Greekorthodoxcommunityleeds Reviews 

The Greek Orthodox Community of Leeds (GOCL) claims to be Orthodox but, as far as I can tell, it may have (subtly?) fallen into apostasy.

Many people, including the priest, seem to be very afraid / hesitant to talk clearly against the pan-heresy of ecumenism. Or, if they do talk, they talk very feebly, or incompletely, without naming the perpetrators (often hierarchs) so that Orthodox faithful could avoid them, or only in private discussions. And they don't *do* anything against it.

Also, the behaviour of some people is, in my view, seriously substandard.

I have been in GOCL for over three years. After I told the priest and other people (with evidence) that their Archbishop has attended the false "liturgy" of heretics, and that he had said things that amounted to heresy, they banned me from the church hall for "behaviour problems". When I asked them what the behaviour problems were, they said they didn't have to tell me. (I think this was a way to "punish" me for speaking against heresy.) Later on, I realised that the priest knew about the ban.
This ban happened just about 12 days after the priest was asking me by text to pray for him - imagine that!

(Just today, the taxi driver told me on his own that I am so nicely behaved. I really think, without any pride, that I could easily give lessons of behaviour to quite a few people at the GOCL.)

Among others, I asked the priest if he supported certain statements (that amounted to heresy) made by his Archbishop. He didn't answer anything. I think an Orthodox priest who refuses to answer questions about his Faith should not be a priest.

Perhaps ironically, Saint Gregory the Theologian, who is one of the patron saints of the Greek Orthodox Church in Leeds, says that it is through silence that we betray God.

Behaviour: at this church you would regularly see people who talk during the Divine Liturgy.
(Saint John Chrysostom says that, if you talk during the Divine Liturgy, you will lose your salvation.) Many talk even during the holiest moment, i.e., when they queue up for the Holy Communion, when the Lord is at the table. If they talked half as much (and not during services) against the pan-heresy of ecumenism, it would be something.

There are other examples of bad behaviour. E.g., children and teenagers playing the ball indoors, or children running around during the Divine Liturgy. (When I was a child, I was taken to church by my great-grandmother, who was 75 years older than I was. When I was 5, she was 80. She couldn't have run after me to keep me from misbehaving if I had run around like some children at the GOCL.)

I also really think that many newly-baptised people have received from the current priest a deformed, truncated catechesis - a catechesis that leaves out very important aspects, especially about the situation in the Orthodox Church in our modern times.

Another aspect that was probably left out is what an Orthodox Christian can do in various situations. E.g., if their hierarch falls into heresy, they can break communion with that hierarch. Another deformed (wrong) view that newly baptised people seem to have is that in the Orthodox Church it is the priest (or the bishop etc) who is the "keeper of the truth". For the record, the Orthodox Church is not papist ("Catholic"). In the Orthodox Church, a priest or a hierarch is not "infallible"; sometimes a lay man can be right and the entire rest of the church (including all clergy) can be wrong.

Because of this ban to be in the church hall, I am now cut off from the people with whom I have been together for over three years. And all this because (as far as I can tell) I "dared" speak against heresy.

Extremely few people in the GOCL are truly interested in the Orthodox Faith, I think. If they were, they would fear God more than they fear hierarchs. Many of them seem to think the church is more like a social club. They refuse to stand up for the truth but love compromises and "in-between" "solutions". What's the point in training a soldier if the soldier refuses to fight precisely when the enemy is at the gates?

The priest (during sermons) seems to shy away from "hitting the nail on the head" by giving specific examples. For example, he would talk against heresy, but without saying which hierarch did it, what he did or in what situation.

If you are truly interested in the Orthodox Faith, at first you may like it at GOCL, but then you'll probably feel disoriented. And even very disappointed.

Saint Maximus the Confessor teaches that the Orthodox Church is where there is true confession of the Faith, where there is a priest who keeps the right faith and confesses the truth.

I can't recommend GOCL as long as people and clergy behave like this, as long as they make false accusations and, especially, as long as they don't want to stand up for the Orthodox Faith.