Orthodox Christians all over the world have received the unchanging Christian Faith, passed down from the Holy Apostles to their successors, and continue to practice it today in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church – The Orthodox Church.
The ultimate goal of ecumenists is to mix-up the faithful
The devotees of the pan-heresy of ecumenism have literally gone wild in our day. Until yesterday, they pretended to be pious and traditional. Today, however, they have thrown off their sheepskin disguise and let their real intentions be seen clearly.
We cannot even keep up with counting their demonic innovations! They hardly give themselves a rest, thinking up some new way to confuse the consciences of the faithful even more.
Most of our woefully uninstructed people are, unfortunately, unable to distinguish factual truth from the pseudo-truths of the ecumenists, and thus they very easily fall victim to the traps set by the antichrists.
To be sure, the ecumenists also talk about love, but not in the language of the Disciple of Love, John, who forbade even saying “good morning” to heretics (2 Jn 1:10).
The ecumenists also talk about peaceful co-existence with heretics and non-Christians. However, they insultingly despise our holy Fathers, who applied the condemnations of defrocking and excommunication even for simply entering a synagogue or a mosque. The ecumenists also talk about synodal decisions. They express more, however, the decisions of the so-called WCC [World Council of “Churches”], than the decrees of our Ecumenical Councils and the Tradition of our Holy Fathers.
Our beloved Saint Paisios used to say: “When all sorts of unrelated people – sorcerers, fire-worshipers, cultic religious types of all persuasions – enter into the mix and attempt to work together, how can there be a common purpose or a common ground for peace? God forgive me, but such things are the devil’s rags. Can peace be achieved through sinful association? How can there be peace when people are not reconciled with God? Only when man is reconciled with God can inward and outward peace come.”1
Ecumenists also talk about “churches”, but not the Church as defined by the Creed and the teachings of our Holy Fathers. They recognize the heretics as “churches” and, with their signatures, mock the uniqueness of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, which is our Church, the Orthodox Church.
Ecumenists also talk about majestic con-celebrations and fervent prayers. Their minds, however, are on con-celebrations with heretics, and their daily practice of praying together with the deceived – and even with people of other religions.
Their ultimate goal is to mix-up the faithful: They assure us that “all religions are ways to salvation”; they light candles in synagogues; and they describe the Koran as a “sacred book”. They mix-up the dogmas, alter the fundamental values of the Orthodox, and in the end change our Faith!
And we, baptized Orthodox Christians, in the face of this unprecedented apostasy, what do we do? – Or, to say it better, What should we do, what is our duty and our obligation as members of our Church?
Father Athanasios Mytilineos of blessed memory used to say in such a case: Woe to him who does not react. However, what is observed today in our parishes and in our monasteries is generally the complete opposite: The majority of the confessors and abbots advise their spiritual children that all we need to do is pray. They say, Go into your inner room and pray (Mt. 6:6). You do not need to talk.
Yes, “pray”, our venerable elders, however prayer does not go by itself. It goes with “be watchful” (1 Cor. 16:13, 1 Pet 5:8, Rev. 3:2). Watch and pray (Mt. 26:41, Mk. 14:38, Lk. 21:36).
Is it a coincidence that one of the last admonitions of Saint Porphyrios to his spiritual children related to the danger of losing their souls by the demonic heresies? (Testimony of his disciple, Mrs. Sideris.) Or perhaps the exhortation of Saint Theodore the Studite to resist the deceptions of the heretics is just a coincidence, and is he, in teaching us that “the instruction of the Lord is not to keep silent in times of endangered Faith” (Eph. 5:11), old-fashioned and obsolete?
The unsurpassed worker of the anti-heretical struggle, Fr. Charalambos Vasilopoulos, thundered:
If we want to be with Christ, we must expose the antichristian ecumenism! For every action, every move, and every work which is not in line with the Orthodox Faith, it is necessary to raise our voice of protest and denounce it!
When did our Church include in her numbers together with the Orthodox Bishops the bishops of the heretics? Do you speak the language of dogmatic and canonical accuracy or that of the flexible diplomatic hypocrisy? Are you a bishop or a diplomat?
And to close this short address about our ecclesiological and spiritual obligation to vigorously resist the calamity of the pan-heresy of ecumenism, we will appeal to the unrepeatable guide whom we follow, St. Kosmas the Aetolian:
All [other] faiths are false, counterfit; they all are of the Devil. Only the faith of Orthodox Christians is good and holy.
We have used the original quote by Saint Paisions, slightly expanded. Source: Saint Paisios of Mount Athos: Spiritual Counsels, Vol. II, “Spiritual Awakening”. Holy Monastery of Saint John the Evangelist and Theologian, Thessaloniki, 2016. (All 5 volumes are available from Alexander Press in Montreal)
Orthodox Christians all over the world have received the unchanging Christian Faith, passed down from the Holy Apostles to their successors, and continue to practice it today in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church – The Orthodox Church.
A clear picture of Ecumenism
Dear Βrothers and Sisters in Christ,
United in one “Super-religion”
On the “Sunday of Orthodoxy”, our Church celebrates the victory of the Orthodox faith against its enemies, the iconoclasts, because they wanted to remove the holy icons from our churches and destroy them. Who were these enemies? They were “Orthodox” kings, bishops and patriarchs. 1
The struggle of the Church against heresies is not finished.
Almost 100 years ago a new heresy appeared within the Church—the heresy of Ecumenism—which is insidious, and threatens to completely destroy her today, as Iconoclasm did in the past.
What is Ecumenism?
I will not tell you. I will let a great Saint of our day, the Serbian Archimandrite, Saint Justin Popović tell you about it:
Ecumenism is a common name for the pseudo-christianities, for the pseudo-churches of Western Europe. Within it is the heart of all European humanisms led by the Papacy. All these pseudo-christianities, all these pseudo-churches are nothing more than one heresy next to the other. Their common name is pan-heresy. 2
The great contemporary apologist of Orthodoxy, known to all, Metropolitan of Piraeus Seraphim explains further what Ecumenism is:
The Satan-led and fetid pan-heresy of Ecumenism adopts and legitimizes all heresies as “churches” and attacks the uniqueness, exclusivity and dogma of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. A new doctrine of the Church has now grown, is being taught and is imposed by the Ecumenists; a new ecclesiology, according to which no group can claim exclusively the character of “Catholic and true Church”—whether heretics, or even the Orthodox Church. Every heresy, even the Orthodox Church, is only a piece, a part of this new Ecumenist “church,” and not the entire Church. All together these heresies with the Orthodox Church compose the new Ecumenist Church. 3
Metropolitan Seraphim continues in the same text, explaining what the aim of Ecumenism is:
As globalization on a political level wants to unite the world and make a world government, a global e-government, a world currency, a global economy, so Ecumenism on a religious level wants to unite all religions (inter-religious Ecumenism) and all heresies (inter-Christian Ecumenism) into a world religion, ignoring and marginalizing the huge, gigantic and chaotic dogmatic differences, and destroy from its foundation the dogmas and the faith of the Orthodox Church.
And he presents the final evaluation of Ecumenism:
Ecumenism is the greatest ecclesiological heresy of all time, because it equalizes all religions and faiths.
How is it being accomplished?
But how it is possible to circumvent the profound differences that exist between the “churches” and the religions? In what way does Ecumenism seek to accomplish a feat that seems impossible? Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew promotes this monstrosity in this way: The first step is to unite the “churches.” The unifying link is the “common baptism” of all Christians. As long as we accept that we are all baptized, we all belong to the same “Mega-Church.” Baptismal theology is the basis of Ecumenism. However the engine that powers it is (purportedly) love, which is also the unifying link to unite all religions.
Patriarch Bartholomew’s plan is to unite first with the Pope, whom he accepts as a canonical Hierarch of the Church. His desire is to unite their “churches,” with no change in their faith or worship. The union will take place by a simple recognition that they constitute two “sister Churches,” united in love.
For the last fifty years the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Pope have not only been dialoguing, they have also been acting. Their common prayers, according to the canons of the Orthodox Church, are forbidden. However this does not stop our Patriarch who has been praying not only with heretical Christians but also with people from many other faiths. His bishops are doing the same in order not to be left behind.
We don’t agree with them, and we distance ourselves from them. We no longer follow them or obey them, because they are betrayers of the faith and they ought to be condemned as heretics by an Orthodox Synod. We cannot wait for such Synod to convene. We wall ourselves from them now, that is, we cease to have communion with them.
“We shall not deny you, beloved Orthodoxy,
nor shall we lie to you, time-honored reverence,
We were born in you, we live in you, and we shall die in you.
And if time shall call us,
we shall sacrifice a thousand times our lives for you.”
Monk Joseph Vriennios Spiritual Father of St. Mark of Ephesus, + ca. 1435
Fr. Emmanuel Hatzidakis Sunday of Orthodoxy, 2017
…who in the Synod of Hiereia in 754 (which they proclaimed to be Ecumenical!) condemned the veneration of icons!
Thirty-three years later, in 787, a new Synod convened in Nicaea, which condemned the un-Orthodox Synod, and reinstated in the churches and the homes of Christians the holy images (those that were left, which were not destroyed), so that we may worship God the Word Who became man like us for our sake. Therefore we may, actually we must, depict Him, because He was not a ghost, but a real person with skin and bones.
(Parenthetically let me say that the Protestants do not have icons in their places of worship, which are naked and graceless. Roman Catholics have statues, which our Church does not allow, because they remind us of idols. Although they also have icons, they keep them high, and they don’t venerate them. Indeed, emperor Charlemagne in 794 (only 7 years after the Council of Nicaea) called a Synod in Frankfurt condemning the decisions of the Seventh Ecumenical Council and the veneration of the holy icons! Eighty-five years later, in 879, a Synod that many Orthodox accept as the Eighth Ecumenical Council condemned this pseudo-synod.)
St. Justin Popovich, “Humanistic Ecumenism” in Orthodox Faith and Life in Christ, by Father Justin Popovich, trans. by Asterios Gerostergios (Belmont, MA: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1994), p. 169. Also quoted here: “Papism as the Oldest Protestantism”
Orthodox Christians all over the world have received the unchanging Christian Faith, passed down from the Holy Apostles to their successors, and continue to practice it today in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church – The Orthodox Church.
