Strange “forces of evil” have kept the Roman Catholics and Orthodox apart, and inventiveness born out of our mutual love will lead us onto new paths to overcome these forces. . .

These words of the Pope [see below] wonderfully express the great error of ecumenism and delusion of ecumenists. It is not anyone’s error or pride, nor dogmatic error, and certainly not heresy, that has created and maintained the division, nor will humility and repentance overcome it, but “inventiveness”, as if
Thomas Alva Edisonwe were called to imitate Thomas Edison in some laboratory. The Pope and those with him - including some Patriarchs and bishops - resemble technicians or mathematicians who are seeking after some formula for which to “discover” unity - a unity which essentially already exists, like some hidden power of nature, but which simply awaits the right “moment in history” to make its debut and revolutionize humanity, etc. No repentance is necessary. No repudiation of heresy or even admitting that heresy ever existed. Rather, we will “invent” a new path out of our great love for one another.

It is quite tragic that some Orthodox bishops and theologians go along with this worldly thinking or even, at times, believe in it. It is precisely inventiveness - i.e. innovations - that the whole of Orthodox tradition and patristic witness work against. We “follow the Holy Fathers” and preach and proclaim “as the Prophets fortold, as the Apostles proclaimed, as the Fathers declared” etc. The spirit underlying the Pope’s words and the whole mentality on display in the Ecumenical Movement is totally one with the age and is chiliastic, promising new and ever greater things and a kingdom of this world. In the end the only ones at fault here are “forces of evil”. (One is reminded of Eve in the garden who essentially said that “the devil made me do it”. The only problem is that man is free and responsible for his actions, and, what’s more, if he is truly spiritual and of Christ not under the control or sway of the evil one.)

All who would save their soul in this day and age must fight this spirit and delusion with all his might - first in himself and then for the sake and love of the brethren.
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Pope: Catholics, Orthodox will find full unity
By Cindy Wooden
2/28/2006

Catholic News Service (http://www.catholicnews.com)
Pope Benedict XVI
VATICAN CITY – With deeper conversion and greater love, Catholics and Orthodox will find the path to full unity, Pope Benedict XVI told staff and students from a Greek Orthodox theological college.

Meeting the group from the Apostoliki Diakonia theological college of Athens, Greece, Feb. 27, the pope said that, despite “the forces of evil” that have kept Catholics and Orthodox from full unity, visits, cultural exchanges and joint projects have brought new hope to ecumenism.

Progress in dialogue, he said, brings hope for “a new dawn, that of the day on which we will understand fully that being rooted and grounded in the love of Christ means concretely finding a way to overcome our divisions through personal and communal conversion, the exercise of listening to the other and prayer in common for our unity.”

The pope said the exchange program with the Orthodox Church of Greece, which includes a scholarship program for Orthodox priests and seminarians to study in Rome and Catholic priests and seminarians to study in Athens, is especially important for preparing future church leaders for ecumenism.

“I am certain that mutual love will increase our inventiveness and will lead us to follow new paths,” the pope said.

Posted on 04/29/07. Filed under: The Contemporary World • Understanding the Age in which we Live • • Email This Entry

ROCOR on the Eve of Union with the MP

In an interview with Interfax, the secretary of the ROCOR commission for negotiations with the Moscow Patriarchate Archpriest Alexander Lebedev made the following comments regarding the MP’s involvement in the World Council of Churches and ROCOR’s own stance:

Fr. Alexander Lebedev”We are satisfied with the Moscow Patriarchate signing a document in which it denounced all harmful sides of ecumenism, such as syncretism, common liturgical prayer with the non-Orthodox, and everything that may blur Orthodox ecclesiology. Of course most our fellow churchmen would welcome Moscow Patriarchate leaving the World Council of Churches because we regard its involvement with the WCC as confusing. Yet the reasons for this involvement have become much clearer to us. We realize that it is based not upon a desire to share in non-Orthodox prayers or a belief that there are other Churches besides the One Church. The Russian Orthodox Church as the world’s biggest Orthodox Church seeks leadership at international forums. If she leaves the WCC, the Orthodox representation will be assumed by the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the voice of the Russian Orthodox Church will remain unheard. We believe this is a serious reason for the Moscow Patriarchate to remain involved with the WCC at least for some time.

