Media Release: Open Letter from the Bishop of Gibraltar to the Patriarch of Jerusalem
To: His Holiness, The Patriarch of Jerusalem
From: The Bishop of Gibraltar.
We humbly apologise to the Patriarch, for allowing the Caliph of Gibraltar to interpret our concerns and pass them on to you as if it comes from him and use it as an opportunity to strengthen Islam. However, as this issue has now become public we are obliged to continue this in public.
On the issue of primacy of the Patriarch, our Bible scholars have researched this matter for centuries and have used the teachings of the Bible to pass on to our flocks the authority of the one Patriarch to ensure that we remain true to our faith. We humbly direct your holiness to the verse -
Matthew 16:17-19, where our saviour
Jesus Christ talks to our
Saint Peter and says;
Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.
If this authority given by Jesus Christ, is no longer in place and we now have two or more authorities on which to seek council on issue of faith we are now without a leader. Our flocks (and we are sure many other flocks in other parts of the world) will not be able to absorb this shocking change to their fundamental beliefs.
We therefore now seek your holiness renounce this dualism union with the Russian heretics, for the sake of our faith or else we will surely face the wrath of God. If you do not do this, we can only assume you have fallen to worldly ways and are being led by leaders of the world as opposed to being led by God, which will cause even more distress to our flocks
On the issue of the Russian heretics. The Russian heretics (including their own Patriarch), would have to convert to the one true faith and authority of His Holiness the Patriarch of Jerusalem, before we could accept them. If the Russians are as strong as we are in our faith, we can not see this happening easily, as they also will see the authority of their Patriarch being usurped.
If these two matters outlined above, do not come to pass, we can only assume that you truly have fallen to the ways of the world and are no longer divine, which makes our faith no different to the Celt-Catholics, and the wrath of God will befall us.
These Wrath of God concerns, as outlined by the Caliph in his media release, are still valid. Namely we see
plagues, earthquakes, floods, famines or any other miseries and also
schism of the faith into three-ways, whereby the two old faiths break away as they once were and the supporters of the Dualism of Patriarchs form another new faith.
Please take our concerns seriously for the sake of our faith.
Signed
The Bishop of Gibraltar for the Orthodox-Catholics