Orthodox Confession of Faith: A Systematic Ecclesiological Assessment and Repudiation of the Council of Crete (2016)

[Unattributed author/s and signatories]

Published September 8, 2026

 

 

With full awareness of our responsibility before God and of the historical witness of the Orthodox Church, and safeguarding the sacred deposit of the Holy Fathers, we make this Confession of Faith. Our faith is not a product of human convention, political expediency, or diplomatic compromise, but the living revelation of the Truth, which we are obliged to preserve unadulterated and unaltered.

A. The Dogmatic Foundation of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church

1. We confess with all our soul, heart, and mind our faith “in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church,” exactly as the sacred Symbol of Faith defines and preserves it. We believe and proclaim that the Church of Christ is ontologically One, unique, indivisible, and intact. There are not many churches, nor can the Body of Christ be fragmented. The unity of the Church is a given and is absolute, for her Head, our Lord Jesus Christ, is one, and His life-giving Body, which is constituted and given life by the Holy Spirit, is one.

2. We faithfully and steadfastly follow the Holy Ecumenical and Local Councils, the teachings of the God-bearing Fathers, and Holy Tradition.

3. We follow the enduring witness of Saint Cyprian, who proclaimed with canonical clarity that “outside the Church there is no salvation” (extra Ecclesiam nulla salus) and that “he who does not have the Church as his mother cannot have God as his Father.” The Church is the One and Only Mother, and there are no spiritual substitutes or parallel “ecclesiastical” realities.

4. We follow the teaching of Saint John of Damascus, who defines heresy as a voluntary “separation from the Church.” Just as a branch cut from a tree ceases to receive life-giving grace, withers, and dies, so heresy is in no sense “another church,” but an ontological severance and spiritual death.

5. We follow Saint Ignatius the God-bearer, who emphasized the indissoluble bond of ecclesiastical communion, writing: “Where the bishop is, there let the people also be,” reminding us that the bishop does not exist in isolation from his flock, but is an organic member of the local ecclesiastical community.

6. We follow the teaching of Saint Augustine in his controversy with the Donatists, in which he passionately defended the uniqueness and unity of the Church, rejecting any notion that schismatics and heretics can possess valid Mysteries or constitute parallel ecclesiastical structures.

7. We follow the testament of Saint Mark of Ephesus concerning the inviolability of the Symbol of Faith, which was formulated at the First and Second Ecumenical Councils and confirmed by the subsequent councils, accepting it with all our soul: “This sacred exposition and Symbol of Faith... admits no addition, admits no subtraction. It is closed and sealed by the Fathers. Those who dare to introduce innovations into it are cast out, and those who act otherwise will be held accountable.”

8. We follow the Eighth Ecumenical Council, held during the reign of the pious Emperor Basil and the patriarchate of the Most Holy Patriarch Photios, which, in the presence of the legates of Pope John, confirmed the Seventh Ecumenical Council, reinstated Saint Photios, and:

a. “...condemned and anathematized, just as the preceding Councils had done, those who dare to introduce innovations into the aforementioned Symbol of Faith, whether by addition, subtraction, or any alteration whatsoever.”

B. The Repudiation of the Council of Crete and the Nullification of Conciliarity

1. We repudiate the so-called “Holy and Great Council” of Crete (2016) as a gathering lacking pan-Orthodox validity, canonical legitimacy, and a conciliar spirit. This Council is anti-ecclesiastical in its very conception, constitutes a slaughter of the conciliar spirit, and is a rebellion against the pleroma of the Church.

2. The Council was not pan-Orthodox, since four historic Autocephalous Churches were absent: the Patriarchate of Antioch, the Church of Georgia, the Church of Bulgaria, and the Church of Russia.

3. A council held without the participation of so large a part of Orthodoxy lacks universal representation and, consequently, the authority to speak for and bind the body of the Church. Conciliarity presupposes pan-Orthodox consensus in order to produce binding decisions.

4. The Council’s procedures violated the spirit of the 34th Apostolic Canon concerning collective governance, which stipulates that bishops must recognize the first among them and do nothing without him, while the first must likewise do nothing without the consent of the others. The Council of Crete replaced collegiality with a centralized mechanism, in which the voices of dissenting bishops were stifled and decisions were imposed ex cathedra.

5. A bishop represents the Church not as an independent secular figure, but as a member of her, in unbroken communion with his flock. When a bishop ignores the voices of his presbyters, monastics, and faithful, he ceases to represent his Church and represents himself alone. In Crete, we saw bishops signing documents that their Churches had not read, endorsing decisions taken in closed sessions, without regard for the living conscience of the pleroma of the Church.

6. We follow the teaching of Saint John Chrysostom, who boldly confesses that “bishops are not masters of the faith, but its guardians.” The bishop is a shepherd, not the owner of the Church, and the unilateral imposition of decisions without regard for the body constitutes a departure from Orthodox ecclesiology. When shepherds withdraw from spiritual dialogue with their flock, trust is tested, and many faithful believe that the Council of Crete reflected this crisis in the pastoral responsibility of the hierarchy.

7. We proclaim with unwavering courage, in agreement with the confession of Saint Mark of Ephesus, that: “No one has authority over our faith—neither an emperor, nor a bishop, nor a false council, nor anyone else—for God alone handed it down to us, He Himself and His disciples.”

8. The Council adopted a papal model, in which the hierarchs acted as “little popes” who thought they knew better than the tradition and the living memory of the people, imposing their decisions in an authoritarian manner and organizing a mechanism that resembled a political party more than the Church.

C. The Condemnation of Ecclesiological Innovations and Heretical Teaching

1. WE CONDEMN unequivocally the ecclesiological innovations introduced through the official texts of the Council of Crete, specifically through the document “Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian World.”

2. WE CONDEMN the terminological and dogmatic recognition of heterodox confessions as “churches.” Heresy does not constitute another church, but error, separation from the Truth, and spiritual death.

Papism (with the filioque, papal primacy, infallibility, its transformation into a religious state, and the distortion of the Mysteries).

Protestantism (with its denial of the Mysteries, the Priesthood, the Theotokos, the Saints, and baptismal regeneration).

Monophysitism (with its denial of Christ’s real human nature, a denial that destroys salvation) constitute doctrinal errors that distort the apostolic faith and are entirely devoid of ecclesial existence. Recognizing them as “churches” constitutes blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, since it implies that the Holy Spirit dwells in heresies.

• WE CONDEMN the branch theory, which attempts to present the various Christian confessions as branches of equal standing belonging to a single tree of the Church, and to relativize the identity of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

• WE CONDEMN dogmatic minimalism, which reduces the salvific content of the faith and Holy Tradition to minimal or flexible elements for the sake of an ostensible and adulterated “unity.”

• WE CONDEMN so-called “baptismal theology,” a modern ecumenist invention that attempts to establish ecclesiastical unity outside the canonical boundaries of Orthodoxy, under the pretext of a shared invocation of the Holy Trinity [6, 26, 32].

• WE FOLLOW the First Canon of Basil the Great, which stipulates that the baptism of heretics lacks validity.

• WE FOLLOW Saint Cyprian, who proclaimed that heretics outside the Church are baptized with mud and not with water.

• WE FOLLOW Saint Athanasius the Great, who characterized the baptism of heretics as “empty” and nonexistent. Recognition of the baptism of the heterodox constitutes a denial of the “one baptism” that we confess in the Symbol of Faith.

• WE CONDEMN the indirect repudiation of the decisions and anathemas of the Holy Ecumenical Councils (from the First through the Seventh). These Councils did not anathematize abstract ideas, but specific heresiarchs (Arius, the Macedonians, Nestorius, Eutyches, Dioscorus, Origen, the Monothelites, and the Iconoclasts) and their communities, placing them outside the Church. Recognition of these communities as “churches” nullifies the work of the Holy Fathers, undermines dogmatic precision, and constitutes an affront that portrays the Fathers as harsh or extreme.

• WE CONDEMN Ecumenism as a theory and practice of syncretism which, under the pretext of theological dialogue “on equal terms,” undermines the uniqueness of the Orthodox Church, equates Truth with error, diminishes the need for the return and repentance of those in error, and opens the gates of the Church to the Antichrist.

D. The Canonical and Patristic Stance of the Pleroma Bearing Christ’s Name in Times of Heresy

We proclaim that the pleroma of the Church bearing Christ’s name—clergy, monastics, and laity—is not a passive recipient of decisions, but the very living guardian of Orthodox Tradition, with a heightened dogmatic consciousness that perceives and distinguishes truth from error. The Holy Spirit does not dwell exclusively in conference buildings or bureaucratic structures, but dwells in the pleroma of the Church. When the hierarchy or part of it slides into heresy or introduces ecclesiological innovations, the faithful must respond vigorously and with spiritual vigilance, following the patristic tradition:

• We follow the teaching of Basil the Great, who emphasizes that the faith is also preserved through the “unwritten tradition of the Fathers” that lives among the people, making the Orthodox people active participants in safeguarding doctrine.

• We follow Saints Maximus the Confessor and Gregory Palamas, who defended dogmatic truth, relying on the conscience of the Orthodox people and monastics when the official ecclesiastical authorities had compromised with the error of their time.

• We follow the theological legacy of Saint Gregory the Theologian, who recognized “common opinion” and the “mind of the Church” as essential criteria of ecclesiastical truth, which cannot be circumvented by any signature on a synodal protocol.

• We follow the practice of the Holy Fathers, which provides that, when faced with the distortion of the Faith, the pleroma of the Church expresses its dissent through every ecclesiastical means: public protests, encyclicals, prayers, and also the refusal of ecclesiastical communion with those who preach or accept the heretical innovations of the Council of Crete.

