The Western Rite: Not in the Russian Tradition

Archpriest Igor Shitikov | December 18, 2011 | Voices from Russia

 

 

A statement of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) on 10 December 2011 said, “The ROCOR was created to unify the Russian people trapped in foreign exile, who wanted to remain faithful children of the Local Orthodox Church of Russia, who longed for its rebirth, and, from its very beginning, had the missionary task of disseminating Orthodox faith amongst the people living in its host-countries. These objectives remain unchanged”.

Indeed, throughout the history of its existence, the ROCOR maintained Russian Orthodox traditions and spread these traditions amongst the indigenous populations of its host-countries. However, in recent years, especially since 2007, the ROCOR began to spread the so-called “Western Rite”. The very existence of this rite questions the assertion in the letter of the ROCOR Holy Synod of the immutability of the tasks of preserving and disseminating the traditions of Russian Orthodoxy, as such traditions don’t apply to the “Western Rite”. The Western Rite contains nothing special, let alone anything terrible. It isn’t just another eastern (not “Orthodox” in its modern sense) liturgical tradition.

The main service of the daily liturgical circle in both Eastern and Western recensions is the Liturgy. This service embodies the sacrament of the Eucharist, that is, the remembrance of the Perfect Saviour’s redemption of the world, offering the Mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine as a sacrifice to God, and distributing them to believers as a symbolic meal. Our Lord Jesus Christ established the Sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. The Divine Liturgy is its repetition and it’s a memorial of the Lord. This, the most ancient rite of the Liturgy is the ritual of the Jewish Passover Supper.

In the ancient Church, there were dozens of official liturgies. By the 7th century, in the East, the Liturgies of John Chrysostom and St Basil the Great were the usual forms used in the Roman Empire. Although it had wide usage in the West, the Roman Mass only gained formal approval in the 16th century at the RC Council of Trent. Therefore, there were two traditions, Eastern and Western. It’s worth noting that both traditions allow the use of earlier forms of divine service. For example, some Orthodox churches still serve the Liturgy of St James on his feastday, 23 October. Some in Africa serve the Liturgy of St Mark in the Egyptian style.

In Orthodox tradition, the practice is to serve the Liturgy of John Chrysostom, and, on particular days marked in the Typikon, the Liturgy of St Basil the Great. In addition, on the weekdays of the Great Lent, when the canons don’t allow us to celebrate the Eucharist, we serve the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts of St Gregory the Dialogist. The Russian Orthodox Church doesn’t have any other official liturgies. Russian liturgical usages are distinct, especially in the service of the Liturgy, which we don’t find in the Greek usage. For example, the Russian usage artificially inserts a prayer of the Third Hour in one Eucharistic prayer. There are other differences. When you look at a Russian priest, his vestments distinguish him from a Greek priest. You can say that’s not important, it’s secondary. However, it’s precisely these minor points that formed the Russian tradition, which serve to protect our Russian Orthodox clergy and their parishioners. The Russian Orthodox Church always understood missionary activity as spreading the Russian Orthodox tradition in indigenous languages. Many of our English-speaking priests are wonderful ascetics and guardians of the Russian tradition.

We can’t call the Western Rite adopted in the ROCOR “Western” in its purest form. When the Orthodox entered into the Unia with the Vatican, they kept the Orthodox liturgical tradition. It really is true Oriental tradition, but in the Western church. It seems strange, but the Uniates better preserve the Orthodox rite than some of the Local Orthodox Churches do. Thus, Ukrainian Greek-Catholic parishes outside of the Ukraine almost universally maintain the old (Julian) calendar, but most Ukrainian Orthodox churches in the west use the Gregorian calendar. The ROCOR’s Western Rite parishes don’t use a “pure” Western liturgy. There, the liturgical text inserts the Proskomedia and Eucharistic canon of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom. Therefore, this isn’t a true Western Rite; it’s a warped Western Rite. I don’t know what you’d call it, but it’s not of the Russian Orthodox tradition and irrelevant to its missionary calling.

In 1978, the ROCOR Holy Synod issued its verdict on the so-called Western Rite. Here’s the verbatim text of this decision:

RESOLVED: The Western rite in its present form came into being after the defection of the West from the Orthodox Church; so, it isn’t in accordance with the liturgical life of the Orthodox Church, with whom she shared a common life for many centuries. It (Western Rite) doesn’t reflect the liturgical traditions of the Orthodox Church. Thus, we can’t sufficiently amend it to Orthodox standards, even when we review it to a greater degree, and nowhere is it (Western Rite) a success. Because of this, the Synod doesn’t recognise the possible use of the traditions of the Western Rite in the Russian Church.

The question of the equality of the Eastern and Western Rites came to our Church from a Catholic origin. This is the so-called “Neo-Unia”. For almost four centuries, the Jesuit Order raised the issue of equality of rites in Rome. In 1923, Rome adopted a plan of Catholic Archbishop Ropp on bi-ritualism under the authority of the Roman See. In the same way, the Western Rite in the form of bi-ritualism entered into the life of the ROCOR. Biritualism allows the same priest to perform the services in both Eastern and Western fashions.

Russian media sources reported that the ROCOR created a Western Rite Vicariate, but that wasn’t the case. There wasn’t a vicariate… it was just one vicar bishop allowed to serve in such a manner. If he visits a traditional ROCOR parish, he wears the usual Orthodox vestments. If he goes to a Western Rite location, the same hierarch uses Western vestments. Photos of a Russian Bishop in Western garb caused no little embarrassment amongst Orthodox believers, including in Russia, where the photographs were widely distributed. In the Russian Church, there’s no equality of rites. It utilizes Russian Orthodox ceremonies. Even the most “lenient” Local Church, Antioch, forbids bi-ritualism amongst its clergy. Only Antioch and the ROCOR allow the practises of the Western Rite.

In 1959, St John Maximovich, when he was the ruling bishop of the ROCOR Diocese of Western Europe, took under his omofor the group of Kovalevsky, the so-called “Catholic Eglise de France Orthodoxe”, which used a revised version of the Roman Mass. However, even then, the ROCOR allowed no bi-ritualism. After the death of St John in 1966, this group left our church. There have been other isolated cases of the adoption of Western Rite communities into the ROCOR. They all eventually left us, being essentially foreign bodies. This ended with the ROCOR Holy Synod saying enough with such experiments and made the decision cited above.

Now, we’re again trying to revive a dead tradition. If we don’t watch out, then, we’ll restore the usages of the ancient Jewish Vespers. After all, no one has any doubt that this was the first Orthodox liturgy, during which the Lord Jesus Christ instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist and Communion of the Holy Apostles. Clearly, we’re witnessing a sad time when the ROCOR has lost its bearings. In recent years, we’ve evolved from one of the most conservative Orthodox Churches to one of the most liberal. Our bishops ceased to be guardians of the Russian Orthodox tradition. They allow themselves to wear Western vestments and not serve liturgy with Orthodox New Calendarists. More and more, they talk about universality of Orthodoxy, and they talk less and less about Russian traditions.

 

Source: https://02varvara.wordpress.com/2011/12/24/western-rite-not-in-the-russian-tradition/

 

 

 

Counsels of Archpriest Valentin Mordasov (+1998)

 

1. Does our salvation depend on external circumstances?

Our salvation does not depend on anything external; it is not important whether who is noble or not, whether rich or poor, but whether he is virtuous, whether he believes, whether he cares about spiritual prosperity and whether he loves God (St. Clement of Alexandria).

2. How do we live in order to be saved?

Every work of Christian piety and love: reading sacred books, good thoughts, useful conversations, holy obedience, thanksgiving in temptations and sorrows, forgiveness of offenses - bear the seal of prayer and smell sweet before God. Still, one must force oneself, test oneself in everything and block the paths of effeminacy, then toil and piety will turn into a habit (Elder John Troitsky).

