Brooklyn, April 11, 2023
Photo: slavonic.org
Late last month and earlier this month, a hierarch of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia visited and concelebrated with the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s Slavic Vicariate in America, which is headed and served by a number of defrocked clergy.
The same hierarch earlier concelebrated with Ukrainian schismatics, despite the stance of the Czech-Slovak Holy Synod.
The Vicariate was created under auspices of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America in 2020 as a haven for Alexander Belya, a former archimandrite who was defrocked by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia after he abandoned the jurisdiction without a canonical release in protest over not being chosen for the episcopacy. GOARCH has tried to make Belya a bishop, but the hierarchs of other jurisdictions loudly protested.
His father, former Archpriest Alexander Belya, also left ROCOR and was later defrocked together with his several clerics who followed him: Priest Vasyl Deiak, Protodeacon Rostislav Zadorozhny, and Deacon George Hero.
Another founding Vicariate member is Ioann Spasyuk, who was defrocked by the Belarusian Orthodox Church in the 1990s and spent nearly 30 years in a number of schismatic groups.
And on March 26, on the Sunday of St. John Climacus, Bishop Isaiah Šumperk of the Czech-Slovak Church visited the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Brooklyn, where he concelebrated with Archbishop Elpidophoros of GOARCH, Bishop Athenagoras of Nazianzus, former Archimandrite Alexander Belya, former Archpriest Alexander Belya, the defrocked Zadorozhny and Hero, and others, the Vicariate reports.
Following the service, Abp. Elpidophoros awarded Bp. Isaiah for his efforts in developing inter-Church relations.
On March 30, Bp. Isaiah visited the Vicariate’s St. Nicholas Monastery in Fort Myers, Florida, and gifted Belya, considered its abbot, parts of the relics of Sts. Wenceslaus and Ludmila, the two most beloved Czech saints.
On April 2, on the Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt, Bp. Isaiah again concelebrated with former Archimandrite Alexander at the Cathedral of St. Matrona in Miami. He also donated relics of the great Czech saints to the cathedral. During his time in America, Bp. Isaiah presented both Belyas with medals from the Czech-Slovak Church.
Unfortunately, Bp. Isaiah is no stranger to scandal. In November 2019, he defied his own Holy Synod and primate, His Beatitude Metropolitan Rastislav of Prešov, and concelebrated with “Metropolitan” Epiphany Dumenko and other unordained hierarchs of Constantinople’s schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” whom he also gifted relics of St. Wenceslaus.
It was no surprise that Bp. Isaiah chose to concelebrate with the schismatics, as he was, in fact, consecrated in 2015 by decision of Constantinople hierarchs Emmanuel of Gaul and Arsenios of Austria without the blessing or recognition of Met. Rastislav or the Czech-Slovak Holy Synod, in order to create an “alternative Synod” in the Church.
The Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia was granted full and total autocephaly by its Mother Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, in the 1950s, but the tomos of autocephaly forced upon it by Constantinople in 1998 allows for such interference from Constantinople hierarchs.
Bp. Isaiah is also the Deputy Chairman of the monastery/”Association” that the Patriarchate of Constantinople registered in Vilemov, Czech Republic in October 2019 without the blessing of the primate or Synod. The Chairman is the same Metropolitan Arsenios of Austria who was responsible for having Bp. Isaiah consecrated as a hierarch.
The Czech hierarch created another, Churchwide and even inter-Church scandal in 2021 when he suddenly removed the beloved Archpriest Jozef Fejsak from his position as rector and parish administrator of the Church of St. Wenceslaus in Brno.
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