I’d like to note that the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia is never going to participate in the WCC even after it enters into canonical communion with the Church in Russia. We will stay aside of that and continue opposing ecumenism in the Orthodox world as we have always done. Our attitude to the ecumenical movement has remained generally unchanged.”

One has to welcome Fr. Alexander’s statement that ROCOR will continue to oppose Orthodox involvement in ecumenism. For, there are not a few who have left or are considering leaving ROCOR for fear of post-union compromise. There can be no doubt that the union of ROCOR and the MP would be quite tragic for the cause of Orthodoxy if ROCOR not only did not maintain its patristic stance but moreover missed the opportunity to work even harder from within the larger Russian church toward the exodus of the Orthodox from the WCC and similiar ecumenist ventures. ROCOR stands at a most crucial crossroads for itself and, indeed, for the Orthodox Church as a whole.

Posted on 04/28/07. Filed under: Ecclesia • Ecclesiology: The Church and Ecumenism • The Contemporary World • The Prophetic Role of the Church in the World • • Email This Entry

Saint Basil the Great on the Need to Defend the Faith Wherever it is Endangered

St. Basil the GreatThere are not a few clergy today, under the influence of the spirit of the world in the form of philetism or ecumenism, that neglect to come to the aid of Orthodox outside of their Local Church who are struggling against innovations and heresy. They suffer from indifference. In the first instance, out of a mistaken ecclesiology which claims that only the Ecumenical Patriarchate can speak to internal challenges of Faith in the Local Churches. This mistaken ecclesiology is itself born out of an experience of the Church heavily influenced by philetism, where the Church of Christ amounts to the Church existing in the boundaries of the Ethnos (i.e. Greek, Russian, Serbian Orthodoxy). In the second instance, they suffer from an indifference to Dogma and the Truth of the Faith since they are senseless to the direct connection of Faith and Life, of that which we confess and believe and that which we live and experience. This senselessness often times is a result of these clergymen’s association with the heterodox and with the religions of the world. They have, in turn, made the Church and Revelation into Religion, reverting to a pre-Incarnational state of mind, undoing the implications and continuation of the Incarnation in the life of the people.

The following words of Saint Basil the Great apply to all of us, but especially to the clergy in our midst who are indifferent to matters of Faith, to the struggle for the Faith “once delivered.” Saint Basil was writing to men who were far less deluded by the spirits of this world, but who nonetheless exhibited indifference to the fate of the churches abroad. May we all take the Saint’s words to heart and lend a helping hand to all of our brethren who are outside of our diocese or local church but in urgent need of our support and encouragement.

“We stand in the arena to fight for our common heritage, for the treasure of the sound faith, derived from our Fathers. Grieve with us, all you who love the brethren, at the shutting of the mouths of our men of true faith, and at the opening of the bold and blasphemous lips of all who utter unrighteousness against God. The pillars and foundation of the truth are scattered abroad. We, whose insignificance has allowed of our being overlooked, are deprived of our right and free speech. Enter into the struggle for the people’s sake. Do not think only of your being yourselves moored in a safe haven, where the grace of God gives you shelter from the tempest of the winds of wickedness. Reach out a helping hand to the churches that are being buffeted by the storm, lest if they are abandoned, they suffer complete shipwreck of the faith. Lament for us, in that the Only-Begotten is being blasphemed, and there is none to offer contradiction.” --- Letter CCXLIII to the Bishops of Italy and Gaul