3. What are the greatest gifts of God?

Repentance and Communion are the greatest of all the gifts of God. In part, the sacred books (St. Barsanuphius the Great) can also be included here.

4. What should a spiritual person beware of?

An ascetic of virtue must in every possible way withdraw the thoughts that gratify him that enter the mind and heart. Satan is very inventive for atrocities: when people are known for piety, he cannot distract from their precious life and behavior and persuade them to do what he wants, then he tries to hit them in another way. He praises them as people who have attained perfection, then glorifies them as saints, pleases them as having already become friends of God and reaching the brink of all virtue. And thus, having generated in them a passion of pride, arouses them in enmity against God and, finally, uproots them, like some plant. Therefore, as I said, it is necessary to withdraw thoughts that please us in the mind and heart (St. Cyril of Alexandria).

5. What is the most important thing for a Christian to do?

The most important thing is to learn the true faith (St. Ambrose of Milan).

6. How do you get a righteous mindset?

Start righteous image thoughts - listening and reading the Word of God and [the creations] of the holy fathers (Venerable Ephraim the Syrian).

7. What do we need to know?

The will of God and what deeds are virtues and what are sins, we should all know. And whoever does not do this, he sins before God. And it turns out that whoever keeps himself in darkness and illiteracy sins twice: both by not knowing the will of God, and by not using the means to recognize it and deliberately "keeping himself in darkness (St. Theophan the Recluse).

8. How can you strengthen yourself in the Church?

The guidance of the spiritual father, constant communication with him; frequent recourse to the sacraments, careful preparation for them, attending services, prayer at home, daily reading of the Gospel, reading books of religious content, observing holidays and fasts of the church year, friendship and fellowship with believers and church people.

9. Does God always send people to me?

No, sometimes it is not God, but the devil who sends them to us.

10. How can one learn the spiritual life?

Living in solitude, I will test the Divine Scriptures, according to the commandment of the Lord, and their interpretation, as well as the apostolic traditions, lives and teachings of the holy fathers, and listen to them; and what, according to my understanding, is for the pleasing of God and for the benefit of the soul, I rewrite myself and study: this is my life and my breath. I advise you to do the same. I give this advice for the good of the soul, suggesting what I consider useful for myself (St. Nil Sorsky).

For the reading of the Scriptures to be useful, it is necessary: first, before reading to invoke the grace of the Holy Spirit to help oneself; secondly, read slowly, repeating several times what is incomprehensible to you; thirdly, do not worry about reading a lot; fourth, beware of reading misguided books.

12. Is it possible to learn the spiritual life without studying in a spiritual school?

Although the ascetic Jerome did not study in theological schools, he himself educated himself through spiritual reading and conversations with spiritual elders and experienced religious people.

13. What religions are considered false?

All religions that exist in the world, except for the true, unified Orthodox, are false and do not save a person. False religion is a mockery of people. After death, it will be revealed immediately, how firmly is that on which one has based his hope... What a terrifying and tearing state will be for the one who sees then that he was deceived (St. Theophan the Recluse).

14. Why is it important to surround yourself with edification in the home and wherever you go?

Because every object in the world and every impression of an object evokes in a person certain thoughts, feelings and desires, one or another activity, consistent with these impressions. That is why you need to surround yourself in such a way that everything edifies you. Even if something does not produce bad thoughts and feelings, it distracts from the main thing - the salvation of the soul and striving for God... For example, before the room of a Christian edified everyone. On the walls were nailed sheets of paper of various sizes with prayers and sayings from the Holy Scriptures; many icons, a painting of the Last Judgment, photographs of elders, confessors, schema monks, ascetics, monasteries and temples.

15. How can we be guided in our spiritual life today?

For the last times, the later holy fathers are already more suggesting the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers' scriptures for guidance, without rejecting the very careful advice with modern fathers and brethren, with careful content in thoughts and feelings of the spirit of humility and repentance. This is a work given by God to our time; and we are obliged to use with reverence the gift of God given to us for salvation (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov).

16. When are external labors useless?

There is no benefit from all external labors if through them we are unable to attain inner kindness.

Do not neglect the psalms, because they drive away evil spirits from the soul and infuse the Holy Spirit into it.

18. How should a Christian's life be governed?

The life of a Christian should be governed by conscience and reason, that is, by reasoning with the advice of the experienced. The devil succeeds there, where people trust their mind, their reasoning and do not ask their confessor for advice.

19. How should fasting days be spent?

During the retreat, one must deviate from the vanity of the world in order to think about our sins, weep before God and prepare a frank confession that cleanses us from sins. The days of fasting should be devoted to fasting, visiting the temple of God, reading the Word of God and deeds of mercy: visiting the sick, the mournful and the poor in order to help them.

20. What does God require from a person?

From all the Scriptures I see that God's demand from man is concentrated in the following: that he humble himself before his neighbors in everything, that he cut off his sinful desires, that he constantly begs God for mercy and that He would give him a helping hand (Venerable Simeon the New Theologian).

21. What does it mean to "withdraw from the world"?

To withdraw from the world means to abandon manners, customs, rules, habits, requirements that are completely opposite to the Spirit of Christ.

22. How do you know the addiction to things?

Sometimes a person has a sinful addiction to a thing, for example: he admires it, gets angry with others, starts an argument, and when he is deprived of it, he grieves for it.

23. For what reason are sometimes blasphemous thoughts against God, the Mother of God, holy icons, Holy Mysteries?

Let us stop judging and condemning our neighbor - and we will not be afraid of blasphemous thoughts. No one should think that he is guilty of blasphemous thoughts, if he does not want them and does not agree with them, and should class them as demons. Try not to pay any attention to them (St. John of the Ladder).

24. By what works is God's favor acquired?

There are five things by which God's favor is obtained. The first is pure prayer, the second is the reading of the Psalter, the third is the reading of the Divine Scriptures, the fourth is the remorseful remembrance of our sins, death and the Last Judgment, the fifth is handicraft (monk Evagrius).

25. What is the use of the Jesus Prayer?

The prayer "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me", constantly performed in the heart, dries up fornication, tames rage, drives away anger, drives away sorrow, removes insolence, destroys despondency, drives away laziness, enlightens the mind, gives birth to tenderness, brings tears.

26. What is the reason for leaving the place of residence?

The elders said: The ancient fathers did not quickly move from their place of residence; if they migrated, then for the following three reasons: first, if someone was angry with them in vain, and they could not reconcile him to themselves, with all the use of reconciliation; secondly, if they were glorified by many; thirdly, if it happened to one of them the misfortune of falling into fornication. For these three reasons, they left their place of residence.

More parents need to honor priests. "Do you know," asks St. John Chrysostom, "who is a priest?" And he answers: "Angel of the Lord." Therefore, he says, there should be more respect for shepherds than for parents, for they are the ministers of Christ on earth, and whoever honors them, honors Christ.

28. What are the sins against the Holy Spirit?

First, an excessive hope in the mercy of God; secondly, despair in their salvation; third, obvious opposition to the confirmed truth and rejection orthodox faith; fourth, envy regarding those spiritual benefits that neighbors receive from God; fifth, abiding in sins and stagnation in malice; sixth, carelessness about repentance until the end of this life.

29. With whom should you not have friendship?

Do not make friends and do not have an alliance with enemies Christ Church, with heretics, with schismatics, with those who do not observe the fasts of the saints. One must run away from those people who are not afraid and do not worship God (Venerable Seraphim of Sarov).

30. How is faith strengthened?

Hear the Word of God, sermons and teachings, read the Word of God, [the creations of] the holy fathers and old age books, seek and ask, converse and associate with believers who are rich in faith; pray, cry out to God for faith, live by faith, confess more often and partake of the Holy Mysteries (St. Theophan the Recluse).

31. How do we relate to your neighbor?

Always imagine your neighbor in your place, and yourself in the place of your neighbor.

