"Mount Athos and its Enduring Stance Against Heresies" (2017)

 EPILOGUE

Final conclusion of the present historical study and some resulting messages for further processing in the laboratory of each one's conscience…

 

Concluding the present study, having presented the historical events concerning the enduring stance of the Holy Mountain against the heresies, we, as Athonite Monks, consider that we are obliged to express our Orthodox faith with boldness.

We lay before all faithful Orthodox Christians our pain and anguish for our Orthodox faith and the future of our Holy Place, all of which are directly related to the salvation of our souls.

Athonite monasticism in our days is undergoing a spiritual crisis in matters of faith and tradition, which is developing, all too soon, into a tragedy. The present reality, as it is being shaped by the so-called “New Age” or Globalization, moves along three axes: Religious, Economic, and Political, seeking to impose upon all of humanity:

1. One world government.
2. One world economy.
3. One world religion (Pan-religion).

The plan of the pan-religion is the union of all the pseudo-churches of the Christian world and subsequently of all religions under one global ruler, the Antichrist, so that all may worship him as god, just as the Holy Revelation foretold to us 2000 years ago (Rev. 13:6–8 and 2 Thess. 2:8–12).

Ecumenism is the tentacle of the New Age, which seeks to impose a system of polytheism and syncretism, within which all religions, “churches,” and worldviews will be intermixed, resulting in confusion, delusion, and the ultimate perdition of mankind. The ecumenists proclaim that they are working for the unity of all “Christians” and for the much-vaunted peace. Instead of peace, however, we have wars—and in fact, a war of religions—and instead of love, one bites the other, even though they claim to be Christians! Concerning all this false peace, the Holy Scripture also speaks to us (1 Thess. 5:3).

For 115 full years now, the spotless and immaculate Bride of Christ, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church—the Orthodox Church—has been dragged along behind this antichristian chariot. This, then, is the plan of the pan-religion, which is served by the pan-heresy of syncretistic Ecumenism, led by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and its current Patriarch.

The first step of ecumenism and the first blow against Orthodoxy was the innovation of the calendar change, mixed marriages, and it continues to this day with joint prayers, the so-called theological dialogues, the decisions of the W.C.C., and so on.

Lately, the culmination of all this has been the so-called “Holy and Great Council” at Kolymbari in Crete (June 26, 2016). With its decisions, this Council synodally recognized and accepted all the aforementioned—that is, that the Pope and all the heretics, Monophysites, Protestants, etc., are sister Churches with valid mysteries, baptism, and priesthood. Since then until today, almost all the plans of the ecumenists have been realized, and the only thing remaining is the official announcement of the “union,” that is, the submission of Orthodoxy to the Pope and through him to the Antichrist. With the convocation of the so-called “Holy and Great Council” at Kolymbari in Crete, the apostasy and betrayal of Orthodoxy has been completed.

The mystery of apostasy, lawlessness, and impiety (2 Thess. 2:7) advances in parallel with the interfaith joint prayers, which are carried out systematically and at regular intervals, with Jews, Buddhists, magicians, idolaters, and Muslims—to whom, indeed, the Patriarch even distributes the “holy Koran.”

As we know, numerous holy canons forbid every kind of joint prayer with heretics in general, and much more so with those of other religions. A total of seventeen holy canons impose excommunication and defrocking upon clergy and laity who dare to pray together with heretics, and all the more so with adherents of other religions. We merely draw your attention to the contemporary reality of the organizations promoting Syncretistic Interfaith Ecumenism, especially the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions (www.religions-congress.org/index.php?lang=english), based in Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan, which has been built with Masonic symbols of their own idolatrous fertility mysteries and is the new center of the aforementioned Syncretistic Interfaith Ecumenism. There, the so-called Dialogue of (Luciferian) Enlightenment takes place—namely, the Dialogue of Harmonization of Religions towards the complete formation of the Global Religion of Satanism and the Antichrist  (see related: Astana, The Illuminati Capital of Kazakhstan, http://www.thebohemianblog.com/2012/12/dark-tourism-illuminati-capital.html).

Among the world’s religious leaders, the Primates of the Orthodox Autocephalous Churches also participate every three years—such as the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Patriarch of Moscow, and others. In this way is confirmed the saying of St. Justin Popović: Ecumenism is not merely heresy but the Pan-heresy, which ends in the denial of Christ.