Today, there is hardly a church which is not being buffeted by the spirit of secularization and ecumenism, that is to say, the spirit of antichrist. The Ecumenical Patriarch and his small band of deacon-bishops live in the mouth of this dragon, so given over to the methodology of this worldly spirit as to be one with it. The Moscow Patriarch and his circle of leaders, emerged in the working and ways of the Soviet dictatorship for their entire life, follow, together with the E.P., a more papist model of governance, ignoring for all practical purposes the conciliarity of the Church. The Church of Greece, especially since the ascent of the present Archbishop, suffers under the same papalization of the hierarchy, such that conciliarity has ceased to exist - especially on matters of Faith. The Church of Finland has become so emersed in the Western way of living and thinking that the Metropolitan of Helsinki and several of his clergy can speak openly in favor of homosexual marriage and the ordination of women to the priesthood for several years without fearing in the least ecclesiastical discipline. Indeed, those who speak out against these perversions are in fear and stand ready to seek refuge elsewhere. . . The faithful of the churches everywhere are being abandoned by thieves (John 10:1) to the wolves of this world and are in need of a helping hand, lest they suffer “complete shipwreck.” The Son of God and His Body are being blasphemed, so let us all “offer contradiction.” —Fr. PAH

Posted on 04/21/07. Filed under: Ecclesia • Ecclesiology: The Church and Ecumenism • The Contemporary World • Before the Face of Antichrist: How Shall we then Live? • • Email This Entry

“The Commadment of the Lord is not to remain silent in times when the faith is in danger. ‘Speak, he said, and do not remain silent.’” And, “if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him” (Heb. 10:38).  And, “if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out” (Lk. 19:40). Thus, when it is a matter of faith, one should not say: ‘Who am I, a priest or a leader of the people?’ In no case should one remain silent.”

-- St. Theodore the Studite

Posted on 02/13/07. Filed under: The Contemporary World • The Prophetic Role of the Church in the World • • Email This Entry

By Father Geoffrey Korz

See original article at: http://www.orthodoxcanada.com

The reception of converts from heterodox confessions inevitably raises a variety of questions. The method of reception, the question of serving an Orthodox marriage for those who have lived married for years before coming to the Church, and questions surrounding clerical office are most common. The question of the need for catechism is not usually up for grabs: it is assumed that any convert would receive some kind of satisfactory catechism before (and sometimes even after) entering the Church.

An interesting twist on this question recently arose in an Orthodox forum on the topic of ecumenism: what would happen if notable heterodox, such as a Roman Catholic pope, were to convert to Orthodoxy? What about someone that the Roman Catholics recognize as a saint? Surely, such individuals would have immense learning, perhaps extensive theological degrees, and in some cases, even immense holiness? Surely, such an individual would not require catechism? They could teach the Orthodox a thing or two about their own Orthodox Faith - couldn’t they?

The fact that the question emerges reveals something of the lack of a deep understanding of the nature of Orthodox catechism, something which is not only relevant with such celebrated conversions, but more importantly, in cases of catechism for all of us “regular” folk. If catechism is such an important process (and it is), how can one determine if one is actually receiving a “good” catechism?

We must begin by asking, what is the purpose of Orthodox catechism? Unlike catechism amoung heterodox believers, catechism is not primarily about understanding what the faith believes, or the liturgical life, or the meaning of icons. All these things come into play during proper catechism, but none of them represent the essence of true Orthodox catechesis. The primary purpose of a good catechism is to help the catechumen acquire the mind of the Church - the same manner of seeing the world, God, and our human condition, that the saints of all times and places share.

Catechism is about acquiring an Orthodox heart, not about academic study. Although reading is helpful and important, it is not the heart of the matter. Many so-called “Orthodox” academics and some seminaries have forgotten this, adopting the westernized concept that we know God through the mind. Such thinking leads to the idea that even liturgical and prayer should be reconstructed based on academic study, rather than inherited, living experience of Holy Tradition. This is foreign to the mind and heart of the Church - the mind and heart that one must desire more than anything, if one is to be one with the Body of Christ, the Orthodox Church.

Many converts to Orthodoxy (and not a few Orthodox who have been raised in the Church) suffer from what has been called “pseudomorphisism” - the approach to the Faith using “false forms” of understanding or outlook. In this respect, it is harder to come to the Church from heterodoxy than from a non-Christian background. The differences are sometimes subtle, and we can think we know what we do not.

