NOTE: We do not defame or intend to defame any individual or group. We offer herein the truth as we know it about our canonically established Church and those who make false claims that they are us in some way or that they have our lines, which we deny generally esp. when the lines are traced back to our Church from Ignatius Nichols and from non-orthodox lines.
Our webmaster was not able, due to health issues, to update our websites. We were asked by one individual to make changes or completely remove his group from this site. When we didn't rush to do this some items were posted on the internet and we attribute these issues to this group. Since it was a request w/o any proofs that our post was incorrect it would have been an act of Christian kindness to remove that.
This information is essential to the Orthodox Public being misled by these independent groups who in any number of ways claim they are us and claim to have canonical sacramental authority. None listed herein who claim to be us are. They are Episcopi Vagants in the eyes of the Orthodox.
We, the lawful owners of the name, which is our registered service mark with our logo, "The Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America" state as follows;
We are the one and only canonically established "The Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America" and all those not part of this Church who use this name are misleading the public. We are the one and only American Orthodox Catholic Church, our short name listed in the 1927 constitution, and we state that any other church using this short name is an independent group not associated with us or Abp. Ofiesh of blessed memory.
ERROR Note: If you feel there is an error on our website please feel free to contact us about it.
To be removed from this webpage also contact us to discuss how to correct your website so you are not claiming to be us under either name, not claiming our Charter was issued to you, or using our history.
No church, jurisdiction, priest or bishop who is not an active member of this original American Orthodox Catholic Church (our short name as stated in the 1927 Church Constitution) who claims to be us under one of our names, a close name or a completely different name is a liar. They have no lines from this Church! They have no authority from this church! They have no sacramental authority from this Church and they are most likely Old Catholic/Episcopi Vagants claiming to be orthodox.
Some independents use our short name "American Orthodox Catholic Church" and one even ordains women. Some claim to be in the Aftimios or Ofiesh tradition. Orthodox lines of Apostolic Succession remain within the Orthodox Church.
This Church is the first American Orthodox Catholic Church established for the English speaking Orthodox in the "new world" and we are in our rightful jurisdiction. We are not in schism with the ethnic orthodox. They created the Schism against this Church in 1929.
We again wish to point out we can easily prove who we are. Just visit the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth website and do a corporate search on "The Holy Eastern Orthodox" and you will find the details on the original Church, us, our corporate officers and all related details.
Following is a list of groups, from the independent movement, 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. We also need to mention that there cannot be a canonical patriarch of the "American Orthodox Catholic Church" since in Orthodoxy the American Orthodox Catholic Church is just the short name in commomlaw of THEOCACNA. For the most part all those claiming to be the "AOCC" are actually old catholics.
To the best of our knowledge none of those listed below are directly associated with an old world or ethnic orthodox jurisdiction.
On Feb. 3, 2011 a motion was filed for a default judgment in this case since the Defendant had not filed a timely answer with the Court within the 21 days allowed by law from the day after the papers were served.
Note: It was interesting to find out that a man who claims to be a Metropolitan of an independent Orthodox church and who holds a Fla. Chiropractic Physican license claims to live in Madison and Greenville (FL) and claims to be the head of a canonically established church is not in the phone book or known to many people in that area including the local COC. Turns out he now lives in the Gainesville, FL area. Seem all his online information is outdated.
Carl
Forbes, who died Dec 2008, was never a priest of or member of The Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America. He was an Antiochian priest, left the canonical and established an independent Church that now make's a claim of this nature but we can document this to be a false claim. Forbes was consecrated by 2 independent bishops, neither being part of THEOCACNA. They also falsely claim to be in our lines. This is a false claim as in Orthodoxy a bishop leaves all sacramental authority when he leaves the church. It is an old catholic claim since the catholics view the lines as always staying with the priest or bishop. We contend this also shows these are old catholics playing at being "orthodox".
They falsely claim to be us, violate the law by using our registered copyrighted materials and our registered service mark in an attempt to support their false claims. They use our name, which is identity theft, on bogus documents and have in one instance changed the logo to show our banner with a similar name below their shield. They post false documents with our service mark (logo & name) claiming these to originally have been printed and issued. This is false. Today with computers many people can alter documents to meet their needs.
