Our first discussion is about one Dennis Garrison et al since numerous lies trace back to him. He established numerous church corporations using many different names.

Garrison incorporated under our name (The Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America) in Delaware and Maryland. Those corporations were not associated with this Church. Neither corporation was Chartered by the original corporate Church.

The Delaware corporation was given to Seraphim Holdridge, most recently of Denver, CO. He never paid the corporate annual report fee so the corporation was closed by the state I understand.

Garrison is a former Roman Catholic layman who was ordained by Bp. Luther of the Servants of the Good Shepard in Altoona, PA. Garrison has laid hands on many unprepared and unqualified individuals as an independent "orthodox" bishop with the authority of his own established church but not by any canonical patriarchal or synodal authority.

Garrison became associated with the original Church corporation in Dec. 1995 and left in Feb. 1997. He asked to come back into the Church but his motive was to prevent a synod vote from passing. His attempt failed and he "resigned". He later sent a certified letter confirming his resignation.

Metropolitan Victor signed for this certified letter.

One problem about certified mail is that some of Garrisons cohorts like Patrick Murray and Bishop Ely (A/K/A Brian Kennedy) of Toledo, Oh. claim Metropolitan Victor was excommunicated by "the" synod using the certified receipt from his letter confirming his resignation as proof the claimed decree was signed for. The fact a certified mail receipt is signed does not prove what was in the letter. Only that an envelope was sent by certified mail and that someone signed for that envelope. Their claim is baseless for the following reasons.

A. The date claimed by Ely was prior (Aug 6, 1997) to the date of Garrisons letter confirming his resignation. That letter was addressed to the Metropolitan AND the Synod. If the Metropolitan had been excommunicated by this synod (only synod with authority over the Metropolitan and clergy of this Church) "Why was the letter addressed to a supposed excommunicated Metropolitan AND the Synod?" (See Letter)

B. Patrick Murray claims to be with the Roman Orthodox Church has also made the claim the Metropolitan was excommunicated. Since they claim their charter prior to any association with this Church and the synod of this church never issued such a charter it is clear their charter does not come from this Church. In fact Garrison clearly (http://oratory.tripod.com/occna.html) claims on the OCCNA page that the OCCNA chartered the Roman Orthodox Church.

We maintain in our archives the letter Garrison sent by certified mail, the date Metropolitan Victor received and signed for it AND the certified mail number. It was the only certified letter the Metropolitan signed for from Garrison around that time. If we compare the "Signature" and "date" the truth will come forth.

Garrison, Paul Dolan and Paul Stoms established the OCCNA (Orthodox Catholic Church in North America) after leaving this Church in 1997. Along with Andrei (Shawn Patrick) Brennan of Canada they were the synod of the OCCNA. Originally they claimed the name of this Church by listing their name as;

OCCNA (The Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America).

They claimed their synod had the authority to change the church name. This was false and is proven by Garrisons letter of resignation where he resigned (in writing) and Dolan resigned by phone. Since they left the Church contrary to the Canons they clearly had no authority to act for this Church and no legal and valid claim on this Church, corporation, name or anything related to or belonging to this Church including the 1927 Charter.  

It came to light (after he resigned) that Garrison had been excommunicated by one bishop and had his "decree" lifted by another bishop (which is contrary to orthodox canons).

It should be remembered that Garrison had been previously excommunicated but had continued to act as a priest and bishop disregarding his lack of authority in sacramental matters. After leaving this Church he continued claiming our Church name, history and even that Metropolitan Victor was a former OCCNA primate (a lie since +Victor never was associated with the OCCNA name at any time). Because of the numerous violations of the canons the North American Holy Synod discussed the situation and issued a decree to depose and anathematize Garrison, Stoms, Dolan and Brennan. Brennan later contacted the synod and asked his anathema be lifted because he was joining a "canonical" bishop. The synod did lift the anathema but later found we had been misled since the so-called canonical bishop was Michael Kirkland (see page 2 - the link below). A claim of being canonical does not make you canonical. Most of these independents claim to be canonical but are not.

Then we have the claims of Patrick Murray and his Roman Orthodox Church. Murray and others claim Garrisons (http://oratory.tripod.com/occna.html) OCCNA chartered the Roman Orthodox Church in 1989 as THEOCACNA. That would be a neat trick since no one who signed the 1989 Charter of the Roman Orthodox Church was associated with this Church (THEOCACNA) in 1989 when they claim their charter was issued. It would appear they were chartered by one of the Garrisons independent corporations, maybe from Delaware or Maryland. He was in no way associated with this canonically established Church at that time. Since Garrison was not associated with this canonically established Church until 1995 and there is no record in our archives showing Garrison issued a Valid Charter to such a group while he was on this synod we contend their claims are bogus and most likely just some backdated claimed charter not worth the paper its printed on. They were not chartered by us! Since Garrison would have had no independent authority to issue a charter without the full synods knowledge we state their claim is a lie. You can see from the dates above there is no way the Roman Orthodox Church had been canonically chartered by THEOCACNA or The North American Holy Synod.

Since its clear Garrison is a member of the independent movement and not a canonical orthodox bishop as he claims we cannot understand how anyone could believe all the false information and false claims they make. Garrison also stated to a former friend that he felt he was never really "Orthodox" but in fact was thinking of starting an "Apostolic" Church with no priests, just bishops.

We read on one site that someone asked Garrison for his Church schedule at his Cathedral and the reply was "We have no public worship schedule.

Garrison also has a statement on his OCCNA website that the OCCNA is in (http://oratory.tripod.com/occna.html) Communion with the Holy Orthodox Catholic Patriarchate of America. That website is "The Holy Orthodox Catholic Patriarchate of America - Home Page" http://www.ourchurch.com/member/h/HOCPA/ but just go to the HOPCA link below for more information.

Since Garrison, Dolan and Stoms left this Church contrary to the canons and established an altar separate from this Church this Synod had authority over them and acted as the Canons directed. Brennan had been considered for but ever seated on the Synod and released prior to being seated. The reasons included a closer review of his consecration showed he had 2 solo consecrations - one by an old catholic bishop. Since these individuals had been associated with THEOCACNA and since the Metropolitan had never been part of their OCCNA this synod claimed authority to issue the decree to depose and anathematize them. The full synod agreed on the decrees and they were issued canonically. (Also see "findings".)

Canons on such acts

The North American Holy Synod based our decision to depose and anathematize the 4 former bishops on the following orthodox canons.

The Rudder states:

a. in c. XIV of the 17 canons when any bishop shall secede from his Metropolitan the Holy Council has decreed that "he shall be deposed from office".
b. c. VI of the 21 canons state "if anyone conducts a church of his own apart from the church and without permission [from the Metropolitan or Patriarch] the present canon Anathematizes them.