SS
#0
How is apostolic succession in the Orthodox Church maintained when a bishop metropolitan archbishop and especially a Patriarch is no longer Orthodox, and does not return to the Faith? Has this ever happened in the Orthodox Church, as with any Arian or Monophysite Patriarchs?
The Pope of Rome left Orthodoxy; what happens when a Patriarch of Constantinople or Constantinople falls into schism/heresy?
I guess I shouldn\'t wonder about such things; the Church as a whole is maintained in her Orthodoxy; I just wonder how Orthodox is restored to the hierarchy when one Patriarch goes into error, maybe like Moscow did under communist influence.
Is apostolic succession maintained even when a previous Patriarch-chief bishop has gone astray? Was Metaxakis (is that his name) the Patriach of Constantinople in the 1920s, etc a Mason? Didn\'t he approve the New Calendar for the Greek Orth. Church?
Scott
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Ju
#1
My understanding is that the transmission of authority is not dependent necessarily on the man in the office, but of the office itself. That is, you may get a bad apple every now and again, but the grace of the Holy Spirit keeps that apple from spoiling the whole bunch--after all, the gates of Hell cannot prevail against the Church.
This is probably a very simplistic and flawed understanding, but that is how it was explained to me by my priest when I asked this very question.
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