Daily Archives: February 12, 2016

More Criticism of ‘Pan-Orthodox’ Draft Documents

METROPOLITAN OF LIMASSOL: “WHAT UNITY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT? THOSE WHO DEPARTED FROM THE CHURCH ARE HERETICS AND SCHISMATICS”

There are serious gaps in the theological and canonical discussions at the upcoming meeting of the Pan-Orthodox Synod, notes Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol.

In a letter, of which the Agency of Religious News Romfea.gr has published extracts, the eminent hierarch does not consider there to be any problem of restoring the unity of Christians, since this, in his opinion, was never disrupted. Rather, certain Christians chose a path different to the one we follow, that of the original Orthodox truth.

There are no churches or confessions. Rather, these have cut themselves off from the Church and must be considered heretics and schismatics, notes His Eminence, expressing confusion as to why such an important issue has been ignored.

The stance of His Eminence, who invokes the right of each hierarch to express his opinion regarding such an important event, is sure to cause discussion and debate within Orthodoxy.

“Since, in agreement with regulations sent to us regarding the organisation and operation of the Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church, and in particular article 12, paragraphs 2 and 3, indicate that we are entitled first to express our views at our local Synod, I, having examined my conscience, humbly submit to the Holy and Sacred Synod of our holy Church my views and opinions regarding the following matters,” the Reverend Metroplitan Athanasios underlines in his letter.

In his letter, to which Romfea.gr gained exclusive access, His Eminence Athanasios speaks about the text of the 5th Preconciliar Pan-Orthodox Conference held in Chambesy in October entitled “Decision – Relations of the Orthodox Church to the rest of the Christian world,” stating the following:

“I am in total agreement with the first three articles of the text. However, at article 4 onwards, I have made the following observations: “The Orthodox Church has always prayed ‘for the union of all’ – I believe this to mean the return to and union with Her of all those who broke away and distanced themselves from Her, of heretics and schismatics, once they have renounced their heresy and schism and flee from those things with repentance and are integrated and joined – united – with the Orthodox Church in accordance with the teachings of the sacred canons,” remarks His Eminence Athanasios.

His Eminence continues: “The Orthodox Church of Christ never lost the ‘unity of faith and the communion of the Holy Spirit” and does not accept the theory of the restoration of the unity of those ‘who believe in Christ,’ because it believes that the unity of those who believe in Christ already exists in the unity of all of Her baptised children, between themselves and with Christ, in Her correct faith, where no heretics or schismatics are present, for which reason She prays for their return to Orthodoxy in repentance.”

His Eminence completes his letter, of which Romfea.gr has released excerpts, thusly: “I believe that what is stated in article 5 regarding ‘the lost unity of Christians’ is incorrect, because the Church as God’s people, united among themselves and with the Head of the Church which is Christ, never lost this unity and therefore is not in need of rediscovering or seeking it, because it always was, is, and will be just as the Church of Christ has never ceased nor will cease to exist.”

His Eminence Athanasios adds that, “what happened is that groups, peoples or individuals left the body of the Church and the Church prays, and is required to try through mission, that they all return in repentance to the Orthodox Church via the canonical route. In other words, there do not exist other Churches, only heresies and schisms, should we wish to be more precise in our definitions.”

“The expression ‘towards the restoration of Christian unity’ is incorrect because the unity of Christians – the members of the Church of Christ – has never been broken, as long as they remain united to the Church. Separation from the Church and flight from the Church have unfortunately happened numerous times due to heresies and schisms, but there was never a loss of the internal unity of the Church,” His Eminence continues in his letter.

Elsewhere, His Eminence Athanasios states: “I question why the text contains multiple references to ‘Churches’ and ‘Confessions’? What difference and which element allows us to call some Churches and others Confessions? Which is a Church and which a heresy and which a schismatic group or confession? We confess one Church and that all the others are schisms and heresies. I maintain that giving the title ‘Church’ to heretical or schismatic communities is entirely incorrect from a theological, dogmatic and canonical perspective because the Church of Christ is one, as also stated in Article 1, and we cannot refer to a heretical or schismatic community or group outside the Orthodox Church as ‘Church’.”

“At no point does this text state that the only way that leads to union with the Church is solely the repentant return of heretics and schismatics to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ, which according to Article 1 is our Orthodox Church. The reference to the ‘understanding of the tradition of the ancient Church’ gives the impression that there is an ontological difference between the ancient Church of the Seven Ecumenical Councils and the genuine continuation of the same until the present day, namely our Orthodox Church. We believe that there is absolutely no difference between the Church of the 21st century and the Church of the 1st century, because one of the attributes of the Church is the fact we also confess in the Symbol of Faith, namely that it is Apostolic,” stressed the Metropolitan of Limmasol.