MANIFESTO
My dear Christians,
I am writing these words to inform you where our Church is lately, because most people are not informed by their shepherds.
Fr. Emmanuel Hatzidakis
Our Church leaders, prelates of different titles (patriarchs, archbishops, metropolitans and bishops) have abandoned the faith of our Fathers.
This was shown more openly at the so-called Synod of Crete in June 2016. In one of its texts this pseudo-Synod recognized the existence of other Churches besides the Orthodox Church. We believe that God’s Church is only one, and this is the Orthodox Church.
Four Autocephalous (independent) Orthodox Churches did not participate in this pseudo-Synod of Crete, while two of these, the Churches of Bulgaria and Georgia, condemned its decisions. The Orthodox Church is being torn in two.
The worst is that our Patriarch and all the bishops that follow him want to unite with those other “Churches,” without first being united in the same faith. This would mean that the struggles of our Fathers were in vain.
According to our Patriarch, the differences that exist between us, which the Holy Synods of the Church have condemned, no longer prevent us from uniting.
It is no longer allowed to call those who are outside the Orthodox Church “heretics” and “schismatics.” To them, there are no more schisms and heresies; anyone from any tradition and form of worship is in the Church of Christ.
The Patriarch has given the directive to no longer receive those Christians who want to become Orthodox through baptism, because, he says, since they are baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity they have a valid baptism. For us there are no Sacraments outside the Church.
They recognize the aero-baptism that is performed even by non-Christians, and fiercely hunt down priests who dare to baptize converts. They allow marriages with non-Orthodox, without requiring them to become Orthodox.
They say that we should not let minor differences divide us, we should no longer insist in dogmas that became the reason we are divided and remain separated, and that we should be united in love.
Were the struggles of our Fathers, who kept our faith in the Holy Trinity and in our Christ pure and undefiled, in vain? “We have gone beyond them,” they would reply, “because we have more love than they had.”
We, my dear Christians, must follow the faith of our Fathers: of Saint Nektarios, of the holy Elder Paisios, of Saint Justin the New and of all the Saints, whose teachings are not followed by our Patriarch and by all the bishops in America.
What do we need to do
Courageously resist our ecumenist Bishops
Priests who want to remain Orthodox need to stop commemorating them
Orthodox Christians all over the world have received the unchanging Christian Faith, passed down from the Holy Apostles to their successors, and continue to practice it today in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church – The Orthodox Church.
Let us stand well!
Sunday of Orthodoxy! Today we celebrate the victory of our holy Church against all her enemies, especially the Iconoclasts, that is those who scorned the veneration of icons, denied the right of the Orthodox Christians to honor the holy images of Christ and the Saints, and destroyed them.
Too intellectual for Icons?
For over 150 years the Church waged war against those Christians who considered themselves too spiritual, too enlightened and too intellectual to be involved with burning candles and incense before icons, with making the sign of the cross before them, with kissing them, with praying before them and with being blessed and being sanctified by them.
The iconoclasts (literally meaning “image-smashers”), by denying the veneration of icons, denied the very Incarnation of Christ. The image of Christ is a confession of faith in the historical Incarnation. An historical Christ is necessarily visible and depictable. No wonder the Seventh Ecumenical Council stated plainly and concisely:
“If one does not venerate our Lord Jesus Christ depicted in an icon, according to the human form, let him be anathema”.
In order to remember this day the holy Church decreed that on the First Sunday of Lent we celebrate the “Triumph of Orthodoxy” over its enemies, whether open and direct, as is the case with the iconoclasts, or subtle and devious, as are some of its contemporary enemies.
Every other “god” is an idol
We know, however, that the Church never intends to simply call to memory an historical event, therefore as we contemplate the victory of Orthodoxy, we turn to our contemporary scene to wage our own battles for the truth, to reaffirm to our society the truths and teachings safeguarded by the Orthodox Church, the “Pillar and foundation of the truth.”
First I will address a word about those who believe, in their naivete, that since Jews and Moslems, not to mention other faiths, believe in one God, and since there is only one God, we all believe in the same God. If that is the case, then let everyone who believes in God worship Christ, depicted here as He appeared on earth, the Son of God, “true God of true God,” as we confess in the Creed. In one of the Liturgical prayers recited right after the reading of the holy Gospel at the Matins Service, the faithful declare:
“Having beheld the resurrection of Christ, let us worship the Holy One, Lord Jesus… You are our God, beside You we know of no other [God]” (Σὺ γὰρ εἶ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, ἐκτὸς Σοῦ ἄλλον οὒκ οἴδαμεν).
So, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, don’t be deceived. It’s not a matter of a name (God, Allah, Jehovah, Buddha, Supreme Being, the Power), so that it doesn’t matter what we call Him, as long as we call upon Him. No. Not so! Our “God… became flesh and dwelt among us… and we have beheld His glory” (John 1:1.14) and we depict Him in holy images. So let them worship this Incarnate God, Jesus Christ; let them venerate the image of this God, and then – and only then – we can say that we believe in and worship the same God.
“We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, to know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols”.
This is how St. John the Theologian ends his theological First Letter (1 John 5:20-21). Very clearly and unmistakably the divine Apostle and Evangelist declares: Jesus Christ is the true God.1 Every other “god” is an idol. “There is no salvation in anyone else” (Acts 4:12), but Jesus Christ.
Plague of the Church today: Ecumenism
We will now turn to some other most basic and fundamental truths of the Church that are questioned and repudiated by so-called theologians of various Christian denominations. Liberal, liberational, feminist, modernist, rationalist theologies overtake traditional teachings of the Church, attaching themselves to the Church like leeches to suck her blood.
Most tragically such theologies, ideas and philosophies have infiltrated the Orthodox Church and are propounded by Orthodox theologians and bishops alike. We’ll address very briefly one such pernicious current among Orthodox, that of ecumenism, the modern plague of the Church, a gangrene that eats its members away.
Orthodoxy cannot be reconciled with “branch” theories, “broken pot” theories, “proportional ecclesiology” theories and other synchretistic and ecumenistic theories, which in essence say that Truth (Christ) is divided. “Why not seek union with other Christians?” you may ask. We do! We must! Christ prayed that we all be one (cf. John 17:21) – but not to the detriment of the truth! Says St. John Chrysostom:
“If you see the true faith damaged, do not prefer the concord of love (ὁμόνοια, ἀγάπη), but fight bravely to death” (PG 60,609).
We must fight indeed and stand steadfastly, keeping the Tradition of the Truth, because, as St. John Damascene, the champion of Orthodoxy, declares:
“He who does not believe according to the tradition of the Catholic Church… is a heathen” (PG 94,1128).
Most recently the unity of the Church has been attacked from within by high standing hierarchs, admitting “sister-churches” and sharing of God’s mysteries with other “churches.” The fundamental teaching of the Church is that she is One (“One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church”); One and Unique. Says St. Cyprian:
“God is one and Christ one and His Church One and the faith one and the people one, joined together by the tie of concord into a solid unity of body. The unity cannot be torn asunder, nor can the one body be separated by a division of its structure” (Ch. 23).
The times, my friends, are difficult, “the days are evil”. What blessed Philotheos Zervakos said is regrettably true:
“The majority of the contemporary theologians, save a few and rare exceptions, have become adversaries of Orthodoxy” (p. 39).
But don’t lose heart:
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Lk. 12:32). “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside has not been given” (Mt. 4:11, Mt. 3:11).
The Church is God’s society, not a club
The Church is attacked by her own members in many other ways as well. Some of these are very familiar to us. Some see her as a worldly organization, a business establishment, a corporation, and want to run it accordingly, expanding their energies toward fund-raising events and minimizing its spiritual values. Others view her as a social club, a cultural center, a place to meet, to talk about the latest and to socialize. Yet others see her as an ethnic organization, the purpose of which is to preserve and transmit their linguistic and cultural identity. That’s iconoclasm! We must return to the true Church, as a spiritual center, as the Ark of salvation. Enough giving to Caesar! Now let us give to God what is God’s! Let us return as children and as families of God, to form God’s society, a truly Christian society.
Let me now insert a caveat for those whose faith is weak. Let us be careful, my good Christians, not to confuse the Church for its unworthy workers and ministers. Indeed we, the ministers of God’s mysteries and proclaimers of the News of Redemption and Grace, fall short in our positions and in our personal spiritual call. But don’t allow these shortcomings and faults to be transferred to the Church itself, who remains holy, “without blemish” (Song of Songs 4:7) in her. In spite of our shortcomings, she thrives, preserving intact purity of doctrine, wholesomeness of moral teachings and integrity of liturgical life, attracting many converts to her. Even entire congregations embrace the Orthodox Faith together.
Seek and you will find
Bishop Job, in a sermon he preached on this same feast-day, said among other things:
“Many disillusioned Western Christians are looking to the Orthodox for truth, dogmatically sound teaching and understanding, and true moral guidance… But first, we must be convinced of it ourselves and make that evident in our lives and in the lives of our parishes”.
The people “out there” are disillusioned and dissatisfied by the answers they are given by their religious leaders. Confused, perplexed and disoriented, they turn to sorcerers, mediums, astrologers, psychologists and gurus for answers and solutions, which only the humble Orthodox Church can provide in their fullness. The Orthodox Church alone can lift up modern man from moral degeneration, degradation and spiritual atrophy, giving him hope, courage, energy, purpose. In a world hungering and thirsting for peace, stability, understanding, joy, love and truth, the Orthodox Church alone can fulfill the inner aspirations of people to their fullest.
Against all our enemies that press us from within and from without, open and hidden, direct and devious, we turn to our mother, the holy Orthodox Church, finding refuge and protection in her bosom. As Peter addressed Christ, we too say:
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)
No, we will not deny You, Lord. No, we will not betray you, holy Orthodoxy.