32. What is important in spiritual life?

Try to have a spiritual father all your life, to reveal to him every sin and thought, to use his advice and instructions. "Salvation," says the Wise One, "is in my advice, and a man without advice is his own enemy."

33. What is the most pleasing of God?

God is so pleased with nothing as with malice or bodily for the sake of His privations; and nothing attracts His love for mankind more than tears.

34. How to deal with passions?

A Christian should try to do the opposite of passion, such as: passion compels one to contradict, and you force yourself to be silent; passion compels you to gorge yourself, but you do not let yourself get full, etc.

35. What should we have as a saving thought?

If a person does not affirm in his thought that he has died and was buried for three years already, he cannot correct virtue.

36. How to look at the celebration of the holidays?

The Lord says in the Bible: "My soul hates your holidays," that is, when religious holidays are celebrated in drunkenness, in festivities, in gorging, etc. In general, on holidays (celebrated not spiritually) that is wasted. what is gathered in the days of labor.

37. How to avoid temptations?

1. Do not look at what people are doing, no matter what they are, but listen and listen to what the Word of God teaches.

2. Imitate the life of the Savior and His saints.

3. To turn away hearing and eyes from obscene ones, for through them, like doors, all evil enters the heart.

4. To stay more at home (who has no temptations) and solitude.

38. How to teach a child the fear of God?

1. To teach a child to bow on the ground before the Holy Cross and icons, to kiss them.

2. More often bring (or bring) a child to the temple of God.

3. With his hand, put candles in front of the images, serve a commemoration, give alms, dip a coin into a mug.

4. Frequently partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

5. Give prosphora and holy water before food.

6. Teach prayer.

7. Bring under the blessing of a priest.

8. To teach singing and reading at home.

9. In the presence of the child, conduct godly conversations about God and the salvation of the soul.

10. To teach him to share delicacies, even his own piece of bread, with brothers, sisters and strangers.

39. How to skillfully punish children?

Children should not be subjected to reprimands or punishments in passion with the use of harsh words, so that such methods do not lead children to the idea that they are being punished just because their parents are in a restless spirit.

40. How to teach children the divine?

Children should be taught the Gospel with affection, in the form of stories, sowing the Word of God in their hearts.

41. How is the Spirit of God driven away?

Know that nothing is driven away from the Spirit of God more than by empty talk.

42. What is important in works?

What is the use of our labors - fasting, reading the Holy Scriptures, etc. - if we have not learned to humble ourselves, forgive offenses, love enemies, pray for those who offend?!

43. How to use time to save the soul?

Time is a precious gift of God, for which an account will be required at the Last Judgment. The saving use of time is when a person spends time, first, in prayer, in conversation with God; secondly, in the reading of the Word of God; thirdly, in visiting the temple of God; fourth, in godly conversations; fifth, in reflections on the life of Jesus Christ, on death, on the Last Judgment, on eternal torment and eternal bliss; sixth, in doing good deeds and in labors. Soul-destructive spending time - in empty conversations and activities, in games (cards, checkers, chess, bingo) and other amusements, in drunkenness, in reading empty books, in eating, partying and sinful pleasures, especially in spectacles.

44. How to deal with sinful thoughts?

The most powerful weapon against all sinful thoughts is prayer, especially the Jesus Prayer. However, there are other methods of struggle. Against thoughts of vanity and self-conceit - to remember the decomposition of your body; against pride - to bring to mind that pride alone eats up all good deeds; against rancor - to pray for the enemy; against condemnation - to reproach yourself for pride, remembering your sins, to pray that the Lord will correct the one who has fallen into sin and have mercy; against blasphemous thoughts - she should pay attention to blasphemy and refer it to demons, confess (in general) at confession, read a prayer to the one against whom blasphemy; against vain thoughts - to read the Holy Scriptures and meditate on God and the divine; against prodigal thoughts - to remember the Last Judgment, eternal torments.

45. From what elders, spiritual fathers to ask for advice?

It is a great salutary work to ask the elders for advice, but at the same time Saint Anthony the Great advised to make sure of the old man's righteousness and experience, and then trust his word and accept his advice without question. The sign by which this can be recognized is the agreement of his word with the Word of God, interpreted by the holy fathers.

46. What does it mean "to be spiritually careless"?

Archbishop Arseny replies to this: "It means praying lazily, being inattentive to your heart, not crying about your sins, not resisting bad thoughts and feelings."

47. What is attention, cheerfulness and sobriety?

He who is enclosed in the heart is collected, and who is collected is in the heart. Near the consciousness in the heart, it should gather with all its strength: both by the mind, and by will, and by feeling. The gathering of the mind in the heart is attention, the gathering of will is encouragement, the gathering of feeling is sobriety. Attention, cheerfulness, sobriety are the three inner deeds, by which self-assembly is accomplished and acts inwardly. Whoever has them, and all of them, is within [himself] (St. Theophan the Recluse). Composure makes it possible to see thoughts, desires, passions, feelings in the heart.

It is good to listen and read the divine, it is better - mutual interview, and even better - the word of the most experienced. More fruitful is the Word of God, followed by the writings of the fathers and the lives of the saints. Lives of the Saints are better for beginners; the fatherly scriptures are for the average; The Word of God is for the perfect. Before reading, to abolish the soul from everything; to turn prayerfully to God. Follow the attention and add what is read to the heart. What did not reach the heart, stay on that until it comes. It should read very slowly. To stop reading when the soul no longer wants to feed on reading is full, that means. If any place hits the soul, stay on it and read no further. The best time for the Word of God is morning; the lives of the saints - after dinner; holy fathers - shortly before bedtime. There are texts of Holy Scripture that kindle the spirit, act on the heart and cause tenderness and tears. Therefore, such places must be written out and stored in case of need, to excite the spirit.

49. Which is higher: spending money on a temple or tolerating theft?

It is equally good to spend your funds on decorating churches and to suffer a loss, thanks (for everything) to the Provider of salvation - God.

50. What tears are saving?

Some tears from grief, from resentment - these are not useful, but about the fact that I am lazy, offended, I do not have real love for God - these tears are useful, and we must pray for them that the Lord will give.

51. Which two vices are especially harmful?

All vices are evil and harmful to the soul, but more violent and destructive is self-justification and love of arguments; therefore, the devil compels to contradict in self-justification, for he knows that if they endure and do not justify themselves, then they will be justified from God (Archimandrite Theophan of Novoyezersky).

52. What is best for peace of mind?

Having experienced many things in life, I did not find anything better for the peace and tranquility of my soul, like moderate eating, staying in one place and diligent study of God's Word (Hieroschemamonk Stephen).

53. What is God pleased with?

God pleases himself with affectionate treatment of people, calming the angry, intercession of the offended, disgusting eyes from evil objects, resisting bad thoughts, forcing himself to prayer (Archimandrite Theophan Novoyezersky).

54. What are these "gravediggers of youth"?

Seven gravediggers of youth: disbelief in God, drunkenness, debauchery, anger, disrespect for parents, bad fellowship and idleness.

55. When is prayer put into sin?

There is no greater sin than praying to God without fear, attention and reverence; to pray with the tongue, and with the mind to conduct a conversation with demons (St. Theophan the Recluse).

56. How to increase love for Christ?

Most of all, our love for Christ is strengthened and strengthened by heartfelt meditation on the sufferings of Christ. For this it is good every day in the morning to choose one of the sufferings of Christ, meditating in detail and often remembering about it during the day. From this we will always receive the gift of patience, meekness and love for Christ.

57. What do the worldly people want from us?

People who live according to the spirit of the corrupted age and unbelievers strive to have us surrender to their will instead of God's will, and want to distract us from the Kingdom of God.

58. How to deal with extraneous thoughts?

During prayer and spiritual discourse, beware of accepting any extraneous thoughts; with a prohibition say your thoughts: "In the name of God, I forbid you!" - and the thought will certainly listen. The Jesus prayer and the sign of the cross will conveniently drive away all the power of the enemy (Archimandrite Theophan Novoyezersky).