The Bishop subsequently underlines that in Article 12, the impression is given that the Orthodox are looking to restore the right faith and unity, giving cause for an unacceptable view.

“Article 12 states that the common purpose of the theological dialogues is ‘the final restoration of unity in correct faith and love’. This gives the impression that we Orthodox are seeking our restoration to correct faith and the unity of love, as if we had lost the right faith and are seeking to discover it through the theological dialogues with the heterodox. I maintain that this theory is theologically unacceptable for us all,” underlines Metropolitan Athanasios.

Elsewhere, His Eminence expresses objections to the text, stressing that “the reference of the text to ‘the World Council of Churches’ gives me the opportunity to make a complaint against occasional syncretistic events which took place therein, but also against its title, since it regards the Orthodox Church as ‘one of the Churches’ or a branch of the one Church which seeks and strives for Her realisation at the World Council of Churches. For us, however, the Church of Christ is one and unique, as we confess in the Symbol of Faith, and not many.”

His Eminence further states: “The view that the preservation of the genuine Orthodox faith is guaranteed only through the synodical system as the only ‘competent and final authority on matters of faith’ is exaggerated and ignores the truth that many synods throughout Church history taught and espoused incorrect and heretical doctrines, and it was the faithful people which rejected them and preserved the Orthodox faith and championed the Orthodox Confession. Neither a synod without the faithful people, the fullness of the Church, nor the people without the synod of Bishops, is able to regard themselves as the Body of Christ and Church of Christ and to correctly express the experience and doctrine of the Church.”

Addressing the Archbishop of Cyprus and the members of the Holy Synod, the Metropolitan of Limassol stresses: “Use of hard or insulting language cannot be made in ecclesiastical encyclicals of this kind, nor do I think anyone desires the use of that form of expression. However, the truth must be expressed with precision and clarity, though naturally with pastoral discernment and genuine love towards all. We owe it also to our brothers who find themselves in heresy or schism to be entirely honest with them, and with love and pain to pray and do everything possible to bring about their return to the Church of Christ.”

“I humbly maintain that texts of such importance and prestige as those of the Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church must be very carefully formulated with theological and canonical precision in order that these ambiguities or untested theological terms do not also give rise to incorrect expressions which could lead to misconceptions and distortions of the correct attitude of the Orthodox Church. Moreover, in order for a Synod to be valid and canonical, it must not depart in any way from the spirit and teaching of the Holy Synods which preceded it, the teaching of the Holy Fathers and Holy Scriptures, and it must be free from any ambiguity in the precise expression of the correct faith,” adds His Eminence Athanasios.

Elsewhere, invoking the Holy Fathers, His Eminence Athanasios stated: “Never did the holy Fathers nor ever in the holy canons or rulings of the sacred Ecumenical or Local Synods, are heretical or schismatic groups referred to as churches. If the heretics are indeed churches, where is the single One Church of Christ and the Apostles?”

The Metropolitan of Limassol also expressed his strong opposition, stressing that those who do not have the right to vote and participate in the Synod are merely ornamental.

“I humbly express my disagreement with the fact that the practice of all Sacred Synods until the present of allowing each bishop a vote is abolished. There was never before a system of ‘one Church, one vote,’ which renders the members of the Holy and Great Synod, with the exception of the primates, mere decorative items by refusing them the right to vote,” His Eminence Athanasios says in his letter.

In closing, the Hierarch of the Church of Cyprus states that: “I do not want to upset anyone with what I wrote, nor do I want to be seen to be teaching judgement of my brothers and fathers in Christ. I simply feel the need to express what my conscience requires me to.”

To read the Metropolitan’s entire letter, see the site of the Holy Metropolis of Limassol.

Translated by Fr. Kristian Akselberg

Romfea

123: Rome, Istanbul, Moscow

According to Canon III of the Second Universal Council and Canon XXVIII of the Fourth Council, the Metropolitan primacy of honour goes not to Jerusalem, but to the City where the Emperor lives. Thus, in the first centuries the Imperial Capital of Rome took the primacy and second place was taken by the Second Rome, New Rome, which the first Christian Emperor had founded and where he soon went to live. However, in the eleventh century Rome fell away from the Church and Holy Orthodoxy and lapsed into a paganised, barbarianized, so-called ‘Christianity’. This new pseudo-Christianity is what lay behind Papal corruption, violence and heresy in the first half of the eleventh century.

