Regarding our lack of growth over the years. We wish to point out that we have had some growth but for a variety of reasons our clergy have left or been asked to leave and on a couple occasions the Synod had to act against some of the clergy.
One priest joined ECUSA without reordinaton.
Some have demanded their freedom to ordain anyone they wanted to contrary to orthodox canons and tradition.
Some have violated the canons by walking away without the required letters, setting up a seperate (independent) altar which violated the canons also.
There are also many independent groups whose clergy have never been associated with the original THEOCACNA but who claim to be us, use one of our names, claim our history or lines and attempt to mislead the public that they are this canonically established Church.
There are a number of groups who claim to be the American Orthodox Catholic Church. Most are just old catholics using this name, at least one group even ordains women which the canonical Orthodox do not do.
Some claim to be THEOCACNA which is criminal identity theft and service mark infringement since our name and logo are our registered service mark. One group whose presiding bishop is a former Roman Catholic priest of about 2 years before he was suspended who claims to be us based on his 2007 Fl. corporaton using our name. He and the others have never been part of this Church. They claim independent lines from 2 independent bishops while the canons require a minimum of 3 bishops to consecrate a bishop. Their former presiding bishop established their independent jurisdiction after he left the Antiochian church as a priest, not a bishop. This was the man who received consecration as an independent bishop by the 2 bishops who were also never part of this Church.
This Church does not go around laying hands on anyone so they can go off and establish an independent jurisdiction. Some claim this traces back to us via Ignatius Nichols. Nichols left this Church after less than 1 year in 1933 and in 1934 he was ordaining for the Holy Orthodox Church in America, an independent jurisdiction that was in no way associated with this canonically estabished Church.
1. Ignatius left without the required letters so could not in any way act in the name of this Church.
2. Ignatius was an Auxilary bishop.
3. The Antiochians on Orthodoxwiki state he was excommunicated by Bp. Sophronius.
4. In the Oct 1933 newspaper article about Our Synod Ignatius was not named as a member of the Synod but was mentioned in the article.
Each and every independent jurisdiction who claims to be us are liars. These so called clergy who would appear to lack any valid sacramental authority continue to claim to be us and are committing identity theft. Would you really want to be associated with such people?
Independent groups often publish their claimed lines of apostolic succession.
These groups like to claim some association with the Ecumenical Patriarch or other Patriarchs.
They claim our lines and history but if you vsit the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth website and do a corporate search on "The Holy Eastern Orthodox" our corporate record will come up. The Corporate information appears including our corporate resident agent contact information and our directors. You will note that Archbishop Victor is the corporate president.
Our Conact information is available on that webpage and on our websites like http://theocacna.org
SCOBA
We are not in communion with SCOBA since we view them as Schismatics who continue to pray with other Schismatics and who violate the canons. We filed a canonical complaint with the Ecumenical Patriarch and this complaint appears to bave been ignored.
Until they end the Schism COBA jurisdictions remain outside orthodoxy and cannot offer valid sacraments.