The Archons' War on Orthodox Unity
The Archons are accusing Orthodox bishops and lay advocates of being “pro-Moscow” invaders. And yet it's the Archons themselves—with their "Greek papism" and "Hellenic world" ideology—that pose the greatest threat to Orthodox unity.
On March 30, members of the Order of St. Andrew—also known as the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate—received a remarkable email. It was sent from an official Archon email address, one used for internal communication. However, it was signed by just one person: John Zavitsanos, the Order’s attorney.
In it, Zavitsanos issued yet another attack upon the Society of St. John of Shanghai. It also took aim at the Orthodox bishops who attended the SSJ’s “Day of Action” in Washington, D.C., this past December. Zavitsanos refers to the organizer and attendees as “pro-Moscow.” He accuses them of assisting the Moscow Patriarchate, which is “quietly invading” the United States. He claims their activities pose an “existential threat” to the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Remarkably, Zavitsanos—and, by extension, the Archons—explicitly accuse three jurisdictions of assisting the Russian invasion: the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Church in America, and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Why? Because bishops and other representatives of these jurisdictions participated in the SSJ’s Day of Action.
In Defense of Canonical Orthodoxy
It’s shocking stuff. And yet, sadly, this is nothing new. Since December, representatives of the EP have repeatedly accused the OCA, ROCOR, and the Serbian Patriarchate of being subservient to the MP.
(As an aside: an Antiochian bishop, John of Worcester, was also deeply involved in the Day of Action. So, why doesn’t Zavitsanos mention the Antiochian Archdiocese? Two possibilities come to mind. First, it’s harder to tar the SSJ’s allies as rabid Russophiles when you notice the inclusion of Greek Orthodox Arabs. Secondly, Metr. Saba of New York was quite unhappy and wrote to Abp. Elpidophoros following the November fiasco.)
These are flimsy accusations. We would go so far as to call them slanderous. As the SSJ and its allies have repeatedly pointed out, the Day of Action had nothing to do with the Moscow Patriarchate. Its goals were simple: encourage U.S. lawmakers to urge the Ukrainian government to respect the religious freedom of all Ukrainians, particularly members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
As most readers know, the UOC has faced persecution by the Ukrainian government since 2014—long before Russia invaded. Its critics claim that the UOC is aiding the Russian government; however, this too is slanderous nonsense.
The UOC’s bishops immediately condemned Russia’s “special military operation” and urged its faithful to take up arms in defense of their homeland. They have also raised millions in direct aid to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. When Patr. Kirill of Moscow defended Russia’s invasion, the UOC ceased to commemorate him and declared their total independence from the MP.
Meanwhile, Russia has destroyed hundreds of UOC temples. In fact, the Russians have destroyed more UOC temples than all other houses of worship belonging to all other denominations and religions combined. Several UOC priests in occupied Eastern Ukraine have been accused of spying for Kyiv and arrested. Dozens if not hundreds of UOC parishes have been seized by the Russian army and “transferred” to the MP.
In other words, groups like the SSJ are working against both the Russian government and the Moscow Patriarchate’s agenda(s) in Ukraine. The SSJ and its episcopal allies made this abundantly clear to U.S. lawmakers during their meetings with U.S. lawmakers in December 2025.
The SSJ has made this point over and over again. So have we at the Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ). We have repeatedly condemned Russia’s invasion and reported extensively on Russia’s crimes against the UOC and other religious groups.
Why, then, do the Archons push these lies? It has to do with their core ideology, which can be summed up in two pillars: Greek papism and “Hellenic World” ideology. They can be summed up in a single word: tribalism.
‘Greek Papism’ and the ‘Hellenic World’
For many in the Greek Archdiocese, Orthodoxy and Hellenism are inseparable. And, more and more, this “Hellenized Orthodoxy” is embodied in the person of the Ecumenical Patriarch.
If you ever hear someone use the phrase Greek papism, that’s what they’re talking about. Greek papism doesn’t just mean the EP has too much power (though that’s certainly part of it). It also means that the person of the EP is becoming, for many Greek Americans, the center of public and private life in the Orthodox Church.
So, the EP’s defenders are quick to invoke a certain (novel, flimsy) interpretation of Canon 28 of Chalcedon to say that Constantinople has immediate jurisdiction over Ukraine and the United States—in fact, the whole of the Americas and Oceania, as well as most of Asia and Europe. They insist this canon is absolutely inviolable and sacrosanct, even though their interpretation of Chalcedon 28 didn’t exist until the 20th century.
At the same time, the EP’s supporters will think nothing of Bartholomew breaking the canons that forbid prayer with heretics. They’re glad to see him hold a joint service in his own cathedral with the schismatic Pope of Rome. Likewise, they don’t mind if the EP’s exarch prays with a lesbian “bishop” at his cathedral.
Why? Because, at some point, it has nothing to do with what the Council of Chalcedon meant when they wrote Canon 28, or how the Fathers interpreted that canon (hint: not the way Bartholomew does). No: it has to do with the EP’s cult of personality. Any criticism of the “First Throne” is viewed as an attack on the Orthodox Church itself; likewise, anything that increases the EP’s power and prestige is assumed to be a Good Thing for all Orthodox Christians everywhere.
Take another example. Fr. Alexander Karloutsos, the Archons’ “spiritual advisor,” has openly declared his support for the Megali Idea: the Hellenic equivalent of Russkiy Mir. In the same breath, he urged GOARCH to join the wider Greek-American community in lobbying for Greek national interests. (Remember, too, how Abp. Elpidophoros once declared: “This is my institutional role, to serve Greece and our national interests.”)
