Father Victor Melehov of the RTOC is a well know clergymen for causing divisions in True Orthodoxy. Using the lack of historical knowledge of the neophyte faithful he misleads them saying that all True Orthodox synod, except his of course, are schismatics or heretical when in the mean time he has been defrocked by several different synods throughout his clerical service:
Lazar Zhurbenko declares in an interview that he accepts the sacraments of the Moscow Patriarchate.
The RTOC have condemned the 2014 union between the Kallinikos synod and the Cyprianites saying they never repented publicly of their false teachings. But at the same time Archbishop Lazar and the hierarchs of the RTOC have never repented either publicly for being in communion with the Cyprianites and considering the World Orthodox to be part of the Church... What a hipocracy...
Excerpt from the interview:
"Fr. Victor: Vladika, on one hand you do not recognize the Moscow Patriarchate; you did not become a member of the M.P., (actually he did accept ordination to the priesthood by the MP, that's why many catacomb Christian was suspicious of him and stayed away) but, as I understand, you do not deny the sacraments of the Moscow Patriarchate. Your branch of the Catacomb Church does not rebaptize, it does not re-ordain priests.
Bishop Lazarus: This is not my Personal opinion; it is the position of those well-educated priests with whom I associated. Fr. Vladimir Krivoliutsky belonged to a group led by Metropolitan Cyril of Kazan, a moderate. Fr. Sergius Tigrov was of like mind. They recognized the Mysteries [of the Moscow Patriarchate] because dogmatically there were no violations concerning the Orthodox teaching about the Holy Trinity, and the Mysteries were performed according to the rules of the office."
Full interview:
https://nftu.net/catacombs-interview-archbishop-lazar-zhurbenko/
Who is really Bishop Philaretos Klimakitis (Basset)
Bishop Philaretos of the Western European Diocese of the Russian True Orthodox Church is a clergyman that has been in all possible Greek Genuine Orthodox Synods and has left them all for one reason or another... In one of the synod that was led by Chrysostomos Kiousis he was even defrocked for his bad behaviour. After he destroyed his reputation in Greece, as all Genuine Orthodox synods he was member of had complains about the morals of him and his monk, he decided to join the Russian True Orthodox synods, although still living in the canonical territory of Greece, as their Russian bishops live far and don't speak Greek so he could do whatever he wanted.
After he has been ordained uncanonicaly by the Russian True Orthodox Church for the territory of Greece, where a local True Orthodox Church has already existed, he started his "missionary" activities which consisted mainly of trying to convince new comers of True Orthodoxy that his synod is the only right synod and all others have fallen in ecumenism in greater or lesser extent.
We recommend to all our readers to stay away from him and his followers who often have a sectarian mindset.
Statement of Hungarian True Orthodox Mission of St. Thomas the Apostle about severing communion with Russian True Orthodox Church, under Archbishop Tikhon of Omsk and Sibera
We could no longer bear that the hierarchs of the RTOC hipocratically call other synods heretical when the same problems were/are also presents in their synod.
When we joined the RTOC and our priest was ordained by them in 2020 we were made to believe that the Russian True Orthodox Church which was founded by Archbishop Lazar Zhurbenko had a different, more strict, confession of Faith than that of ROCOR from whom they received their apostolic succession, and that they entered into communion with the heretic Cyprianite “Synod in Resistence” out of ignorance. But after we have discovered an interview with Archbishop Lazar on the internet where he stated that he considered the Moscow Patriarchate to be with Grace. And he even wanted to join the Cyprianite synod after he broke away from ROCOR so obviously he knew very well who they were.
Our reason for severing communion is not just based on these past events but also on the recent behavior of their hierarchs. For example Bishop Philaretos of Pallini and Western Europe who likes to appear as if he was a strict confessor of the Orthodox Faith but in reality he doesn't mind to break the Holy Canons when it serves his interest. One exapmle for this is when Fr. István was serving in Guildford a father brought to him his children for Holy Communion but when he aksed him which church they belong to he didn't want to reply, apperently they belonged to the Moscow Patriarchate. So Fr. István told him that he wont give Communion to his children if they are not True Orthodox, their father responded “but why? Your Bishop always does”. When Fr. István asked bishop Philaretos about this he told him he didn't know who they were... But how can he give Holy Communion to someone he doesn't know, especially in a parish which doesn't have more than 10 people at a liturgy?
The second upseting event happened in Romania at the consecration of a new monastery to some hieromonks who left Slatioara. We were shocked by what happened there as apart from the clergy everyone was a newcalendarist and at the end of the consecration they allowed these people to enter the Holy of Holys to kiss the Holy Altar. And after they we went to the house of a new calendarist woman, who gave accomodation to the visiting Bishop and clergy, they blessed her house and allowed her to pray with them and the bishop didn't say anything but participated.
Bishop Philaretos also likes to be very strict regarding who can be considered a saint of the Orthodox Church, for example he doesn't accept St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain, who gave us the Holy Rudder and the Philokalia which revived hesychasm in the Orthodox World, but again at the same time he doesn't mind to break the Holy Canons and live in the same building with a nun, for which we have several wittness to prove our claim.
Also him ordaining Fr. István as a priest in Greece was against the Holy Canons as he is a bishop of the Russian True Orthodox Church which shouldn’t interfere in the territory of another local church, in this case the True Orthodox Church of Greece.
And another thing we have been lied about is that Bishop Philaretos Klimakitis (Bassett) was not defrocked by the Chrysostomos synod because he didn't want to sign over the ownership of his monastery to the synod but because of his explosive behaviour that was always looking for arguments and even shouting with people.
So because of the above mentioned reasons after careful consideration the Hungarian True Orthodox Mission of St. Thomas the Apostle has decided to break eucacharstic communion with the Russian True Orthodox Church.