How does this “pseudomorphisism” manifest itself? False forms (that is, forms of worship and belief foreign to the collected wisdom and experience of the Church) are evident in the casual incorporation into prayer and worship of practices with which an individual or group is comfortable, but which have no root in Orthodox practice. A convert from Pentecostalism who raises her hands during the Divine Liturgy, or a convert from Roman Catholicism who continued to use the Rosary would be two examples. There are examples, both ancient and modern, of converts who are warm to the idea of “speaking in tongues”, not as it is seen at the first Pentecost, but rather as it is displayed at protestant charismatic revival meetings. Some of these kind of practices - including this manner of “speaking in tongues” - have been condemned as heresies by the Church long ago, while others simply run counter to the witness of Holy Tradition, that collected measure of belief, morals, and worship shared by the saints across time and place.

“When I became a Christian I voluntarily
crucified my mind, and all the crosses
that I bear have been only a source of
joy for me. I have lost nothing and
gained everything.”
Blessed Father Seraphim (Rose) When one comes to the Church, it is reasonable to assume that an individual wants all She has to give: the fullness of faith, practice, and belief, the life-changing medicine of ascetical discipline, and the Holy Mysteries. In coming to the Orthodox Church, one is saying no to the spiritual salad bar of our times, and yes to the Orthodox Faith. This move means leaving the mind of the world - including the heterodox mind - behind, in order to humbly seek instruction from the Bride of the Lord, His Church and its saints, who reflect His Likeness.

Posted on 02/13/07. Filed under: The Contemporary World • The "New Christianity" • Neo-Roman Catholicism • Neo-Protestantism • • Email This Entry

The Vatican’s Representative Speaks Frankly and Openly of What Ecumenism Means to Rome, the Importance of “Common Baptism” and How They Understand the Latest Liturgical “Offerings” of the Orthodox

Here is a very good opportunity for all Orthodox to see clearly the face of Ecumenism and, in particular, Roman Catholic Ecumenism. What follows is an analysis of key aspects of a speech delivered by Bishop Brian Farrell, the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, in Dublin at the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (2007).

What do the heterodox understand from Orthodox “overtures” and “love”? Here is one of the Vatican’s point men talking about how he understands the Patriarch of Constantinople’s stance during the recent visit of the Pope.

Our commentary is within the frames.

The full text can be found here.

Take especial note of the history of “the prayer for Christian unity” and what was (and is) meant by this unity.

Bishop Brian Farrell speaking during the recent Papal visit to Constantinople.

January 24, 2007

On reaching Christian unity (Part 1)

DUBLIN, Ireland (Zenit.org)—Here is the first part of a homily delivered on Thursday in Dublin…

…Every time the baptized come together to pray, it is the Spirit who guides them and teaches them how to pray.

* Again and again the followers of the pope stress the idea of a “common baptism” of all Christians, in which the Holy Spirit is present and works. It is this idea of a “common baptism” which is nothing less than another version of the branch theory, which itself states simply that there are various branches of the Church, divided but nonetheless THE CHURCH. In the “common baptism” theory this same idea is expressed, for the WHOLE Christ is present in Baptism, nothing less, and therefore the WHOLE Church is present, too, for the Body cannot be separated from the Head.*

Pope John Paul II sprinkling, not baptizing.

It is the same Spirit who builds the Church’s unity. Naturally, people have been praying for the unity of Christ’s followers since the beginning. Christians who take to heart the 17th chapter of John’s Gospel know that things are not as they should be and that the scandal of division weakens the proclamation of the Gospel; they know that the ecumenical movement is not a luxury in the life of the Church. We cannot separate our following of Christ from our passion for the unity of the Body of Christ that is the Church.

This year, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is 99 years old.

Ninety-nine years ago, Father Paul Watson, an Anglican priest and co-founder of the Society of the Atonement, introduced a Prayer Octave for Christian Unity that was celebrated for the first time Jan. 18-25, 1908.

Unity for Father Watson meant a “return” to the Roman Catholic Church, hence the symbolic dates of the feast of the Chair of Peter, which at that time was celebrated Jan. 18, and the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on Jan. 25. This is usually regarded as the beginning of the week as we know it today.

In 1936, a pioneer of ecumenism in French Catholicism, the Abbé Paul Couturier, brought in a new interpretation of the Unity Octave, when he saw that the idea of “return” made it difficult for many Christians to join with Catholics in prayer. He began what he called the “Universal Week of Prayer for Christian Unity,” keeping the same dates of Jan. 18-25, but urging people to pray for the unity of the Church “as Christ wills it.” That is what we are here for this evening: to pray together for the unity, the full communion, of all the baptized, in the way and at the time that the Lord, through the work of the Holy Spirit, will arrange.

