Man and Church
‘We’re Not Going Under the Greek Thumb’: An Interview with Bp. Brett Travis of the AOCC
Travis denied the claim by GOARCH priest Samuel Davis that AOCC members would be received into the Orthodox Church by chrismation. He said they agreed to participate in the prayer service only if the AOCC bishop was “looked on as an equal, not an apprentice.”
On June 19, Fr. Samuel Davis of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America hosted an ecumenical prayer service at the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine in New York City. Among the participants were two clergy of the so-called American Orthodox Catholic Church (AOCC): "Archbishop" Wayne Daniels and "priest" Don Purdum.
The AOCC was founded as part of the Russian Metropolia in 1927 but split with the Orthodox Church in 1933 when its founder, Bp. Aftimios of Brooklyn, married a young Syrian woman. The AOCC went defunct in 1934. Several organizations now claim to be successors of the original AOCC. The largest is the group to which Daniels and Purdum belong; it was legally incorporated by its current "patriarch," Roger Paul Willingham, in 2006.
The presence of AOCC clergy at a prayer service hosted by the Greek Archdiocese caused much consternation among the Orthodox faithful. It was also controversial in some parts of the AOCC. Fr. Samuel Davis posted on Facebook that the service was part of an ongoing dialogue between GOARCH and the AOCC. He also said that the AOCC were preparing to be received into the Ecumenical Patriarchate by chrismation “in time.”
The Union of Orthodox Journalists reached out to Fr. Samuel Davis, Wayne Daniels, and Don Purdum asking for clarification. Davis declined to comment; Daniels and Purdum have not responded as of publication.
On June 25, the Rev. Dr. Brett Travis, the AOCC’s Bishop of Knoxville and Province of Southern Appalachia granted an interview to the UOJ.
Travis had this to say about the Juneteenth prayer service: “I like Bp. Wayne, but they [i.e., GOARCH] have been courting him for five years.” He said that Daniels agreed to attend the service only if he was “looked on as an equal, not an apprentice.”
