Ecumenism and the Strategy of Diversion

 by Savvas Iliadis

 

It is a very serious and respectable opinion that we should cease engaging with the issue of ecumenism and focus more on our personal struggle. Regarding this matter, we should pray more and leave it in God's hands. This proposal is, in all sincerity, truthful and loving, and it moves us to such an extent that it takes little more to convince us. However, while falsehood gains time through ignorance and every delay, leading souls away from the Truth, the anguish for the testimony of the Truth surpasses this hesitation of ours, and thus we write these "two or three letters."

It is an indisputable fact that a ferocious war is currently being waged. A war that aims, by any means, to strike at the Truth of our Church. The Truth, which the Son and Word of God, Christ, through His incarnation, has treasured within His holy Church. To alter Tradition, to eradicate it from our lives, and to introduce permanently and irrevocably the packaged globalization. A war that, though invisible, is undoubtedly real and is keenly felt by the souls who long for the Truth and who pledge and beseech God to strengthen them so that they may remain faithful to it until the end.

This war was declared, now fully organized against the Church, through the movement of ecumenism, in which forces from all over the world were incorporated and aligned under the same demonic spirit, within organized coalitions (World Council of Churches, Papal Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, Conference of European Churches [Protestant and Orthodox], Parliament of the World's Religions, etc.), with a common mission: the relativization of the Truth and, consequently, the abolition of the boundaries of the Church and the classification of the Orthodox faith somewhere among the other "truths" of other religions. A war aimed at stealing true faith from man, along with his freedom, reducing him to a victim and a disposable tool of the dark forces—forces that, though hidden, are increasingly being revealed.

How, then, does this war manage to remain invisible and go unnoticed, at least in terms of its magnitude, its destructive activity, and its ferocity? If we set aside the internal reasons (the ignorance of the people, the hedonistic way of life, the loosening of morals and ethical principles, etc.), we must turn to the opposing side and examine the broader developments. For ecumenism does not merely abolish morality but violently constructs walls that obstruct the path to salvation. In other words, it is the destroyer of man, for it abolishes the unique, the supreme gift of the Church: salvation.

Diversion is an operational method. It is a classical, ancient, and highly effective military tactic and part of propaganda. We remember, more or less, similar cases from history, where it was applied by military forces in wartime confrontations. When the enemy wants to attack and conquer a target, he creates tension and a strained atmosphere at another, opposite point, generating such an impression on the opponent that he believes the attack will take place there. The closer the moment of the attack at the chosen point, the more intensely the war drums sound in the opposite direction. The opponent gathers his forces where the noise is, while the attacker successfully enters unimpeded from the other side.

This method is also used by the ecumenists, with great care and in a highly balanced manner, so as not to fail and ruin their thus far successful plans. After the Council of Kolymbari, they engaged in a much more significant struggle: to impose and establish, at all costs, the new order of things, the new heretical ecclesiology in the consciences of the faithful. To avoid encountering strong resistance, as has happened and continues to happen—whether from individuals, monasteries, or other groups of believers—in concerted coordination with external political and other globally influential forces, since they are strong collaborators of globalization, they artificially and cunningly create situations of tension. This is done to draw the attention and interest of the public, thereby buying time and causing the essential, the profoundly significant and crucial matter to be forgotten: their very conspiracy against the one faith and the one Church of the Apostles and the Saints, through the ecumenist coalition.

On the other hand, the very same architects emerge and present themselves as self-proclaimed saviors. They reassure the people, excelling in the art of hypocrisy. They promise to defend Orthodoxy. They swear that they are and will remain the genuine guardians of Tradition. They "honor" the saints in their feasts in a truly "festive" manner, while at the same time refusing to implement their own words, utterly devaluing them. They absurdly contradict themselves. They "play both sides," as the saying goes. Let us examine, for instance, two statements made by the Patriarch, twenty years apart, to ensure that what is written is neither false nor exaggerated.

1. "We must not waste time searching for responsibilities. Our forefathers, who bequeathed to us this division, were unfortunate victims of the primeval evil serpent and are now in the hands of the just Judge, God. We pray for God's mercy upon them, but before Him, we are obliged to correct their errors." (November 30, 1998)

2. "…we assure you that we will continue to think, to act, and to work towards everything that will lead our long-tested and unjustly afflicted Greek diaspora to better days, to a deeper communion with the God of our Fathers, and to the fulfillment of the God-pleasing visions of our blessedly departed brethren and predecessors." (November 21, 2017)

Who, then, are our Fathers? Whom should we recognize as "blessed" and as having "God-pleasing visions," and whom as "victims of the primeval evil serpent"? Those whom each of us thinks and wishes to recognize, whoever they may be, or those whom the Church itself has once and for all established?

After the Council of Kolymbari, we observe that serious issues are frequently and successively brought up, striking at the very core of the faith as well as human dignity more broadly. These issues seek to impose a new order, a different morality, and ultimately disrupt Greek society. While the state may raise these matters under foolish pretexts of necessity for their implementation, behind it all lurks the Kolymbari coalition as the principal spiritual arbiter and initiator, along with its beliefs.

The people resist because, by divine will, they still have an awareness of the value of their patristic heritage, their holy Tradition. They possess antibodies against the foul assault of nihilism and devaluation. However, in the absence of spiritual leaders, this struggle inevitably becomes misdirected, confusing, and ineffective. And this is precisely what we meant at the beginning with the reference to the concept of diversion. These provocations provoke strong reactions from the faithful, drawing their focus in that direction. Thus, the root cause, the origin of all evils—the very source, which is ecumenism—is forgotten and relegated to the background in their consciousness. As a result, new problems will continue to arise successively, and religious syncretism will reign amid mental confusion, making it difficult to find a way out.

 

Greek source: https://trelogiannis.blogspot.com/2017/11/blog-post_546.html