Beloved Fathers in Christ, together with all the faithful with you:

Christ Is Risen!

It is with great joy that we received a copy of your profession of faith addressed to the Catholicate of Georgia. It is a courageous and true document of confession of the Orthodox Faith in these grievous days of apostasy and confusion. It is written with a clear, patristic heart and mind, a document worthy of the ancient statements articulated under similar circumstances. It could not have been better expressed. When it was read, all of us, with one accord, agreed with it and praised it.

Our Church in North America has on many occasions issued encyclicals against this contemporary pan-heresy. Indeed, our monastic establishments, parishes, parish clergy, and their families have all endured many personal sacrifices in order to remain faithful to the one, true, Apostolic Faith, without any compromises and accomodations with those who have espoused this heresy. A number of our clergy and their families forsook large and wealthy parishes in the jurisdictions of "World Orthodoxy," and like Moses, "chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God" and "esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt" (Heb. 11:25-6).

In that our monastic brotherhood here in America had its beginnings on the Holy Mountain, Athos, it followed the example of the Athonite fathers and ceased the commemoration of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1965 when that Church openly espoused the heresy of Ecumenism and broke the holy Canons by lifting the anathemas against the Roman Church. At that time, all the monasteries of the Holy Mountain stopped the commemoration. With time, allbut three -- through intimidation and fear --again resumed the commemoration. The three abbots who refused to resume the commemoration were Archimandrite Athanasius of Esphigmenou, who was a man filled with gifts of the Holy Spirit and respected by all on Athos; the second was Archimandrite Andrew of the Monastery of Saint Paul, and the third was Archimandrite Evdokimos of Xenophontos Monastery. In the instance of Archimandrite Athanasius, the whole monastery, to the last man, stood behind him, and thus the enemies of the Faith were not able to remove him. To this day, the Monastery has not resumed the commemoration of the Ecumenical Patriarch, since, if anything,the espousal of the heresy of Ecumenism has progressively become much worse in that formerly glorious Church, which produced so many confessing and holy saints. In the case of Archimandrites Andrew and Evdokimos, both were deposed and forcibly exiled from their monasteries.

All three holy confessors have since reposed, never having renounced their confession.

As a metochion of the Holy Mountain, our monastery here in the United States ceased commemorating the Ecumenical Patriarch and followed the example ofthe three above-mentioned abbots and the zealots of the Holy Mountain, andit remains stead fast till this day. In addition, the monastery translated and published in English the life of Saint Maximus, the great confessor, who according to a local tradition reposed in exile in your ancient and glorious land of Georgia.

To all those that enjoin us to commemorate the Patriarch of Constantinople again, we respond with the voice of Saint Maximus, who said:

"Let these offenses, introduced into the Church by Sergius, Pyrrhus and Paul, be removed; let those who have introduced them be deposed; and then the path to salvation will be cleared of all barriers, and you will walk on the smooth path of the Gospel, cleansed of all heresy! When I see the Churchof Constantinople as she was formerly, then I will enter into communion with her without any exhortation on the part of men. But while there are heretical temptations in her, and while heretics are her bishops, no word or deed will convince me ever to enter into communion with her. "

We are encouraged by many examples of the steadfastness of the sons of Iberia in Holy Orthodoxy recorded in Church History. In the life of Saint John, Bishop of the Goths (celebrated on June 26th), a confessor in the eighth century, when Iconoclasm p revailed in the "official church" of the Byzantine Empire, we learn that this holy hierarch travelled to Georgia tobe ordained by Orthodox bishops. Saint George the Iberian of Mount Athos refers to this in the record of a conversation he had with the Patriarch of Antioch in 1055, where he recalls that, "there was a time when in all Greece no Orthodox Faith was to be found, and John, Bishop of the Goths, was consecrated Bishop in Mtskheta, as it is written in the Great Synaxarion."Also, on May 13, we bring to mind and celebrate the heroic witness of the Holy Fathers of Iveron on Mount Athos who withstood the false union with the papacy in the thirteenth century, even unto blood and grievous exile.

Beloved Fathers and Faithful, you cannot imagine the joy that you have givenus and our faithful here in this hemisphere, seeing how the monastic brotherhoods, parish clergy, and faithful of a local Church have caused -- or perhaps, forced -- their hierarchy to leave the World Council of Churches. We had grown weary with the thought that there would not be others that would join in the confession of the holy Faith, that we were just "a voice crying in the wilderness."

While we were about to write this letter to congratulate you and encourage you to remain steadfast in your beautiful confession, we received a fax that there was an emergency meeting of the Patriarchate of Georgia on Tuesday,May 7/20, stating that the Patriarchate decided to leave the World Council of Churches and the European Council of Churches, and that Ecumenism is contrary to Orthodox doctrine.

But there is one thing that puzzles us. Whereas the Synod of the Patriarchate of Georgia recognizes that their membership in these two Ecumenistic bodies is wrong and they promise that they will terminate their membership, yet they punish those who diagnosed the illness and prescribed the remedy! Something is wrong. Rationally speaking, this is a contradiction. If membership in these two Ecumenistic bodies is wrong and the Patriarchate acknowledges the error and corrects that which is a miss, they should thank you for bringing this to their attention, and deem you worthy of honor instead of censure. You have nothing to be ashamed of, but rather you should glory in your confession and never apologize for it.

We pray to God that faithful will be found in other local Orthodox Churches to follow your example, to protest, and to turn the tide of this great apostasy and heresy, and we pray that you will ever be wakeful and vigilantin piety, and that our Saviour, the Chief High Priest, will ever bless youand strengthen you in confessing our Holy Orthodox Faith in the land of Georgia.

Truly, holy Fathers and Faithful of Georgia, you have shown yourselves to be worthy sons and daughters of the holy confessing Queen Sushanik, the great Sovereign Tamara, Saint David the Great King of Georgia, and the great martyr, Queen Ketevan.

Again, we greet you with brotherly love. May God strengthen you to continue this good struggle. Amen.

 With frat ernal love in Christ,

 + Ephraim, Metropolitan of Boston

 + Makarios, Bishop of Toronto

 + Moses, Bishop of Roslindale