Ecclesiological Principles of the Holy Monastery of Saints Cyprian and Justina, Fili, Greece (1983)

Basic Ecclesiological Principles of Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Fili

 

We humbly believe, following careful study of Synodal and Patristic testimonies, that:

a) The local Orthodox Churches that adhere to the calendar innovation, and the other Churches which commune with them, have never lost [sacramental] Divine Grace.

b) Nevertheless, these Churches are subject to a Pan-Orthodox or Ecumenical Synod, which will definitively and properly judge them, provided they remain unrepentant until then.

c) Our blessed task is to wall off from those who persist in innovation, to oppose the error, to protect and serve the incorruptible pleroma of the Church, and to struggle for the enlightenment of the faithful, so that, by the grace of God, the proclaimed heterodoxy may be exposed, and a Holy Synod of the Orthodox may be convened in due time for a Synodal judgment.

d) Our walling-off from the innovators prior to a Synodal judgment is the correct and traditional stand against error, and by no means implies that we alone constitute the Church.

e) Through the prescribed and praiseworthy walling-off, we strive to save the Church from schisms, and if the Orthodox resistance outlined above had been consistently maintained since 1924, we are confident that the turmoil among the Orthodox would have long since ceased through the return to the time-honored Orthodox liturgical calendar, with the cooperation of God.

f) The unfortunate proclamation that the innovators have lost Divine Grace, which is not God-pleasing and in accordance with the Holy Tradition of our Fathers, does not constitute the correct, praiseworthy, and hence effectual resistance of the Orthodox, and instead of preventing divisions and schisms, it continually generates divisions within the ranks of believers, compromising the noble effort of the Patristic resistance. In this way, it dismantles both the letter and the spirit of the relevant Canons regarding walling-off from innovators and heretics, and becomes a paradoxical innovation in the struggle against innovation.

Nevertheless, let us humbly consider that in order to further continue our collaboration, we should come together in a Synod, examine the matter in prayer and with humility, and proclaim together what the Holy Tradition of Orthodoxy, following the words of the Fathers and not yielding to the personal unproven opinions of our hearts, teaches us. According to the Apostolic voice, no one is crowned lawfully, that is, with a proper understanding of Orthodox zeal, unless he competes in the arena with a good confession.

- Excerpt from a letter of Bishop Cyprian of Oropos and Fili to Metropolitan Kallistos of Corinth, President of the Holy Synod, Protocol No. 64, dated May 30, 1983.

 

Source: Agios Kyprianos, No. 191, November 1984.