except when they claim to be us or use one of our names and history. We state that;
1. they are not in any way canonical Orthodox (to the best of our knowledge),
2. their lines do not trace to us - The Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America (inc.), and many use our short name since 1927 -"American Orthodox Catholic Church" and
3. they have no canonical sacramental authority from THEOCACNA.
We are the one and only canonically established American Orthodox Catholic Church (THEOCACNA) and all those not part of this Church who use this name are misleading the public.
None of the following are associated with THEOCACNA in any way. They have used our name and in some cases our logo and church history to falsely claim they are us. They have no sacramental authority from this canonically established Orthodox Church and as far as we know they are not associated with any canonically established Orthodox Church.
Following is a list of groups who have claimed in the past or still claim to be us by using one of our names, either the corporate name of THEOCACNA, the short name (American Orthodox Catholic Church) or both. You should understand that the name
For the most part these groups are part of the Independent Movement.
Many claim to have lines of Apostolic Succession from Bishop
From our Church Constitution dated December 1, 1927.
The religious body organized hereunder shall be known both ecclesiastically and in civil law (by incorporation) as THE HOLY EASTERN ORTHODOX CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH IN NORTH AMERICA (THE AMERICAN ORTHODOX CATHOLIC CHURCH). Either the first part of this legal title or the shorter second part exclosed in parentheses shall be deemed sufficient designation to point out this body to the exclusion of any other in all cases except where the full corporate title is required for purposes of civil legal documents.
We, the lawful owners of the name, "The American Orthodox Catholic Church" state as follows;
Any group using this name and not part of The Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America (chartered 1927) and (bishops) not shown on the Synod Directory on our website are not part of the True American Orthodox Catholic Church - THEOCACNA and have no sacramental authority from this Church.
While at least one Orthodox writer on Orthodox-wiki falsely credits Abp. Aftimios for starting the many independent groups he in fact did not go off ordaining people to start their own groups. Propheta is responsible for many Episcopi Vagantes.
Walter Propheta seemed to be popular. So many of these independent clergy claim their lines to him or his church. He was supposed to have been consecrated by 2 bishops - Souris of the Greek Orthodox Church in America - Old calendarist and Theoklitos Kantaris of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of NY and they later are claimed to have "elevated" Propheta to primate of the AOC/AOCC. Here is the problem.
Propheta was consecrated by only 2 bishops who had no canonical authority to appoint him head of the AOCC since
(A) Abp. Ofiesh was alive
(B) Abp. Ofiesh was the head of his Church (THEOCACNA/AOCC) at this time.
(C) The Propheta lines do not trace to Aftimios or this Church and
(D) 2 Greek Bishops have no authority to appoint anyone to a Church they are not part of and neither was associated in any way with THEOCACNA/AOCC. It is doubtful either would have made such an appointment to infringe on Abp. Ofiesh's jurisdiction so they probably appointed Propheta to his own independent American Orthodox Church (AOC).
This
Dominick Lorenzo, Retired
Former head of a NY AOCC group
Consecrated by U. Ryzy-Ryski 6-26-77
Appointed by John Christian as Metropolitan but Christian had no say over the AOCC or its appointments.
Patrick K. McReynolds
b. May 1950
Member-God's Benevolence Institute
Ordained Deacon & Priest 4-6-74 by Itkin
Consecrated 4-7-74 by Itkin
Consecrated 5-19-75 by E.C. Payne
(Ind. Catholic Church/Ind RC Church)
Consecrated 11-26-76 by U. Ryzy-Ryski
Also listed as Consecrated by Andre Barbeau w/Andrei Letellier and as a consecrator of Andrei Barbeau
Th.M from Fordham U. 1978
6/81 began God's Benevolence Orthodox Catholic Church (independent)
Note: Mutiple consecrations violate Orthodox canons.
Steven Kochones, b. 1/31/31
Greek Orthodox layman, left and
was ordained minister ind. Assemblies of God
Ordained Priest by Propheta 9/4/67
Est. Church of God in the Lord Jesus Christ in Pasadena, CA. 1969
Consecrated 5-18-80 Catholic Church of God, Pasadena, CA
Changed Corporate name to A.O.C.C. 5-11-89
Donald Jolly
Independent Catholic Church International
12-31-73 - Cons. by John Brown
Free Protestant Episcopal Church
6-25-80 - Cons. by Antonio Pietroburgo in Rome and appointed AOCC Representative. Since this man was not with the original AOCC he would have no authority to appoint anyone to represent us. We determine this was then another case of wanting to be able to claim they are not who they want to be.
American Orthodox Catholic Church Western Rite of Medford, Long Island, NY.
This
American Orthodox Catholic Church former webpage by Stephen Tyminski of N.Y. claims both the AOCC name and our Corporate name "The Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America" which is a registered service mark of this Church. On this webpage he mentions Abp. Thaddeus (Condrick) who he has not been associated with for a few years now.
Thaddeus,
This group may be closing or under new claimed leadership. We received word that Samuel has renounced Orthodoxy and is returning to the Old Catholic Church.