They would like to prove their bogus claims by making statements about sole corporations and separation of Church and State. Many think they can claim to be THEOCACNA based on "claims" that their lines trace to Propheta, who never was part of THEOCACNA, and Ignatius, who left all sacramental authority to act as a bishop when he walked away from the Church. He later claimed to be an archbishop of another church and laid hands on individuals with no sacramental authority according to the orthodox canons. +Ignatius Nichols was not an Archbishop in this Church as some would claim. He was an Auxilary bishop to Abp. Aftimios Ofiesh and bishop of Washington, D.C. but he had no authority to ordain and consecrate at will and without Synod approval and a Mandate which he never had in THEOCACNA. All such acts occured after he left THEOCACNA, after he claimed he was an Archbishop of the Holy Orthodox Church in America and in Orthodoxy without sacramental authority...Therefore his acts were done as an independent Episcopi Vagant without lines from THEOCACNA. All he ordained he ordained into an independent Church.
It must be noted that their claim to our lines can easily be proven false.
Ignatius left contrary to the canons and without
the required letter.
Therefore he had no power
to transmit Apostolic Succession for THEOCACNA
It has been reported he was defrocked by Bp
Sophronius but that we do not claim.
Forbes was consecrated by 2 independent bishops
with no lines from THEOCACNA
They were independent bishops under or associated
with, in some manner, Colin James Guthrie
Who had been excommunicated by his former synod.
Peter II Zhurewetsky was excommunicated by Clement Sherwoods Synod after Abp. Joseph died.
A Federal Lawsuit was filed June 28, 2010 against Carl D. Bartholomew in the US District Court, Northern District of Texas, Lubbock, TX for infringement of Archbishop Victor's Registered and Commonlaw (formerly Registered and still in use) intellectual property without license, authority or permission from Abp. Victor.
An Ammended Complaint was filed on Aug. 4, 2010 and the Judge issued an order to continue the lawsuit on Dec. 3, 2010.
The papers were served on Defendant Carl Barthlomew on Jan 12, 2011 at his Gainesville, Fl. address. He appears to have moved from Madison, FL. after the lawsuit was filed and Network Solutions closed his domains for this infringement based on Plaintiff's valid complaint.
A written (mailed and signed) complaint of Corporate Identity theft was filed with the Dallas FBI along with copies of some Exhibits filed in U.S. District Court.
The Sacred and Divine Canons (Rudder) of the Orthodox Church states "if anyone leaves his Metropolitan, or Patriarch, the holy Council has decreed that he shall be deposed from office for merely by seceding he has created a schism. (c. XIV of the 21 c.) In setting up a separate altar they have left orthodoxy since their new altar is not approved by the Patriarch or Metropolian and their actions are scismatic.
It must be noted that a Bishop gets his authority from the Church and when he leaves the Church he leaves all (sacramental) authority behind and can do nothing as a bishop. Since priests get their authority from their bishop and the bishop has no such authority they have nothing but empty words and claims.
When they continue to use the Church name or adopt one almost identical and write claims to be that Church or the continuation of that Church they steal the Churches identity. In modern times they infringe the Church by using a name or other identifing mark like (a registered service mark) a logo they continue to steal from that church and mislead the public to believe they have sacramental authrity from an Orthodox Church. Members of independent Churches generally have no (orthodox) sacramental authority!
There is, or was, a theocacna corporation in North Carolina.
We will be looking ino this and se if it exists or has been closed.
This group is not part of the Canonical Church.
Also call themself The Holy Eastern Orthodox
Christian Apostolic Church: North American Synod
T.H.E.O.C.A.C.N.A.S. or the
American Orthodox Christian Communion.
We received an E-mail from Dominic Martin May 2, 2012 stating he is not part of the independent movement but comes from a Ukrainian jurisdiction.
We still feel they are clearly an independent jurisdicion after leaving the Canonically
established Church without letters. This is an act of Schism according to the canons.
They claim to be the continuation of THEOCACNA after they claim to have "voted to remove the presiding heirarch from office".