As we said, the preservation of the Orthodox Faith does not seem to be of paramount importance.
Beyond Church and State
The Archons advance their tribalist agenda by deploying their considerable wealth and political influence.
Take, for example, our own John Zavitsanos. A quick Google search reveals that he’s a generous donor to Democratic campaigns and liberal causes. In February 2018, he gave $10,000 to a group called Women Vote!, which helps elect pro-choice women to public office. Of course, abortion is considered gravely sinful in the Orthodox Church.
Likewise, in November 2024, he published an article at Public Orthodoxy called “A Vote for Trump is a Vote against the Ecumenical Patriarchate”. In it, Zavitsanos claimed that Vladimir Putin is trying to “convince his friend Donald Trump to speak glowingly of the Russian Orthodox Church (and perhaps even ask Trump to suggest that the Ecumenical throne should be in Moscow).” And why would Trump go along with Putin’s agenda? Well, according to Zavitsanos, he may owe some Russian oligarchs a favor after they bought up some of his casinos in the 1990s.
Here we have yet another ludicrous claim that was debunked long, long ago. It’s not a serious political argument, but a tiresome partisan talking-point. And his donation to a pro-choice group suggests that he’s more interested in worldly ideologies than upholding Orthodox teaching.
Or take Fr. Alex Karloutsos. Since the 1980s, he has long been the EP’s point-man in dealing with the U.S. government. He played a key behind-the-scenes role in organizing the 2018 “unification council” in Kyiv. (Mike Pompeo—the former U.S. secretary of state and an architect of the Ukraine schism—shared a stage with Karloutsos at the Archons’ “International Conference on Religious Freedom” in 2024.)
Of course, Karloutsos is an old friend and confidante of the Biden family. In fact, Biden awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022! He was present at the infamous 2015 dinner when Joe and Hunter met with officials from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
It’s worth noting that Karloutsos’s connections to Ukrainian elites predates the “unification council” by at least three years. Incidentally, 2015 was the year John McCain received an award from the arch-schismatic Filaret Denysenko. The U.S. government’s desire to create a new, “independent” Ukrainian church was fomenting even then. But I digress.
Karloutsos has also been credibly accused of serving as an intermediary between the Biden campaign and John Poulos, founder of Dominion Voting Systems, during the 2020 election scandal. And here’s the thing: while all parties admit that “Fr. Alex” was in frequent communication with both parties during that time, they also insist that he was simply offering them spiritual counsel. Therefore, Karloutsos could not be subpoenaed due to New York’s clergy privilege laws. How convenient!
The Archons Poke the Bear
Now, let's be clear about one thing. It's true that Zavitsanos and Karloutsos appear to favor Democratic politicans and Democratic causes. It's also true that ecumenism like that of Bartholomew and Elpidophoros is generally identified with a progressive worldview. However, it would be wrong to reduce their worldview to a kind of Leftism in ecclesial garb.
After all, we've seen how glad the Archons are to work with Republicans like Mike Pompeo. Also, the wealthiest and most influential Archon is John Catsimatidis, a perennial Republican candidate for mayor of New York City and longtime Trump ally.
The Archons will do whatever they can to ingratiate themselves to the ruling party. They'll slander Trump if it helps them with Biden; then, when Biden loses, they'll compare Trump to St. Constantine the Great.
There is, however, one consistent theme—one constant in their ideology and activism: their Russophobia.
Remember that the State Department sees the MP as an extension of the Russian state; it also sees the EP as the MP’s chief rival. So, in Washington’s view, anything that helps the EP will hurt the MP, and vice-versa. This means that whenever the U.S. foreign-policy establishment is anxious about the Kremlin and/or the Moscow Patriarchate, they’re apt to lavish favor upon Constantinople.
This means that—in a very real way—the EP and its supporters have an incentive to whip up fear about the Russian government and the Russian Church. For instance, the EP-aligned Orthodox Times received a $100,000 grant from the State Department in 2019, with this stated purpose: “To counter entities spreading fake news and misguiding believers in Orthodox communities.” (Can you guess who was supposed to be spreading “fake news” to our “Orthodox communities”?)
This is a relatively small example. Yet it shows that the U.S. intelligence is openly paying EP-aligned media to feed a certain narrative to Orthodox Christians. It's a symbiotic relationship. On the one hand, these Greek Orthodox journalists promote Washington's interventionist agenda while working to secure more power for the Phanar.
Those Dying Generations
What's ironic is that old-world Greeks (including Cypriots, etc.) are deeply suspicious of the influence these rich Americans exert over Constantinople.
And as the EP’s power seems to grow in certain parts of the world, its global authority wanes. Of the fourteen universally-recognized local churches, only two others support its policy in Ukraine: the Patriarchate of Alexandria and the Church of Greece. Even then, many Greek bishops have spoken out in defense of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Even in the United States, the next generation of Greek Orthodox Christians has little interest in pursuing these policies.
They don’t share their heirarchs' hyper-ecumenist views. They’re wary of all the politicking, the fundraising, the endless intrigue. They’re not especially committed to any maximalist vision of Canon 28 of Chalcedon. And they’re not interested in using their Church as a front to lobby for the interests of a foreign country—no matter how much they may love the Hellenic Republic.
This will do much to heal the divisions that now mar the Orthodox Church. The only question is how much more harm the Archons will do before their kind disappears. Considering how much damage they’ve helped to cause already, the worst may be yet to come.