59. What are the obstacles in prayer?

There are many obstacles in prayer: sleep, despondency, weight of the body, spinning of thoughts, impatience, relaxation, revolt of demons.

60. It is often advised to eat more. How do you feel about such advice?

Do not listen to the advice of self-pleasing people who have made themselves slaves of the womb and carnal passions. In general, fear evil advice more than enemies (St. Ephraim the Syrian).

61. Explain the action of Adam's nature.

The Christian must resist Adam's sinful nature. Saint Ephraim the Syrian in his teaching says: “Adam's nature - I don’t want to learn, but I’m glad to teach; I don’t want to obey, but I love to subjugate; I don’t want to work, but I want to bother others; I don’t want to show honor, but I want to be honored; I endure, but I love to reproach; I do not want to be humiliated, but I love to humiliate. I am wise to give advice, and not to carry it out myself; what should be done - I say, and what should not say - If a brother sins, I will convict him with pleasure, but if I sin myself, I do not accept conviction with pleasure. "

62. Why should one avoid communication with worldly people?

There is no need to treat the negligent about the fear of God, because they do not say anything useful, do nothing for the Lord, do not speak about virtue, or about reverence, or about purity. Their speech is a mortal net; their advice is the abyss of hell; their community is spiritual destruction (Venerable Ephraim the Syrian).

63. How should people be greeted?

Let’s not expect to be greeted first and then reply to the greeting. This is a sign of an arrogant and reckless mind. On the contrary, the former will always greet both friend and foe.

64. What should one pay attention to in the main during asceticism?

Least of all, stop your attention on external deeds (for example: fasting, bowing, lying on a firm, etc.). Although they are necessary, they are the essence of help. A building is being built in the midst of them, but they are not a building.

Building in the heart. Pay attention to your deeds of the heart (that is, so as not to get irritated, not to be offended, not to condemn, forgive, reject bad thoughts and sinful desires, etc.).

65. What if there is no leader?

N. tells the truth that now there are no real leaders. However, one should not remain with one Scripture and fatherly lessons. Questioning is necessary! Elder Paisius decided this: two or three like-minded people would form a union, and they question each other, leading a life in mutual obedience, with the fear of God and prayer (St. Theophan the Recluse).

66. What kind of charity is there?

A Christian can provide alms and help not only financially, but also with his knowledge, work, advice and others (St. Theophan the Recluse).

67. What is the best way to ask the elders: one or many?

You should never ask different leaders about the same matter and not ask the same again, because the very first answer comes from the Lord, and the second - from the reasoning of a person in an elder ... Everyone who asks takes on the sign of humility, and this imitates Christ…

68. What is God-thinking?

Divine contemplation is in thought the holding of any truth: incarnation, death on the cross, resurrection, omnipresence and others - without any direction of thought (St. Theophan the Recluse).

69. What kind of leaders should you ask?

Saint Peter Damascene says about himself: "I received a lot of harm from inexperienced counselors." Therefore, it is very good to inquire about everything, but from the experienced; the inexperienced is dangerous because they have no reason.

70. How to represent God? In heaven, in yourself, or something else?

No way. To acquire the skill to stand in the conviction that God is everywhere and, therefore, in you, and sees all your innermost things; and in this conviction behave reverently before the invisible God, without any of His imaginations. But pray that God Himself will teach you this (St. Theophan the Recluse).

71. What sacrifice to God is the main one?

The main sacrifice to God is the broken spirit. Heart contrite and humble God will not despise.

72. What do you need to know about conversations?

Conversations require great fear: in what spirit and direction you have to speak, at what time and what exactly, and for what purpose ... He who loves to say all this must remember, but the silent one has already done and fulfilled (St. Demetrius of Rostov).

73. What is piety?

By piety we must understand strict Orthodoxy, combined with a strict life according to the commandments of God.

74. What sins are considered mortal?

Mortal sins are heresy, schism, blasphemy, apostasy, witchcraft, despair, suicide, prodigal sin, drunkenness, sacrilege, homicide, robbery, theft, and any cruel inhuman offense. The mortal sin of the Orthodox, not healed by proper repentance, subject the sinner to eternal torment (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov).

75. What should and should not be done on Sunday?

Saint Cosmas taught Christians: on Sundays, do not trade, do not go to the market, do not work, and also do not go for berries, mushrooms, hunt, fish, but go to church and listen to the holy service and God's Word.

76. How should the Holy Scriptures be interpreted?

Do not dare to interpret the Gospel and other books of Holy Scripture yourself. The Holy Spirit interpreted it through the holy fathers... And there is the Word of God, the word of salvation for the impudent interpreters of it, the will to death, with a two-edged sword, with which they will slay themselves to eternal destruction (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov).

77. What is the most powerful remedy against sin?

Not a single feat so expels sin, with such convenience and power, as daily confession to an elder (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov).

78. What must be preserved in order to be protected from sin?

Mind - from bad, evil and empty thoughts; gaze - from worldly delights. Heart - from evil desires and offerings. Hearing - from vain and ridiculous conversations, and most - from slanderous ones. Language - from condemnation and murmur. Stomach - from voluptuousness and from excessive drinking. All myself - from idleness.

79. Should I be frank with everyone?

You cannot be completely frank in front of everyone and in everything, you cannot talk about everything to everyone, something else must be kept silent, hidden.

80. What is generosity?

Generosity is when, among the misfortunes that have befallen us, we are not embarrassed, do not lose heart, we endure them without despondency, murmur, with devotion to the will of God.

81. What excites passions?

Worldly poetry, music and singing arouse only passions (Bishop Peter).

82. How to acquire kindness?

If a person does not notice the vices of his neighbor, then with the help of God, kind-heartedness is born in him, with which God is delighted (Abba Dorotheos).

83. What is "self-deepening" (withdrawal into oneself)?

Self-deepening is the main virtue necessary in order not to be entertained by the influence of the world, to block the possibility of stirring up passions - this is renunciation of the world (St. Isaac the Syrian).

84. What is important in work?

When you work, look at the spirit with which the work is being done (with grumbling or anger, discontent, idle talk, with bad thoughts or with prayer and thoughtfulness, etc.).

85. What kind of prayer does an evil spirit dislike?

The devil, seeing how someone succeeds in perfection in the commandments of Christ through clever deeds, makes every effort to destroy all the books about the Jesus Prayer and, through useless people, interrupt the work of clever deeds (St. Theophan the Recluse).

86. How to behave with neighbors?

Greet with pleasure, answer with a bright face, be supportive to everyone, available, do not indulge in praise to yourself, do not force others to talk about you, do not take an indecent word, how much you can hide your advantages, and blame yourself for your sins and do not expect reproof from others. Do not be heavy in reprimands, convict not quickly, and not with a passionate movement, do not condemn for unimportant things, as if you yourself are a strict righteous person. Make as much effort not to be glorified by people as others try to be glorified (St. Basil the Great).

87. What bliss awaits pious people in the future life?

If someone embraces the word and combines into one all the happiness of people from the time of their existence, he will find that this does not equal even the slightest part of the blessings of the future life (St. Basil the Great).

88. How to serve the soul of another?

Serve not the body, but also the soul of another: give reason, give advice, point out a good book, comfort, support (St. Theophan the Recluse).

89. What is the main thing for a Christian?

It is a concern for the salvation of others. A Christian promotes salvation by prayer for salvation, by the creation of salvation: both by word, and by sight, and by deeds, so as not to tempt, instruct, instruct, strengthen, especially by spreading the Divine Scriptures (St. Theophan the Recluse).

90. What are the disadvantages of a Christian marriage with an unbeliever?

The ancient teacher Tertullian, calculating the disadvantages of the marriage of a Christian person with a pagan, said: "Where is the memory of God? Where is the invocation of Christ? Where is the nourishment of faith by reading Scripture? Where is the ecstasy of the spirit? Where is the glorification of God?"