• We proclaim that communion with those who accept this false council constitutes communion with error itself. When shepherds turn into wolves, the flock must protect its Faith by abstaining from communion with them, thus safeguarding the purity of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

• We stand firm in the Orthodox Faith and the deposit handed down by the Fathers, proclaiming that the decisions of the Council of Crete that distort Orthodox ecclesiology are invalid, devoid of content, and lacking all theological authority.

We faithfully follow the theological and canonical stance of Saint Mark Eugenikos, Metropolitan of Ephesus, who was the unwavering champion of Orthodoxy against the Latins at the Council of Ferrara-Florence, categorically rejecting the Latin innovations—especially the doctrine of the Filioque and the use of unleavened bread—and refusing to sign the falsely named “union,” considering the Latins to be in a state of heresy and schism. Saint Mark preserved the patristic tradition without deviation, teaching that ecclesiastical unity is inconceivable with any compromise of the truth of the faith, and upholding agreement with the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils and the teaching of the Holy Fathers as the sole criterion of the Church’s authenticity, free from compromises and expediency.

WE PROCLAIM that the true unity of the Church is not an abstract idea, nor is it built on diplomatic ambiguities, but presupposes absolute dogmatic agreement and precision. “ONE body, one spirit,” as the Apostle Paul proclaims, and upon the rock of the true confession Christ built His Church, against which “the gates of Hades will not prevail.”

We condemn every attempt at a false union, following Saint Mark of Ephesus, who proclaimed: “All the teachers of the Church, all the Councils, and all the divine Scriptures exhort us to avoid the heterodox and to abstain from communion with them. Shall we disregard all this and follow those who command us to unite under the pretext of a false and fabricated peace? Those who adulterated the divine Symbol of Faith and introduce the Son as a second cause of the Holy Spirit?”

We proclaim together with Saint Mark of Ephesus:

“For up to now our faith has lacked nothing, nor do we, who are sons and disciples of the Fathers, need a Council and a doctrinal definition to learn anything new... This is precisely our boast, our faith, the good inheritance of our Fathers. And with this faith we hope to stand before God and receive the forgiveness of our sins.”

“One body, one spirit,” as the Apostle Paul proclaims, and upon the rock of the true confession Christ built His Church, against which “the gates of Hades will not prevail.”

An Appeal for Dogmatic Precision

This confession springs not from a spirit of confrontation or pride, but from love for the Truth and the preservation of dogmatic precision. True Christian unity is built not on diplomatic ambiguities or on equating truth with error, but on full dogmatic agreement within Orthodox Tradition.

We call upon the pleroma of the Church to remain vigilant and steadfast in the faith of the Holy Fathers, proclaiming that every decision that diminishes the uniqueness of the Orthodox Church is devoid of authority and foreign to Orthodox ecclesiology.

 

Greek source: https://apotixisi.blogspot.com/2026/09/2016_01394926234.html

An Ecumenical Visit to Kiev, Ukraine – An Orthodox Assessment

 Metropolitan Klemes of Larissa | August 26 / September 8, 2026

 

 

a. Ecumenical Solidarity and Brotherhood

Recently, from July 14 to 17, 2026, a “solidarity mission” of the “World Council of Churches” (WCC) took place in Kiev, Ukraine. Participants included the WCC General Secretary, Pastor Rev. Dr. Jerry Pillay, the Moderator of the WCC Central Committee, and others, as well as the General Secretary of the “Conference of European Churches (CEC).” It was, therefore, an expanded ecumenical delegation.

Also participating was Metropolitan Gabriel of Nea Ionia and Philadelphia, “representative of the Church of Greece,” according to the relevant announcement on his Metropolis’s website (for an unabridged republication, see Parapolitika.gr, July 20, 2026). More precisely, however, he participated in his capacity “as a member of the WCC Central Committee and as a representative of the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs,” according to a news item published on the WCC website on July 17, 2026.

The purpose of this ecumenical visit was “to give practical expression to the solidarity of the Churches and Christian Confessions with the suffering Ukrainian people, to inform the delegation about the consequences of the ongoing war, and to strengthen cooperation with the country’s Churches and institutions for the promotion of peace, religious freedom, and humanitarian service” (see Parapolitika.gr, July 20, 2026).

On July 15, the ecumenical delegation met in Kiev (at the Theological Academy) with Mr. Epiphanius, regarded as Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine, “in his capacity as Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO),” and with representatives of this Ukrainian ecumenical council from heterodox Christianity as well as the country’s other religions. During the meeting, Mr. Epiphanius informed the members of the ecumenical delegation about the “tragic consequences of Russian aggression” and the “extensive destruction of churches and religious buildings.” He also thanked the WCC “for its continued solidarity and clear support for the Ukrainian people. Special mention was also made of the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the ‘All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO),’ which constitutes a model of inter-Christian and interreligious cooperation” (ibid.).

“Metropolitan Gabriel conveyed… the fraternal good wishes of His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, while also expressing the sincere solidarity and support of the Church of Greece for the suffering Ukrainian people…” (ibid.).

As for the position of this representative from Greece, who constituted what was regarded as the “Orthodox presence” within the ecumenical delegation, he made a more revealing statement to an ecumenical media outlet concerning the trip to Ukraine, following the ecumenists’ favored practice of adapting to their audience:

“We had a very profound spiritual experience… I saw the true fellowship of our churches not in theory but in practice. I am grateful to God for this experience and to the WCC General Secretary for this opportunity to strengthen us in Christ’s mission of love, compassion, and understanding” (see WCC-News, July 17, 2026).

b. Interreligious Event with Jews in Athens

Opening a parenthesis here, we refer to this same individual’s recent participation in an interreligious event in the heart of Athens, to bring into clearer focus the image of the contemporary ecumenist hierarch, whose experience enables him to participate in such events and ceremonies “that unite voices, religions, and cultures”!

Specifically, on Sunday, June 7, 2026, the Jewish Community of Athens hosted “the second gathering of the European Polyverse project—the first interreligious choir in Europe to unite voices, religions, and cultures! This is an exceptionally important and pioneering initiative that demonstrates in practice how art can transcend borders and doctrinal differences, building meaningful bridges of peace in Europe… In an atmosphere of respect and mutual understanding at Beth Shalom Synagogue, representatives of religious traditions shared words intended as a lasting legacy” (referring to the remarks of the President of the Jewish Community of Athens, Metropolitan Gabriel of Nea Ionia as the representative of the Archbishop of Athens, the Rabbi of Athens, the “Reverend [female] Pastor of the Evangelical Parish,” etc.). Metropolitan George of Guinea, of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, can also be seen in photographs of the event.

The Rabbi of Athens stressed that “interreligious dialogue is a duty for the well-being of humanity in the service of God. Jews, Christians, and Muslims can and must work together.”

“A special moment was the first performance in Greece of the original work ‘Polyverse Echoes,’ which masterfully interwove melodies and texts from the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam” (see the website of the Jewish Community of Athens, June 12, 2026: “Music as a Bridge of Dialogue, Art, and Coexistence”).

We understand that someone initiated into the colorful ecumenical puzzle of our age, in which the most disparate things can be interwoven, not for union and transformation according to God, but for worldly prosperity and coexistence, can carry out missions such as the one to Ukraine within his field of expertise. This, it seems, is how the much-vaunted “Orthodox witness” is understood today: it constitutes not rebirth in Christ, but mutual accommodation through compromise within an ecumenist perspective!

c. The “WCC” Unmasked

Returning to the meeting in Kiev on July 15, we come to the most revealing point from an ecclesiastical and theological standpoint: Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the Primate of the Uniates (“Greek Catholics”) of Ukraine, who attended that meeting along with the other representatives from across the Christian and religious spectrum, formally called upon the WCC to admit into its fold the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine under Epiphanius, regarded as Metropolitan of Kiev! (See “Romfea,” July 17, 2026: “Uniate Archbishop: The Autocephalous Church of Ukraine Should Become a Member of the WCC.”)

Shevchuk maintained that this “constitutes a necessary practical step in support of the country,” because it “will ensure a permanent institutional presence for the Ukrainian voice in the international ecumenical community, allowing the reality of Ukraine to be heard without intermediaries.” He also expressed gratitude to the WCC for its solidarity, criticized Moscow for “instrumentalizing religion,” and “made it clear that freedom of conscience is fully protected in free Ukraine, unlike in the occupied territories, where Russia systematically suppresses it” (ibid.).

This astonishing news, about which the lengthy account issued by the Metropolis of Nea Ionia and Philadelphia says absolutely nothing, raises a reasonable question: could the so-called Autocephalous Church of Ukraine not submit this request directly to the WCC itself, according to the prescribed procedure, without needing a mouthpiece—that is, the assistance and intervention of its “Greek Catholic” (Uniate) “sister”? Even more astonishing is that the Uniates of Ukraine, like those of every other geographical region, although they themselves, being subject to the Vatican, are not members of the WCC in accordance with papal principles, nevertheless ask that the supposedly Orthodox autocephalists of their country become members of the WCC! How contradictory and inconsistent is this?

Perhaps not so much, if we consider that, from its very establishment by the Phanar in 2019, the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine immediately hastened to develop with its Uniate “brothers” in Ukraine a “road map for cooperation and a concrete course toward unification”! This is why, ever since then, clergy of both bodies have even gone so far as full liturgical concelebration (!) on various occasions (see the revealing video: “OCU and OGCC: 7 Steps Toward a New Unia”). Thus, they regard it as self-evident that they walk together and speak for one another, identifying with each other! Ecumenism in practice, and the adoption of Uniatism as a lived reality…

 

 

At this point, however, we should be permitted to take the opportunity to UNMASK the WCC through the writings of its ecumenist champions from Orthodox backgrounds!

