“When I was younger and lived abroad, some modernist ecumenists asked the following question in order to ensnare me:
“‘Do we have Mysteries or not?’
“‘Yes, we are literate.’
“‘Do you know the Canons and the Tradition of the Church?’
“‘Yes, we do know them.’
“Then this is what I have to say to you: Although I am a sinner, since the Grace of God has safeguarded me from becoming separated from the Truth of Christ and from deviating to the right or to the left, I know that I have Mysteries. As for you who have changed course, since you are literate, read what the Canons and the Tradition of the Church say about your case and draw your own conclusions.’
“I am of the opinion that it is neither expedient nor prudent for True Orthodox Christians to quarrel among themselves and to be concerned about the Mysteries or non-Mysteries of the New Calendarists. The Apostle says: ‘For what have I to do with judging them that are without?... Them that are without God judgeth’ (I Corinthians 5:12-13).
“Since we have commended them to the mercy of God, He knows whether He will show them forbearance, how He will show them forbearance, and to what extent He will forbear with them. We are not dispensers of God’s mercy. We have an obligation, since we regard every innovation as a suggestion of the Devil, not to violate the ‘Faith handed down to us’ in even one jot or tittle.
“Our priority, therefore, is that we continue the good beginning that we have made, that all of us True Orthodox Christians in general be united under a single Orthodox Confession, with which we will be consistent, following a common course, and that thereafter we convene a Pan-Orthodox Synod, which will be the official mouthpiece of the Church and will issue official determinations concerning those who have deviated and have become estranged from the Faith of the Fathers.
“Until such a time, however, we cannot have any communion in the Mysteries or in prayer with them, thereby becoming ‘sharers in the sins of others,’ but must confess that we reject and abhor their calendar innovation, their ecumenism, and their newfangled form of Baptism, or rather, affusion.
“From the little that I know, I think that this is how the Fathers acted toward heretics. They immediately broke communion with heretics, awaited the convocation of a competent body, namely an Œcumenical Synod, not in order to learn and decide whether the misbelief was a heresy, but in order—through the official mouthpiece of the Church—that formal clarifications and formulations concerning correct doctrine might be made and the formal condemnation of heretics be pronounced.
“It should be known that such a Synod consists only of Orthodox.”
- Fr. Basil Sakkas, as quoted by Metropolitan Photios of Marathon, Chief Secretary on the Holy Synod, in the document, The Ecclesiastical Union of the Orthodox Community in Resistance with the Church of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece, dated Sept. 14, 2014 (O.S.).
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.