“Let us stand well!” (Στῶμεν καλῶς!), my dear brothers and sisters, not to be deceived by the glitter of the world. “Let us stand well!” Let us resist the influence of our God-less society, and instead let us become the leaven that will ferment the world, the city on a hill that will shine its light to our darkened world. United in Christ, “with one accord” (Acts 1:14), guarding what has been entrusted in us (cf. 1 Tim. 6:20), let us allow the light of Christ to penetrate us, to transform us and to make us in turn radiate the light of Christ to those around us. Amen!
This article was originally delivered as a sermon on the Sunday of Orthodoxy in 1994. (Edited, 2007)
(See Justin Popovich, Ἄνθρωπος καὶ Θεάνθρωπος, p. 77)
Orthodox Christians all over the world have received the unchanging Christian Faith, passed down from the Holy Apostles to their successors, and continue to practice it today in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church – The Orthodox Church.
Why did Elder Iakovos Tsalikis want Bartholomew as Patriarch?
The occasion of this post arose from an email I received from a reader, in which he expresses his concerns about our ecumenist patriarch, and in which he also addresses a puzzling question that I would like to share with you, and ask for your input, since my answer is not totally satisfactory.
Dear Fr. Emmanuel,
… The motivation for my email is to thank you for your fight to defend our Orthodox Faith against the great heresy of Ecumenism. We live in difficult days, when most laymen and clergy (including some Patriarchs) consider a union with other Christian organizations (not churches) as natural and inevitable. Indeed, these days, most of us laymen are so ignorant in matters of our Church and Faith, that an important danger such as Ecumenism is hardly understood.
Although Patriarch Bartholomew’s ecumenistic statements and actions are scandalous and unacceptable, I was troubled (and confused) the other day when I heard a story about how a holy elder had recommended him as a good choice for the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In a recent conference in Thessaloniki about the Blessed Iakovos Tsalikis (very soon to be declared a Saint), Metropolitan Pavlos of Sisaniou & Siatistis talked about how before Patriarch Bartholomew’s enthronement, Elder Iakovos had asked Saint David of Evia to help assure the Patriarch’s election.
Fr Emmanuel, I’m at a loss. How is it that Elder Iakovos had such high praises for Patriarch Bartholomew? Was he not informed by the Holy Spirit of Patriarch Bartholomew’s eventual ecumenistic activities? Did he perhaps see something in Patriarch Bartholomew that we cannot see with our worldly eyes? Is there perhaps a glimmer of hope, that Patriarch Bartholomew will come to his senses and defend and spread our Faith as he is supposed to?
As the threat of Ecumenism grows, I have the impression that no layman or clergy (at least where I am at) really cares about this danger. I sometimes feel alone here, and my lack of faith (and education) prevents me from speaking up and sensitizing people about this threat, at the very least in the parish I attend….
With love in Christ,
(Name withheld)
Dear ___________,
Before I address your concerns I would like to express my thanks to the Lord for having such faithful people like you. You are too humble to even consider that you are one that belongs to Him, and the Lord will give you all the strength you need “to fight the good fight of the faith.”
As for us, we try with all our means to do our part. Ecumenism is a cancerous growth that spreads very quickly on the healthy Body of the Church and destroys its organs. Our spiritual Fathers instead of providing the cure—a confession of the saving faith—are the ones responsible for the spreading of this deadly disease.
What I have to tell you, and to others like you, is what we Greeks say: Ἔχει ὁ Θεός. At times, I myself get discouraged and say, Ναί, ὁ Θεὸς ἔχει, ἀλλὰ ἐμεῖς δὲν ἔχομε. While this is true, what do we have that is not received from God? Still, to say “we don’t have” shows a lack of recognition of the gifts God has bestowed upon us, especially His very Life—at a great price.
When at times I feel like you do (“I sometimes feel alone here”) the story of prophet Elijah comes to mind, how, even he, the great prophet, was discouraged, and turned to God in despair: “I alone am left.” He did not know everything. What was God’s reply to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” All was not lost. God has a chosen “remnant” left, faithful to Him. We want to be with that remnant.
I think something similar happens in our πονηροὶ καιροί (cunning times). It seems we are very few, but God knows who are truly His. The typical Orthodox may constitute the overwhelming majority, however I believe that among the informed Orthodox Christians the opposite is true; they constitute the overwhelming majority. The time, the καιρός, will come when they will arouse, and we will be among them.
We pray that our ecumenist hierarchs come to their senses, that a ray of the Holy Spirit may penetrate their minds and hearts, and in repentance admit to their error and return to the faith of our Fathers, from which they have departed. In the meantime we keep the hope.
Since by your own admission you also follow “other clergymen from Greece who are fighting the same fight” then you must know that there are several hierarchs of the Churches of Greece, Cyprus, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and Georgia, among others, as well as abbots and monks, professors and theologians, and many pious faithful, who courageously raise their voices against ecumenism and the decisions of the Cretan pseudo-synod.
Most of the people of God are ἐν ἀναμονῇ, they are waiting for those bishops who objected both to the method in which the “Holy and Great Synod” was convened and conducted, as well as the decisions reached, in order to make their move. What move? To condemn this synod as a pseudo-synod and reject its decisions as un-Orthodox. What is the likelihood of this happening any time soon? Nil! If only the Patriarchate of Moscow had kept its traditionally Orthodox stand there would be some hope. But since it too has embraced the heresy of ecumenism no one else will dare to convoke a synod that would condemn ecumenism as a heresy.
So, where does this leave us? Ἐν ἀναμονῇ! But while we are waiting, we don’t remain idle and silent. We express our faith in the Orthodox Church as we came to know it, as we have received it from our holy Fathers. And we pray. Pray that our ecumenist hierarchs come to their senses, that a ray of the Holy Spirit may penetrate their minds and hearts, and in repentance admit to their error and return to the faith of our Fathers, from which they have departed. In the meantime we keep the hope.
It is true that “we live in difficult days,” but it is important to know that we’ve been there before: Arianism, Monophysitism, Monothelitism, and Iconoclasm, to mention four big ones. We need to know this and to know that the Church has emerged victorious out of them.
Coming now to your question on Elder Iakovos, it is a hard one to answer, because we don’t know what he had in mind. Taking his words on their face value we should conclude that he erred in his evaluation, unless he forethought that the Patriarch would have a “conversion experience.” Short of a miracle, this won’t happen. What then can we say? Since an erroneous judgment on the Elder’s part is unacceptable all we can say is that he had his reasons for his praise of the current Patriarch Bartholomew.
For your information, in the book about his life, The Garden of the Holy Spirit: Elder Iakovos of Evia by Prof. Stylianos G. Papadopoulos of blessed memory (translated and published in English by Orthodox Witness, 2007) there is a longer account (pp. 154-55) than that contained in Metropolitan Pavlos’s talk. Here it is:
On February 10, 1989 [the then Metropolitan of Chalcedon and now Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew] visited the monastery and served Divine Liturgy. The Elder was particularly pleased and “prophesied” to him with certainty (while Patriarch Demetrios was still in good health): “You will become Patriarch! You will shepherd Christ’s Church. I pray that you visit St. David’s monastery as Patriarch.” The Elder offered him an icon and gave him also a sprig of basil for Patriarch Demetrios with a request to “pray for our monastery.” Two years later, humble Demetrios slept, and the issue of a new Patriarch arose. In October 1991, the Elder was informed by a visiting priest that the Turkish government was considering removing the names of the synodical metropolitans from the list of candidates. The Elder went to church, prayed to St. David, and came back to the priest: “I prayed, Father, to St. David. ‘St. David,’ I told him, ‘you have surely granted all my requests so far. Now, I don’t know how, but just go to Turkey, meddle up the Turks and their papers, and see that Fr. Bartholomew is elected Patriarch!” When later on he learned that Bartholomew was indeed elected Patriarch, he rose up shining with joy, he made the sign of the cross, and repeated thrice: “Glory to You, O God!”
It is truly inexplicable and mind boggling, how this charismatic Elder would be so joyous over Bartholomew’s election, and, in a way, be even responsible for it! You ask, “Was he not informed by the Holy Spirit of Patriarch Bartholomew’s eventual ecumenistic activities?” It’s even more mysterious because before Bartholomew spoke to the Elder, he had the same ideas many years earlier while still a student, which were acquired from his mentor, Patriarch Demetrios, and his environment.
I’ll also pass on to you the following explanation I came across the other day, offered by the Greek magazine Aktines (Jan. 20, 2017) (my translation):
Contemporary Saints of the Orthodox Church as the venerable Elder [Iakovos] Tsalikis and St. Paisios had predicted the election of the current Patriarch, and had talked with flattering words about his person. It seems, however, that they had done this in order to strengthen the Orthodox beliefs of the man and to encourage him that more significant is the holiness of God, and not the importance of the world! However, their wise words failed to dissuade the Patriarch from the worship of Antichrist.
I think the author is on to something. My explanation, though not fully satisfactory, is that the Elder saw Patriarch Bartholomew as the precursor of Antichrist, and as a sign of the end of times and of the Second Coming of the Lord. A Saint would rejoice at that. We know that the Patriarch is a betrayer of the faith, notwithstanding the witness of blessed Elder Iakovos and holy Elder Paisios.
Speaking of Saint Paisios, the Patriarch had a long relationship with him. Shortly after his election he visited the Elder on the Holy Mountain, at which time the Elder said publicly, “God gave us in these difficult times the best Patriarch.” But as someone said when we came across this passage as we were translating it, “Perhaps the Elder saw what would happen with the alternatives, and rejoiced because this was the best possible outcome.” I’ll leave it at that for now.
So, keep the faith, my friend. Give the good confession with your life, if not with words. Pray for the Patriarch that he may come to his senses, pray also for those who confess the faith among many adversities, and pray for us all, that we may find ourselves with the “remnant.”
In the eternally risen Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ,
Orthodox Christians all over the world have received the unchanging Christian Faith, passed down from the Holy Apostles to their successors, and continue to practice it today in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church – The Orthodox Church.
How Patriarch Bartholomew is walking away from Christ
Οn the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the annual World Day of Prayer for Peace organized in Assisi on Sept. 18-20, 2016, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew released a statement in Italian to “Avvenire,” a newspaper of the Catholic bishops of Italy, entitled, “That all may become one, ‘ut unum sint.’” This year’s theme was, “Thirst for peace: Religions and Cultures in Dialogue.” Before getting to the Patriarch’s message and my commentary I would like to offer a few introductory remarks.
