Old Calendar Bulgarian Church: On Sacramental Grace (Pre-2014)

THE QUESTION OF GRACE IN THE MYSTERIES (SACRAMENTS) OF THE OFFICIAL LOCAL CHURCHES

Excerpted from the 2013 work, The Ecclesiological Position of the Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Bulgaria, by Bishop Photii of Triaditza, translated and published by the Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, Etna, CA.


The Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Bulgaria has no communion with the official local Churches. Walling oneself off from such communion does not require an unequivocal affirmation that these Churches have completely fallen away from the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church and that the Mysteries performed in them are deprived of Grace. Sufficient grounds for the cessation of ecclesiastical communion is the fact that the episcopate of these churches preach heresy or allow its dissemination through their passivity and, therefore, abide in ecclesiastical communion with bishops preaching or tolerating heresy. Clergy, monastics, and laity who break ecclesiastical communion with bishops “preaching heresy publicly and openly in the Church” are worthy of “honor befitting the Orthodox,” since not only do they not destroy the unity of the Church, but, on the contrary, they show diligence in protecting the Church from divisions and schisms. [cf. Canon 15 of the Protodeutera Synod]

Currently, the Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Bulgaria refrains from a definitive answer on the question of whether the Mysteries performed in the official local Churches are valid or not. Indeed, the heresy that is propagated or is being allowed to spread—mostly by bishops—ultimately leads to a falling-away from the Orthodox Church of individuals, groups of people, or even of entire local Churches. This can also happen gradually, in the course of a shorter or a longer period of time. For instance, such is the case with the Roman church. It deviated from the “correct and salvific confession of Faith” in stages, and only after a fairly lengthy period of time did it completely fall away from the Catholic Church.

Unfortunately, from a theological perspective, it is precisely the question of the presence or absence of Grace in the Mysteries of the official local Churches that came to be the main rock on which the unity of the True Orthodox Christians crashed. In the tense atmosphere of decades of disputes, undue theological absolutism was reached on a question, the answer to which was not formulated dogmatically by the conciliar consciousness of the Church. This is why it should be addressed with special caution in the light of the theological consensus of the Fathers, and also in the light of the conciliar pastoral experience of the Church of Christ. This precludes debate which uses one-sided quotations gleaned from the Holy Fathers, and also precludes the absolutism of the theological opinion of specific persons or groups.


NOTE: While this Ecclesiological Position was superseded by the 2014 Pan-Orthodox document, The True Orthodox Church in Opposition to the Heresy of Ecumenism: Dogmatic and Canonical Issues, it contains essentially the same understanding.

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