In an email they deny they deposed him
According to documents we printed from their domain they stated they were leaving THEOCACNA then later claim they removed the Presiding Bishop and now claim to be THEOCACNA under another name. To prove they are us they even bought a couple domain names "theocacna.com and theocacna.info" which actually proves nothing but their intent to lie about who they are and to legally infringe us by identity theft, service mark infringement and copyright infringement. But it is claimed we misunderstood and they never said the removed the presiding bishop, etc.
You will find some links below in this article that show their emails that they were leaving. They failed to request the required letters and left. Later started to post their lies. You cannot be the Church jurisdicion you walked away from. When you leave you have no claim on that Church, Church name, history or property. These are the same acts that members of the independent movement attempt to make their false claims.
We believe prior to their leaving w/o the required letters (per the canons) that "suggestions made to be voted on were an attempt to take over control of this church and an attempt to oust the rightful leadership of this Church.
The Church has a corporate board of directors that is headed by the corporate President and is separate
from the Holy Synod. The Constitution directs that the Archbishop-President must Approve and Sign
all acts of the Synod. One of the suggestions was to do away with the existing Corporate board of
directors and instead elect the bishops (synod) to the board. Archbishop Victor would not agree to this
since the synod does not need to be the corporate directors. We have a good board and these is no
reason to change. It was believed they had alterior motives for suggesting this vote and shortly after
some refused to issue, request or otain a mandate for a minor ordination contrary to the local canons
of this Church.
This is not possible since this corporate church is setup to protect the Archbishop-President
of this Church under any title he uses. When it was discovered that was not going to be
possible these individuals walked away and today they
Abp.
also-
Bp. Abbot
Bp. Joseph
Bp. Augustine
Bp. Edward - advised that he was also leaving (By D.M.)
Abp.Leland - agreed with the above
This Group has claimed to be the Continuation of THEOCACNA (Inc) but they are not! We have certified copies from the MA. Sec. of the Commonwealths Officein Boston attesting that THEOCACNA continues as the 1928 corporate Church incorporated by Archbishop Aftimios Ofiesh (and others named on the corporate papers) and that Abp. Victor is the head of this Church. That in itself seems to prove the claim by so many of these groups that they are the continuation of THEOCACNA is false!
These individuals were asked to
This group has for years claimed our history and claim to have changed their name because they claim the "Corporation" was stolen but they do not in so many words say stolen from them. We understand Holdridge had been given a Delaware church corporation named "American Orthodox Church" when he serarated freom Denis Garrison. That corporation, I understand, was closed by the state for not filing the annual report and not getting a new resident agent. Claiming the corporation was stolen is simple to prove as a false claim since they were never part of THEOCACNA and they were not listed on any of THEOCACNA's corporate documents. Then he later left orthodoxy and repudiated Garrison's lines.
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"
For details and some of their web info click on
Paul Stoms who claims to be the head of the German Orthodox Church and denied ever being a member of THEOCACNA claimed to be the head of THEOCACNA, then added "United" to the name.
Paul Stoms claims he was never part of THEOCACNA, We have in the Archives a newsetter where Garrison claimed to have accepted Stoms into THEOCACNA and a copy of a Certificate of Consecration issued to Stoms by Bp Cyril with the THEOCACNA name on it. We also have letters from German authorities that state the relative he claimed in Cologne was not on their various rolls and they knew of no person by the names given, no German Orthodox Church or seminary and 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 yet no such informaton or records exist. He also excommunicated a bishop on his own from his independent chaplains group. This same man had plead guilty to selling business degrees from the trunk of his car (We have the newspaper articles on his arrest and guilty plea).
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 bogus certified mail receipt. (disproven by documents on file)
Roman Orthodox Church headed by Patrick Murray claimed to be chartered by The HOLY EASTERN ORTHODOX CATHOLIC and APOSTOLIC CHURCH IN NORTH AMERICA as the western rite of THEOCACNA. Garrison (above) stated on his website that his OCCNA actually chartered the Roman Orthodox Church.
Vladimir Wilson Sehorn who we understand started out with CACINA before being Ordained and consecrated by Denis Garrison. He incorporated his own THEOCACNA corporation. He is not associated with 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.
They had claimed to have merged or joined the Reformed Catholic Church then later parted company with them.
A few other groups also used to claim our corporate name "The Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America". Most who used to claim to be us changes their names when they were shown that our name is a Registered Service Mark and to use our name was illegal.