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

  Divine Grace and Walling Off by Nikolaos Mannes Whenever a heresy has made an appearance in the Church, according to all that we read in Church history, the Orthodox expeditiously (or gradually, within a reasonable interval of time) broke communion with the exponents of the heresy; that is, they proceeded to wall themselves off from them. The Orthodox who walled themselves off were not content with breaking communion, but undertook a great and sacred struggle for the suppression of the heresy by its condemnation and by the expulsion of  unrepentant heretics  from the Church by way of the convocation of a Major Synod. This Major Synod constituted the culmination of that sacred struggle. [1] Nowhere in Church history do we read that a connection was ever made between Divine Grace and walling-off. Walling-off occurred so that the Orthodox might not become participants in heresy! How the Church was then to receive back into Her bosom the heretics condemned at a Major Synod ...

  Concerning “Cyprianism” On the Occasion of a Document Issued by the “Russian True Orthodox Church”   by Nikolaos Mannis 1. A short time ago [2017], the Synod of the Russian True Orthodox Church (RTOC), under Archbishop Tikhon [of Omsk and Siberia], deposed five of its clergy “for Cyprianism.” 1 Now, what is this “Cyprianism,” in the opinion of the RTOC? A document issued by the RTOC provides an analysis of the doctrine in question. 2 According to this document, “Cyprianism” is, supposedly, a heretical teaching that not only acknowledges the existence of Divine Grace in the realm of the so-called “official” Churches, but also pardons their heresies, inaugurating a new relationship between the Church and heresy. “Cyprianism” is expressed (in the opinion of the RTOC, of course) in the following three basic positions: a. that local Synods do not have the competence to excommunicate heretics from the Church; b. that only Ecumenical or Pan-Orthodox Synods have the competence ...