The most serious question that arises is: What, after all, is this much-vaunted WCC, into which the Uniates of Ukraine are asking that the Uniatizing autocephalists of Ukraine be admitted?

An international ecumenical body for presenting and pursuing geopolitical goals and objectives, yes. It is indeed such a thing!

Its champions, however, although they present an idealized version of it, according to their wishes—or, rather, their imagination—openly admit that within the WCC, among other things, so-called “ecumenical theology” is cultivated, the “ecumenical spirit” prevails, and the so-called “international order” is shaped concerning peace, justice, Christian ethics, respect for creation, etc. (See Fr. Augoustinos Bairaktaris, “The Nature of the Orthodox Church’s Participation in the WCC—An Orthodox Historical and Theological View of the Ecumenical Movement,” in the journal Theologia, 2/2015, p. 261.)

On the basis of what principles? And toward what ultimate purpose? They tell us: ecclesial unity! Yet they themselves admit that within the WCC they have not arrived at a commonly accepted “model of coexistence and unity”! (Ibid., pp. 268–269.) In practice, as the WCC’s official texts clearly demonstrate, what prevails and is promoted is the basic Protestant idea that unity among them essentially exists already, and that it is manifested and becomes visible through their joint participation and action!

But what is most paradoxical and irrational? That, fundamentally, the WCC has no clearly formulated understanding of the “Mystery of the Church,” of WHAT THE CHURCH IS! And, consequently, of what the boundaries of the Church are and who is included within it! (Ibid., pp. 275, 283.) They call this as yet unresolved matter “the ecclesiological question” (ibid., p. 289)!…

Moreover, it has been documented for decades that it remains unclear and undefined who, ultimately, is speaking through the WCC’s texts. The WCC itself, which supposedly has no ecclesiological standing? The “Member Churches”? Some supposed “World Church”? (Ibid., p. 279.) In other words, WHOM does the WCC ultimately speak for? Who speaks through it? God? Such a claim would be not merely excessive but even blasphemous! Confused and divided human beings? This is indeed what happens, but it makes the WCC a vehicle not of the Spirit of God, but of the spirit of Babel, of manifest confusion! If, however, it is not the Lord who speaks, but Babel that prevails, we can understand very well which evil one lurks behind it and deceives everyone with his WCC-falsehood!

For example, exactly fifty years after the WCC’s founding in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1948—that is, in 1998—ecumenists from Orthodox backgrounds at an “Inter-Orthodox Conference” in Thessaloniki decided to abstain from many WCC activities ahead of its Eighth General Assembly, pending a RADICAL RESTRUCTURING that would supposedly allow for more effective Orthodox participation (ibid., p. 279, footnote 67). To what extent anything of the kind has occurred in the nearly three decades since then remains a mystery, since manifestly NOTHING substantial has been done in this regard! Thus, they admitted and continue to admit that the WCC neither represents their views nor meets their requirements, and they struggle to make it somehow “accessible” to their participation! Yet they achieve virtually nothing significant in this regard! Why, then, do they support it with such frenzy and foolish zeal?

And not only this: on the contrary, ecumenists from Orthodox backgrounds, in their spiritual blindness, acknowledge that

● they “respect the ecclesiological integrity of the other members” (ibid., p. 277), although they do not accept the full meaning of the term Church as applicable to them;

● they are moving “toward recognizing the ecclesial nature of the other Christian churches and communities” (ibid., p. 287);

● they accept and recognize the reality of the existence of many Churches that cannot be ignored (ibid., p. 290), because the divisions and separations occurred WITHIN the one Church (ibid., p. 290), and thus an “ecclesiological pluralism” actually exists (ibid., p. 291). Moreover, the Third Pan-Orthodox Pre-Conciliar Conference at Chambésy, Geneva, in 1986

● had accepted “the ontological recognition of all Christian Churches and Confessions,” namely, the Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed, and Oriental Orthodox (ibid., p. 297).

At this point, we should recall that in 1975, the then Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain, Athenagoras (Kokkinakis), published an official text in the form of a bilingual book (Greek and English) entitled “The Thyateira Confession,” prefaced by the laudatory and unreserved APPROVAL of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. On the basis of the “new disposition prevailing today among Christians,” as well as the “signs of the times,” it establishes the NEW DOGMA of catering to the times through the dreadful error of ecumenism. For it holds that the Church has boundaries, which, however, are continually expanding! It has a door, but no walls! Thus, it recognizes ecclesial standing and grace in all heretics, whom it includes in the Body of the Church, and urges joint prayer as well as sacramental intercommunion with them! (See our work, Saint Philaret of the Russian Diaspora—A Contemporary Ascetic and Confessor Hierarch [1903–1985], Phyle, Attica, 2015, pp. 85 and 199–209.)

Thus, what was summarized on this subject at the Pseudo-Council of Kolymbari, Crete, in 2016 was neither sudden nor unprecedented. It had been taking shape and being cultivated for decades within the murky and corrupting ecumenist process.

In essence, it is this tragic state of affairs that the members of the WCC serve, and into which the Uniatizing autocephalous Ukrainians are hastening to enter, at the proposal of the Uniate Primate Shevchuk, in order, among other things, to serve their national interests more effectively. This is their principal and ardent desire…

If all the revealing points set out above with the utmost brevity constitute a “Witness to Orthodoxy” in the contemporary world, as the deceitful ecumenists claim at every opportunity, then words and terms have indeed lost their meaning. It is clear that the innovators and ecumenists do not serve the Truth and Righteousness of God, but stubbornly persist in their fallen state as those “estranged from God” (St. Theodore the Studite, Letter 36, PG 99, 1033), dwelling in “a distant country.”

At the end of the Book of Revelation, among those who will not be deemed worthy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, into the ineffable beauties of divine Paradise, will be “everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (22:15)! This category includes not only those who tell lies, but also those who live and move within falsehood. Heretics of every kind “practice falsehood,” as victims of the devil, the father of lies (John 8:44). So too do those who fail to help them return to the Truth, but instead reassure them in the falsehood of their delusion. Thus, the ecumenists, sadly, carry out the work of the evil one in the service of the falsehood that leads to perdition!…

d. Is There Religious Freedom in Ukraine?

However, there is another major and serious issue that we must address.

The WCC’s ecumenical mission to Kiev met with Mr. Viktor Yelensky, Head of Ukraine’s State Service “for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS),” and Ms. Olena Kovalska, Deputy Head of the Office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, receiving assurances concerning “the protection of the constitutional order and religious freedom” in Ukraine! (See Parapolitika.gr, July 20, 2026.)

Is this really so? Has none of them heard of the Ukrainian government’s widely known frenzy of persecution against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev, attested by incontrovertible evidence and systematically pursued for years?

The ecumenical delegation wished to appear to have heard this side as well, and therefore also met with its representatives to be informed about the effects of the war and—as the Metropolis of Nea Ionia and Philadelphia “masterfully” puts it—“also about the difficulties and pressures facing the Church in today’s particularly complex environment. At the same time, the Church’s positions were presented concerning the complete severance of all administrative dependence on the Moscow Patriarchate, as well as Metropolitan Onuphry’s decision to withdraw from the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. The [ecumenical] delegation’s meetings with both major Orthodox ecclesial communities in Ukraine demonstrate the WCC’s steadfast commitment to maintaining open channels of communication with all sides, serving dialogue, reconciliation, and peace…” (See Parapolitika.gr, July 20, 2026.)

Do the WCC and Mr. Gabriel really believe that, with these generalities—which do not even make a simple reference, however indirect, to the persecution faced by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at the hands of the Zelensky regime for its unyielding stance toward the Phanar’s Autocephalous Church of Ukraine—they are presenting and serving the truth? Far from it!

This is why a careful and fair-minded analyst quite rightly wrote the following: Did the WCC, which supposedly heard both sides, “act as a genuine mediator or as an institutional endorser of the dominant side?” The latter, of course!

“It is not enough to hear the persecuted. You must investigate what they report and publicly defend their rights. Otherwise, a ‘balanced hearing’ becomes a procedural alibi for a political conclusion already reached… Can [the WCC] speak of reconciliation without making public even a single complaint from the persecuted community? Can it defend religious freedom while being content with the assurances of those accused of restricting it? Can it rightly condemn Moscow’s instrumentalization of the Church, yet overlook Kiev’s instrumentalization of religion? Christian truth does not change according to which geopolitical side violates the rights of the faithful” (see Georgios Apostolakis, “When the ‘Ecumenical’ Mission Becomes a Geopolitical Delegation,” “The Next Day,” July 18, 2026).

As for the stance of Metropolitan Gabriel of Nea Ionia, about which the analyst raises a question, the analyst himself provides the answer with the phrase “he accepted the final conclusion without publicly distancing himself from it”—namely, that under Ukraine’s new legislation there is supposedly “respect for religious freedom and conscience,” according to the assurances of those in power. This is something the innovating Church of Greece evidently accepts, since on this issue it aligns itself with the Phanar’s position, notwithstanding a few isolated instances of individual dissent.

The analyst’s final conclusion is clear: “The WCC presented the [Ukrainian] government’s positions and the meeting with Epiphanius in detail, but left the testimony of the other side almost invisible. It condemned Russia’s war, but did not condemn coercion in domestic church affairs with comparable clarity. This is not equal concern; it is selective sensitivity” (ibid.).

