WELCOME ON OFFICIAL PAGES
OF ORTHODOX - OLD CATHOLIC GENERAL VICARIATE OF ST. METHODIUS!



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"There is no more: Jew - Greek!
No more: slave - freeman!...
You are all one in Christ Jesus."
(To Galatians 3,28)

In other words: There is NO MORE ORTHODOX - CATHOLIC! All of us are one in Christ.

The accent in operation of Orthodox - Old Catholic General vicariate is unity of christian world and all that connects it, not the things that detach it.


Orthodox - Old Catholic General vicariate of St. Methodius is a constitutional part of the Church of Christ, which is evangelical in zeal to Holy Scripture, Holy Sacraments and tradition. Universality, which means catholicity of this Vicariate cames from "the faith once given to the saints", and orthodoxy from doctrine and moral. Vicariate stands in unchanged orthodox - catholic tradition and apostolic mission.
We wish to bring a Word of God closer to people, laics and clerics, to children and youth, so that they could accept it and become revealers of Christ and His Church in this gloomy world.

"WIthout faith in its personal immortality, human life
would be without meaning, unnatural and unbarable."

F. M. Dostojevski

"Let the mildness overcomes anger: let the good overcomes evil.
Let the truht overcomes the liar, let the gifts overcome greedy man.
O, let the hatred, by love, comes to an end. "
eastern Asian saying

Unquestionable nature od Church is to be open and to constantly get closer to other Churches having the same doctrine and moral. Hence, we remain open for sacramental intercommunions, only which can authentically show the visible unity of christian world and a Church itself, having the Jesus Christ as its Head, as we read in the Scripture.

ikona

"A book of Life is the ultimate book: there is no place in it
that could be read twice, but the leaf of faith turns itself.
Man wants to stop on the page where is love,
but the page on which he dies is under his fingers."


Orthodox - Old Catholic General vicariate is open towards all Churches that stands in catholicity "which is believed everywhere, always and by everyone" (Saint Vincent of Lering), so that everyone could, by the Liturgy of Word and Sacraments, become capable for being alive Christ witness.

General vicariate, along with other Old Catholic Churches of St. Christophor Union and Scranton Union, remains faithful to The Scripture and tradition (=doctrine and moral of old Church), so it doesn't accept liberal new things that entered in the practice of Old Catholic Churches of Utrecht Union (blessings of same-sex couples and their church marriages, and ordination of women in holy orders.)

Old Catholic Churches of St. Christophor Union, in the sense of Sacraments, confesses the teaching that Orthodox Churches use: there are seven Secrets, and they are:
baptism, penance, communion, extreme unction, confirmation, marriage and holy orders.

Also, the Creed of old catholics and orthodox is the same:

I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages;
Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not created, of one essence with the Father through Whom all things were made.
Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man.
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried;
And He rose on the third day, according to the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father;
And He will come again with glory to judge the living and dead. His kingdom shall have no end.
And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Creator of life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke through the prophets.
In one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.
I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come.
Amen.


The Creed as we today know, originates from the first and the second Ecumenical Councils (in Nicea and Constantinople).
As modern history showed, because of unpossibility of there present bishops to comply with their attitudes, on the insisting of emperor Constantine (on whose request those councils were held), there was adopted Creed that we know today.

Just because of that, Union of national Old Catholic Churches don't forbid using Creed with filioque, depending on someone's life practice in services, prayers etc.
Old motto says: "In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas."


As an illustrating fact about closeness of teachings of Orthodox churches and Union of national Old Catholic Churches, we bring some historical data about Old Catholic Faculty in Bern (Switzerland):

"The first Serb that came to Faculty was Radoslav Radić (1857-1907). Between 1903. and 1942. one great number of students and doctorants of Serbian Orthodox Church came to study at Old Catholic Faculty in Bern. Most of them later became professors of theological seminaries or bishops in Serbian Orthodox Church, like Svetozar Radovanović (1906-1907), Holy Nikolaj Velimirović (1906-1908), Vladimir Margan and Milan Popović, Radivoj Josić, Jordan A. Ilić, Čedomir Teodorović, Dimitrije Dimitrijević, Tripko Dukanović, Savo Dukanović, Matija Antunović, Rade Kuzmanić or Mihaile Lompar."

taken from the site of S.O.C. - eparchy of Austria-Switzerland http://www.crkva.at/parohije/svajcarska/bern/

Nowadays, out of known bishops and profesors that finished Old Catholic Faculty in Bern, we mention some of them:

metropolitan Amfilohije Radović, PhD;
bishop of Šumadija, Sava, PhD;
prof. of Orthodox theological Faculty in Belgrade, Pribislav Simić, PhD.