At the first World Day of Prayer for Peace in 1986, 160 religious leaders were gathered, representing 32 Christian groups and 11 non-Christian religions, “spending the day together with fasting and praying to their God or Gods.” Pope Benedict in 2011 did not allow a common prayer, because he didn’t want to convey the impression “that theological differences have been reduced or are not consequential.” However, he concluded his own reflection saying, “In the name of God, may every religion bring upon the earth justice and forgiveness and life, love!”—a full syncretistic prayer, I should add. How could prayer be absent from an event that takes place for the very purpose of praying for peace? This year’s event gathered more than 450 religious leaders of different faiths.
Here follows the Patriarch’s statements and my commentary:
“It’s been 30 years since Pope John Paul II gave start to the Assisi events, events of contemplation and decisions for the religions that work and walk together toward global peace…
The heretical Pope gave the start to unite all the religions under him, and our Patriarch readily and foolishly ran after him. This initiative sounds noble and innocent, but it constitutes a great deception. In the first place, the Patriarch doesn’t call it for what it is. It is not convened to “work and walk together toward global peace,” but it is a “day of prayer for peace.” There is a problem right there, because Orthodox people are prevented from praying together with non-Orthodox, especially with non-Christians! Besides, I don’t think the mission of the Church is to “work and walk together (with the religions of the world) toward global peace.” St. John the Theologian said, “he who says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.” (1 John 2:6) Christ didn’t work, and His followers the Saints didn’t “work and walk together” with the religions of the world. The Lord said, “If any one serves me, he must follow me.” (John 12:26) Who does the Patriarch follow? Who does he serve?In the second place, reflect on this year’s theme, “Religions and Cultures in Dialogue.” What is the purpose of this “dialogue”? It is not so much about peace as it is “to walk together” with the religions of the world, united under the Pope, so “there shall be one flock and one shepherd”—not Christ, but the Pope! No acceptance of the same Shepherd, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is needed. Everyone is free to believe whatever each one wants. Pope Francis is frantically working to unite all religions under him and create the One World Religion and the New World Order.
…This year, the 25th anniversary of our humble ministry on the patriarchal throne of Constantinople, we are glad we are able to be together with our brothers and our sisters of other denominations and communities of Christian faith,…
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (Ps. 133:1). Indeed, our Patriarch should be glad to be together with his brothers, as the psalmist says. The problem is, these were not his brothers. Christians have always addressed as “brothers” those who share the same faith with them. The Apostle Paul explained to the Corinthians that when he urged them “not to associate with any (immoral man) who bears the name of brother,” he didn’t mean the “outsiders.” (1 Cor. 5:9.11.12) “Brothers and sisters” is equivalent to being all children of God, treated in another post. We address as “brothers” only those who are united with us in faith, having become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ and baptism (see Gal. 3:26-27). Instead, our Patriarch persecutes the true Orthodox, rejoicing in the company of non-Orthodox Christians.But it gets worse. The Patriarch knows that at this particular gathering he is not only among his “brothers” of various Christian denominations, but also among “brothers” of other faiths. Again, let us repeat: this gathering is for the Babylon of Religions and Cultures of the world to Dialogue. So the question arises: how does our Patriarch reconcile these efforts with the words of the Apostle: “Do not be mismated with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols?” (2 Cor. 6:14-16) I would love to have an answer from our Patriarch.
…guided by our beloved Pope Francis, …
“Our”? “Beloved”? Aren’t these expressions of endearment going a little too far? “Pope”? So now we officially recognize the “usurper” (according to Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus) of the see of Peter as the legitimate Pope? “Guided”? Do we already accept the Pope as the first (primus), and follow him as our guide (pastor)? We do love everyone, as the Lord commands us, and we pray that everyone may come to the knowledge of truth, and thus be saved. But we should not give to heterodox (heretical and schismatic Christians) false hopes that being in heresy and schism (as they are), and being cut off from the Body of Christ (as they are) doesn’t matter. If we fail to evangelize them we fail in our mission.
…in a meeting and in a shared commitment—citing the Orthodox Divine Liturgy—“for the peace from above” and “for the peace of the whole world.” It is particularly appropriate that this international event is hosted by the Diocese of Assisi, the Franciscan family and our dear friends of the Sant’ Egidio Community.…
The following words written by blessed Elder, St. Paisios the Hagiorite about Patriarch Athenagoras are also applicable in this case:
“My writings are nothing more than an expression of my deep pain for the line and, unfortunately, the worldly love of our father Mr. Athenagoras. As shown, he loved another woman, who is modern, called Papal ‘Church,’ because our Orthodox Mother does not impress him, because she is very modest… With such an almost worldly love our Patriarch arrives in Rome. And while he should show love first toward us his children and toward our Mother Church, unfortunately he sent his love very far. The result was to comfort all his secular children who love the world and have this worldly love, but scandalize all of us, the children of Orthodoxy, young and old, who have fear of God.”
Patriarch Bartholomew is a faithful follower of his predecessor, Patriarch Athenagoras, who has fallen madly in love with “the great harlot” (Rev. 17:1), wallowing with her in the mud.
…We have recently witnessed this deep desire to heal our human community and protect our planet when the world mourned the loss of life and beauty in the earthquake that hit central Italy. We recognize, then, that peace is something for which we yearn with great passion and great pain.…
The Lord said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.” (John 14:27) Our request in our services (quoted above by the Patriarch) is to receive “the peace from above.” Peace is a surety given us from Christ, which springs from our faith and hope in Him and His promises. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body” (Col. 3:15). Yet the peace the Patriarch so ardently pursues is a worldly peace. Instead of turning his eyes to heaven to seek “the peace from above,” he keeps them on earth, and together with “the religions that work and walk together toward global peace” he strives to achieve earthly peace with human means, thus turning his back to the “Prince of peace.” (Is. 9:6)
…Many of you are surely aware of how over the last 50 years there have been taken some extraordinary steps toward reconciliation between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches.…
This is the first of no less than four times the word “reconciliation” is used in this short statement. Unfortunately, the steps taken towards reconciliation are in the wrong direction. Do you know what our Patriarch means when he says reconciliation? As “unity in diversity.” There is only one way for reconciliation: for the Roman Catholics and all the heterodox to re-join the Orthodox (true) Church. Our Patriarch has not made a single step to encourage them to move in that direction. To the contrary, he tells his Roman Catholic “brothers” that they are fine where they are, the way they are, and that dogmatic differences are “misunderstandings.”
…We owe the start to the popes John XXIII and Paul VI, as well as to our predecessors, Ecumenical Patriarchs Athenagoras and Demetrios. Their vision has reminded us all of the urgent exhortation of the Lord to his disciples on the Mount of Olives, “that all may be one” (ut unum sint).…
Correction, Your All Holiness: It is not an “urgent exhortation” of the Lord, but a fervent request to His Father. Please, reread His words: “I am praying for them [His disciples]; I am not praying for the world but for those whom thou hast given me… keep them in thy name…that they may be one, even as we are one.” (John 17:9.11) Christ prays for His disciples, that they may “remain united” (Prof. P. Trembelas), that they may maintain the unity they already have – not strive to achieve a unity they don’t have. The unity prayed for is unity of faith and love. The Apostle Paul says, “Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Eph. 6:23)
…However there is another reconciliation, a unity of action, which is concern for the suffering we see around us in the world.…
Here is the great apostasy, here is a radical departure from the Tradition of the Church. The Patriarch has cleverly devised another kind of reconciliation. A reconciliation not based on faith but on action. Unfortunately, this other unity is a human construct, which noble as it may be is not the main mission of the Church, but a deviation and a departure from the unity and the reconciliation Christ came to bring us: “God…through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself…and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ.” (2 Cor. 5:18-20) This should be our top priority, and especially the top priority of His All Holiness. This “other reconciliation,” the “unity of action” he pursues, constitutes the greatest threat for the faithful, because it bypasses the truth (that is Christ), acting on a purely human level. He should examine himself, if he faithfully carries out this ministry, this diakonia – if he is a true ambassador for Christ or His betrayer.
…Indeed the principle that underlies openness and dialogue is that all human beings, in the end, face the same challenges. Such dialogue draws people from different religions and cultures out of isolation, preparing them for coexistence and a relationship of mutual respect.…
So the “Great Commission” (“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt. 28:19-20)) is marginalized and is being supplanted by the “principle,” “all human beings face the same challenges.” “Make disciples” is replaced by “mutual respect.” “In the end,” religions don’t make any substantial difference – the Orthodox Church included. The true Church founded by Christ is replaced by the belief in a “new humanity,” in a New World Order, promoted by the Patriarch’s guide, Pope Francis. (July 31, 2016 speech at the World Youth Day.) To both of them, one religion is the same as another. To remain firm in the faith the Patriarch calls it “isolation.” It is terrible to sacrifice our faith in Christ our true God on the worldly altar of the pseudo-religion of ecumenism and syncretism.
…This is why the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church said in its final message: “A sober interreligious dialogue helps to promote mutual trust, peace and reconciliation.” And the encyclical of the Council was even more specific: “We therefore urge all … regardless of religious beliefs, to work for reconciliation and respect for human rights, first of all through the protection of the divine gift of life. War and the bloodshed have to stop, and justice must prevail, so that peace can be restored.”…
Peace and peace and peace; again and again. But what is peace? It’s the same as truth: Christ, “the Lord of peace” (2 Thes. 3:16). Christ spoke clearly: “I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace.” (John 16:33) Yes in Him and in no one and in nothing else. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.” (John 14:27) In all honesty, whose peace does Patriarch Bartholomew pursue, Christ’s or the world’s?Let us also point out the sober truth, that the Patriarch and his pseudo-council accepted other “heterodox churches,” as if the Lord has founded other churches, besides the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic, Orthodox Church. But that’s only the first step. The second step is to promote and achieve peace and reconciliation among all human beings, “regardless of religious beliefs.”