But how could it have been otherwise? Since the WCC reflects the main currents of the contemporary Western narrative, what else was it expected to do? The role of the innovating Church of Greece in this blatant collusion is likewise to serve the interests of the powers of this world, rather than the Truth of the Church or the just cause of those who are wronged and persecuted—and indeed to do so through the WCC, by way of Metropolitan Gabriel of Nea Ionia, as though it could not act on this particular issue independently, on its own initiative, without ties to and dependence on the WCC!

In the immediate aftermath of this ecumenical visit to Kiev, a torrent of events contradicted—and continues to contradict—the claims of “religious freedom” in Ukraine, conclusively confirming before the whole world the painful truth that the persecution extends even to killings and injuries! We evidently have New Martyrs, but woe to those who collaborate with and shield the executioners!

We quote an excerpt from a recent interview with Metropolitan Theodosius of Cherkasy, who is among those who have suffered persecution and harassment at the risk of their very lives, so that we may understand exactly what is happening and how much responsibility lies with those who either conceal the truth or deliberately distort it:

“The situation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church today is the most difficult in its modern history. We are witnessing an unprecedented combination of legislative, judicial, administrative, physical, and moral pressure being brought to bear on the Church and its faithful. Criminal cases have now been opened in Ukraine against a number of bishops, priests, and laypeople of our Church… We are also witnessing attempts to strip the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of its legal status… At the local level, the situation is equally alarming. Cathedrals, parishes, and monasteries are being seized throughout the country. Members of our Church are being beaten and intimidated. Elderly people, women, and priests are suffering serious injuries… Politicians and the media in Ukraine have stirred up hatred of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church within civil society to such a degree that merely being a member of it, and all the more a cleric or monk, now endangers your life. A recent example is the brutal murder of the monk Barsanuphius in broad daylight within the Sviatogorsk Lavra itself. A group of individuals in military gear disfigured the monk’s face with a knife and then shot him in the head. At the same time, they stabbed two other residents of the Lavra, the monk George and the novice Andrew, and threw them into a ravine, thinking they were dead… Summing up the above, one can say without exaggeration that a planned and brutal act of GENOCIDE is now being perpetrated against Ukraine’s largest religious denomination… A real genocide of millions of faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is taking place in Ukraine at this very moment. For anyone in Ukraine, only a blind person could fail to see this, and only a scoundrel could deny it”! (See “Romfea,” September 7, 2026.)

We bow before the persecuted faithful of Ukraine and turn away in revulsion from the blind and unscrupulous members of the WCC’s ecumenist delegation to Kiev, who chose to pass by the bloodied victim solely to serve extraneous interests dictated by geopolitical calculations. Their deplorable degradation has nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity!…

e. Concluding Remarks

The contemporary, alienated way of thinking of this world, which is far from the true God, is self-serving and wholly worldly.

The way of thinking of the various religions may seem tinged with a measure of “spirituality,” but, deprived of the Truth embodied in the Person of the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ, it is rooted in man and unredeemed.

The way of thinking and acting of heterodox Christians, which predominates in ecumenical organizations such as the WCC, appears to be inspired to a greater or lesser degree by the Holy Gospel, yet remains within a man-centered framework, because the fullness of the Truth, Christ in His fullness, is absent. Unredeemed humanism prevails in all its expressions and ultimate consequences.

 

 

When the so-called Orthodox of today, instead of acting as “light” and “salt” in this world of suffering and injustice, align themselves with the coalition of the heterodox and those who hold false doctrines, supposedly to “strengthen” their voice and witness, they may appear to gain certain worldly benefits, but in essence they have lost the prophetic and revelatory power of their mission in defense of Truth and Justice. This conformity is not pleasing to God and brings no beneficial results in resolving the problems of Ukraine or of any other region of this world.

Pleasing the Lord in truth at any cost and guarding ourselves against the coalition of the lawless is the proper stance, which saves and draws down divine Mercy upon us individually and collectively. This is what the word of God proclaims and what we must always keep before us, so that we do not fall into inexcusable errors, but carry out whatever humble ministry and mission we have in a manner pleasing to God and with brotherly love:

“Thy mercy, O Lord, is before mine eyes, and I have been well-pleasing in Thy truth. I have not sat with the council of vanity, neither will I enter in with transgressors. I have hated the assembly of evildoers, and will not sit with the ungodly” (Psalm 25:3–5).

“The Lord is the strength of His people, and the defender of the salvation of His anointed. Save Thy people, and shepherd them, and lift them up for ever” (Psalm 27:8–9). Amen!

 

Greek source (with extensive photographs):

https://imlp.gr/2026/09/08/%ce%bf%e1%bc%b0%ce%ba%ce%bf%cf%85%ce%bc%ce%b5%ce%bd%ce%b9%ce%ba%e1%bd%b4-%e1%bc%90%cf%80%ce%af%cf%83%ce%ba%ce%b5%cf%88%ce%b7-%cf%83%cf%84%e1%bd%b8-%ce%ba%ce%af%ce%b5%ce%b2%ce%bf-%cf%84%e1%bf%86%cf%82/

Archbishop Averky: Remission of Sins, False Christian Love and Forgiveness

The following treatise by the ever-memorable Archbishop Averky (Taushev) (born November 1, 1906 in the city of Kazan, died: April 13, 1976 in Jordanville, New York) is part of a larger work entitled, The Christian in the Modern World (in Russian).

The future Archbishop Averky immigrated with his family in the wake of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia to Bulgaria, and there became a monk and a priest. Having witnessed the horrifying result of liberal ideology and apostasy in his homeland, his writings are startlingly relevant to us today.

 

 

* * *

One of the most important consequences of the great work of man’s redemption wrought by Christ the Life-Giver Who rose after three days from the dead, was precisely forgiveness, or the remission of sins.

And truly! One of the main consequences of the great work of man’s redemption, wrought by Christ the Life-Giver Who rose after three days from the dead, was precisely forgiveness, or the remission of sins.

This is why after appearing on the first day after His Resurrection to His disciples who were gathered together, the Risen Lord gave them peace; He breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained (Jn. 20:19–23).

Further in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles we see that in preaching Christ crucified and risen from the dead, the holy apostles immediately afterwards called their listeners to repentance and to receive baptism “unto the remission of sins”.

Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:38)—that is what the apostle Peter said to the great crowd of people listening to him on the day of Pentecost.

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out (Acts 3:19), he and the holy apostle John called to the people gathered around them, after the their miraculous healing of a man who was lame from birth. God now commandeth all men every where to repent, said the apostle Paul to the Athenians in his famous sermon at the Areopagus, Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:30–31).

From this it is clearly seen that this “forgiveness” about which St. John Chrysostom speaks, or, “remission of sins”, are given to us not unconditionally, but conditionally—that is, under the condition of repentance (sincere repentance, of course). Therefore, in giving His disciples the power to “remit sins” by the Holy Spirit, the Lord gave them at the same time, as we see, the power to not remit sins—obviously to those who do not really repent: whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained—which means that they are not forgiven.

How understandable this is, how logical and how completely opposite this clear and definite, pure Gospel teaching is to the propaganda so fashionable today of some pseudo-Christian love and unconditional all-forgiveness, just too all-encompassing, which supposedly extends even to the enemies of the Christian faith who actively war with the Church and faith in God itself and are undoubtedly the servants of the coming Antichrist!

In order to strengthen their shaky “position”, such false preachers of this trendy, pseudo-“Christianity” like very much to abuse the Lord’s famous saying, Judge not, that ye be not judged (Matt. 7:1). This is their very favorite saying, which nevertheless does not hinder them in the least from judging and condemning in the cruelest manner all of those who do not agree with their heresy, which is no more than a totally deceitful distortion of the Gospel teachings—a fraud by which they confuse and disturb many.

In order to correctly understand this saying of the Lord we have to remember that after all, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself Who said, Judge not, that ye be not judged, right afterwards taught: Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you (Matt. 7:6).

Who are these “dogs” and “swine”?

By these “dogs” and “swine” the Lord means morally perverted people who are incapable of accepting the Gospel Truth, for whom everything sacred is alien and even repulsive, because they cannot understand its value. These are morally fallen, impious and evil people who often only mock the Gospel Truth, trample it under foot, and can treat the very preachers of it with fury, causing them various disasters and even death (see St. John Chrysostom, Explanation by Bishop Mikhail and others).

Isn’t it clear from this that by the words, “Judge not that ye not be judged” the Lord by no means forbid us from making a moral assessment of people—to discern the difference between good and evil people? And He not only does not forbid us, but as we shall see further, He even commands us to do so.

Thus, the Lord directly commands that we rebuke a sinning brother.

Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother... (Matt. 18:15).

And that is not all! Such a wise and Christian judgment is not only allowed to us concerning a sinning brother—we are even supposed to bring other brothers into it:

But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established (Matt. 18:16).

But that is still not all! If a brother continues to persist in the evil he is doing, then we need to “inform” the Church about it—that is, the ecclesiastical authorities, who have received from the Lord Himself the blessed right to “bind and to loose”:

And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican (Matt. 18:17).

These last words are the most terrible and totally unacceptable to the perverted pseudo-Christian ideology of those modern propagandists of liberal, fashionable neo-Christianity, for they go completely against its basic principles.

But whether someone likes them or not, they cannot be stricken from the Gospels—after all, they are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

How can we not take them into consideration?

But modern neo-Christians, among whose numbers are some learned theologians and many high ranking bishops, have no desire at all to be reconciled with the true, authentic Gospel of Christ, but instead self-willfully fabricate their own personal “gospel”, as their ideological predecessor Leo Tolstoy of dark memory did in his time.