91. What should not be kept in the house?

It helps the ascetic much not to have anything in the room that evokes godly thoughts and feelings, for then he is out of the danger of a double battle: internal and external (St. Nil of Sinai).

92. In case of need, can you shorten your prayer rule?

In case of great need, you can shorten your rule, namely: for God's sake to serve your neighbor (Elder Nazarius of Valaam).

93. What is more important: pleasing God or teaching at school, institute?

Our main business is pleasing God, and scientific knowledge is an adjunct, an accident, suitable only for a time in real life... Therefore, it should not take all the attention and absorb all the care. There is nothing more poisonous and more disastrous for the spirit of Christian life than this scientific attitude and exclusive concern for it (St. Theophan the Recluse).

94. Why are we not afraid of future torment?

That is why we are not afraid of the eternal torment of Gehenna, because we do not reflect on it, do not delve into its essence with the mind, do not try to achieve this by work, although we often hear and read about eternal torment.

95. How do we steal our time?

Do not steal from yourself the time given to you for the salvation of your soul. We steal time by doing nothing, idle talk, curiosity, idle daydreaming, and a lot of sleep. Think how much good we would have done if we hadn't been wasting our time uselessly.

96. What is the unity of a spiritual father with his child?

Everything that happens between the elder and his spiritual children must be a secret, equal to confession, otherwise the enemy will upset their spiritual unity in the Lord.

97. What is "peace"?

The word "peace" means people who are hostile to everything divine and religious; hence, the word "world", "worldly" means everything that is sinful, all that is given to us by the enemy of salvation: sins, vices, passions.

98. Business affairs - vain or not?

The works of the service are not vanity - they are God's works. Just do them always for God, and not for anything else. Equally, in family life, you have a duty ... Fulfilling it is not vanity. Only do such things according to the consciousness that you are doing the will of God. Vanity - things to satisfy passions, as well as unnecessary and useless (St. Theophan the Recluse).

99. How does a meeting work on a person?

Even a short rapprochement with another person leaves an imprint, that is, either you will receive benefit or harm to the soul.

100. What brings us closer to God?

We are brought closer to God by sorrow, crampedness, illness, work, if we reasonably endure them. Do not murmur against them or fear them.

 

Source:

https://our-dog.ru/en/pitanie/starcy-i-podvizhniki-xx-xxi-stoletii-zhizneopisaniya-vospominaniya/

 

Why Modern Russia is a State of Denial (2007)

Boris Berezovsky | May 15, 2007 | The Daily Telegraph

 

Last week saw the commemoration of Victory Day in Russia, which remembers the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. Last month came the upsetting removal of a Soviet war memorial, known as The Bronze Soldier, from the centre of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, to a Russian military cemetery on its outskirts.

These events forced me to revisit aspects of the Soviet Union's shameful and violent communist past, which now need to be addressed by present-day Russia in order to preserve relations between my motherland and post-communist Eastern Europe.

There are several unquestionable truths that were passed on to the majority of Soviet citizens from their parents. Some were destroyed by the reality of life, but one remained intact and holy: that Soviet soldiers liberated the world from the Nazi plague. That is my belief as well. But on the other hand…

The current battles between Russia and Estonia (concerning the reburial of Soviet soldiers' remains) have much wider significance than just being one more spat between Russia and its former vassals.

The roots of this clash go much deeper than the gas wars against Ukraine (and then Belarus), than the war of wines against Georgia, and deeper even than Russia's struggle against the deployment of US missile defence elements in Eastern Europe.

The fundamental cause of this conflict lies in the main unsolved issue of modern Russia: the denial by the Kremlin, and by President Vladimir Putin, of the Soviet regime's criminal nature. Objectively, this issue was inherited by President Putin from former president Yeltsin. Boris Yeltsin undoubtedly made several mistakes, some of which are the favourite theme of his detractors. They all, however, stay silent about the two main mistakes of Russia's first president.

First, Yeltsin lacked the will (or, maybe, the courage) to indict the communist regime as a criminal one - no less so than the Nazi regime, with all the resulting consequences for the communists themselves, and for their vanguard, the Soviet secret police. Second, Yeltsin also failed to lead Russia to repentance, to make every Russian acknowledge his own responsibility for the crimes of the communist regime. Without repentance, however, those who were oppressed and raped by Russia, such as Estonia and the other Baltic states, will never trust it again.

It is not just that Putin has not corrected these mistakes, he has actually brushed aside the idea of repentance altogether. The return of the Soviet national anthem for Russia points to the Kremlin's outdated view of Russia and its place in the modern world.

On top of that, playing the Soviet anthem during Yeltsin's funeral was a particularly elaborate way of abusing the memory of a man who bestowed freedom upon Russia, and others beside it. It is a well-known historical fact that the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany constituted a replacement of Nazi oppression with Communist enslavement for Eastern European countries - an enslavement that lasted for 45 years, far longer than Nazism. Therefore, the defeat that Putin's Russia is now suffering in Estonia will soon reverberate around Poland, Hungary, Latvia, and other places where the crimes of the Communist Party and KGB were duly appraised. Thus, the cause of the abuse of our soldiers' graves is not the bad behaviour of the Estonian government, but the very denial of historical truth by the Kremlin.

So, who is the Soviet Soldier, really - a liberator or an enslaver? The answer to this question can be given only by the people of Russia. If we will not repent, he will remain the enslaver. And if repentance comes, he will be an honest but misguided soldier. May that memory be blessed forever.

 

[Boris Berezovsky (+2013) was formerly deputy secretary of the Russian National Security Council, Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Independent States and a member of the Russian State Duma.]

Source:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3639898/Why-modern-Russia-is-a-state-of-denial.html

The Root of the Division of Those in Resistance (Part 3)

The Division and the Personality of the former Metropolitan of Florina

Monk Damianos Agiovasileiatis

(Part 1: https://orthodoxmiscellany.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-root-of-division-of-those-in.html)

(Part 2: https://orthodoxmiscellany.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-root-of-division-of-those-in.html)

 

 

A wicked offspring of the calendar innovation is the theory of the loss of the grace of the Mysteries of unjudged schismatics or heretics, with its first progenitor being the very one who dared to touch the two-thousand-year festal calendar of the Church. He did not openly preach this specific theory, since, being knowledgeable in Ecclesiastical Law, he knew its absurdity; but he followed another, more practical path, and, why should we hide it, one likewise wicked. [1] The executor of the innovation appears to have been taken by surprise by the division that ensued, because he had not reckoned with the resistance of the faithful; instead of taking into account the critical nature of the division and the spiritual harm that would follow for the flock, he tried with all his strength to suppress the movement of the resisters. He convened an unlawful conference in order to give a synodal character to an act ecclesiologically unfounded, aiming at the invalidation of the Mysteries of the resisters, whom they mockingly called Old Calendarists. He abused his archiepiscopal authority, dragged along the civil legislator, and by a law of the state persecuted the resisters against his innovation, supposedly for usurpation of authority.

That is, in an ecclesiastical matter of dispute between members of the Church of Greece, clergy and laity, and his servile synod—or rather, with himself—which required, and still requires, judgment by a greater council, he usurps its competence and judges the case himself. Precisely here lies the ecclesiologically unfounded character of this action of his. The leader of the resisters, Metropolitan Chrysostomos, formerly of Florina, was absolutely right when he later wrote in his appeal to the Areopagus: “...the members of the Synodal Court, apart from the fact that they were opposing parties, having been denounced by us to the other Orthodox Churches for the festal-calendar innovation, did not have the right to judge us, because before the trial we had broken ecclesiastical communion with them in writing...” And Saint Nikodemos pronounces categorically, leaving no room for any other interpretation, that the greater council, that is, an ecumenical council, is “the final judge of all ecclesiastical matters, and every appeal is brought up to it.” Therefore, however great the authority of the accuser or the accused may be, for him to impose despotically a decision of his, at the moment when his opposing party invokes sacred Canons in order to support his objection, this imposition is unjust and canonically invalid.