…This has also been our experience with Pope Francis on the island of Lesbos exactly five months ago, on April 16, 2016. That event was a concrete response of the Churches of the West and the East…
There are no “Churches of the West and the East.” We don’t subscribe to the heretical “two-lung” theory, which is called by Prof. D. Tselengidis “blasphemous.” The Joint Declaration of Lesvos stated that the aim of the participants is “to fulfill the Churches’ [note the plural] mission of service to the world.” The main task of the Church is not social welfare. Let’s not dilute its mission, which is the transformation of mankind and of the entire cosmos.
…to a tragic crisis of our world. At the same time, it was a powerful reaffirmation of how ecumenical relations can promote peace and human rights at a time when the world averts its gaze from extremism and victims of persecution or decides their fate in purely economic or national interests. The power of dialogue and ecumenical action is in starting to go beyond ourselves and what is ours, beyond our community, and our churches.…
We are not opposed to dialogue the aim of which is to proclaim the truth to those willing to hear it. But this kind of dialogue is opposed, even condemned (!) by the ecumenists. Instead, the dialogue they promote is “to go beyond ourselves and what is ours,” meaning to cease to believe that the Orthodox Church is the Church, the one and only Church founded by Christ. Doing so is what they call “isolation,” even extremism.
…It is to learn to speak the language of care and compassion. And it is to give priority to solidarity and service.
It is precisely here where our Patriarch mixes up his priorities and departs from his Apostolic Commission to be Christ’s witness “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The Lord charged His Apostles to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that He commanded them (see Mt. 28:19-20). Is our Patriarch making disciples of all the religious leaders who were present in Assisi?
As we said in another post, our Patriarch does not even believe in making disciples of the Nations, as expressed in his statement: “The Orthodox Church does not seek to convince others on specific perceptions of the Truth or of the Revelation, nor does she seek to convert them to a specific way of thought.” This is not the Martyria that the Lord expects.
Orthodox Christians all over the world have received the unchanging Christian Faith, passed down from the Holy Apostles to their successors, and continue to practice it today in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church – The Orthodox Church.
The occasion for me to write this article arose from the grief I feel whenever I hear the bishops of the so called “new lands” of the Greek Church commemorate Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew—especially when he is commemorated as “the one who is rightly proclaiming the word of [Your] Truth,” addressing God, without fear and without shame, during the holiest moment of the Divine Liturgy.
Priest(intones): Among the first, remember, Lord, our Bishop (Name). Grant that he may serve Your holy churches in peace. Keep him safe, honorable, and healthy for many years, rightly proclaiming the word of Your truth.
Has the fear of God left the hearts of these bishops completely? Don’t they understand that by saying these things they mock God, and that it is “terrible to fall into the hands of the living God, from which no one is able to snatch someone out?” (St. John Chrysostom) They commemorate the greatest blasphemer and the greatest heresiarch of all centuries of Christendom as “the one who is rightly proclaiming the word of Truth”! Who?—the one who has not left any teaching of the Orthodox faith standing! But let us address a few specific “unspeakable words” by “the one who is rightly proclaiming the word of Truth,” so that no one may say that we treat him unfairly.
Follow your orders
In his message to the 2001 “World Conference Against Racism” held in Durban, South Africa under UN auspices, he wrote the following horrible words: “The Orthodox Church does not seek to convince others about a specific perception of the truth or of the revelation, neither does she seek to convert them into a concrete way of thinking”! That is, “Your All Holiness,” when Christ ordered His disciples, at the time of His Ascension to Heaven, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you,” He did not want “to convert them into a concrete way of thinking” denouncing their false religions, and accepting the preaching of the apostles?
“The Lord said, I am telling you the truth: the man who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.” (John 10:1)
How can “the one who is rightly proclaiming the word of Truth” teach contrary to Christ’s teachings? Or, perhaps, the words of Christ, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” are not true, and the false words of Mr. Bartholomew are true? But probably “the one who is rightly proclaiming the word of Truth” must be right, since he is called “the All Holy One,” while Christ is called simply, “Holy,” although He is God! You see, “His Most Divine All Holiness” has everything in superlatives! On the one hand, the title “His All Holiness” was acquired effortlessly on account of his position (Patriarch of Constantinople), while he has obtained the rest of the titles with great effort and toil (by being blasphemer and heresiarch), as he travels in great luxury around the world!
But let us now return to the “unspeakable words” of “the one who is rightly proclaiming the word of Truth.”
If any Clergyman, or Layman, enter a synagogue of Jews, or of heretics, to pray, let him be both deposed and excommunicated.
In his message to Muslims the world over, on the occasion of the religious feast of Ramadan in 2001, he wrote: “God takes pleasure in the peaceful coexistence of humans and, indeed, of those who worship Him, regardless of differences that exist in faith among the three great monotheistic religions”! So who speaks the truth now? Christ, who says that, “No one comes to the Father except through Me,” or “the one who is rightly proclaiming the word of Truth,” who says that God is pleased with the prayers of the Muslims (and the Jews)? I wonder how God tolerates this blasphemer and heresiarch to be called “the one who is rightly proclaiming the word of Truth” and does not send down fire to burn us—both those who commemorate him, and us who hear these words and do not protest!
“To confess Jesus Christ is a great feat, and the Lord promised that He will glorify, in front of the heavenly Father, those who confess Him (see Mat. 10:32). But when does the Lord esteem such a confession? When it is done in an environment that is hostile to the faith and when the one who makes such a confession is in danger of suffering persecution and tribulation because of it. When one confesses Christ under such circumstances, he shows that he is ready to suffer martyrdom for Him. This is why his confession has such a value.”
And what shall we say about his visit to the Synagogue of the Jews in New York in 2009, and the “unspeakable words” he uttered there, although the sacred canons of the Church forbid us Christians—with heavy penances—even to simply enter a Jewish synagogue! Although he was talking for quite some time, not even once did he mention the name of Christ, although he should have cried in a loud voice, “Let the Jews say how the soldiers lost the king, when they were keeping watch. And how did the stone not keep in the Rock of Life? Let them either produce Him who was buried, or worship the One who has risen, saying with us: Glory to the abundance of Your tender mercies, O our Savior, glory to You!” (Sunday of the Myrrh-bearers)
Lord, have mercy on… the Saints?
I will also relate the blasphemous address of the Ecumenical Patriarch during the Patronal Feast of the Patriarchate, on Nov. 30, 1998, to the papal delegation: “Your Eminence, Cardinal William Keeler and our other brothers in Christ constituting the delegation of the Church of Rome… We must not waste time in search of responsibility. Our forefathers who bequeathed to us the split were the unlucky victims of the evil serpent and they already lie in the hands of righteous God. Therefore we request God’s mercy on them, but it is our duty before Him to restore their errors!”
So, “Your All Holiness,” the Saints who protected us from the “abomination of desolation”—the Pope—whose antichristian chariot you struggle to strap us in, were instruments of the Devil? Behold the hypocrisy of “the one who is rightly proclaiming the word of Truth”! While he calls these Saints “victims of the evil serpent,” when the day of their Feast comes, he will celebrate it majestically! In our region he has even established a monastery to Saint Kosmas Aitolos, the strictest anti-papal Saint, who called the pope “the Antichrist”! But “the one who is rightly proclaiming the word of Truth” is so good, that he prays to God to have mercy on these anti-papal Saints! Lord, spare us from worse things to come!
Learn what is holy
Finally, I will mention how he gave the “Holy Koran” as a gift to the president of Coca-Cola, Muhtar Kent, in Atlanta in the United States in 2009. It seems that the “Most Holy One” often confuses the words “holy” and “profane,” so that he calls the unholy Koran “holy” without fear of God and without shame!
From all these and many other words and acts of “His All Holiness,” it is evident that “the one who is rightly proclaiming the word of Truth” is the biggest blasphemer and the biggest heretic of all time!
Despite all this, I pray from the heart to the loving God to grant us and to him repentance and confession of the Name of the Triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—for the salvation of all people and the enjoyment of eternal blessings. Amen.
Orthodox Christians all over the world have received the unchanging Christian Faith, passed down from the Holy Apostles to their successors, and continue to practice it today in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church – The Orthodox Church.
WARNING: Holy and Great Synod ahead
A bomb threatens us, and most of us are unaware of it. I feel it is my duty to inform you of the impending great danger we are heading into, and take appropriate measures. No, it’s not about a nuclear threat or a major terrorist attack, but something much worse—because such things can put an end to our temporary life, whereas the danger about which I want to warn you threatens our eternal life.
Warning to Orthodox Christians worldwide
Blessed people of God: the Ecumenical Patriarch and the bishops who surround him are preparing a great treason against the Orthodox faith and our holy tradition. In the upcoming so-called “Holy and Great Synod” they intend to impose the heretical ecumenism, recognizing officially as Churches the heretical confessions that are outside of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox, unique and single, true Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our faith is that our Lord founded one unique Church, and that this is the Orthodox Church. There cannot be multiple Churches. We cannot accept as Churches Christian groups that are not members of the Holy Church of Christ, which alone constitutes His Holy Body.
One Church, not many
As bishops, priests and theology professors have noted, an expression in the draft document, “Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian World,”1 suggests the existence of other Churches, which is unacceptable:
“The Orthodox Church acknowledges the existence in history of other Christian Churches and confessions which are not in communion with her.”
Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos proposed to replace this phrase with:
“The Orthodox Church is aware that her charismatic limits are identical to her canonical limits, and also knows that there are other Christian Confessions, which were cut off from her and are not in communion with her.”
The proposed change is necessary, but at this point its acceptance by the Ecumenical Patriarchate is in my opinion rather impossible. Of course there is always hope, and we pray for it.
The ecumenists have the audacity to apologize for the attitude of the holy Fathers, who supposedly did not show enough love toward their heterodox (heretic and schismatic) brothers.
