Heretical Notions Concerning the Struggle Against the Pan-Heresy Contributed to the Ecumenist Corruption of the Church

Nikos E. Sakalakis | December 6, 2017

"Cleanse the Church by expelling those unworthy of it."   St. Basil the Great – Letter 54 to the Chorepiscopi

In the life of the local Orthodox Churches, there are times when cleansing becomes an urgent necessity, because ideas and practices sprout that undermine the spiritual essence of the Church, that corrode Orthodox values, and distort the liturgical ethos and character of the Ecclesiastical body. The first step toward reversing direction in the Church, for its health, is the removal of unworthy clergy or laity, who have been incurably afflicted by heresy or by a self-determination incompatible with Orthodoxy. "Cleanse the Church by expelling those unworthy of it," St. Basil the Great points out.

Unworthy clergy are an obstacle to the action of the grace of God. The fountains of grace and sanctification are shut (ontologically) where faith, life in Christ, and worship are fundamentally compromised.

In the time of St. Basil the Great, the truth of the Church, as doctrine and life, was discolored by the spiritually unstable or worldly steps of its clergy.

It is true that in the great gift of God, the Church, over the course of time, deep crises were created by the one who leads the whole world astray—not only in the form of organization, administration, and pastoral social presence, but primarily in its identity, as an alienation (heresies) from the correctness of its faith and from the authenticity of its life.

If we take, as it indeed is, the phrase of St. Basil the Great as an exercise in self-awareness and a stimulus for reflection, the question arises: how would St. Basil the Great react to the ecumenist torrent of dogmatic deviations and theological aberrations that overwhelm today’s (new) ecclesiastical reality?

Undoubtedly, he would call for the convening of an Ecumenical Council to condemn the pan-heresy of Ecumenism.

The truly Orthodox Father, Fr. Charalampos Vasilopoulos, wrote: "The danger from Ecumenism is unimaginable. And solely for the condemnation of Ecumenism as a dreadful heresy ravaging all of Orthodoxy, an Ecumenical Council ought to be convened" ("Ecumenism Unmasked").

On the contrary, today, most Hierarchs who praise the Fathers—especially when they are speakers at celebrations —have synodally legitimized Ecumenism. Truly, a sign of the times!

What would St. Basil the Great say about the vast "ecclesiastical" category that "takes no position," that is neither for nor against anything?

These, as a rule, are deeply resistant when their interests are affected.

In the same Letter (54), St. Basil the Great writes: "It greatly grieves me that the canons of the Fathers have now been neglected and all exactness of the Churches has been driven away, and I fear lest, as this indifference progresses little by little, the affairs of the Church come to complete confusion"—that is, "it greatly grieves me that the canons of the Fathers have recently fallen into contempt, and every good order has been removed from the Churches, and I fear lest, as this indifference gradually increases, the affairs of the Church end up in total confusion."

We have a confirmation of Saint Basil in the recent (relatively) phase/testimony of Ecclesiastical history. The exactness of the Church was disregarded, the 15th Canon of the First-Second Council was [generally] not applied against the heretical Patriarch Athenagoras, indifference and complacency increased regarding the invasion of Ecumenism, due to the potential interpretation of the canon, and thus time and space were given for the ecumenist adaptation of the Church of Greece. The disregard of the 15th canon constitutes a breach of an Ecclesiastical mandate, or its potential interpretation constitutes a contempt of the Fathers.

The potential interpretation of the canon stands in opposition to the ecclesiological mindset of St. Basil the Great.

There are idealistic notions that regard the potential interpretation as sound and unifying. It is an interpretation that does not reflect the timeless stance of the Fathers in times of heresy. This interpretation does not set boundaries for Orthodoxy, and as has been proven in practice, historically, its atmosphere contributed to the ecumenist corruption of the Church.

In conclusion: The potential interpretation of the canon theologically contradicts St. Basil the Great’s call for the cleansing of the Church.

The up to now disregard and marginalization of the 15th canon gradually led the fullness of the Church to the loss of its ecclesiological consciousness, that is, to a rupture with the catholic unity of the timeless Orthodox Church. An introverted isolation developed as spiritual life, that is, a continuous "spiritual" concern for the "self" in the name of obedience.

Obedience, so useful and important in the work of salvation, is today being wronged. We have very many examples of the falsification of obedience, from spiritual fathers who place themselves first, and the spiritual interest of the Church follows!

The cornerstone of obedience is the word of God, expressed as "Hear, O Israel" (Deut. 6:4). Obedience = under + hearing, to that which the Church commands. Entirely foreign to the Orthodox tradition is the view or position that confines the faithful to spiritual duties or asceticism while leaving the course of the Church to the "authorities."

The holy Fathers, in their prayer, devoted more time to hearing the voice of God—"Hear, O Israel"—than to personal requests. Their struggles and their confession were the fruit of obedience to the Church.

Concerning the blessed obedience to the Holy Canons and their theological interpretation—as a Patristic–Ecclesiastical ethos and not as polemics—the contemporary confessor bishop Kyr Augoustinos Kantiotes analyzes this in his (relevant) writings. Especially Kyr Augoustinos, like St. Basil the Great, in the critical circumstances of the Church, safeguarded the sacred deposit of the Holy Canons. A similar spirit was demonstrated by Archimandrite Christophoros Kalyvas, which has been crystallized in his book “Restore the Church.” Their positions bear the utmost Ecclesiological weight, with a dynamic for lifting the Church out of stagnation.

Those who, today, do not adopt the Ecumenist ecclesiology are, for the official institutional Church, from the outset opponents, reactionaries, schismatics, heretics, apostates, fanatics, obscurantists, fundamentalists, extremists, psychopaths, outside the Church!

Examples of "victims" of Ecumenism: the theologian Nikos Sotiropoulos, Fr. Euthymios Trikaminas, brethren of the Old Calendar, the Athonite Fathers, Fr. Theodoros Zisis, Fr. Nikolaos Manolis, and many others, while others follow…

In his books and in his synodal memoranda, at an unsuspected time, Kyr Augustine pulverizes the positions of Patriarch Bartholomew concerning the Holy Canons, as they have been formulated in his related scholarly–theological work.

"O Lord! Unto Thee we lift up eyes and hearts, help Thy faithful children from all the land of Greece to struggle unto the end for the glory of Thy Church." (Kyr Augustine Kantiotes – Ecclesiastical Memoranda (p. 201))

Greek source: https://paterikiparadosi.blogspot.com/2017/12/blog-post_69.html