From his e-mail:
I have stepped down as Primate of the AOCC and have renounced Orthodoxy. I have returned to my Catholic heritage as an Old Catholic Archbishop.
The fact that I had no backup pretty much took its toll.
The Most Rev. Mark Pultorak, SSJ
This
They claim to be the continuation of the Walter Propheta 1964 organizaton and claim their lines trace to us. DOCUMENTED: Propheta was never part of this Jurisdicion. He had established his own organizaton and did his own thing in his time. From our records it appears Propheta used the name "American Orthodox Church".
According to information we have they appear to pray with the excommunicated/deposed which violates the Orthodox Canons.
Carl
DOCUMENTED: Forbes, who died Dec 2008, was never a priest of or member of The Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America. His Church likes to make a claim of this nature but we can document this to be a false claim.
DOCUMENTED: They falsely claim to be us, use our service mark and name on bogus documents and have changed the logo to show our banner with our name below their shield.
This group claims our history and claim to have changed their name because the "Corporation" was stolen but they do not in so many words say stolen from them). Simple to prove as a false claim since they were never part of our Church the original THEOCACNA and they were not listed (DOCUMENTED) on any of THEOCACNA's corporate documents.
The Russian Orthodox Church in America is another independent jurisdiction who claim our history and claim to be us but say they changed their name. This group is headed by one "Symeon" Holdridge who has operated in Wy, CO and NM. They even claim the "church corporation" was stolen so they claim that is why the changed their name. It should be noted that (DOCUMENTED) Mariam Ofiesh sat on the "stolen" corporations board of trustees until she retired in 1999. Many such independent groups make false claims to attempt to show they are canonical or canonically established. (DOCUMENTED) The book Garrison issued about his lines and ordinations reads Holdridge was consecreated by Denis Garrison June 4, 1988 as bishop of Denver, CO. and Eparch of Central America. The American Orthodox Church disavows and disowns Seraphim Holdridge. At one point in the 1990's Symeon, A/K/A Seraphim (Holdridge), renounced his ordinations - lines and "retired" to a monastery for a brief period. We have his letter on file. He claims he was elevated to primate in 1989 but he renounced his ordinations after that date and continues to claim his old titles.
For details and some of their web info click on
DOCUMENTED: Emails from Paul Stoms claimig to be the head of the German Orthodox Church and denied ever being a member of THEOCACNA in fact did claim to be the head of THEOCACNA, then added "United" to the name when confronted about using our name.
DOCUMENTED: Stoms claims he was never part of THEOCACNA, We have in the Archives
1. a newsetter where Garrison claimed to have accepted Stoms into THEOCACNA and
2. a copy of a Certificate of Consecration issued to Stoms by Bp Cyril with the THEOCACNA name on it.
3. We also have letters from German authorities that says the relative he claimed in Cologne was not on their various rolls and (a) they knew of no person by the names given, (b) no German Orthodox Church or seminary and (c) one of the addresses Stoms gave as his relatives was in fact the Roman Catholic Bishops address and he also did not know of a German Orthodox Church in the city.
DOCUMENTED: In emails to us Stoms threatened to release Psychiatric information to the Dallas Newspaper (not the act of a true bishop or priest) yet no such informaton or records exist. He also excommunicated a bishop individually from his independent chaplains group. This same man had plead guilty of selling business degrees from the trunk of his car (DOCUMENTED: from newspaper).
The
The Garrison backers like to claim that he was not properly deposed in 1999 by the North American Holy Synod or that he was deposed by one bishop (solo) who he was said to have excommunicated first based on a certified mail receipt. (disproven by documents on file)
Roman Orthodox Church headed by Patrick Murray claimed (DOCUMENTED) to be chartered by The HOLY EASTERN ORTHODOX CATHOLIC and APOSTOLIC CHURCH IN NORTH AMERICA as the western rite of THEOCACNA. DOCUMENTED: Garrison (above) stated on his website that his OCCNA actually chartered the Roman Othodox Church.
Vladimir Wilson Sehorn who we understand started out with CACINA before being Ordained and (DOCUMENTED) consecrated by Denis Garrison. (DOCUMENTED) He incorporated his own THEOCACNA corporation. He is not associated with us - the 1927 canonically established Church. He had been associated with Symeon of ROCIA in the past.
The Byzantine Catholic Church under Mar Markus also now claims to have been started by or be us but changed their name. No direct claim is made as to how this was supposed to have occured since they claim lines back to Propheta.
For details and some of their web info click on
They now claim to have merged or joined the Reformed Catholic Church.
Have very little info on this fellow.
Rev. J.M. Byron Whitney, OCO, OMD; Christian II, Successor in WORD and UNITY to Christian I, Archbishop Patriarch of the American Orthodox Catholic Church.
Our Web Page is megalife.faithweb.com
A few other groups also used to claim our corporate name "The Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America". They used to claim to be us until they were shown that our name is a Registered Service Mark and to use our name was illegal.