On the Anathema Against Ecumenism: An Explanation for the Perplexed (1984)

By Archbishop Anthony (Bartosevich) of Geneva and Western Europe (+1993)

 

On the first Sunday of Great Lent, the Church celebrates the triumph of Christ's truth over all heresies. This Feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy was established in the ninth century, after the final overthrow of the heresy of iconoclasm.

On this first Sunday of the Lenten struggle, at episcopal cathedrals, it is possible and necessary, after the Liturgy, to perform a special rite — the proclamation of TRUTH and the condemnation of all false teachings that have arisen in the Church since ancient times and are emerging in our days, with the PROCLAMATION OF ANATHEMA UPON THE LEADERS OF HERESIES.

The word ANATHEMA frightens many who do not understand its meaning. They think that ANATHEMA is a curse and the eternal condemnation of the heretic by the Church.

In reality, the “earthly Church,” as Archbishop [St.] John (Maximovich) writes, “does not pronounce a final judgment on heretics. It delivers them to ANATHEMA, that is, SEPARATES them from itself and RAISES (presents) them to the HIGHER JUDGMENT — the JUDGMENT OF GOD, which is precisely the meaning of the word ANATHEMA — the lifting up of the separated.” The one delivered to ANATHEMA still, of course, retains the possibility of repentance and return to church unity.

The right to condemn false teachings and to deliver heretics to ANATHEMA in a universal sense belongs to the Pan-Orthodox, Ecumenical Councils, properly convened and recognized by the fullness of the entire Church. Alas, in our time, the convening of an Ecumenical Council is UNREALIZABLE, since the majority of Local Autocephalous Churches, through their official representatives, are deprived of the ability to freely express their convictions and act freely.

But as some false doctrines which trouble the faithful can appear within each local Church’s jurisdictional area, it is the duty of each Church’s episcopate to ascertain collectively whether this doctrine is inconsistent with the TRUTH of Christ. The episcopate then has to say why this doctrine is false and to advise the faithful not to adhere to it. An injudicious interest in a false doctrine, which appears to be a novelty, can lead someone who has become interested in it, and whose interest in it has become established, to find himself outside the Church, without his being aware of it. It is possible for him to part company from the Church, and make himself liable to ANATHEMA.

The authority to judge and the right to teach of the Episcopate of one of the local Orthodox Churches extends exclusively to its entrusted flock, to the believers of its Church.

Strictly established by the canons, that is, by church laws, are the boundaries between the local, autocephalous, Orthodox Churches. Each of the 14 Churches, through its Episcopate and pastors, must maintain order within its own boundaries, having no right to interfere in the life of other Churches and, even more so, to make an official conciliar decision regarding their pastors and flock! Such interference, if it were to occur, would be an unjustifiable audacity and a canonical crime, an unlawful anticipation of the rights of an Ecumenical Council.

And so, according to the canons, the Episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, seeing that some of its flock are excessively fascinated by modern ecumenism and, considering it a heresy that overthrows the dogma of the “ONE, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church,” found it necessary to warn the flock of the danger. To the rite of ORTHODOXY, on the first Sunday of Great Lent, where it was performed, after the ANATHEMA upon the leaders of numerous false teachings, condemnation of the ecumenists was added.

Thus, in keeping with the canons, the episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, noticing that some of her members were become too interested in contemporary ecumenism, and accepting the belief that ecumenism is a heresy which contradicts the dogma of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, deemed it necessary to guard her flock from danger. On the first Sunday of Great Lent, during the Rite of Orthodoxy, condemnation of the ecumenists has been added to the long list of heresiarchs.

Nevertheless, the text of this ANATHEMA DOES NOT MENTION ANYONE BY NAME. It is difficult, even impossible, to estimate to what degree an individual has rejected the dogma of the ONE and INDIVISIBLE CHURCH, against which the gates of hell SHALL NOT PREVAIL. How can one judge to what extent a person accepts ecumenical doctrine, which says that the Church has been broken up and has divided Herself and no longer exists, so that in order for Her to be restored the fragments must be collected together and assembled, and one must await a new Pentecost, a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit onto this ecumenical “Church.”

Let us hope that, if there are such blasphemers of the TRUTH among our flock, who are acting consciously, they are not numerous. By the ANATHEMA, the Church is saying to believers: “Beware of them. They used to belong to us, but they have since left us; they are not part of us any longer. The Church, ‘the pillar and bulwark of the TRUTH, according to the Apostle’s testimony, commits them to the highest tribunal – THE TRIBUNAL OF GOD.”

But among our flock there are certainly some who are sympathetic to ecumenism, who consider it to be a novelty worth their interest, and who justify themselves in a hypocritical way, under the pretext of mutual love between “Christians” of different confessions. They say that love covers all things, even disobedience to the Church’s teaching. Among them there are those who uphold ecumenism for idealistic reasons, who spread their false teaching in the world without understanding the evil which they are doing to their neighbor.

Christians must live in mutual love, but for that reason they must not sacrifice the Truth.

 

Source: Tserkovnaya Zhizn' [Church Life], Nos. 5-6, May-June, 1984, pp. 141-143.