Unfortunately the ecumenists, who, in violation of the holy canons, officially and actively pray with non-Orthodox, recognize the existence of non-Orthodox Churches alongside ours, the only Church of Christ. We believe “in One Holy Church,” whereas they believe in many “sister Churches.” So they do not profess the true faith, i.e. they are heretics. Also they believe that baptism is something magical, so that whoever performs it, whether inside or outside the Church, is “valid” as long as the name of the Holy Trinity is invoked. We believe in one baptism, which takes place in the One Holy Church, by faithful and appointed members of her. We say this because in practice our Archdiocese (of America, in which I belong) states unequivocally that in case of need the aero-baptism (baptism in the air) is a real baptism, even when performed by an atheist doctor or nurse.2
Already by the 1920s, nearly 100 years ago, the Ecumenical Patriarchate had a leading role in the ecumenical movement, and practically accepted that the Orthodox Church is part of the Universal Church, and that she is equal to the heresies, confessions and communities that constitute “It.” This is also confirmed by the participation of most local Orthodox Churches in the World Council of Churches (heresies). In this the Patriarch ought to emulate his “sister” papal “Church,” which is more consistent towards its creed, i.e. its self-conscience that it alone is the Church of Christ, and thus does not participate as a member of the WCC, but only as an observer.
The ecumenists try to unite us with the Roman Catholics, with the Anti-Chalcedonian Monophysites, and other heretics and schismatics, not through their return to the Church by baptism (not even through holy chrism or even a confession of faith), but simply by recognizing them as our brothers in Christ, with whom we are united in the love that we have for each other and our common love for Christ, without demanding that they cast out their heretical beliefs, and without having them accept holy Tradition, as it has been received and kept unchanged and pure by the Orthodox and only true Church. For us only one way exists for their union with the Church: the way of repentance and their return to Christ’s Church, for which we pray.
One God, not many
But this is not all that is bad with the ecumenists; they are also syncretists. That is, they equate Christianity, or to say it better, the Church, the ark of salvation founded by the God-man Jesus Christ, with the religions of the world, especially with the so-called “monotheistic” religions, which do not worship the true God. Here we must pay close attention, because others may believe in a God, but not in the same God, the true God. Proof: let the Jews and Muslims say, addressing our Lord Jesus Christ, “You are our God; besides You we know of no other God,” and then we will converse whether we believe in the same God. Our mission is to unite everyone with, “God’s household, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15).
We are accountable
Now, the question is, what will we do about these things we just heard or read? If we remain inert and indifferent, then we become co-responsible and accountable for the imminent great evil. The holy Fathers of the Church suffered for their faith, became confessors and martyrs, and did not give in to the pressures exercised on them by their leaders. The ecumenists have the audacity to apologize for the attitude of the holy Fathers, who supposedly did not show enough love toward their heterodox (heretic and schismatic) brothers. But we, following the divinely inspired Fathers, remain firmly united with them, and are willing to give the testimony (martyria) of faith, and to even suffer martyrdom.
Get prepared
So what can we do? What ought we do? Inquire with spiritual fathers we happen to know and have confidence in them, what do they believe about these issues. Study the writings of our holy Fathers and make sure that our faith is the faith of the Church. So we’ll be able to resist those who, perhaps, might try to lure us to the road that leads to destruction and perdition, which is the path of the heresy of ecumenism. We will follow a bishop who has Orthodox faith and Orthodox mindset. Thank God there are Orthodox hierarchs.
A Greek version of this article appeared in the June 1, 2016 issue of the Orthodox weekly paper Orthodoxos Typos.
“If no Priest is available and the child’s condition is grave, the infant may be baptized by an Orthodox lay person. If none is available, the doctor or nurse, preferably Christians, may conduct the ‘Baptism by Air.’” (The Priest’s Handbook, 1987, p. 85, emphasis added.)
Orthodox Christians all over the world have received the unchanging Christian Faith, passed down from the Holy Apostles to their successors, and continue to practice it today in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church – The Orthodox Church.
Reasonableness of our Faith, Bishop Tikhon and Ecumenism
I was asked to comment on a homily given on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee by Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Egorievsk titled, “A Test of the Reasonableness of Our Faith.”1 I read carefully the rather lengthy transcript.2 Bishop Tikhon said exactly what one would expect from someone who happens to be the vicar of Patriarch Kyrill of Russia, who is also reported to be “the personal confessor of Russian President Vladimir Putin.”3 So, what am I saying? That he delivered a political talk, aligned with the new order of things embraced by Patriarch Kirill, in full support of his friend, President Vladimir Putin, whose goal is to extend his geopolitical influence.
The Reality of Ecumenism
What is this “new order of things”? It was expressed by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, in an interview he gave on Feb. 19, 2016: “Today, we do not speak about overcoming this division [between Christians of the East and of the West], but we speak about learning to live and work in this world as brothers, not rivals in order to protect the values we share, to preach Gospels together, to open God’s truth to people.”4 Bishop Tikhon’s talk reflects the new order, the new reality that has emerged: the reality of ecumenism and syncretism. A brief analysis of his talk will reveal that.
An equivocal Orthodox witness
He speaks of “the Holy Orthodox Church,” but he does not identify it with the “One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.” He speaks on preserving “the Christian world with its Christian values,” whereas he should be speaking on preaching the gospel of salvation to the world.
I find his talk to be disconcerting. He is vacillating, and gives an equivocal Orthodox witness, imbued by the ecumenistic spirit of the age. He tries hard to convince us that our relations with the heterodox should be in a spirit of love. He adduces biblical passages and patristic witnesses with seemingly contradictory statements made by them to back up his defense of an indefensible position— indefensible because it is untraditional. Despite his denial, his ecclesiology is ecumenistic. He speaks of “the Holy Orthodox Church,” but he does not identify it with the “One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.” He speaks on preserving “the Christian world with its Christian values,” whereas he should be speaking on preaching the gospel of salvation to the world.
Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky)
Love and Hate
He quotes Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky, 1886-1929), who, in writing to an Anglican says, “it is high time for us to talk in the spirit of love and good will. I am entirely ready to repeat the words of your letter: ‘The spirit of love should triumph over the spirit of hate; the spirit of humility over the spirit of rebellion and pride.’” He (Bishop Tikhon) chastises “an Orthodox Christian by the name of Joseph” for breaking communion, and rightly so. (Incidentally, a layman does not “break communion”; a bishop does.) However, his lovi-doviness ends there, and gives way to the same hatred and name-calling he demonizes. It happens with all ecumenists: they will fraternize with their likes (Orthodox or not), but lose their cool when dealing (they actually refuse to deal) with the zealots. His rantings with that poor soul betray his own intransigence. Look at his name-calling: “ruthlessness,” “devil’s work,” “devilish outrage,” “demonic mockery,” “frenziedly,” “wretch,” “demonic haste,” “spirit of deceitfulness, condemnation, and self-aggrandizement… drawing others into ruin by word and example,” “total unbelief in the Church.” He is carried away in an uncontrolled rage contrary to his intended main message: make love, not war—to all, that is, except to those he calls “morose isolationists.” Personally, I find his unleashing remarks unbecoming.
Orthodoxy is proclaimed
“For me, Catholics are not a Church, and therefore not Christians, for there is no Christianity without the Church.”
— Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky)
He sets before us Hieromartyr Hilarion as someone who displays love towards the heterodox. Hieromartyr Hilarion does exactly what the Apostle to the Nations tells us to do: he speaks the truth in love (Eph. 4:15), when he says, “For me, Catholics are not a Church, and therefore not Christians, for there is no Christianity without the Church.” Does he (Bishop Tikhon) have the guts to say the same? (He cannot say yes, because he calls Roman Catholicism a Church.) But Hieromartyr Hilarion has more to say on the subject: “Nowadays Christianity is seen merely as a private, secret form of piety, but Christian life has been impoverished. Christian life is only possible in the Church; only the Church lives the life of Christ… ‘New paths’ are created bearing the name of Christ, but without the Church, ‘near but outside the walls of the Church.’ Those ‘new paths’ prove very convenient for those who preserve the name of Christ but worship their favorite idols.”5 This is Orthodoxy proclaimed and witnessed6urbi et orbi. Does Bishop Tikhon- or Patriarch Kirill- subscribe to it?
On April 13, 2016 the ROCOR Synod of bishops issued a communication concerning the texts of the Pan-Orthodox Council. In it they also quoted Hieromartyr Hilarion. Here is the pertinent quote:
While our hearts echo the sentiment of the holy Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky) who observed the fracture in the Christian world — “What conscious Christian does not sorrow in soul when he sees the enmity and division among people who should be uniting their faith, among whom should be reigning the peace left and given by Christ to His disciples, and love poured into the hearts of Christians by the Holy Spirit!” — we acknowledge at the same time that the advent of such peace to those who are divided can come only through the proclamation of the one true path towards unity: the life of salvation offered in the Church; and that understanding how to return to the indivisible Church begins with a right understanding of separation.7
Saint Theophan shows that the Church has boundaries in this letter
Here is a bold affirmation of the only stand Orthodox should take concerning the union of Christians: return to the unity of the Church. Can Bishop Tikhon and his fellow ecumenists proclaim this faith to their separate brethren? Why don’t they imitate the Saint they admire?
Bishop Tikhon is very equivocal following a tactic of adducing apparent contradictory statements by Saints and Orthodox theologians, in an attempt to drive home his ecumenist agenda. For example, he quotes St. Theophan as “recognizing” the [Roman] Catholic baptism and other sacraments. Since he does not provide the source of the citation we don’t know in what context St. Theophan formulated the words attributed to him. Even so look how he phrases this statement. “Our Church,” he says, “has condescension toward Catholics and accepts… Catholic baptism and other sacraments.” “Acceptance” does not mean “recognition” or “validity.” “Condescension” means “economy.”
But here is what St. Theophan says elsewhere in one of his letters:
The truth of God, the whole, pure, and saving truth, is to be found neither in the Roman Catholics, nor in the Protestants, nor in the Anglicans… It is to be found only in the One True Church, the Orthodox Church. The others may well believe that they possess the truth. In reality, however, they are far from it. The Roman Catholics, who were the first to split from the Church, consider the truth to be with their side. The Protestants, who protested against the Roman Catholics’ failure on a score of points, failed themselves to return to the truth and, in fact, strayed from it even further than the former. They did not establish their new faith upon God’s truth, but upon heretical sophistries of their own invention. No matter how much they claim to be right, they are very far from the truth.8
The Saint is straightforward in saying that Roman Catholics and other Christians are not “outside the Orthodox Church,” as Bishop Tikhon states, but outside the Church (they “were… split from the Church,” he states). Also note that the Saint does not call Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Protestants “Churches,” as Patriarch Kirill, Bishop Tikhon and the ecumenists do. Incidentally, St. Philaret of Moscow says the same thing in the quotation Bishop Tikhon provides, where he speaks of “the error of those who have fallen away from the Universal Church,” not the Orthodox Church, as if the Orthodox Church was one of the Churches.
