St. Justin Popović of Ćelije: "On Common Prayer for Unity"

A Response to the Holy Synod: "On Common Prayer for Unity"

By St. Justin Popović of Ćelije Convent

Submitted to Bishop Jovan Velimirović of Šabac and Valjevo

And to the Holy Hierarchical Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church

Belgrade, November 13/26, 1974

Most Reverend Fathers, 

The stance of the Church of Christ in relation to heretics – to all who are not Orthodox – was established once and for all time by the Holy Apostles and the Holy Fathers, by Holy Divine-Human Tradition, uniform and unchangeable.

In accordance with this stance, Orthodox are forbidden to participate in any form of common prayer or liturgical services with heretics. For, “What fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has he who believes with an infidel?” (2 Corinthians 6:14–15).

The Forty-fifth Canon of the Holy Apostles decrees: “Let a Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon, who has merely prayed with heretics be excommunicated; but if he has permitted them to perform any clerical function, let him be deposed.”

This sacred Canon of the Holy Apostles does not specify precisely what kind of prayer or service is prohibited, but it does prohibit any common prayer with heretics, even in private (“has prayed with...”). In the case of ecumenical joint prayers, do things not occur that are both more explicit and on a broader scale than these?

The Thirty-second Canon of the Council of Laodicea decrees: “It is unlawful to receive the blessings of heretics, for they are absurdities rather than blessings.” And do heretics not give blessings at those ecumenical gatherings and joint services? – Roman Catholic bishops and priests, Protestant ministers, and even female clergy!

These and all of the other pertinent Canons of the Holy Apostles and the Holy Fathers were not valid only in the ancient period, but continue to be completely valid today, as well, for all of us contemporary Orthodox Christians.

They are unconditionally binding in our stance toward Roman Catholics and Protestants. For Roman Catholicism is a many-sided heresy and the heresies of Protestantism are too many to mention.

Did not Saint Sava – already in his time, seven and half centuries ago – call Roman Catholicism “the Latin heresy”? And how many new dogmas has the pope invented since then and made them dogma with his “infallibility”?! It is absolutely certain that, through the dogma of papal infallibility, Roman Catholicism has become a pan-heresy. Even the much-celebrated Second Vatican Council did not change anything concerning this monstrous heresy, but, on the contrary, it made it even firmer.

Therefore, if we Orthodox wish to remain Orthodox, it is our duty to maintain the stance of Saint Sava, Saint Mark of Ephesus, Saint Cosmas of Aitolia, Saint John of Kronstadt, and the other Holy Confessors, Martyrs, and New Martyrs of the Orthodox Church toward Roman Catholics and Protestants, absolutely none of whom believe correctly and in an Orthodox manner in the two fundamental doctrines of Christianity: in the Holy Trinity and in the Church.

Your Eminence and Holy Fathers of the Synod, 

How long will we continue desecrating our Holy Orthodox Church of Saint Sava by our pitiful and horrifying stance, which directly opposes Holy Tradition, towards ecumenism and the World Council of Churches?

Every true Orthodox Christian, who is instructed under the guidance of the Holy Fathers, is overcome with shame when he reads that the Orthodox members of the Fifth Pan-Orthodox Consultation in Geneva (July 8–16, 1968), with regard to the participation of Orthodox in the work of the World Council of Churches, decided, at that time, “to express the common recognition of the Orthodox Church that she is an organic member of the World Council of Churches” (see Glasnik S. P. Crkve [Belgrade], no. 8 [1968]: 168).

This decision is apocalyptically horrifying in its un-Orthodoxy and anti-Orthodoxy. Was it necessary for the Orthodox Church, the most pure Divine-Human Body and organism of the God-Man Christ, to be so debased to such a pitiful degree that its theological representatives, some of whom were Serbian bishops, should seek after “organic” participation and membership in the World Council of Churches, which will supposedly become a new “body” and a new “Church” above all the churches, in which the Orthodox Church and the non-Orthodox churches will appear only as parts – “organically” joined to each other? God forbid! Never before has there been such a betrayal and abandonment of our holy Faith!

By this, we are renouncing the Orthodox Divine-Human Faith, this organic bond with the Lord Jesus, the God-Man, and His most pure Body – we are repudiating the Orthodox Church of the Holy Apostles, Fathers, and Ecumenical Councils – and we wish to become “organic members” of a heretical, humanistic, man-made and man-worshipping assembly, which is composed of 263 heresies, each one of which is spiritual death.

As Orthodox, we are “members of Christ.” “Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid!” (1 Corinthians 6:15). We are doing this by our “organic” union with the World Council of Churches, which is nothing other than the revival of atheistic man-worship and idolatry.

Most Reverend Fathers, our Orthodox Church of the Holy Fathers and Saint Sava, the Church of the Holy Apostles and the Holy Fathers, of the Holy Confessors, Martyrs, and New Martyrs, must now, at the eleventh hour, cease ecclesiastical, Hierarchical, and liturgical involvement with the so-called World Council of Churches and renounce for good any participation whatsoever in joint prayers and worship (for worship, in the Orthodox Church, is organically linked together in a totality and is consummated in the Divine Eucharist) and, in general, [renounce for good] participation in any ecclesiastical endeavors which are not self-contained and do not express the unique and unchangeable character of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, the Orthodox Church, forever one and unique.

If the Orthodox Church, faithful as she is in every respect to the Holy Apostles and the Holy Fathers, were to avoid ecclesiastical involvement with heretics, be they those of Geneva or those of Rome, she would not thereby be renouncing her Christian mission or her evangelical obligation: that she should humbly, but boldly, bear witness before the contemporary world, both non-Orthodox and non-Christian, to the Truth, to the All-Truth, to the living and true God-Man, and to the all-saving and all-transfiguring power of Orthodoxy.

Guided by Christ, our Church, through the Patristic spirit and character of her theologians, will always be ready “to give an answer to every man that asks us a reason for the hope that is in us” (cf. 1 Peter 3:15).

And our Hope, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages, and unto all eternity, is single and unique: the God-Man Jesus Christ in His Divine-Human Body, the Church of the Holy Apostles and the Fathers.

Orthodox theologians should participate not in “ecumenical joint prayers,” but in theological dialogues in the Truth and about the Truth, as the Holy and God-bearing Fathers have done throughout the ages.

The Truth of Orthodoxy and the right Faith is the “portion” only “of those who are being saved” (cf. the Seventh Canon of the Second Ecumenical Council).

Wholly-true is the proclamation of the Holy Apostle: “salvation through sanctification ... and belief in the Truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13). Belief in the God-Man is “belief in the Truth.” The essence of this belief is the Truth, the only Whole-Truth, that is, the God-Man Christ. Love for the God-Man is “love of the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:10). The essence of this love is the Whole-Truth, that is, the God-Man Christ. And this belief and this love are the heart and conscience of the Orthodox Church.

All of these things have been preserved intact and undistorted only in martyric, Patristic Orthodoxy, to which Orthodox Christians are called to witness fearlessly before the West and its false faith and false love.

Commemoration of Saint John Chrysostom

November 13/26, 1974

Holy Ćelije Monastery

The unworthy Archimandrite Justin

commends himself to the holy Apostolic

prayers of Your Eminence

and the holy Fathers and Hierarchs

of the Holy Synod