Thus, in the second half of that century it fell into the Invasion of England in 1066 and ensuing genocide throughout the Isles, pagan Aristotelian Scholasticism, the Crusades in the Holy Land and Eastern Europe, the human sacrifices made to Satan by the Inquisition, indulgences and mass genocides in ‘religious wars’ in Western Europe and the world’s greatest genocide (75 million dead?) in what became Latin America. Thus, New Rome, the City of the Emperor, took the place of Old Rome. Then in its turn, four hundred years later, this Second or New Rome fell away by betraying the faith to Old Rome and was duly occupied by the Ottomans. Thus, primacy passed to the Third Rome in Moscow, become in its turn the City of the Emperor.

The Emperor is the Defender of the Faith and the real, and not fictitious, Capital of the Church, of Holy Orthodoxy, is the City which extends its protection to all Christians and whose ruler is not ashamed to confess the Orthodox Faith. Since the fifteenth century this has meant Moscow, despite, or in a sense because of, all the Western attacks on it. These attacks were especially ferocious during the twentieth century and paralyzed it for three generations after the Western-organized ‘regime-change’ coup in 1917 and the ensuing genocide by the materialist Bolshevik regime. Today, with revival and restoration at last beginning in an increasingly sovereign Russia, the protection of Christians is exactly what the ruler in Moscow is doing in Syria.

This action has been very successful, with the result that the disastrous Obama regime is now pleading with Russia to allow a truce there; the end-game is approaching. The neocons have failed to effect regime change in Syria, just as the regime-change in the Ukraine, which they effected by toppling its democratic government, has proved to be the catastrophe that we all knew it would be. The defence of Christians in the Ukraine and Syria: this is why Russia is today the object of vicious propaganda attacks from the Western Powers and their demonic masters. The miracle of restoration of the Church inside Russia, however partial, hesitant, fragile and merely beginning, is abhorrent to the demons, for all their hopes of destroying the Church on earth and enthroning Antichrist are having to be postponed.

As regards the meeting of the Patriarch of the Third Rome and of the Pope of the First Rome, all is becoming clear. Both old Romes are now reluctantly ceding their places to the Third Rome, if only by force of circumstance. For it is not the Patriarchs of the First or Second Romes who lead the Church, it is the Patriarch of the Third Rome. He is free of submission to the Pope of Old Rome and to the USA. Thus several Western news agencies have presented the meeting at Havana Airport as the ‘first between the leaders of the two confessions since 1054’ (ABC News). Fox News says much the same. In France ‘Le Journal du Dimanche rightly asserts that the leaders of ‘the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches have not met since the age of the Schism’.

Thus, in reality even for the secular media the regular meetings between the Popes of Rome and the Patriarchs of the Second Rome, today Istanbul, do not count. The Patriarch in Istanbul, a Turkish citizen whose policies are dictated by Joe Biden and the US State Department, is not taken seriously even by the secular media. A compromised faith does not count: the Pope of Rome wants to talk to the real thing. In Italy the newspaper Corriere della Sera quotes the Pope: ‘Russia has imperial blood and so it can give the world a great deal’. The Pope is in fact calling on help from Russia, just as over 200 years ago his predecessor called on help from the Russian Emperor Paul to fight against the atheist Napoleon.

Not least Pope Francis now has to find a way of controlling the devilish hatred for the Church of the Uniats, whom the Vatican has so foolishly again unleashed in the Ukraine. Indeed, the first price for any help that Old Rome needs from the Third Rome in its battle to survive against Secularism, the illegitimate child of its illegitimate Protestant child, will be justice in the Ukraine. There Uniats have stolen churches, maimed and killed – all in the name of the Vatican: a story familiar elsewhere, for example in Serbia. This is why all the Uniat journalists are running scared today: could the South American Pope sabotage their xenophobia, which is justified by their Uniat ideology and their absurd pretence of being Orthodox, and tell them to convert to proper Catholicism or else abandon them?

Catholicism is all but finished in the West: if it is to survive, it has now to look to a restored Russia, the protector of the Church. It has to repent for its millennial and contemporary crimes, not least its co-operation with the Bolsheviks in the 1920s, for which in 1945 it had to pay very dearly after its collaboration with Hitler, pleading for and receiving Orthodox protection. Catholicism is at the crossroads, it can continue on the path of modern secularization, on which it has been for over fifty years, or it can return to the Church of God, incarnate in the first millennium of Western history. Having seen that in Istanbul there is only a minor ethnic cult, multinational Old Rome is now looking to multinational Third Rome for survival.