The Pseudo-Walling Off of Fr. Theodoros Zisis

Ioannis Rizos | March 27, 2018

 

Two years after the pseudo-council of Kolymbari, a preaching novel and foreign to Orthodox Tradition concerning Walling Off has now been established by three Thessalonian theologians—Fr. Theodoros Zisis, Fr. Nikolaos Manolis, and Fr. Seraphim Zisis—based on their own notions, as Saint Epiphanios [of Salamis] would say. [1]

The basic principles of this preaching are summarized in the following:

1. Walling off against heresy is not mandatory.
2. A bishop (or priest) who commemorates the patriarch (or the bishop, respectively), thus sacramentally and within the Church affirming that the heterodox patriarch (or bishop) is Orthodox, causes no spiritual harm to those who are in ecclesiastical communion with him, as long as—according to the three theologians—the said patriarch/bishop has not been synodally deposed.
3. The flock is free—and without spiritual harm—to have ecclesiastical communion with a priest/bishop who belongs to the above category, provided that this priest/bishop is... "pious"!

The greatest proof that the three theologians are in delusion does not arise only from Orthodox argumentation and reasoning, but also from tangible reality itself. And here is the reality that proves my assertion:

The "walled-off" Fr. Theodoros Zisis recently concelebrated with Ukrainian Bishop Longinus [of Banchensky]:

https://web.archive.org/web/20180316003219/https://www.katanixis.gr/2018/03/1000-2018.html.

Bishop Longinus and Fr. Theodoros, during the Divine Liturgy, jointly commemorated the patriarchs of Moscow, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Romania, Jerusalem, as well as the Archbishops of the autocephalous Churches—that is, they commemorated the leading Ecumenists of these Local Churches. Fr. Theodoros here in Greece tells us that the participants in Kolymbari are "Latin-minded" and "heretics" (see video of Monk Fr. Seraphim Zisis [Fr. Theodoros' son], at 1:26:00 and 1:27:42: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blVrzLfOwk4), and because of this, of course, he cuts off ecclesiastical communion with the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki Mr. Anthimos, who is aligned with Kolymbari.

Yet in Ukraine he commemorates within the Church and unashamedly the same persons whom in Greece he considers and calls heretics, having ceased their commemoration.

Therefore, in the end and literally, we are not to reflect on how Patristic and Orthodox the walling off of Fr. Theodoros and the three Thessalonian theologians is, but we must understand that it is not even a case of Walling Off. It is a hearse of delusion that roams the streets, with the funeral wreaths being carried by their entirely guilty and personality-worshipping people.

Fr. Theodoros Zisis is not walled off!

The manifestly anti-Orthodox preaching of the three Thessalonian theologians has borne its bitter fruits: a triumphant restoration of commemoration outside of Greece!

In Greece, he remains a confessor.

These deeds are the fruits of their teaching. For years they have not been teaching the whole truth to the people, but only that which fits and is "in accordance with their own teaching" (Isaiah 5:31); "they have turned away from the ancient paths and walk in ways not cast up" (Jeremiah 18:15).

“Their preaching is a defiled offering and a contempt toward God” (Malachi 1:6). In reality, “they teach the people to offer to God what is fit to be thrown away” (Malachi 1:12).

“You priests stumble in broad daylight… but you shall suffer the same as the people” (Hosea 4:5, 9), even if you call this thing “economy” and “love” for the sake of the flock.

There is no need, then, for the airplanes of the New Order to spray us, as some believe. [A reference to an airplane "chemtrails" conspiracy theory.] The preaching of Fr. Theodoros and those with him is more effective. Ecumenism has spread in depth and breadth, mainly because they continue to preach that which creates and intensifies the spiritual deadening of the world.

They train the people to be unable to discern what is good and what is evil, what is white and what is black, what is defiled and what is holy (Ezek. 44:23).

“They have betrayed their mission. By their counsel they have led many people to do evil,” because “they did not transmit My commandments to the people unadulterated,” says the Lord to the priests. (Malachi 2:6, 8)

The Thessalonian theologians baptize—as per their own criteria(!)—as “pious” bishops and priests who, by the criteria of Orthodoxy, are impious. “…Therefore, it is in no way permitted [not permitted at all] for the priest to commemorate the heterodox…” according to Saint Symeon the New Theologian [2] and according to the holy Fathers.

How then is Bishop Longinus—and all those whom Fr. Theodoros considers pious—pious, when they commemorate the foremost heretical primates?

I appeal to the simple logic of the reader who adopts the positions of Fr. Theodoros and I ask him: If ecclesiastical communion with clergy who commemorate the ecumenist primates does not cause us spiritual harm or sin, for what reason should those primates be condemned by a future Orthodox Council and be deposed? Would it not be absurd for a clergyman/bishop to be deposed when his beliefs cause no spiritual harm or sin to his flock?

And if ecclesiastical communion with such clergy does not cause us spiritual harm and sin, then why were Saint Maximus and thousands of other saints tortured and put to death for refusing ecclesiastical communion with the non-deposed heretical primates of their time?

If there is no defilement from communion with non-deposed clergy who cooperate and walk together with heretical bishops (secretly or openly, sacramentally or publicly, in various forms and degrees), and there is no condemnable spiritual consequence whatsoever, then Walling Off, both as an institution and as a confessional practice lived by the saints throughout the centuries, is utterly useless!

Consequently, the group of Fr. Theodoros becomes in practice the foremost rejecter of the confessional experience of the saints!

With their writings and words, they appear as honorers of the saints, but in practice, by teaching their flocks the opposite path for application, they are shown to be fighters against the saints!

And unfortunately, we see confirmed in our days the prophetic word:

“A thousand shall fall at your left hand, and ten thousand at your right” (Psalm 90:7).

 

1. P.G. 43, 132B.

2. Saint Symeon, Complete Works, chapter XVI, Rigopoulos Publications.

 

Greek source: https://paterikiparadosi.blogspot.com/2018/03/blog-post_864.html