                                                                        Ecce Agnus Dei, Ecce Qui tollit peccatum mundi. Beati, qui ad cenatum Agni vocati sunt. (Ioh. I,29)



MAIN DISTINCTIONS OF UNION OF NATIONAL OLD CATHOLIC CHURCHES AND OLD CATHOLIC CHURCHES IN UNION OF UTRECHT

Orthodox Old Catholic Churches (General vicariate):

- conditionaly accept dogma of papal primate - Pater Aeternus (for the Pope, as a western Patriarch which is "first among equal", we regularly pray in the canon of Mass)
- priests can be married
- women can not be ordained in holy orders
- church marriage cannot be concluded for the second time, but the first one cancels (if it proves, on the Church court, that marriage was made without deeper prior knowledge or with the bad intention)
- same-sex couples are also children of God, but their blessing and church marriages are forbidden
- penance is prescribed
- abortion is condemned and forbidden, except mother's life is really threatened: at least one life should be saved
- direct euthanasion is condemned and forbidden, but medications for pain relieving are allowed
- church funeral can be held for suicides, assuming that that sin, which is one of the heaviests sins, they had done in incompetent state
- fasts are prescribed
- excommunication exists.

Old Catholic Churches of Utrecht Union (which member is NOT this Vicariate):

- don'taccept dogma of papal primate - Pater Aeternus
- priests can be married
- women can be ordained in holy orders
- church marriage can be concluded for the second time
- same-sex marriages are allowed
- penance is not obligatiory
- abortion is condemned and forbidden, except mother's life is really threatened
- direct euthanasion is condemned and forbidden
- church funeral can be held for suicides
- fasts are not prescribed
- there is no excommunication.

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For the sake of more complete view on Old Catholic Church origins, expecially Union of national Catholic Churches, you can download the next document, which contains basic dogmas and Church teaching, origins, ways of directioning and other required by the Serbian Law on churches and religious communities (in serbian language) --> text <--

-- DOCUMENTATION NEEDED FOR ACCEPTANCE OF THE FAITHFUL TO VICARIATE --

1st case: IF A PERSON WAS PREVIOUSLY BAPTIZED

For initiating a process of canonical acceptance of the faithful to church community of this Vicariate (under Vicariate´s canonical jurisdiction), it is necessary to enclose filled and signed Request for admisison to Register or the faithful (in serbian language, you can download it here), with which it is needed to enclose these additional documents:
- original or copy of baptism´s certificate;
- signed copy of Nicea-Constantinople´s Creed of Faith (without filioque);
- certifications of Holy Communion and Holy Confirmation (orthodox christians don´t enclose them).


If needed, for the purpose of determining additional facts, Vicariate can request filing statements or other averments of applicant.

After the reception of fully agreeable request, authorized person of Vicariate will decide wether to accept or to decline that request, in the period of three days. A complaint to that decision can be filed to Archishop - Ordinary, in 8 days counted from the day of first-instance decision receptance.
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2nd case: IF A PERSON HAS NOT BEEN BAPTIZED

In this case, a Holy Sacrament of baptism shall be conducted, along with the Holy Sacrament of confirmation (in most cases immediatellz after the baptism). Baptism is a first and primary Holy Sacramet, by which a person gains full membership to Church of Christ. Because of that, baptism can not be avoided.

Once after the baptism is completed, and that fact is written in the Book of baptized, there os only one step left - to fill and sign the Request for admisison to Register or the faithful (in serbian language, you can download it here), and hand it over to Vicariate. With that Request, a signed copy of Nicea-Constantinople´s Creed of Faith (without filioque) shall be enclosed. After the formal approvement of that Request, a complete procedure is then finished.

    


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