Teaching of the Church on the Mysteries of Heretics

Source: excerpt from Ἡ Πέμπτη Οἰκουμενικὴ Σύνοδος [The Fifth Ecumenical Synod], by Metropolitan Meletios (Kalamaras) of Nikopolis and Preveza, Athens, 1985.

 

According to an indisputable ecclesiastical principle, the unity of the Church is not of an administrative-institutional form. The Church is one in the Spirit; it is united in the name of Christ. "One Lord; one Faith; one Baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in all of us." This unity is shaken only by heterodoxies. He who thinks differently than what has been handed down ceases to have the unity of the faith and the communion of the Holy Spirit.

For this reason, according to the Fifth [Ecumenical] Synod (Act I §3, 17), the supreme duty of the priests, the guardians of the Church, is the safeguarding of the faith.

The fall of priests from the unity of the faith defiles the Mysteries performed by them and removes from them the gift of spiritual fatherhood. Instead of shepherds, they become wolves, devouring their flock (see Act VI §15, 10 and Act I 3, 14).

For this reason, Justinian declares (and the Synod confirms this "position" in Act VII §16, 1–2) that he will never tolerate receiving Holy Communion from priests suspected of heresy. And the Orthodox, throughout the entire duration of the Acacian schism [484-519 A.D.], refused to commune of the immaculate Mysteries from the hands of those merely suspected.

"Why do we remain without communion for so many (35) years? Why do we not commune?" (A.C.O. 3, p. 72). Priests and fathers are only those who keep the faith undefiled (Act I §3, 14).

Every priest celebrates the immaculate Mysteries worthily and unto sanctification only insofar as he is united with the faith of the Church. The commemoration in the holy diptychs takes place as a declaration and safeguarding of this unity. In the diptychs of the living, the names of the "communing" Orthodox hierarchs and patriarchs are inscribed and proclaimed. For this reason also, the Synod, for the safeguarding of the purity of the holy Mysteries, erased from the holy diptychs the name of the then-reigning Pope Vigilius (see Act VII §§16–17). In the diptychs of the departed, only Orthodox fathers and teachers are commemorated. Therefore, when it was determined that Theodore was preaching heterodox teachings, his name was erased from the diptychs of the Church in Mopsuestia. "It is foreign to Christians to accept impiety (=heresy) equally with the Orthodox faith" (Act I §3, 13). All priests must have one and the same mind (Act II §5, 7).

 

Greek source online: https://apotixisi.blogspot.com/2025/04/blog-post_40.html