Reaffirmation of the defrocked status of the former clergmen in Colchester, England.

9 JANUARY 2025: As the small group of defrocked former clergymen in Colchester England continues to perpetuate the falsehood that they remain Orthodox clergymen and that the building on Military Road in Colchester remains an Orthodox Church, it is hereby reiterated that these individuals were defrocked from the ranks of the clergy by the Holy Synod of Bishops in February 2022, having been suspended during the year previous; and that neither they, nor any of the ‘sacraments’ that they purport to celebrate, are canonically Orthodox. Such false sacraments do not bear the grace of the Church; any faithful who, being misled, have had their children or themselves baptised in this context should swiftly find an actual Orthodox parish where a true baptism can be performed by an actual priest.

The group persists in its claims that the clergy and parish were received into the Romanian Orthodox Church. These claims are false, since the group was never released to the Romanian Church — as was confirmed in writing to the Primate by the local Bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Church, and no subsequent claims, alterations of opinion or other actions change this simple fact. Claims that they had previously been canonically released by the Paris Archdiocese are also false: the machinations involved in the attempt at the same, which never had canonical status, were in due course formally and publicly rescinded by that Archdiocese, to whom these clerics never canonically belonged. Claims that the Paris Archdiocese had authority to release them to anyone else are similarly false, since these men were never in the canonical jurisdiction of that Archdiocese.

Orthodox ecclesiology has functioned since the earliest days of the Ecumenical Councils on a simple premise, that a clergyman may only be received into another Diocese or jurisdiction one he has been granted canonical release by his current Bishop. The group in Colchester was never released, and therefore no claims of reception by another — whatever documents or arguments may be put forward — carry any canonical weight whatever. If by deception or other means members of this group convince other Church entities that they have some canonical status (and we have seen photographs of at least one of these non-priests receiving communion in a different jurisdiction, as if he were a priest), then the sin is upon both them and any who intercommune with defrocked clerics; but this does not change their defrocked status — it only adds to the sin of the sorrowful matter.

Finally, in confirmation of the Gospel premise that a tree is known by its fruits, it has recently once again been observed that members of this group, intent on schismatic self-legitimisation, are engaged in scandalous, defamatory and libellous attacks on various members of the hierarchy and clergy, especially via social media. This excessive vitriol is a sure sign of the non-Church nature of the group and their activities, who choose to spread obvious lies and otherwise denigrate those who will not substantiate their false claims, rather than seek repentance.

We call upon the former clergymen in question to at long last cease with their falsehoods and self-willed, anti-church actions, and find repentance and peace; and for all pious Orthodox Christians to avoid the scandalous circumstances of that former Orthodox parish with diligence.

Those who wish additional information may review various announcements previously made on this matter on this site: