The Society of Clerks Secular of Saint Basil ®
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Basis for the Society and Church
Archbishop Aftimios Ofiesh of Blessed Memory, First Archbishop of this Church and founder of the Society of Clerks Secular, has been declared a Martyr by the North American Holy Synod.
North American Holy Synod
Synod President
Archbishop Victor,
Retired Fmr. Metropolitan
Bishop Joseph
Andrew, Chorepiscopus
Diocese of Michigan
[Successor of Abp. Robert Zieger]
Archbishop James
Originally established in 1931 the Society has been and remains a part of this Church today. We are under the North American Holy Synod of The Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America ®. The Society was mentioned in a 1945 Time Magazine article.
The Church was established by the North American Synod of Bishops of the Russian Church - Moscow Patriarchate on Feb. 2, 1927. Archbishop Aftimios Ofiesh was appointed first Archbishop of the Church. The Synod was established with the consecrations of Bishop Sophronius Bishara (CA) and Bishop Joseph Zuk (NJ) who with Abp. Aftimios constituted the First Canonical Synod of this Church. The Synod was pictured in a New York newspaper Oct. 1932.
See our Domains at: http://theocacna.org & www.theocacna.us
On this domain you can find most of the information
about the Church. Who we are, our history and much more.
We have a few other pages on other sites that add to the
domains information.
The Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America
American Orthodox Catholic Church
The American Orthodox PatriarchateA Canonically Established Eastern Orthodox Church
We are the original "American Orthodox Catholic Church" that was canonically established Feb. 2, 1927 and incorporated Feb. 1, 1928 by Archbishop Aftimios Ofiesh, Archbishop and corporate president.
According to the New York World newspaper, Oct. 1, 1932, regarding the Article published regarding our Holy Synod and Council of Bishops;
Under the ancient Canon Law, enacted by the Council of Calchedon in 453 A.D., this (Church) can be the only lawful Orthodox authority or jurisdiction in America.
We Rejoice in God
This Church is in need of some financial assistance in order to purchase some property for our National Cathedral and for a monastery-seminary. Anyone who may wish to help us should email us at the address on the bottom of the page or call us.
We seek qualified candidates for Deacons and Priests.
Notice: We seek your financial assisance to establish a monastic community, an orthodox cemetery and a pet cemetery. Please contact us as to where to send your tax deductable donation.
Welcome and thank you for visiting our site. You may wish to browse the other site's of The American Orthodox Patriarchate. The links are at the bottom of this page.
If you are interested in membership with a canonically established Orthodox Church you are in the right place. We were canonically established Feb. 2, 1927 by the Synod of Bishops in North America of the Russian Orthodox Church, Mosow Patriarchate.
We have a petition for a concordat of communion pending with a SCCOBA Church. We already have a letter from a Roman Catholic Diocese (see our documents page). If we receive the concordat we will be a bit more selective in accepting clergy into this Church due to our new status and the fact we have had a few problems in the past with those who joined us and later it was discovered they had lied in one way or another.
We are a traditional Orthodox Church.
A. We do not gay bash, and we do not share the altar with gay or female clergy, nor do we share the altar with non-orthodox catholic clergy. We recently received some comments about this statement. We stand by this as we believe this is supported by Holy Scripture and the Rudder. This is not gay bashing, but a theological statement as to our Churches position on this matter.
B. We do not support war and the killing of innocent americans in the name of military service for any reason and especially for the rich to get richer by increasing our cost of living such as higher gas prices due to man made oil shortages and arab price gouging.
C. We condemn the political leaders and drug companies who overcharge the US citizens for their medications while we support and finance their research and then they sell the same drugs for much lower prices outside the U.S. and we understand have their manufacturing plants offshore for the cheap labor.
The majority of the clergy and directors oppose Capital punishment.
Please do not be fooled by the claims of many in what is called the "independent movement" that they are this Church but have changed our name or that the 1927 Charter was issued to them or to everyone (or anyone). You might also note that many in the independent movement who claim to be orthodox are not. Many claim their lines come through this Church whch we deny. The corporate records in Boston clearly show that we continue as the same Church and that we have not changed our name. In fact, the (New York Church Corporation) The Orthodox Catholic Partiarchate of America (the Russian Free Church) originally headed by Abp. Joseph Klymowycz and later by Abp. Clement Sherwood has merged with us and taken our name. They were incorporated March 20, 1951. According to public information the Synod under Abp. Sherwood removed Peter II (Zhurawetzky). We are aware some claim lines from Abp. Zhurawetzky and that Church and claim to be the Synod of this Church claiming the 1951 corporate date. We have no verification these people were ever associated with the Church or Synod. We do know the claim of lines from Peter II cannot be associated with the Church since the Synod removed Peter II from the Church and its clergy.
The Society of Clerks Secular of Saint Basil ®
The Society of Clerks Secular of Saint Basil ® was established by Abp. Aftimios within the canonically established Church he headed until his repose in 1966. The Church remained under Locum Tenens until 1997 and Mariam Ofiesh sat on the Corporate Board of Trustees until 1999. She reposed in 2000. The society continues within this Church today.
We have continued to use our full legal name since the Society was esablished in 1931 and claim it as our service mark by the ® shown after the name. That is what is required by the Patent Trademark Office.
Cloths touched to the Holy Relic of St. Basil the Great are available.
We would like to note here that an order started in one Church does not in itself leave the founding Church simply because members leave and continue to use the name, documents or corporation when they go off contrary to the Canons of the Orthodox Church, the Rudder. There are others using our name but they are not associated with this Church. One group was under the leadership of a former Antiochian priest who left the canonical Church and became an independent bishop. That group later left him and continues today.
Published Articles about the Church & Society include a 1932 Article in the NY Times about the Synod and a Sept. 1945 Time magazine article about the Society.
The Time article can be found on stbasilsociety.us
The Church newspaper article about our synod can be found as a link on our amorthodoxy page on our websites.
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