Truth.Seeker
posted on Mar 06, 2008 - 04:44 PM
Technically, a bishop does not need to be ordained by the Pope (although now, the Pope's always involved to my knowledge). It just takes three bishops to ordain a bishop. This was passed at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD (Canon 4).
I'm going to write the join statement between the Coptic Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Churches of Alexandria:
"This person, who was a 'reader,' left the Coptic Orthodox Church in 1976 and started his schismatic activities outside the Church. He got married and has two children. Later, in 2005, he claimed he was ordained by the name Maximos in Nebraska, USA, as bishop of Egypt and Middle East, calling his church St. Athanasius Church. In 2006 he declared himself archbishop of Egypt and the Middle East taking the name Maximos I.
We reject the false ordination of this person, because he was ordained by bishops who are not recognized by any Orthodox Church. According the the canon of Orthodox Church, the patriarch, the archbishop or the bishop of an Orthodox Church should not be married, but be celibate."
http://www.copticpope.org/downloads/com ... 006eng.pdf
He's not in the Coptic Synod (the pictures of the Bishops in the Synod are what's on the St. Takla site). He's a heretic as far as we're concerned. He wasn't ordained in the Coptic Church. This is like you, me, and someone else decide we're bishops then ordain another person archbishop of Egypt.
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A. S.
Joined: Feb 25, 2008 | Posts: 407