Alas! For many modern, totally unstable “Christians” who are not firm in the true Christian faith, this is a great temptation and scandal that completely knocks them off the right path.

Judge not, that ye be not be judged!

How alluring this neo-Christian distorted explanation seems: “I will not stop you from sinning, and in return, don’t you stop me from sinning!”

This is the horrifying, perverted, criminal refraction of this sacred text, presented to us in our times!

But in fact, we should know and remember that there are different kinds of condemnation.

One condemnation is sinful, while another, as we have already seen, is not only not sinful but commanded of us by the Gospel itself.

And this is quite understandable, for if we never judge anyone under any circumstances we will soon loose all ability to discern good and evil, and we will easily be drawn onto the path of evil.

The greatest of those born of women, to whose sanctity and irreproachable moral heights Christ the Savior Himself testified, the Holy Forerunner of the Lord, John, when seeing the Pharisees and Sadducees approaching him said to them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (Matt. 3:7).

What is this? Sinful condemnation?

Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself invited His followers to take their example from Him, saying, Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart (Matt. 11:29); nevertheless, He used the same expression [as St. John the Forerunner used] with regard to sinners hardened in their evil, who did not want to hear His divine teaching: O generation of vipers; and He often addressed people around Him, especially the scribes and Pharisees, with very sharp words of condemnation: wicked and adulterous generation! (Matt. 12:39), O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? (Matt. 17:17). He constantly called the Scribes and Pharisees “hypocrites”, “fools and blind”, “serpents” (Matt. 15:7, 16:3, 6–12; the whole of Chapter 23); He once called King Herod a “fox” (Lk. 13:32); He “upbraided”, as the Gospel itself says, whole cities: Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum because they “did not repent”. (Matt. 11:20–24).

More than that! We know from the Gospel that the meek and humble Lord Who prayed for His crucifiers, Lord forgive them, for they know not what they do (Lk. 23:34), not only used sharp words of condemnation but at times had recourse to very strong and decisive measures of physical action. Thus, twice—at the very beginning of His service in society, and second, at the very end of it—not long before His sufferings on the Cross cast the money changers out of the temple. The Evangelists tell us about these events vividly and graphically. Not able to abide the shameless commerce they conducted under the protection of the priests themselves and even with the participation of the high priests, who received great profits from the sale of doves, the Lord Jesus Christ came to the Jews in the Jerusalem Temple and made a scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables, saying to the sellers, make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise (Jn. 2, 14–17). And after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem before His suffering He again entered the Temple and said, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves (Matt. 21:12–13; Mk. 11:15-17; Lk. 19:45–46).

So, what is this?

And how far is this from that false Christian “love” and all-encompassing “all-forgiveness” that the modern liberals, the “neo-Christians” preach! And wouldn’t these people who are supposedly more “loving” than the Lord Himself find these words and actions of the Sinless Lord sinful and unacceptable, and contradictory to His own teaching? Wouldn’t they label them with their beloved expressions, such as “obscurantist”, “bigoted”, “dark medieval”, “retrograde”, “inquisition”, and such like?

But can we think that our Lord, the Incarnate Only-Begotten Son of God, Who came to earth for the sake of our salvation, for the sake of teaching us divine Truth and Life, would have contradicted in any way His own Self or acted against His own teaching?

Of course that is out of the question. That would be terrible blasphemy!

But that is what He did!

Following the example of the Lord Himself, His holy disciples and apostles were not afraid when necessary to “judge” people, stubbornly contradicting the Gospel Truth they were preaching, and had recourse at times to the most categorical measures in order to bridle and cut off evil.

Thus, Apostle Peter severely condemned Ananias and Sapphira for their cunning and punished them on the spot with death only because they “kept back the price of the land” that they had sold instead of giving it over completely as an offering to the Church (Acts 5:1–11).

Holy Protomartyr Archdeacon Stephen openly and publicly condemned his fellow Jews at the Sanhedrin, calling them “stiff-necked” and “uncircumcised in heart and ears,” accusing them of “always resisting the Holy Spirit,” that they “persecuted the prophets,” and finally became “betrayers and murderers” (Acts 7:51–52).

Holy Apostle Peter condemned Simon the Sorcerer for his attempts to purchase the grace of the Holy Spirit with money, saying to him, Thy money perish with thee... I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity (Acts 8:18–23).

During his first missionary journey, the holy apostle Paul harshly condemned the sorcerer and false prophet Barjesus, or Elymas, who was trying to turn the proconsul Sergius Paulus away from Christ. The apostle said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness! and punished him with blindness (Acts 13:6–12).

What is this? Sinful judging? The apostles’ lack of Christian love?

When the newly converted Christians in Corinth informed the same apostle Paul that the repulsive and wicked sin of incest was being practiced amongst them, that one should have his father’s wife, he did not say to them, “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged!” or, “Why behold ye the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not feel the beam in your own?” No! Nothing of the sort! The holy apostle immediately condemned that sinner and commanded the Corinthians to condemn him, pronouncing a very harsh sentence and punishment against him: To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 5:9–13).

The passages from Holy Scripture we have cited above seem more than sufficient to show us how we have to correctly understand the Lord’s words, Judge not, that ye be not judged; to be persuaded that these words do not at all exclude every kind of condemnation of our neighbor; that is, “condemnation” is not only allowable but even necessary, prescribed by God’s Law itself and our conscience. This is because a true Christian cannot relate to barefaced evil and sin indifferently; he cannot refuse to notice it or reconcile himself with it under the cunning excuse of being “nonjudgmental”, having “Christian love”, and “all-forgiveness”.

We have to know well and remember that the malicious Tolstoyan teaching of “not resisting evil” is absolutely foreign to true Christianity (incidentally, that teaching destroyed our misfortunate homeland Russia and thrust it into the terrible horrors of Bolshevism!): Every true Christian is irreconcilable to evil, no matter where or in whom he finds it.

The holy apostles followed the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, and others after them warred against it, even at the cost of all possible and serious deprivations, even of their own lives.

That is how the holy martyrs warred with the evil of dark paganism and idol worship—not only passively dying in Christ’s Name, but also quite decisively condemning, at times with very sharp words and expressions and even actions, the errors and wickedness of the idol worshippers.

The holy fathers of the Church decisively and uncompromisingly fought against heretics, by no means considering the heretics to be people who “think differently” (as it has become fashionable in our time to express it!), to whom we have to show “tolerance”, and whom we have to “approach with understanding”, but to view them as grievous wolves ... not sparing the flock, according to Holy Scripture (Act. 20:29), and sternly condemning them at the Ecumenical and Local Councils, the right-believing Christians being cautious of every association with them, and giving them over to anathema.

What is this? Sinful condemnation or a lack of love?

No! It is none other than the lawful application in life of the apostle’s words: What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? (2 Cor. 6:14-15).

And our venerable monastic fathers and mothers—Christian ascetics—“judged” this world which lieth in evil by the very fact of their departure from it. They followed the call of God’s Word: Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty (2 Cor. 6:17–18).

And now, in in these terrible times of cynical and openly fierce atheism, we as Christians faithful to Christ the Savior and His True Church cannot but condemn with all our resolve the atheists and blasphemers, the fierce theomachists who are striving to uproot the Christian faith throughout the world and destroy the Holy Church, defiling our Fatherland and desecrating our holy shrines.

We cannot but condemn also all those who cooperate with them, who support them and aid them in consolidating their power, helping them by this in their hellish plans.

We condemn the servants of the coming Antichrist and the Antichrist himself...

Could this really be sinful judgment that is forbidden by the Gospel, as the modern-day smarties—neo-Christians filled with some kind of “super love” and all-encompassing “all-forgiveness”—are trying to persuade us to think?

Let them not lie against the Lord and His Holy Gospel!

Let them not in their pharisaical pride and self-deception ascribe to themselves more love than the very Incarnation of Love, our Lord and Savior, had!

And how we need to correctly understand the Lord’s saying, Judge not that ye be not judged! The great father of the Church St. John Chrysostom explains this beautifully:

“Here the Savior is not commanding us to not judge all sins in general, and He does not forbid everyone without exception to do this, but only those who, themselves filled with numberless sins, reprove others for insignificant mistakes. Christ is pointing here also at the Jews who themselves being evil were the accusers of their neighbors over some unimportant and insignificant mistakes, while they themselves unconscionably committed great sins (see vol. VII, p. 260 [Russian]).

It follows that judgment is not forbidden about a neighbor, nor is it forbidden to condemn his evil actions in and of themselves, but forbidden rather is the evil feeling in the soul for one’s neighbors by a person who himself sins in the same way or even more, without thinking about his own correction.

It is not objective “judgment” of a neighbor that is forbidden, not dispassionate condemnation of his bad behavior, but evil gossip and calumny, which often comes from vain and impure impulses—from pride and ambition, envy or resentment.

In other words, forbidden is all anger and glee for personal reasons over one’s sinning neighbor, and by no means the just, pure, ideological, principled, and dispassionate evaluation of his actions and behavior. This is not only not contradictory to the Gospel and reprehensible, but to the contrary is even necessary, so that we would not end up indifferent to good and evil, and so that evil would not triumph in the world due to our indifference.

Therefore, those modern pastors, whom it would be better to call false pastors, commit a great crime by unconsciously or consciously teaching their flock the Tolstoyan “resisting not evil”.

What terrible, utter deceit!

What true pharisaical hypocrisy!

“To never judge anyone for anything”—such a disposition in modern Christian society is just what the servants of the coming Antichrist want to bring about, so that all would be simple and wide open for them to do their work of preparing a favorable atmosphere for the speedy enthronement of their “sovereign”.

