Developments at the Monastery of Sinai are rapid.
Archbishop of Sinai, Damianos, arrived today at the Monastery and, in coordination with the monks who support him as well as the Bedouins affiliated with the Monastery, called upon the ten monks who had moved against him to respect order and rules.
After their refusal, they were removed and are now outside the Monastery.
According to Damianos’ side, this is an effort to restore legality. Moreover, in a move of particular significance, he convened an assembly of the monks, and they elected a new Synaxis.
Mr. Damianos himself stated:
“I arrived this afternoon, August 26, at the Monastery of St. Catherine with the purpose of reconciliation and discussion with the small group of coup-monk conspirators, a practice I have faithfully followed all this time, armed with patience and fatherly love.
These particular monks had planned, without my approval, an assembly to amend the Monastery’s operating regulations in my absence, although according to the regulations I always preside.
The coup-monk conspirators attacked and assaulted me, as they had also done during my last presence at the Monastery. The monks who did not take part in the coup defended my humble self and the Monastery with self-sacrifice and repelled the unlawful conspirators outside the walls of the Monastery.
A General Assembly has already been convened with the monks present, since the coup-plotters, punished with excommunication, could not participate, and a new Synaxis of the Monastery was elected, consisting of Hieromonk Porphyrios Kanavakis, Dikaios; Hieromonk Akakios Spanos, Skevophylax; and Monk Ephraim Provatas, Oikonomos.
The Monastery has returned to legality and normalcy.
Thanks are due to the protectress and patroness of the Monastery, the Holy Great Martyr St. Catherine, who guards and protects her Monastery from the wiles of the devil. As a Monastery of Sinai we also owe a great apology to the body of the Church, because the pettiness and ambitions of some became a cause of scandal for the faithful; and instead of being, as monks, a light for the laity, through this situation we acted to the contrary. With much humility and contrition we ask forgiveness.”
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