This very erroneous theory concerning the loss of the grace of the Mysteries of unjudged schismatics or heretics has been broadened to the utmost by the side of the resisters—this time, of course, against the innovating Hierarchy, by figures possessed of excessive zeal, but “not according to knowledge.” Through lack of organized theological education and ignorance of Ecclesiastical Law, as the former Metropolitan of Florina had characterized them, they unfortunately divert the God-pleasing objection of the resisters into extremes and divisions.

After the courageous and dynamic accession of the three bishops to the body of the resisters in the year 1935, the hasty selection and promotion of four hieromonks to bishops led to a sharper emergence of the problem, because it gave it the mantle of episcopal authority and power. Only two years after the accession of the three, in 1937, because of this deviation, the first schism occurred in the body of the resisters.

In order for one to understand the magnitude of the deviation from ecclesiastical propriety, it is enough to mention the unheard-of fact that simple hieromonks, not even bishops, and even mere monks, pronounced, as though in the manner of an ecumenical council, [2] that the New Calendarist Church is definitively, in actuality, schismatic. Consequently, it is also outside the Orthodox Catholic Church. The poor men anathematized, together with the Metropolitan of Demetrias [Germanos], even the leader and soul of the struggle of the resisters, Metropolitan Chrysostomos, formerly of Florina.

A consequence of this deviation of those who had split off, besides the invalidation of the Mysteries of the New Calendarist Church, is also the self-proclamation that they now constitute the Autocephalous Church of Greece.

From then on, every effort toward union, chiefly by the former Metropolitan of Florina, met with the unpersuadable insistence of the newly ordained Bishop Matthew of Bresthena. He was the chief representative of the deviation, and also of the schism. Literally, the life of the ever-memorable hierarch was consumed, together with exiles, in the struggle for the union of the two factions. He clearly perceived the reality that without this unification, the restoration of the Julian Calendar in the Greek Church would be impossible, which was his chief goal. He developed in writing and orally the correct interpretation concerning the status of the New Calendarist Church as potentially schismatic, on account of the calendar innovation, with clear ecclesiological consistency, [3] basing himself on Ecclesiastical Law, hoping to find a response; but the schism became even stronger. The persistence of the seceded Bishop Matthew and of those who followed him had such obstinacy that it even reached the unheard-of slander of the great leader, that he was the Trojan horse of the New Calendarists within the body of the resisters. In every way, they also reviled and spoke evil of him, and in their circles, he was the most hated person, even more than the innovating hierarchs themselves. The worm of hatred and discord had penetrated them so deeply that every hope for union was now lost. A striking proof of this truth is the condescension of the former Metropolitan of Florina, after the death of Bishop Matthew, in his encyclical of 1950, which presents him as holding the same views as the Matthewites. How did the great Hierarch come to deny the ecclesiological interpretation, so well documented and thoroughly set forth by himself, concerning the potentially schismatic Church of the New Calendarists? Why did he sign something which until then he had opposed?

First of all, there are confirmed testimonies that he was pressured by everyone, even by his own circle, except for certain exceptions, to sign the unfortunate encyclical. When he signed, there are also confirmed testimonies that he said the following memorable words: “I am signing what I do not believe. [4] But my suitcase is ready for the exile that will follow.” And this indeed happened a little later.

What also shows that he did not agree with the content of the encyclical he was signing is that it does not include even a trace, not even the idea, of a refutation of what until then was supposedly his erroneous mindset. Neither in the text of the encyclical itself, nor anywhere else. Such a change of mind, had it been real, would necessarily have required from the signatory himself a detailed and fundamental retraction of his public statements up to that time, both oral and written, concerning the Church of the New Calendarists as potentially Schismatic. In any case, the integrity of his character and his immense learning would not have allowed him, under any circumstances, not to refute and ecclesiologically document the content of the encyclical.

What, then, remains? Every rationally thinking person would come to the conclusion that, since his burning desire was the union of the two factions, nothing else justifies his above-mentioned signature except the reason of oikonomia. The time at which the encyclical was issued [May 26, 1950, O.S.], two weeks after the repose of Bishop Matthew [May 14, 1950 O.S.], also testifies to the purpose of oikonomia.

This condescension of his also testifies to his character and humility, whereby the pain of his soul over the accursed schism and his longing for union compelled him to sacrifice even his personal dignity. He did not wish to leave even the slightest suspicion among his opponents that he persisted in his first opinion out of egoism and obstinacy, which he clearly saw in them and was confronting. But as we mentioned above, hatred toward his person and discord had penetrated them deeply, with the result that even this condescension failed. On the contrary, the encyclical became an object of exploitation down to the present day, in such a way that not only is the holy hierarch slandered as holding the views of the Matthewite ravings, but very many also deviated into the present aberration.

For the same reason he had earlier also issued his encyclical of 1948, immediately after the ordinations performed single-handedly by the same bishop [Matthew]. At that time too, he hoped for the isolation of these incurable clergymen by drawing the faithful to his faction, looking to their reaction because of the manifest uncanonicity of the ordinations.

Finally, the strongest argument that he was not in agreement with the encyclical is what is said: that, disappointed by the fact that the majority of the clergy of the Old Calendarists held the views of the Matthewites, when he died in 1955, he left his faction without bishops. We know, however, that he had made a proposal for consecration to at least two archimandrites (there are testimonies), who indeed agreed with him, but unfortunately refused, not perceiving the gravity of the circumstances. One of them later became a bishop, when matters had already taken another turn.

How serious is the question of the delusion of automatism? There is hardly any need to point it out. The fact that it invalidates valid Mysteries through which the love of God for mankind works the salvation of many souls makes it an outright evil of immeasurable dimensions. It appears with a mask of self-justification, behind which hypocrisy, fanaticism, and slander are concealed. And these in turn constitute the spiritual Kaiadas into which those who do not embrace their delusion are mercilessly cast, so that their spiritual disability may not be reproved. It is the anesthetic that deadened those who accepted it, with the result that they fight against everything spiritually and ecclesiastically sound, and which led to the accursed schism, to practices contrary to every concept of Ecclesiastical Law, and by extension to the factions of the Old Calendarists.

Truly, this delusion of the automatic loss of the grace of the Mysteries constituted the root of all evils for the resister Old Calendarists. Many of the Matthewites, who so greatly fought against the great hierarch, passed over to his faction after ’48, while persisting in the same delusion.

Indeed, “when one evil is granted, countless others follow.” Thereafter other divisions also followed, with the result that Old Calendarism has unfortunately ended up in the unheard-of situation of division into five or six factions. Indisputably, this constitutes a most serious ecclesiological deviation. No canonical reference, no practice of the holy Fathers of the Church, no ecclesiastical parallel justifies factional logic. The fact that we live in a forerunning age of the Antichrist, and we have heard even such excuses, does not remove, nor even lessen, the magnitude of the deviation of the divisions. On the contrary, every possible effort toward union on the basis of truth is obligatory, so that we may confront, all together, the beast of the Apocalypse and, for our days, the pan-heresy of Ecumenism; and also, so that many well-intentioned people from the New Calendarist Church, who seek the pure truth, may find rest.

Union is obligatory because: “The voice of blood,” not of a brother or brothers to the Lord, but of the Master Christ Himself from the sacred altars of the factions, cries out to all: “One Lord, one Church, one faith, one baptism.” And Paul entreats: “that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” (1 Cor. 1:10). And the sacred Cabasilas says: “Through the Mysteries the Church is signified, being the Body of Christ.”