Could it really be that in our time it is still not clear to every honest and conscious Christian that unconditional “all-forgiveness” is needed only by the enemy of Christ—the Antichrist—so that people would finally loose all feeling for discerning good and evil, that they would make peace with evil, readily accept it, and then accept the Antichrist himself without giving a thought to any struggle against him?

This is no more than the hypocritical pharisaical deceit of the enemy who thirsts for our destruction!

After all, if Christian all-forgiveness, given to us by the resurrected Christ the Savior, extended so to speak “automatically” also to those who do not wish to repent and correct their lives, then the Lord would not have given the apostles, and in their person to all their successors—the pastors of the Church—along with the power to “remit sins” the power also to “bind” them, and He would not have said to them when He appeared after His Resurrection, Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained (Jn. 20:23).

Indeed what outrageous and foolish audacity it is to consider yourself more loving than God Himself and to “correct” the Gospel of Christ, inventing your own “gospel”!

Let us make every effort to guard ourselves, brothers, from this evil leaven of modern phariseeism!

Resolutely struggling with every tiniest manifestation of evil and sin in our own souls, let us not be afraid to expose and rebuke evil everywhere it appears in modern life—not out of pride or vanity, but only out of love for the truth. Our main task in these evil times of lying shamelessness is to preserve whole our faithfulness and dedication to the authentic Gospel Truth and to the Author of our salvation—Christ the Life-Giver Who rose after three days from the grave, the Conqueror of hell and death.

If he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican (Matt. 18:17).

We have heard these terrible words of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the Gospel reading. We should always remember them, but first of all, we should correctly understand their sense and meaning.

What is this?

When the Lord bade farewell to His disciples at the Last Supper, to console them who were grieving over their imminent separation from their Divine Teacher He said: I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever (Jn. 14:16), Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth (Jn. 16:13), The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you (Jn. 14:26).

The Lord fulfilled His promise on the tenth day after His Ascension (or on the fiftieth day after the Resurrection). On the great and glorious day of Pentecost, the promised “Comforter”—the Holy Spirit—descended upon the apostles, and on earth appeared the Kingdom of God come with power (Mk. 9:1), about which the Lord spoke many times during His earthly life: it is the Church of Christ. The Lord earlier gave His Church a great promise: I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18).

The Church of Christ is the Kingdom of the Spirit of God; it is the Treasury of the grace of the Holy Spirit, and it is also the Treasury of Divine Truth, because the Holy Spirit, in the words of Christ the Savior Himself, is the “Spirit of Truth”. That is why the great apostle of the nations Paul wrote to his disciple Timothy: the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth (Jn. 18:37).

The Church of Christ is filled to abundance with Divine Truth, and in it is only Truth. There can be no untruth in it, no lie, for it preserves the teaching of Christ Who is the Truth, as the Lord Himself said at Pilate’s judgment seat: To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice (Jn. 18:37).

When the Lord Jesus Christ said, if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican (Matt. 18:17), He of course meant the true Church—the Church that sacredly and unshakably preserves intact and undistorted the pure teaching of Christ, and which is completely foreign to any lie or untruth no matter what kind. Every lie and untruth is completely incompatible with the true Church of Christ, for lies are from the devil, as the Lord clearly said to the Jews who stubbornly resisted believing in Him: Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it (Jn. 8:44).

And truly, homicide and lies are closely bound to each other: Homicide leads to lies, and lies often lead to homicide. Both of them come from the devil and therefore they cannot have any place in the true Church.

We should evaluate everything that is happening in the world from this point of view!

 

English source: https://orthochristian.com/119438.html

Russian original: https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Averkij_Taushev/hristianin-v-sovremennom-mire/#0_8

Photios Kontoglou: John the Blessed

(Translated from the Greek original by Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Etna)

 

The nativity feast having passed, St. Basil took his staff and set off to traverse every town, in order to see who would celebrate his Feast Day with purity of heart. He passed through regions of every sort and through villages of prominence, yet regardless of where he knocked, no door opened to him, since they took him for a beggar. And he would depart embittered, for, though he needed nothing from men, he felt how much pain the heart of every impecunious person must have endured at the insensitivity that these people showed him. One day, as he was leaving such a merciless village, he went by the graveyard, where he saw that the tombs were in ruins, the headstones broken and turned topsy-turvy, and how the newly dug graves had been turned up by jackals. Saint that he was, he could hear the dead speaking and saying: “During the time that we were on the earth, we labored, we were heavy-burdened, leaving behind us children and grandchildren to light just a candle, to burn a little incense on our behalf; but we behold nothing, neither a Priest to read over our heads a parastas [a memorial service] nor kollyva [boiled wheat offered in commemoration of the dead], as though we had left no one behind us." Thus, St. Basil was once again disquieted, and he said to himself, “These villagers give aid neither to the living nor to the deceased," departing from the cemetery and going forth alone in the midst of the freezing snow.

On the eve of the New Year, he came upon a certain hamlet, which was the poorest of the poor villages in all of Greece. The freezing wind howled through the scrub bush and the rocky cliffs, and not a living soul was to be found in the pitch dark night! Then, he beheld in front of him a small knoll, below which there was secreted away a sheepfold. St. Basil went into the pen and, knocking on the door of the hut with his staff, called out: “Have mercy on me, a poor man, for the sake of your deceased relatives, for even Christ lived as a beggar on this earth." Awakening, the dogs lunged at him. But as they drew near him and sniffed him, they became gentle, wagged their tails, and lay down at his feet, whimpering imploringly and with joy. Thereupon, a shepherd, a young man of twenty-five or so, with a curly black beard, opened the door and stepped out: John Barbakos—a demure and rugged man, a sheepman. Before taking a good look at who was knocking, he had already said, “Enter, come inside. Good day, Happy New Year!"

Inside the hut, a lamp was suspended overhead from a cradle that was attached to two beams. Next to the hearth was their bedding, and John's wife was sleeping. As soon as St. Basil went inside, John, seeing that the old man was a clergyman, took his hand and kissed it, saying, “Your blessing, Elder," as though he had known him previously and as though he were his father. And the Saint said to him: “May you and all of your household be blessed, together with your sheep, and may the peace of God be upon you." The wife then arose, and she, too, reverenced the Elder and kissed his hand, and he blessed her. St. Basil looked like a mendicant monk, with an old skouphia [monastic hat], his rasa [inner and outer cassocks] worn and patched, and his tsarouchia [a traditional leather slipper, usually adorned with a pompom at the end of the shoe] full of holes; as well, he had an old empty-looking satchel. John the blessed put wood on the fire. Straightway the hut began to glisten, as though seemingly a palace. The rafters seemed to be gilded with gold, while the hanging cheesecloth sacks [filled with curing cheese] looked like vigil lamps, and the wooden containers, cheese presses, and all of the accessories used by John in making cheese became like silver, as though decorated by diamonds, as did all of the other humble things that John the blessed had in his hut. The wood burning in the hearth crackled and sang like the birds that sing in Paradise, giving off a fragrance wholly delightful. The couple placed St. Basil near the fire, where he sat, and the wife put down pillows on which he could lean. Then the Elder took the satchel from around his neck, placing it next to him, and removed his old rason (outer cassock), remaining in his zostiko [inner cassock].

Together with his farmhand, John the blessed went out to milk the sheep and to place the newborn lambs in the lambing pen, and afterwards he separated the ewes that were ready to birth and confined them within the enclosure, while his helper put the other sheep out to graze. His flock was sparse and John was poor; yet, he was blessed. And he was possessed of great joy at all times, day and night, for he was a good man and he had a good wife. Anyone who happened to pass by their hut they cared for as though he were a brother. And it is thus that St. Basil found lodging in their home and settled in, as if it were his own, blessing it from top to bottom. On that night, he was awaited—in all of the cities and villages of the realm—by rulers, Hierarchs, and officials; but he went to none of these. Instead, he went to lodge in the hut of John the blessed.

So, John, after pasturing the sheep, came back in and said to the Saint, “Elder, I am greatly joyful. I wish to have you read to us what is written about St. Basil [i.e., the appointed hymns to the Saint], I am an illiterate man, but I like all of the writings of our religion [once again, the hymns and services of the Church], In fact, I have a small book from an Hagiorite Abbot [i.e., an Abbot from Mt. Athos], and whenever someone who can read and write happens to pass by, I get him to read out of the booklet, since we have no Church near us."

In the East, it was dimly dawning. St Basil rose and stood, facing eastward, making his Cross. He then bent down, took a booklet from his satchel, and said, “Blessed is our God, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages." John the blessed went and stood behind him, and his wife, having nursed their baby, also went to stand near him, with her arms crossed [over her chest], St. Basil then said [the hymn], “God is the Lord..." and the Apolytikion of the Feast of the Circumcision, “Without change, Thou hast assumed human form," omitting his own Apolytikion, which states, “Thy sound is gone forth unto all the earth." His voice was sweet and humble, and John and his wife felt great contrition, even though they did not understand all of the words. St. Basil now said the whole of Matins and the Canon of the Feast, “Come, O ye peoples, and let us chant a song unto Christ God," without reciting his own canon, which reads, “O Basil, we would that thy voice were present...."

