ORTHODOX MISCELLANY- History, Ecclesiology, Spirituality, and the Struggle Against Ecumenism

The Essence of the Moscow Patriarchate Examples have been given in order to show with complete clarity the difference between the Church of Confessors and the Church of Traitors. Having become acquainted with the documents, no one will be able to say that the Moscow Patriarchate is the spiritual heir of the Church of Patriarch Tikhon. On the contrary, one can only come to one conclusion. The Moscow Patriarchate differs from the Church of Patriarch Tikhon like darkness from light, like black from white, like lies from truth. But it can be clearly determined that the Moscow Patriarchate is the spiritual heir of another organization that calls itself the Russian Orthodox Church, namely the Renovationist Church. Reading excerpts from the official statements of the Renovationists and comparing them with the official statements of the Moscow Patriarchate, you inevitably come to the conclusion that they were written as if by the same hand, which in fact corresponds to the truth. Consequently,...

Communion with Unrighteous Clergy Hinders Divine Grace Sulpicius Severus (a Latin-speaking Christian writer in the early 5th century) in his work "Dialogues," which is an appendix to his book "Life of Saint Martin of Tours," refers to a fearful incident concerning Saint Martin. Before discussing this incident, let us mention the historical context. We are in the city of Trier in the year 385 AD. In the city reigns the Roman Emperor of the West, Magnus Maximus, who is persuaded by the Bishop of Ossonoba (modern-day Faro in Portugal), Ithacius, also Orthodox in faith, to persecute the heretical Priscillians. Saint Martin reacted vehemently to the action of Ithacius because, on the one hand, he rejected the appeal of an ecclesiastical case before a civil court, and on the other hand, he considered it unacceptable for a Christian to instigate or participate in persecutions. He therefore managed to obtain from the emperor a promise that if the heretics were found gui...

There was a time in the past when almost the entire body of the Hierarchy in the Byzantine State was lured into the heresy of the accursed Arius, along with the citizenry of Byzantium, at which time the Orthodox character of the official Church was represented by a small faction of Orthodox in Constantinople not tainted by the corruption of Arianism. This faction remained under the pastorship of St. Gregory the Theologian, who, in the Chapel of St. Anastasia, through sermons redolent with the pleasing and divine aroma of Orthodoxy, hurled thunderbolts against the cacodox and soul-destroying heresy of Arianism. St. Gregory the Theologian and his party not only did not constitute their own Church in severing ecclesiastical communion with the Arianizing Hierarchy, but also served thenceforth as a pledge for the return of the whole Church to the realm of Orthodoxy through a rejection of the heresy and abominable cacodoxy of Arianism. Hence, given that the spirit of Orthodoxy, and not ext...

Metropolitans Philaret (+1985) and Vitaly (+2006) of New York on the Issue of Sacramental Grace in New Calendarist / Ecumenist Churches   [I]t is unilaterally impossible for a bishop or the Synod of Bishops to declare the New Calendarists graceless, despite their errors and innovations. - Metropolitan Philaret to Metropolitan Kallistos of Corinth, Краткий очерк экклезиологических и юрисдикционных споров в Греческой Старостильной Церкви (“A Brief Sketch of the Ecclesiological and Jurisdictional Disputes in the Greek Old Calendar Church”), by S.V. Kryzhanovsky, p. 37, footnote 70. Online: https://antiorthodox.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/sketch-old-style.pdf +++ The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia considers the introduction of the new style as an error that brought confusion into the life of the Church and, ultimately, as the cause of schism. For this reason, she did not, does not, and will not accept it, and avoids concelebrating with New Calendarists. Reg...

  Metropolitan Cyprian: “The Position of Ecumenists in the Church”   The position of ecumenists in the Church should be viewed in terms of the question of heretics who have not yet been brought to trial in the Church. In other words, the members of the Body of the Church can be ailing, that is, they can be in error regarding the Faith. But even as ailing members, they are not dead, and continue to belong institutionally to the Body. The mortification of ailing members and their decisive alienation from the Body occur in two ways: either through schism, in which case they are cut off by themselves from the Body and form a clearly distinct heretical community; or through a synodal verdict, in which case, following a specific procedure, they are expelled from the Church as being incurably ill. In the first case, the innovating ecumenists, insofar as they have not yet been brought to trial, are ailing members of the Church. The healthy part of the Church, however, should...

Former Metropolitan of Florina, Chrysostomos: Denial or Confession? There are some who conclude that the preaching of the loss of Grace (due to the calendar schism) constitutes the "ideology of the Holy Struggle," and that [St.] Chrysostomos repeatedly preached this. They refer us to the 1950 Encyclical, saying that the late Chrysostomos "repeatedly preached" this (loss of Grace). Let us see if this argument holds true. a) First of all, in none of his writings did the late leader of the Holy Struggle preach the aforementioned unsound doctrine, not even in the one written during his exile in 1950, except in three instances due to pressure exerted by his surroundings. Let us explain further. In 1935, he was first forced, along with his two collaborating Metropolitans of Demetrias and of Zakynthos, to speak about the above-mentioned loss [of grace], given that it was considered a necessary condition for assuming the canonical leadership of the Struggle, which under no ...

  A Letter to Fr. Kyrion:  HOCNA Bishop Ephraim of Boston on Division and Discord in Times of Heresy     Holy and Great Wednesday, 29 March / 11 April 2001 Dear in Christ, Father Kyrion, I pray that this letter finds you well and in the grace and peace of our Saviour. Amen. Your letter contains many statements, which, if taken in the sense you understand them, would mean, strictly speaking, that the Church of Christ no longer exists on the face of the earth, and Christ, therefore, has proved to be a false prophet when He told the disciples that the gates of Hades would not prevail against the Church. Basically, what your letter fails to appreciate is that the Church has gone through some extraordinarily difficult times in the last century, perhaps the most difficult times in its history. Militant atheism on the one hand and Masonic syncretism on the other, both battling against the Church simultaneously to such a degree, that all the hierarchs of the offic...