The fact is, Patriarch Kirill has scandalized and let down first his own flock, and then all Orthodox Christians. Not because he met with the pope, nor for displaying together with him solidarity for the suffering Christians, but because of the deceptive statements introduced by the Curia who drafted the Joint Statement.
Bishop Tikhon attempts to minimize the impact of Patriarch Kirill’s meeting with the pope and of their Joint Statement. The fact is that he has scandalized and let down first his own flock, and then all Orthodox Christians. Not because he met with the pope, nor for displaying together with him solidarity for the suffering Christians, but because of the deceptive statements introduced by the Curia who drafted the Joint Statement, statements which compromise our ecclesial identity. The patriarch should have removed the references that betray the uniqueness of the Church. Conspicuously, at the very top of the Joint Statement appears the following statement: “It is with joy that we have met like brothers in the Christian faith… to discuss the mutual relations between the Churches.” We don’t have the same faith. If we did we would be united. We don’t believe in a plurality of Churches. We profess our faith in ONE Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. This is the main fault of the Joint Statement.
Following his Patriarch, Bishop Tikhon calls the Roman Catholics “our brothers.” But what happens to his brotherly spirit of reconciliation, unity and love, when it comes to his real “brothers”? Or are these feeling reserved only for schismatic and heretical Christians? Why is he so willing to “speak with the heterodox in a spirit of love and good will,” but so unwilling to do the same with his Orthodox brothers? Brothers and sisters in Christ are our fellow Orthodox Christians with whom we share the same faith and the same chalice. He believes that calling the non-Orthodox Christians “brothers” is in the spirit of Christian love, whereas it is done in a worldly, ecumenistic spirit.
Unacceptable expressions
Here is a sampling of other expressions contained in the Joint Statement, which are unacceptable from an Orthodox standpoint:
“We share the same spiritual Tradition of the first millennium of Christianity”;
“We have been divided by wounds caused by old and recent conflicts, by differences inherited from our ancestors, in the understanding and expression of our faith in God”;
“the loss of unity [is] the outcome of human weakness and of sin”;
“undertake all that is necessary to overcome the historical divergences we have inherited”;
“We exhort all Christians and all believers of God to pray fervently to the providential Creator of the world to protect His creation from destruction and not permit a new world war.”
Do we realize what the Joint Statement says? It says, We are innocent victims. We would be united today if our ancestors had not sinned in causing the division, which we inherited not because of any fault of ours. As, if not more objectionable than most of the above statements is the invitation not only to Christians, but to “all believers of God” to pray as if we all were believers of the same God. Statements such as the above are not “outright fantasies,” as Bishop Tikhon charges. Like his Patriarch, he too proves to be an ecumenist and a betrayer of the faith in Unam Sanctam, because he speaks of a “division in the Church.” Can Christ be divided? Following the Ecumenists, he says, “how terrible is the sin of division in the Church,” whereas he should be saying, how terrible is to fall away from the unity of the Church. Let him, or anyone else, defend his un-Orthodox expression.
He states that the issue of Christians outside Orthodoxy is a “very complicated question.” It is sad that he finds complicated something that to any Orthodox, and even more so to a bishop should be very simple and crystal clear. He writes: “We bow before the martyrdom of those who, at the cost of their own lives, have given witness to the truth of the Gospel, preferring death to the denial of Christ. We believe that these martyrs of our times, who belong to various Churches but who are united by their shared suffering, are a pledge of the unity of Christians.” Very, very sad. There are no martyrs outside the Church. Read what the Church says in her holy Canons: “those who pray to heretical pseudo-martyrs are excommunicated,” to which St. Nicodemos the Athonite comments: “For many even of the heretics in the time of persecution and of idolatry showed fortitude even to death, and were called martyrs by those who shared their beliefs.”9 Yes, “called martyrs by those who shared their beliefs” — not by the Orthodox Christians. Their suffering does not unite them with Christ, because they believed in a “different gospel” (Gal. 1:6) and in “another Jesus” (2 Cor. 11:3).10
Loveism
Since the 1920’s, which mark the beginning of the ecumenical dialogues, the ecumenists have been using loveism ad nauseam. Where has that led us? We should always be following the Apostolic injunction, “speaking the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15). We must always speak the truth, we must always proclaim the truth. Truth is Christ; we cannot leave Christ out of our dialogues and discussions. Love without truth is false love, human love, empty love: empty of Christ. We don’t want such love. We should avoid such love, because it is a false love, not a genuine love. What union can we ever have with this kind of love? False union. If we truly love them we need to bring them to the Church, from which they have been separated. The Apostle says, “till we all come in the unity of the faith” (Eph. 4:13). We pray for “the unity of faith.” We don’t relegate faith to the back seat, as the ecumenists do.
Tough questions
Who follows faithfully the holy Fathers: we, Orthodox Christians, or the ecumenists? The Fathers will give us the answer. How have they dealt with the non-Orthodox? Despite Bishop Tikhon’s appeal to enlist in his camp St. John of Kronstadt and Hieromartyr Hilarion, Church history proves him wrong. We follow St. Cyprian, St. Athanasios the Great, St. Maximos the Confessor, St. Theodore the Studite, St. John Damascene, St. Photios the Great, St. Mark of Ephesos, St. Gregory Palamas, Patriarch Jeremiah II and his Synod, St. Nektarios the Wonderworker, St. Justin Popović, St. Paisios, including St. John of Kronstadt and Hieromartyr Hilarion, all of whom proclaimed the Orthodox faith. (What else could they do?) Even in our days we have bishops and theologians who divide correctly the word of God’s truth. We will not be left headless, like the Old Believers. “Do not be afraid, little flock…” (Lk. 12:32). We trust that the Lord will reveal His true worshipers, who have not bent their knee to Ecumenism and the Anti-Christ spirit of New Age.
Witnessing our faith
Towards the end of his talk Bishop Tikhon mentions that the contribution of the Orthodox people is “to bring the non-Orthodox to the true Church.” That’s good and commendable. But how? He suggests to witness Orthodoxy “by prayer and the example of our lives,” “to talk in the spirit of love and good will,” and not by “the teaching of the truth,” which, according to him, is “the spirit of hate” and “the spirit of rebellion and pride.” Here we see the “ecumenical approach” hard at work, splitting love from faith, proclaiming the faith when addressing those who share our faith, but witnessing our faith with our example when dealing with people of different religious backgrounds.11 This is the spirit of Ecumenism, which he embraces. If he denies he is an ecumenist let him say so, let him call Patriarch Bartholomew an ecumenist, and if he is not willing to do that, let him say that his predecessor, Patriarch Athenagoras, was an ecumenist.
Is reasonableness a good test?
I reserved my last comment for the title of Bishop Tikhon’s talk: “A Test of the Reasonableness of Our Faith.” What does he mean by that? How does this title relate to his topic? I found it strange that nowhere in his talk does he refer to this title, nor has he provided a clue as to its meaning. Except for an indirect reference, when he uses its opposite, “unreasonableness”: “Unreasonableness” is exhibited by those Orthodox Christians he chastises, so we infer that “reasonableness” is expressed by his fellow ecumenists, who display love for their heterodox brothers. Personally I don’t recall coming across any Father using this term. I ask: is it a prerequisite of faith to be reasonable? How reasonable is the Lord’s resurrection from the dead and ascension to heaven? Should we deny it if it is perceived as unreasonable? The more I think about it the more suspect the term becomes. It smells of…Roman Catholicism and Aristotelianism.
In fact, it draws from Roman Catholic sources. As it turns out Pope Benedict XVI gave a talk on Nov. 21, 2012 titled, “The reasonableness of faith in God.”12 I read this catechetical homily and I found it to be…reasonable. Indeed faith in God is reasonable, that is “in accordance with reason”13 or “agreeable to reason or sound judgment; logical.”14 Surely our faith is not against reason or sound judgment; it’s not irrational.
I don’t intend to make a defense of Pope Benedict’s defense of the reasonableness of faith in knowing God. Orthodoxy does not deny such reasonableness, however it points out that true knowledge of God and of the mysteries of faith goes beyond even an illumined reason by a created grace, but is obtained through a superior knowledge, that of the illumination and deification of nous by the rays of the uncreated light. What is missing in Roman Catholic doctrine is the Palamite teaching of uncreated grace, which makes union with God possible.
“Unfortunately Western rationalism has influenced Eastern Orthodox rulers, so that they remain only bodily in the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ, while their entire being is in the West, which is viewed as reigning in the secular world.”
— St. Paisios the Hagiorite
So what message does Bishop Tikhon want to convey with the title he gave to his talk, “A Test of the Reasonableness of Our Faith”? What other than, those who do not agree with Patriarch Kirill’s “opening” to the West and criticize him are unreasonable? The way I see it, reasonable are those Orthodox who follow the Church Fathers, without deviating from them, who desire the “unity of all” in faith, and believe that there is no other way to be saved but by “belief in the truth” (2 Thes. 2:13).
Bishop Tikhon and those of like mind with him with their reasonableness have turned their backs to Orthodox tradition and have embraced the Roman Catholic (heretical) teaching of pragmatic rationalism. The latest expression of the spirit of the age is included in a recent statement made by a Metropolitan of the Ecumenical (read ecumenistic) throne, Metropolitan of France Emmanuel: “We cannot say we don’t recognize all the other Churches, whether the Roman Catholic Church or the Churches that came from the Reformation.”15 Voila!
I don’t know how reliable Wikipedia’s source is, Zhegulev, Ilya (26 November 2015). “Самые влиятельные в РПЦ”. Meduza (I don’t read Russian-actually I could read it, but I don’t understand it).
“Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods!” A Speech in Honor of the 95th Anniversary of the Moscow Theological Academy, http://www.pravmir.com/thou-shalt-have-no-other-gods/.
Orthodox Christians all over the world have received the unchanging Christian Faith, passed down from the Holy Apostles to their successors, and continue to practice it today in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church – The Orthodox Church.
Kerygma and Martyria: Two sides of the same coin
The way the terms kerygma (proclamation) and martyria (witness) are often used is problematic, particularly in ecumenical dialogues.1 To be sure, there is a distinction between these terms, but the Orthodox understanding of their meaning and functionality differs from that of Roman Catholics and Protestants (as well as those Orthodox theologians who are in dialogue with them in an ecumenical setting). Before approaching the subject let us offer a brief explanation of what proclamation (kerygma) and witness (martyria) are.
The Orthodox approach
Proclamation/evangelization (kerygma)
There is an imperative for the Church to proclaim the Gospel to the entire world: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Mt. 28:19). The mission of the Church is to evangelize the world, to preach the Gospel of salvation to every human being “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The end of the Church’s proclamation to the world is that all “may have fellowship with us [the Church of the believers]; and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3) and with the Holy Spirit. The purpose of evangelism2 is to bring all humanity to the unity of the triune God through Jesus Christ. This also constitutes a duty of all its members, namely to proclaim the Gospel in word and action to all. This is a movement both inward and outward.
Witness (martyria)
Evangelization (kerygma)
To confess or declare one’s faith openly, even at the risk of losing one’s life.
To proclaim the Gospel in word and action to all, in order to bring all humanity to the unity of the triune God through Jesus Christ.
Witness (martyria)
We are also called to be witnesses of our faith in both word and action. A life of holiness is always a powerful witness: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid…Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:14.16). Perhaps a better way to witness to those who don’t share our faith is with our actions. A silent witness of our faith is often preferable to words, especially when our words fall short or when others are not ready to receive them. A life lived in accordance with the evangelical tenets is a more powerful witness than so many words, especially if they are not backed up by authentic Christian living: “You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men” (2 Cor. 2:2).
The ecumenical approach
The ecumenical motto, vision, credo and strategy is “Unity, not uniformity” (read oneness of faith).
The ecumenical approach is to speak of proclamation(kerygma) when we address people of our own faith and of witness (martyria) when we address people that do not share our faith. It does not seem fair, they say, to proclaim our faith to people who come from different traditions and cultural backgrounds. In order to dialogue with each other we must be more receptive to listening and be more sympathetic to other people’s ideas and views. To be in dialogue, they add, does not mean that we compromise or relativize our faith. By following the witness approach we realize that diversity increases our receptivity to diverse ideas, improves our relations and enriches our lives.
Reconciliation, healing, mutual respect, acceptance, tolerance, peace, justice, inclusivity, sensitivity, care for the environment: these are the topics of discussion and activities that characterize those engaging in ecumenical discussions. This is how they witness to each other. But witness to what? Truth is excluded; it is not even mentioned. Why? Because truth is divisive, therefore it is avoided; so are ethnicity, religion, faith, and culture. Diversity is praised and extolled, but always in unity. “Unity, not uniformity” (read oneness of faith), is their motto, vision, credo and strategy. More than anything else love is used ad nauseam, as the summum bonum, a justification for not offending with the truth, as if the two could be separated. The culture of loveism is nurtured in the WCC agenda, the fruit of ecumenism. Its members thrive in endless emetic statements.
Is the ecumenical approach Orthodox?
Instead of giving us an opportunity to declare our faith, ecumenical dialogues remain sterile and unproductive, while the truth is kept under the bushel.
It seems that the ecumenical approach to witness is mutual acceptance with the person or church or religious group with which we are dialoguing. For those engaged in ecumenical relations, dialogue seems to be an end in itself. The witness approach (as understood and applied by the ecumenists) is particularly applied in inter-confessional meetings, prayer services, cultural and educational ventures, social activities, mission work, and other forms of common testimony. If some commonality is reached, it is either through marginalization and minimalism of our faith or through “finding unity in diversity.” The scope seems to be not to offend anyone, but to accept their beliefs and convictions as equal to ours in our search for some common denominator.
The Orthodox understanding
We find both kerygma and martyria to be true, but not as they are applied by the ecumenists. Their understanding of martyria is actually opposite to what this word means, which is to confess or declare one’s faith openly, even at the risk of losing one’s life. So much so that those who gave their very life on account of an open confession of their faith in Christ are called martyrs (martyres), while those who suffered on account of their faith short of dying for it are called confessors (omologites, from omologō, to declare or confess openly). We bring the words of Metropolitan Nikolaos of Mesogaia who presents the Orthodox approach to the ecumenical “dialogues”:
Let me refer to our participation in the ecumenical dialogues, which constitutes a unique historical opportunity for us to express the testimony (martyria) of our faith to the contemporary world. The manner in which the so-called dialogue of love and unity is conducted displays characteristics of compromise and not of struggle; purposefulness and not sacrifice. For this reason it causes confusion and sparks off suspiciousness, when we search the dogmas to find what unites us, and not what separates us. This has a nice appeal to it, but is not convincing, because truth, when we possess it in its entirety is shown from what others do not possess, that is from our differences. And this we can declare (diakeryxoume) humbly and gently, without fanaticism. If our goal is coexistence according to worldly terms, this is politics that does not inspire. But if it is a common walk towards God’s truth, then this demands unyielding confession (martyria) and consistency of life, which convinces. Truth is not conversed; it is confessed (omologeitai).3
Do you see how kerygma and martyria are used in the same breath as having the same application? We declare our faith with words, as the apostle urges us to do (Rom. 10:9), and with our very life: “You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men” (2 Cor. 3:2). Unfortunately, the words of Metropolitan Nikolaos and of other Orthodox theologians fall on deaf ears. Thus the ecumenical dialogues instead of giving us an opportunity to declare our faith, they remain sterile and unproductive, while the truth is kept under the bushel.
Semi-ecumenists
The Orthodox approach to kerygma and martyria is fought not only by the ecumenists but also a group we call semi-ecumenist. Who are they? They are those who declare they are Orthodox, while they call the true Orthodox isolationists. What characterizes them is the “spirit of love” they have for the non-Orthodox Christians, while they look upon their fellow Orthodox as demons incarnate. They need to engage into a deep introspective look to discover their double standard and give a confession of their Orthodox faith to everyone, without compromises and false pretenses.
Scriptural confirmation
The holy scripture provides abundant examples to illustrate and confirm the Orthodox understanding of the terms under consideration. A few examples will suffice. The Lord’s dialoguing with the Samaritan woman (John 4:7-30) is brought as an example of dialogue with an outcast.4 But it is equally an example of proclamation, as it ends with the Lord not only instructing her to the truth, but also revealing Himself to her. If this is truly a paradigm for mission (which it is), it is not for martyria alone, but also for kerygma, because the two are inseparable, as two sides of the same coin.
We ask: to which category does the Apostles Paul’s speech at Areopagus belong, martyria or kerygma? Before you answer, answer this other question: the Apostle was addressing a crowd of heathen philosophers. Which approach should he be using? Wouldn’t you say that he should be witnessing to them? Yes, he should—and He does. “You are very religious,” he compliments them. That’s a very clever approach and sets the stage for an exemplary kerygmatic delivery. But what does he say after that? “What you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23). And he proceeds to proclaim to them the true God, who will judge the world through a man, whom He has raised from the dead.
It is true that he doesn’t call Christ the Son of God, but “a man.” However, who’s to say that had he not have been rudely interrupted, he wouldn’t have declared to them the entire plan of God? After all he did not hesitate to declare to them His resurrection from the dead, the centrality of the Gospel. What is this declaration—kerygmatic or martyric?
To the Presbyters of the Church of Ephesos he declared how he “testified both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance to God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). He was diamartyromenos with them, solemnly testifying, giving them the martyria, both the inner life of witness and the outward declaration of the faith in Jesus Christ. It is not one or the other: our life stands behind our faith, if our faith is genuine.
Consider also whether the following words of the Apostle Peter probe us towards witnessing or proclaiming: “Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence” (1 Pet. 3:15). What does “make a defense” mean but proclaim one’s faith openly? Surely, not by being aggressive, acting in a demeaning or condescending way towards the other person, but in a calm and respectful way. Nevertheless, we must defend our faith, not hide it. We must “speak the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15), but speak it!
Consider further these words of the Apostle Paul: “Woe to me if I don’t evangelize” (1 Cor. 9:16). Is to evangelize, to preach the Gospel, a proclamation or a witness? The Gospel is proclaimed: in word and deed, but it is always proclaimed, whether in the church or outside the church, in the synagogue or in the agora, with Christians or non-Christians, with believers or non-believers. The message of salvation is the same.
The Ecumenical Patriarch certainly knows this, but he does not proclaim this supreme truth because he is an ecumenist. What witness does he give when he donates to Muftis Quoran books that blaspheme against Christ, saying He is not God incarnate, but just a prophet? He has often been confronted for his equivocal stance, using compromising language in ecumenical encounters, while defending his stance and proclaiming his Orthodox faith when he addresses Orthodox Christians. This duplicity must stop, because it compromises our faith.
See, for example, The Mission of the Church, Catholic and UCAdialogue report (UCA stands for Uniting Church of Australia), Chapter 3, Nov. 8, 2008), and Johannes Nissen, “Witnessing to the Indiscriminate Love of God The Holy Spirit and Authentic Witness” Paper for the IAMS (International Association for Mission Studies) in Malaysia 2004.
“Evangelism is the announcement, proclamation, and/or preaching of the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), the good news of and about Jesus Christ.” (Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry, https://carm.org/what-is-evangelism.)
Interview with Dionysios Makris of the newspaper Stylos Orthodoxias uploaded to the webpage of the University of Athens.The same interview contains these different but relevant words of the Metropolitan: “The purpose of the Church is not to overthrow the brunt of sin, but to confess Christ, based on the psalmic words, ‘mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other’ (Ps. 84:11 LXX). How wise are these words! Truth to walk together with mercy and righteousness to walk along with peace.”