Thereafter, he said aloud the entire Liturgy, pronounced the dismissal, and blessed the household. As they sat at the table, having eaten and finished their food, the wife brought the Vasilopeta [a sweet bread or cake baked in honor of St. Basil on the New Year] and placed it on the serving table. Then St. Basil took a knife and with it traced the sign of the Cross on the Vasilopeta, saying, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." He cut a first piece, saying, “for Christ," a second, afterwards, saying, “for the Panagia [the Theotokos or Mother of God]," and then “for the master of the house, John the blessed." John exclaimed, “Elder, you forgot St. Basil!" The Saint replied, “Yes, indeed," and thus said, “And for the servant of God, Basil." After this, he resumed: “...and for the master of the house," “for the mistress of the house," “for the child," “for the farmhand," “for the animals," and “for the poor." Thereupon, John the blessed said, “Elder, why did you not cut a piece for your reverendship?" And the Saint said, “But I did, O blessed one!" But John, this blissful man, did not understand.

Afterwards, St. Basil stood up and said the prayer, “O Lord my God, I know that I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under the roof of the house of my soul." John the Blessed then said: “I wonder if you can tell me, Elder, since you know many things, to what palaces St. Basil went this evening? And the rulers and monarchs—what sins do they have? We poor people are sinners, since our poverty leads us into sin." With tears, St. Basil said the same prayer once more, but changing it: “O Lord my God, I have seen that Thy servant John the simple is worthy and that it is meet that Thou shouldest enter into his shelter. He is a babe, and it is to babes that Thy Mysteries are revealed." And again John the blissful, John the blessed, grasped nothing....

 

Source: Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XXVII (2010), No. 1, pp. 40-43.

An Important (and Bitter) Letter by Elder Philotheos Zervakos (+1980) on the Old and New Calendars

Subdeacon V. Kirillov [of ROCOR-A]: The important letter by the renowned Greek elder reproduced below is also valuable because it not only demonstrates a patristic approach to the calendar question, free from fanaticism and “zeal not according to knowledge,” but also explains the moderate position of the Old Calendarist Metropolitan Cyprian, who was a spiritual son of Archimandrite Philotheos (Zervakos).

[Note: This letter was written after the reception of extremist Mother Magdalene Karagatsidou and her convent of the Annunciation in Kozani by the Church of the G.O.C. of Greece. She was the author of Nektarios Kethalas: Iconoclast, Latinist and Ecumenist and other defamatory works against St. Nektarios of Aegina, who was Elder Philotheos’ spiritual father. The elder wrote elsewhere: “Without humility, all virtues are useless. The nun Magdalene was hostile to the fact that St. Nektarios performed and continues to perform miracles. She even wrote a book. Among her other blasphemies, she declared that the Mystery of the Eucharist is performed by the Holy Spirit only when the Julian calendar is followed. She also said that anyone who recognizes Nektarios as a saint will be accursed by an Ecumenical Council, and so forth. Thoughtlessly, she curses God and the saint. For God has glorified His saints on account of their humility, faith, and love” (The Blessed Elder Philotheos Zervakos, Thessaloniki, 1994). – Blog Admin.]

 

 

My dear and beloved child Angelos, rejoice in the Lord!

I received your letter of August 17/30, 1975, and am replying, although I am old and infirm.

The Old Calendar was established by the 318 holy God-bearing Fathers who gathered at the First Ecumenical Council; all the other Ecumenical and Local Councils agreed with it, and for approximately sixteen centuries, millions of holy Orthodox Christians followed it. This continued until 1923, when Meletios Metaxakis, the Ecumenical Patriarch, entered the sheepfold—not through the door, but by climbing in like a thief, criminally, with the aid of the political power of England and France. He unlawfully abolished the patristic Orthodox calendar and criminally and uncanonically introduced the new, papal calendar, because he was in secret collusion with the Freemasons (being himself a thirty-third-degree Freemason) and with the falsely Christian, falsely infallible Pope of Rome.

The introduction of the new papal calendar abolished the tradition of the First Ecumenical Council concerning the celebration of Pascha. Regarding this same tradition, the Great Local Council of Antioch also decreed that those who dare to alter or violate what the First Ecumenical Council laid down concerning the time for celebrating Pascha, if they are bishops, priests, or deacons, are to be deposed, and if they are laypeople, are to be excommunicated. The Seventh Ecumenical Council decreed: “Whoever rejects any Tradition, whether written or unwritten, let him be anathema.”

The criminal adoption of the new papal calendar, introduced by the utterly lawless arch-Freemason, Ecumenical Patriarch Meletios, has, in this year of 1975, entirely abolished the fast established by the holy apostles, which begins after the feast of All Saints (it is treated with contempt in the new calendar). Sometimes this fast lasts one day, sometimes two. The foremost Apostle Paul, the mouth of Christ, says in his Epistle to the Galatians: “If anyone preaches to you a gospel other than what you have received, let him be anathema” (Gal. 1:9). Moreover, all the Ecumenical and Local Councils subject those who transgress and despise the apostolic and patristic Traditions to anathema and excommunication. In the epilogue to the sacred canons, the holy apostles decreed: “This is what we command you, O bishops, concerning the canons. If you hold firmly to the canons, you will have peace; but if you violate them, you will incur retribution and will perpetually wage war against one another; you will be punished and receive the recompense you deserve.”

The war that contemporary bishops wage against one another and the calamities they bring about, acting like Cain, Judas the betrayer, crucifiers, murderers, reprobates, boors, and rabble, are the fruits of ignorance and contempt for the sacred canons and apostolic and patristic Tradition. If the Head and Founder of the Church, the Prince of Peace, does not have mercy on His few faithful and chosen servants and send discerning, prudent, meek, humble, peaceable men (to remedy this problem), utter destruction will ensue. “But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another” (Gal. 5:15). So much for the New Calendarists, who despise the sacred canons and apostolic and patristic Tradition.

Now let us also look at those schismatic Old Calendarists who call themselves “Genuine Orthodox Christians.” A truly Orthodox Christian is one who has a firm and fervent faith in the True God, love for God and neighbor with all his soul and all his heart, sincere humility, and meekness. When our Lord Jesus Christ sent His disciples into the world, He said to them: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). He told them to preach the Gospel; He did not tell them to preach the old calendar! “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16). Whoever believes and is baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—not in the name of the old calendar! The Evangelist John, the high-soaring eagle of theology, said: “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 5:20) [sic: 1 John 4:16]. He did not say that the old calendar is God or that whoever abides in the old calendar abides in God.

Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, perfect God and perfect Man, said: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:29). He did not say that they should learn from Him because He was an Old Calendarist, as some Old Calendarists claim in their excessive zeal that Christ was an Old Calendarist. What nonsense—Lord, have mercy! Learn from Me, He says, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you too will become like Me and find rest for your souls. He did not say, “Become Old Calendarists.” Thus, the Old Calendarists falsely boast and claim that they are truly Orthodox; they are truly heterodox, since they believe not in God but in the old calendar. The Apostle Paul, the mouth of Christ, says: “Without faith it is impossible to be saved.” The Old Calendarists say that without the old calendar it is impossible to be saved.

Our Lord Jesus Christ calls us to love not only those who love us but also our enemies. The Old Calendarists hate even their fellow Old Calendarists. They hate one another, insult one another, beat and wound one another. They should be ashamed to call themselves not only genuinely Orthodox but even Christians or rational human beings. Even unbelievers, the impious, and the most degraded people behave outrageously, fight, and beat one another on the roads, in marketplaces, and in taverns, but they do not dare to humiliate others inside a church. The insolent bishops, priests, and other clergy who call themselves “Genuine Orthodox” and who beat their brethren in the Church of the Annunciation in Chalkidiki must repent of this and cease exercising their sacred ministry; if they do not do so themselves, Apostolic Canon 27 nevertheless deposes them.

The Orthodox Church holds that all the saints—apostles, martyrs, prophets, hierarchs, venerable monastics, and the righteous—were sanctified and saved through faith, love, humility, and good works, through observing and keeping the commandments of God. The Old Calendarists (fortunately not all, but unfortunately many) are extreme fanatics, zealots not according to knowledge, who believe that without keeping the old calendar there is no salvation. Some of them think and preach that if a Christian has a multitude of sins and is immersed in them up to his neck, yet keeps the old calendar, he will be saved!

The Orthodox Church believes and teaches that the Holy Spirit performs the Holy Mysteries: Baptism, Communion, Repentance, Confession, and the others. Bishops and priests celebrating the Mystery of Baptism pray with faith and reverence, asking Almighty God the Father to send down the Most Holy Spirit and sanctify the water, making it water of redemption and sanctification, cleansing soul and body, releasing the bonds of sin, for the remission of transgressions, the illumination of the soul, the renewal of the spirit, the grace of adoption, a garment of immortality, a fountain of life, and so forth. When celebrating the Holy Eucharist, they pray for the descent of the Holy Spirit and the transubstantiation of the bread on the diskos into the precious Body of Christ and the wine in the chalice into His precious Blood. After confession, the priest says to the person receiving absolution: “The grace of the Most Holy Spirit absolveth and forgiveth thee in this age and in the age to come.” Likewise, in all the other Mysteries, following the prayer, the Holy Spirit sanctifies mystically and invisibly. But the fanatical Old Calendarist zealots worship the old calendar, deny all this, and think that the Mysteries are invalid and that the Holy Spirit does not descend because the old calendar is absent, because the bishops and priests are not Old Calendarists! There is no greater spiritual delusion (error), impiety, or madness than this. Gregory the Great, the Theologian, says: “The Holy Spirit does not ordain everyone, but He acts through everyone.” And the divine Chrysostom says that the Mysteries are performed even through an unworthy priest, since it is the Holy Spirit who performs them, regardless of the unworthiness of the clergy, for the sanctification of the faithful and their communion with God through the Mysteries. All the holy fathers agree with this view of the three great luminaries of the world (Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom). Only the fanatical Old Calendarist zealots disagree and, wishing to show that they are superior to and wiser than the holy fathers, preach that those who partake of the Holy Mysteries in New Calendarist churches consume bread, wine, straw, and hay!