The holy Fathers of our Church, when they walled themselves off from their heresy-professing bishops, awaited, with a calm conscience and by the good pleasure of God, the restoration of the peace of the Churches through a council. They did not create factions, nor irregular synodal structures replacing the one and only institution of the lawful Archbishop, [5] though under judgment, nor, much less, did they exhaust the boundaries of the autocephalous local Church in their own faction. There was always one faction of those walling themselves off, which constituted the healthy remnant of the Orthodox. They never invalidated on their own authority the Mysteries performed by those who were heresy-professing and holding the thrones of the Churches, but awaited their authoritative condemnation by the councils of the Church. A return to the crystalline ecclesiology of the former Metropolitan of Florina is obligatory, respecting his struggles, his pains, his exiles, which testify that he alone was feared by the opponents, as one intact in faith and mindset. A return is obligatory to the good and God-pleasing walling off before ’37, on account of the calendar change, and much more today on account of the ecumenism-professing New Calendarist Church, because of communion and not only that. These were and are the reasons why the walling off took place, and not whether they have or do not have valid Mysteries. The question, “If the New Calendarists have valid Mysteries, then why did we leave them?” is so naïve that one wonders how it is uttered by priestly and even hierarchal lips. We have already explained at length that the purpose of an Orthodox faithful person’s walling off from his heresy-professing bishop is the avoidance of defilement through communion with the heretical “weed.” Anything beyond these things, such as the above, consists of overextensions of competencies that belong to a Greater Council.

If the occasion of the first division is not healed, the root of the problem of the resisters, that is, automatism, then any other union will be condemned to end once again in failure. A new beginning from erroneous ecclesiology cannot bear good fruits.

Nevertheless, two years ago a beginning toward union was made with two factions, the most important ones, of which one unreservedly accepted the correct ecclesiology of the former Metropolitan of Florina. We hope and pray that it may reach a favorable end, and that at last an end may be put to all the problems to which we have referred.

 

NOTES

1. Perhaps some may be surprised by this reproach against the then Archbishop of Athens [Chrysostomos Papadopoulos]; but what else can one suppose when, only one year before the audacious act, as a member of the committee of January 16, 1923, for the advancement of the innovation, he submitted, together with the other members, a relevant report to the Government, where among other things he writes: “that the Church of Greece, as also the other Orthodox autocephalous Churches, though independent, are nevertheless internally closely connected with one another and united through the principle of the spiritual unity of the Church, constituting one and only one Orthodox Church, and consequently none of them can separate itself from the others and accept a new calendar without becoming schismatic in relation to the others”?

2. “We too reject and anathematize, as did the three Councils (!!!), the new calendar; we regard all those who follow it, both clergy and laity, as schismatics and corrupted members and strangers to Orthodoxy... and together with them also the two former hierarchs who have recently joined them in essence, Germanos of Demetrias and Chrysostomos of Florina, and those who follow them...” (our emphasis). From a letter of Athonite zealot fathers after the schism of the Matthewites.

3. In the clarification of his pastoral encyclical, pp. 9–10, answering an accusation against him concerning contradiction, he himself clarifies that: “...at first he called the New Calendarist Hierarchs schismatics and the New Calendarist Church schismatic, without adding, through oversight, that they are schismatics potentially and not in actuality, which means that only then will they undergo the consequences of their separation from the trunk of the whole Orthodox Church, being deprived of the right to perform the Mysteries validly... when they are judged by a greater valid Council and are condemned to deposition for evil belief, while remaining unpersuadably obstinate in it.”

4. Elder Fr. Charalambos Dionysiatis († January 1, 2001), a hieromonk and former zealot, said the following: “Within the ranks of the Old Calendarists there was a difference of opinion. Some believed that with the change of the calendar grace had been lost; others said that grace exists and that our position is a position of protest. I too agreed with the latter. When the Metropolitan of Florina joined, he also supported the same thing. However, around 1950 the fanatics prevailed. We gathered with the bishop presiding at a conference. He himself explained to them and pleaded with them: ‘I beg you, do not go to extremes. Listen to me and I promise you that we shall win the struggle. For ten whole years I was a New Calendarist bishop. If I support the claim that with the new calendar grace was lost, then I too do not have grace; I am a false bishop.’ The fanatics answered him: ‘You are a bishop; you have grace because you are an Old Calendarist. But the New Calendarists do not have Mysteries.’ I too tried to discuss it; but I saw that nothing came of it. Lack of understanding and confusion. In the end they compelled Chrysostomos as president to sign an encyclical stating that the official Church of Greece, by its accession to the new calendar, automatically became heretical and lost grace. Indeed, the bishop was heard to say: ‘I am signing what I do not believe.’ And yet he signed it.”  (The Calendar Question. Orthodoxos Typos edition, 2004, pp. 61–62.)

5. This unheard-of statement concerning the New Calendarist Church has also been heard and written by a bishop who is himself glorified as an “archbishop”: that since it is another Church, it is also another religion. It is clearer than the sun where automaticism leads, regardless of whether in practice they do other things than what follows from their theory, as we know very well also concerning him himself.

 

Greek source: https://krufo-sxoleio.blogspot.com/2016/07/blog-post_12.html

The Root of the Division of Those in Resistance (Part 2)

Monk Damianos Agiovasileiatis

(Part 1: https://orthodoxmiscellany.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-root-of-division-of-those-in.html)

 

 

B. The communion of Orthodox with heresy

The communion of a clergyman with heretics can be understood chiefly either as joint prayer in a non-Orthodox church, or as joint prayer “in one’s home” with heretics, or as the acceptance of baptism performed by heretics (Apostolic Canon 46) or through the commemoration of the name of a heretical bishop within an Orthodox church.

Joint prayer with heretics constitutes blasphemy against the Orthodox Church of Christ. The prohibition of communion with heretical confessions in general is expressly stated through Apostolic Canons 10, 11, 45, 46, and 65, as well as through many other later synodal canons. Those who transgress these canons are liable to judgment before their superior ecclesiastical authority, and as liable to judgment, they are certainly members of the Church, since it is certain that, on the contrary, no member found outside the Church is judged by the Church through her competent body. This is useless, and also beyond the authority of her penal jurisdiction. They are judged by the Church as her members, [1] especially since, if they are clergymen, they occupy thrones or churches of the Orthodox Church, with a multitude of faithful following them.

Communion of a clergyman with a heretical bishop through commemoration is established as follows.

It has happened many times that a canonical bishop of the Orthodox Church falls into heresy and preaches it “bareheaded in the Church,” from Canon 15 of the First-Second Council, that is, publicly. Those Orthodox clergymen—bishops, priests, deacons—who commemorate the name of this bishop in the diptychs of their parishes become partakers in his heresy, even without themselves falling away in their mindset. The responsibility of these clergy who are in communion with him toward the faithful of their parish is enormous, since through them the faithful also become communicants with the heretical bishop. Precisely for this reason the holy Fathers very severely denounced the clergy who are in communion with heretics. That is to say, while the above-mentioned heretical bishop, as one responsible before the holy Tradition of the Church, is indeed under accusation before his superior ecclesiastical authority, nevertheless, for as long as he remains unjudged and undeposed from his throne, many clergymen, not understanding that “the matter of commemoration is of great importance,” [2] naively and from long-standing habit commemorate him even “when the divine Mysteries themselves are dreadfully set forth.” [2] We are again referring to those clergymen who do not agree with the heretical mindset of the bishop. Therefore, knowing that the commemoration of the name of the heretical bishop constitutes communion with the heresy, the divine Fathers call the attention of the Orthodox faithful to avoid ecclesiastical communion also with the clergy who commemorate him, so that they may not be defiled by the “soul-destroying weed” of heretical teaching. [3]

Especially concerning those who are in communion with heretics and who know the heresy, the Church and all the holy and confessor Fathers, in order that they may understand the seriousness and danger of communion with heretics, pronounce categorically: “The teaching of the Church and Her belief was and will be: ‘No communion with those of another mind and with heretics.’ Thus Saint Mark Eugenikos says: ‘All the teachers of the Church, all the Councils, all the divine Scriptures, exhort us to flee those of another mind and to separate ourselves from communion with them.’ And Saint Theodore the Studite, writing to a certain abbot Theophilos, notes: ‘For Chrysostom, with a great and mighty voice, declared enemies of God not only the heretics, but also those who are in communion with such persons.’” (My Walling Off, Archim. Chrysostomos Spyrou, p. 94.)