* We should remember this deceitful and cunning method when we hear the flattering words of the Pope and his bishops. They are always talking out two sides of their mouth. About such men the Apostle writes: “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."*

* Then, in part two, Bishop Brian continues…*


Official international delegations to visit Benedict XVI: from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches; from the Lutheran Church of Finland, of Norway, of Sweden; from the World Methodist Council; the Lutheran World Federation; the visit of the archbishop of Canterbury; the archbishop of Athens and All Greece. As every year there was an exchange of delegations between the Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch, at the end of June for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the patron saints of Rome, and at the end of November for the feast of St. Andrew, the patron saint of Constantinople. Except that this year the Catholic delegation to Constantinople was led by Pope Benedict himself.

People want to see results from all this activity. But the communion we seek is neither a question of Church diplomacy nor of strategic agreements made in ecclesiastical back-rooms. In its original sense it has to do with “participation,” having a part in, sharing in God’s gift of redemption and grace. We are brought into communion—with God and with one another—when we all share in the same grace: one Lord, one baptism, one Spirit, one Father of all.

* Actually, the passage of Scripture from which this phrase is taken says: “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” (Eph. 4: 4-6).

We see that he left OUT two or more important phrases . Why? Well, because if, as the ecumenists say, all Christians share “one baptism”, or a “common baptism,” why is it that the Apostle (Eph. 4:5) does not in the least separate the one baptism from the one body, one faith and one Lord, one Spirit, and one Father? The Apostle does not separate them, but the inventors of the “common baptism” theory do! The separate it because it serves their interests, or the interests of the enemy of our salvation, who wants to mix truth with falsehood, light with darkness, Christ with the idols - just the opposite of what the Apostle Paul has written elsewhere:

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? (2 Cor. 6:15).

Examine all their rhetoric about our “common baptism” and you will see that they want us to believe that in this “common baptism” we already share in the same grace and therefore have communion. For in their legalistic and rationalistic theology they separate the Mysteries from the power of jurisdiction, which rests in the Pope’s hands alone. That is why they can say that the Orthodox have the Mysteries but are separate from the one who holds the keys of the Kingdom, who has jurisdiction. Therefore, it is a great TRAP for the Orthodox to accept their innovation regarding a common baptism, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the Patristic tradition regarding the acceptance of heretics by oikonomia. In the Patristic tradition a kat’oikonomia exception cannot be and is not a basis for our ecclesiological self-understanding. The first is pastoral, the second is dogmatic.*

…Our ecumenical journey is not towards a mere appearance of unity—towards some sort of ecclesiastical good neighborliness. The communion we seek has its source, its model and its fulfillment in the very life of the Trinity. Superficial gestures will not bring about the unity for which the Lord prayed.

Very often it is the significant though almost imperceptible gesture that marks the progress being made. Let me give a few examples.

First, that the Patriarch and the Pope exchanged the sign of peace during the Divine Liturgy itself. Up to now, at the Phanar, this gesture had always taken place after the celebration itself, given that for our Orthodox brothers the sign of peace within the liturgy expresses a very weighty commitment, introduced by the deacon with this exhortation: “Let us love one another that with one mind we may together make our profession of faith.” And then follows the Creed. This may seem like a small thing; but it has much spiritual meaning.

“...that we may confess” the episcopacy of the pope.

* The ecumenists and secularized Orthodox may now take lightly the meaning of our liturgical practices, but the Papists do not. Let all of those Orthodox who downplay the significance of the Patriarchate’s actions read and re-read the above. Is it not clear that step by step a unity, a very real unity, is being forged between the ecumenist-minded of the Patiarchate and other Local Churches and the heterodox - WITHOUT, however, there being ANY real and concrete repentance and change on their part? It is quite clear for him who has eyes to see.*

Posted on 02/05/07. Filed under: The Contemporary World • The "New Christianity" • Neo-Roman Catholicism • • Email This Entry