A hieromonk and spiritual father at a monastery on Syros, wishing to demonstrate his extraordinary zeal (though for the old calendar rather than Orthodoxy), held that without the old calendar the Mysteries could not be performed and salvation was impossible. He advised Christians not to attend churches or receive Communion, because the New Calendarist priests and their churches had become Catholic. He advised everyone: “It is better to stay at home, fill a cup with wine, dip a slice of bread into it, and eat and drink, but do not receive Communion from the New Calendarists. I abhor it, trample it underfoot, and revile it with obscene expressions.” O supreme impiety and madness! For this, the most merciful God (Who is often patient and does not repay us according to our iniquities and our sins), being righteous, punished the impious, insolent blasphemer. “For … every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Heb. 2:2–3), and “Tribulation and anguish upon every human soul that does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek!” (Rom. 2:9). The aforementioned utterly impious hieromonk, who with obscene, foul words blasphemed and insulted the Holy Body and Blood of our sweetest Christ with his foul tongue, was manifestly punished as an example to others. Having lost the grace of God, deluded and ungrateful like Judas, he took a rope and hanged himself in the narthex of the church he had built.

Yet even at that moment, the all-good God, Whose patience is beyond words, again wished to save him, as He had saved the wise thief on the cross, and sent someone there who, seeing him hanging and gasping for breath, called the neighbors for help. They quickly cut the rope and saved him. However, since he did not sincerely repent, he went mad and was confined in an institution for the insane. He lived there for a short time, and as he approached death, the director of the institution, a devout woman, called a priest to administer the Holy Mysteries to him so that he would not die without Communion. The priest eagerly hastened to come, but when he approached to administer Holy Communion, the Bread of Life, the Heavenly Bread, he witnessed a horrifying sight. As he himself told me, he saw the impious and insane hieromonk, the blasphemer of Holy Communion, eating his own excrement! O how ineffable and righteous are Thy judgments, O Christ, Who lovest mankind and art also righteous! The priest did not give Communion to the man who was eating his own excrement. The same priest buried him and was present when his body was later exhumed. His remains were found entirely undecomposed, black, and foul-smelling, with his tongue protruding from his mouth! God is not mocked. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God! And the man who had previously boasted beyond measure that he was supposedly truly Orthodox because he followed the old calendar, and who had condemned the “New Calendarists” as anathematized and accursed, whose bodies would remain undecomposed forever, himself died a miserable death, eating his own excrement!

O foolish Old Calendarists! Who has led you astray? Who taught you to think and believe that the old calendar is equal in power to the Most Holy Spirit, or greater, and that when the New Calendarists pray to God to send down the Holy Spirit and sanctify the Mysteries, the old calendar does not allow Him to come because they are “New Calendarists,” but permits Him to come only to those who strictly observe the calendar—the “Old Calendarists,” the fanatical zealots!

When the holy fathers handed down the old calendar to us, they said: “We hand down to you the Julian calendar, on the basis of which we have decreed that everyone should celebrate the feast of Pascha together, in peace and unanimity, on the same day, so that some do not celebrate earlier and others later, giving rise to enmity, verbal disputes, and strife.” They did not say that whoever keeps the old calendar will be saved, or that on this old calendar hang all the Law and the Prophets. This is the teaching of the deceitful Satan, the hater of good, utterly wicked and exceedingly destructive. The evil enemy brought about the downfall of our first parents by telling them not to listen to God but to listen to him, so that they might become gods. This same deceiver also beguiled the Old Calendarists into calling themselves “Genuine Orthodox” on their own authority, and in their heedlessness they accepted his counsel rather than the commandment of God given to His disciples and to all of us, the faithful: “When you have done everything commanded you (that is, kept My Law, My commandments, and all My injunctions), say: ‘We are unprofitable servants, for we have done what it was our duty to do’” (Luke 17:10). He did not command us to say that we are genuinely Orthodox.

By accepting the counsel of the evil Satan, the hater of good, and calling themselves “Genuine Orthodox,” the Old Calendarists abandoned the commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who commanded: “When you have done everything … say: ‘We are unprofitable servants,’” and “Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls,” and rejected humility. God, Who resists the proud and gives grace to the humble—the Holy Spirit, Who, according to the wise Solomon, rests in meek hearts—withdrew from the hearts of the Old Calendarists; more precisely, they drove Him out, choosing the spirit of pride, which taught them anger and strife. A troubled heart is the seat of the devil. He taught you, Old Calendarists, to have no love but to harbor hatred, to rage, fight, and savagely beat one another, even inside the church. The devil taught you to think and preach that the Holy Spirit, for Whose descent the New Calendarist bishops and priests pray to the Heavenly Father, God Almighty, does not descend because they are not Old Calendarists. Thus, you believe that the Holy Spirit did not descend upon Christians from apostolic times until the year 325, when the 318 holy fathers established the old calendar, because there was no old calendar!!! Consequently, in the Mystery of Holy Communion they ate bread and drank wine, and they also remained unbaptized! The spirit of pride taught you, Old Calendarists, to rebaptize and chrismate a second time New Calendarists who had been baptized in the Orthodox manner. The holy apostles and the holy fathers of the seven Ecumenical Councils prescribed “one baptism” in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, performed by triple immersion in water. They decreed that it must not be repeated. Those who violate this decree are anathematized. Only those who have renounced Christ are anointed a second time with holy chrism. The New Calendarists have not renounced Christ.

My spiritual child in Christ, beloved Angelos, it should be clear from what has been said above that both the New Calendarists and the schismatic Old Calendarists are transgressors of apostolic and patristic Tradition, especially the Old Calendarists. They trample upon more apostolic and patristic Traditions, and particularly despise the commandment of love, concerning which the Apostle Paul says: “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. Maranatha!” (1 Cor. 16:22). “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have no love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give my body to be burned, but have no love, I gain nothing” (1 Cor. 13:1–3).

The schismatic Old Calendarists, having no love, gain nothing spiritually and possess nothing good. Boasting and calling themselves “Genuine Orthodox Christians” on their own authority, they are in fact truly heterodox. The lack of love and humility in all people—Old Calendarists and New Calendarists, laity and clergy, rich and poor, great and small, kings and patriarchs, ministers and soldiers—leads to the blinding of their spiritual eyes. Then they cease to see and call light darkness and darkness light, sweetness bitterness and bitterness sweetness, truth falsehood and falsehood truth, day night and night day, virtue evil and evil virtue. For all, as David prophetically said, “have turned aside and together become worthless,” and according to the Apostle John the Theologian, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:10). Consequently, we too are sinners, and I more than anyone. Therefore, we must always repent and fervently beseech the all-good God and our Heavenly Father, the Giver of good gifts, the Prince of Peace, to send down from heaven His great and abundant mercy and grant us repentance and the forgiveness of sins, and to grant us the two great virtues—love and humility—so that through them, as on two wings of a dove, according to the words of David, we may be purified, rise aloft, and find rest in the eternal resting places, in the courts of the Lord, in the beloved tents of Paradise, in the splendor of the saints, and be deemed worthy to become heirs of eternal blessings and the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.

As I conclude this fatherly letter, I pray that the all-good God, Who loves mankind, our Heavenly Father, may preserve you from the many, varied, and cunning snares of the deceitful Satan, spread everywhere. Seeing these in a vision, Anthony the Great groaned and exclaimed: “Who can escape them?” And he heard a voice: “Humility.”

As your spiritual father, I advise you to pray unceasingly and ask God to grant you humility and love. If you ask with faith and reverence, He Who instructed us, “Ask, and it will be given to you,” will grant them to you. And when He grants you humility and love, He will dwell within you, destroy the devil’s snares, and save you.

Your difficulties concerning the question of the old and new calendars are resolved on the basis of the teaching of Holy Scripture and the wise and holy teachers of our Holy Church, common sense, and discernment. “Of two evils, choose the lesser.”

The new calendar is bad because it entered the Church unlawfully through the falsely Christian, falsely infallible Pope of Rome and the Freemason Ecumenical Patriarch Meletios. In some years, the new calendar abolishes the Fast of the Holy Apostles; it does not, however, abolish the faith, the dogmas, or the feasts of the saints, but merely runs thirteen days ahead of the old calendar. Nevertheless, it is bad because it entered in an evil, unlawful, and uncanonical manner and split the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church into two: Old Calendarists and New Calendarists. For the sake of preserving the old calendar, the schismatic Old Calendarists have fallen into many errors, more numerous and worse than those of the New Calendarists, as we have already mentioned above. The Old Calendarists have abolished the first and greatest commandment of love, divided into numerous groups, adopted rebaptism, introduced new dogmas, and begun to serve the calendar, elevating to a dogma the claim that the Holy Spirit does not sanctify the Mysteries of the New Calendarists because the old calendar is absent, and so forth. The errors of the schismatic Old Calendarists are more numerous and worse than those of the New Calendarists.

In this case, it is fitting to choose the lesser of the two evils before you. Do as many Old Calendarists have recently done: having seen and understood the terrible spiritual delusion of the schismatics—their lack of love, their biting at one another, and so forth—they chose the lesser evil.

Follow their example and pray earnestly that the Lord may enlighten everyone, and that all may return to the old calendar and, above all, to repentance, love, and humility, and become one flock with the Good and True Shepherd, Who offered Himself as a sacrifice for His rational sheep.

With fatherly love and heartfelt prayers,

Archimandrite Philotheos Zervakos

 

Russian source (translation credited to Archimandrite Mitrophan):

https://kirillov-v-y.livejournal.com/40807.html