However, it happens that many of those who are in communion with those under accusation, both clergy and laity, do not have knowledge concerning their anti-Orthodox confession, whether they are primates or subordinate clergymen, and for various reasons regard them as Orthodox. For example, in the time of Saint Maximus the Confessor, in the 7th century, before the convocation of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, through which Monothelitism–Monoenergism, difficult for many to discern, was condemned, nearly all the Patriarchates and the local Churches at their higher levels had fallen into this heresy. The heretics Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul, and Peter were patriarchs of Constantinople in succession for five decades. Honorius, Pope of Rome, Cyrus of Alexandria, Theodore of Pharan in Egypt, and Maximus of Antioch were likewise heretics. Therefore, such multitudes of faithful, clergy and laity, were in communion with them for so many decades, regarding them more or less as Orthodox primates.

Certainly, those among the Orthodox who discerned their heretical teaching and broke ecclesiastical communion with them, having in mind the practice of the earlier saints, acted excellently, and from an ecclesiological point of view were considered canonically praiseworthy. Those who broke communion were, of course, persecuted, imprisoned, exiled, and martyred, with the great champion and confessor of the Theanthropic truths, Saint Maximus, truly the boast of monks and glory of the Church, leading the way. But the discernment of such an exceedingly hard-to-perceive delusion is always the privilege of the few, of those who have acquired primarily an education in piety, and even in external philosophy. Naturally, many faithful, looking to these saints and coming through them to know the heresy and the heretical false bishops and false teachers, followed them, walling themselves off as well. Yet how many faithful, in that vast empire and beyond, had full or even partial ignorance concerning the delusion of so many patriarchs, bishops, and other clergymen, of nearly all the local Churches?

But while knowledge does make the faithful laity responsible, the councils, however, always investigated the leaders of the heresies, usually the highest-ranking clergy, and them alone. There are no testimonies of penalties being imposed on the multitude of the faithful, but only recommendations to avoid communion with heretics, both judged and unjudged. This is because the clergy, as the eyes of the Church, are obliged, even before a synodal judgment on heresies, to know precisely the faith and the dogmas of the Orthodox Church. Characteristic is the case of the repentant iconoclast bishop Gregory of Neocaesarea, who came before the Seventh Ecumenical Council, where Saint Tarasios, presiding over it, said the following to him:

“Tarasios: Has the truth escaped you until now as something unknown to you, or have you despised it as something known?

Gregory: Believe me, master, as something unknown; and I ask to learn, as the master and the Holy Council command...

Tarasios: You ought from times long past to have opened your ears, and to have heard Paul the divine Apostle saying: ‘Hold fast the traditions’...” (Acts of the Councils. S. Milias. Vol. 3, p. 242.)

As is known, Gregory was received by the Council, in the third session, as a bishop, having renounced iconoclasm by a libellus only. Neither ordination nor chrismation was performed. And, being judged by the Council, he was judged as a bishop of the Church and as Her member.

As is evident, therefore, in this category there also enters the factor of knowledge, on the part of the faithful who are in communion, of the deviation of the presiding clergymen. Those in communion, who have full knowledge of the matter, are indeed responsible and liable to the anathemas of the sacred canons; but until the heterodox teaching is adjudicated by the competent organ of the Church, and until its leaders, being unrepentant, are expelled from the Church, they naturally remain within Her. And if, after the synodal judgment and condemnation, they follow those who have by then been “torn away” from the Church, they too are expelled. That is, they “place themselves outside the Church.” But if they renounce the delusion, accepting the decision of the council, and do not follow them, they continue thereafter to remain within the Church. This, of course, also applies to those who until then were in communion in ignorance, since after the discernment and condemnation of the heretical teaching and of its bearers, even ignorance is no longer justified. The difference between those who are in communion knowingly and those who are in communion in ignorance consists in the fact that, when partaking of the divine Mysteries, the former are condemned as being responsible under the anathemas of the sacred canons, while the latter are judged at least worthy of oikonomia. Most clearly Saint John of Damascus says: “With all our strength, therefore, let us guard ourselves against receiving communion from heretics, or giving it... lest we become partakers of their evil belief and of their condemnation.” Reasonably, the phrase “let us guard ourselves with all our strength” refers to those who knowingly are in communion. Nevertheless, even those who are in communion in ignorance are not completely without responsibility; for “they are rational sheep,” and for this reason Scripture says: “He who knew and did not do shall be beaten with many stripes; but he who did not know, yet did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few.”

But why do we speak about whether the simple faithful, clergy and laity, who are in communion with their unjudged primates, are considered to be within the Church, when it often happens that the primates themselves are in communion with condemned heretics, and are even bearers of the same condemned heresy, that is, in mindset? That it is absolutely required that the deviation of these primates be adjudicated, and that in the case of impenitence they be deposed, we have already mentioned in the first part of our question. Therefore, until they are deposed, they remain, indulgently, as “active” members of the Church on their thrones. From the greater, then, the lesser is inferred, and the fact admits of no dispute that the faithful who are in communion with their accused primates are members of the Church. Here we insist on this view, speaking of the simple faithful as members of the Church, even though they are in communion with unjudged heretics, for two reasons. First, several ecclesiastical figures today hold the erroneous view that bishops of an autocephalous local Church who have fallen into heresy go out, “at the very moment of transgression,” together with those who follow them (i.e., the entire fullness of the local Church!!!), outside the Orthodox Catholic Church. This view, of course, has also led them to the corresponding practice regarding the holy Mysteries, chiefly Baptism and Chrismation, a fact in which even ordinary reason perceives the very grave responsibilities with which it burdens them, as well as the scandal it causes to well-intentioned faithful from the prevailing Church who wish to flee communion with Ecumenism. Moreover, they say that those walling themselves off not only remain within the Church while awaiting their vindication by some council, but that they alone constitute that local Church. And second, the view of these same ecclesiastical figures that the Mysteries performed by unjudged heretics are invalid sends even those faithful who are in communion with these unjudged heretics in ignorance, as it ought not, to spiritual death, although they are certainly not responsible.

Recent ecclesiastical developments [i.e., the union of 2014] have brought about the unavoidable necessity for the resisters, at least those from the historical Florinite faction, to rise to the level of these UNIQUE circumstances and to follow fully and clearly the ecclesiology [4] of the former Metropolitan of Florina, Chrysostomos, which is documented from every point of view. They rightly honored him with his recent canonization, but it would please him much more if his words were now put into practice. For those who still have objections concerning certain “ambiguities” of his, we shall return to the matter.

(To be continued.)

NOTES

1. “…the excommunicated person loses without anything further whatever status he may possess, whether as a clergyman or monk, or, as a layman, an ecclesiastical office, for example that of ecclesiastical council member, since the prerequisite not only for the acquisition but also for the preservation of these statuses is membership in the Orthodox Church, which is lost through excommunication; all the more so, since this is now imposed only against apostates and heretics.” (Greek Ecclesiastical Law. A. Christofilopoulos, p. 274.)

2. From the letter of the Athonite Fathers to Emperor Michael VIII.

3. Although Canon 15 of the First-Second Council was composed much later, in the time of Photios the Great, nevertheless the Confessor Fathers always preserved in practice precisely the same spirit of the canon, having, of course, in mind Apostolic Canon 31.

4. For the most part, our argumentation concerning the validity of the Mysteries of unjudged heretics, and by extension also of the ecumenism confessing New Calendarist Church, on account of communion and not only that, was drawn from the encyclicals and homilies of the former Metropolitan of Florina.

 

Greek source: https://krufo-sxoleio.blogspot.com/2016/07/blog-post_3.html