As members, then, of the Body of the Church and Orthodox monks of the monastic Athonite commonwealth, willingly or unwillingly, we are led to the inescapable necessity of taking a stand, considering the great weight of our responsibility before the Church and history. For this Syncretistic Ecumenism directly offends our faith in the God-man person of our Lord Jesus Christ as the only Savior, and the ecclesiological dogma of the Symbol of our Faith. We believe, as we also confess, that only the Orthodox Church possesses the Truth concerning the Holy Triune God unaltered, which constitutes a necessary condition for the salvation of mankind—that is, their deification through the uncreated divine grace and repentance. Does this specific salvation come through the heresy of Papism or of Protestantism, or the religions invented by men who are under demonic influence? If these false Christian confessions and religions can secure this specific salvation—salvation in Christ and in the Holy Spirit, namely deification—then for what reason did the Holy Fathers strive throughout the ages for the preservation of the purity of the Dogmas of our Faith, that is, the Trinitarian, Christological, Pneumatological, and Soteriological dogmas?

Without truth, the so-called “unity” that the ecumenists pursue does not lead to salvation! Unity is not autonomous from truth, nor is it ever possible to exist outside the Orthodox Church. No one who does not rightly divide the salvific truth handed down by the Church can be within the Church. The mutual recognition and communion of hierarchs with heretics does not express the unity of the Church. There is no Church where the word of truth is not rightly divided. Truth—Christ—and the Church are identical. Whoever is outside the Truth is also outside the Church. Only the one who is with the Truth is within the Church. For this reason, the word of the Holy Fathers of the Church, summed up in the saying of Saint Gregory Palamas concerning the essential relationship between the Church of Christ and the Truth, and vice versa, constitutes a criterion of true ecclesial identity and Orthodoxy: “For those who are of the Church of Christ are of the Truth, and those who are not of the Truth are also not of the Church of Christ.” [1]

The venerable Elder Paisios, whom the Ecumenical Patriarchate has recently canonized, while he was still alive, spoke and protested against the pan-heresy of ecumenism and against the secularization of the Holy Mountain. The Patriarchate, it seems, has learned nothing from his holy life and his teaching against the pan-heresy of ecumenism, for it continues with ever greater zeal to proceed toward union with the heretics, without having any awareness of its responsibilities toward the Church and its flock.

Having, then, the good concern, Saint Paisios, together with all the old Athonites, used to say:  “The silence that prevails [not, of course, the silence of the Hesychast saints] troubles me. We have not properly realized in what times we are living, nor do we think that we will die... The fate of the world is hanging from the hands of a few, but still God holds the reins... Much ash has fallen, refuse, indifference—it needs a great wind to blow it away. The elders used to say that a time would come when people would revolt. They tear down fences, they disregard everything. It is dreadful! It has become a Babylon.” [2]

And elsewhere he also said: “To react in order to defend serious matters that concern our faith, our Orthodoxy—this is your duty.”

Having thus passed through this present historical study and having seen the entire course and enduring witness of our Holy Place, we too, as Athonite monks, bearing this concern and wishing to be “followers of the Holy Fathers,” turned to the Holy Community and the holy Abbots and entreated them to show understanding and to attend with love to all that we have presented as matters for reflection and healing, and to assume their spiritual responsibilities—not as possessing authority, but as fulfilling the ministry of Christ.

As regards matters of the faith, today in the Monasteries—except for rare exceptions—there is no catechesis or instruction given to the fathers concerning the pan-heresy of ecumenism, so that they may know what they ought to do. On the contrary, a willful ignorance is being cultivated, and any form of information or discussion on these matters is forbidden. Only the Holy Community publishes certain texts, and even these only when matters become aggravated; texts which, on the one hand, are very Orthodox and confessional, and on the other hand, lukewarm, without soul, and in “low” tones. This wavering stance, as is natural, not only fails to inspire us Athonites and the faithful people, but rather seriously troubles us, scandalizes us, and deeply concerns us for the future of the Holy Mountain.

We are concerned for the generation of the new brotherhoods coming from the world—the generation of educated theologians—who, upon staffing the Holy Monasteries, did not continue the enduring Athonite tradition, according to which asceticism was always accompanied by the safeguarding of Orthodoxy and confession of the faith, and who erroneously reintroduced the commemoration of the Patriarch. It seems that the holy Abbots, putting forth zealotry as a pretext, deemed it good never to touch upon matters of the Orthodox faith. However, we know from the Gerontikon that in the latter times, in which we now live, the asceticism of monks will consist primarily in the Confession of the Orthodox Faith. [3]

They make a separation between faith and dogma on the one hand, and the life of asceticism and the cultivation of the virtues on the other. That is, they believe that faith is one thing and spiritual life is another. This is a sophistic distinction that never existed in Orthodoxy. Dogma, ethos, and asceticism have always existed together in Orthodoxy and in the Patristic Tradition. But this is clearly done so as not to offend the ecumenist bishops of the Patriarchate. This precisely constitutes Ecumenism at its core: the secularization within the Body of the Church. Secularization is not only the worldly comforts offered to us by technology.

Without Orthodox faith and the Orthodox Church, there is no salvation; all is “vanity, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” A secularized Church does not save. And all other spiritual struggles—prayers, fasts, ascetic practices—do not benefit us without the confession of the Orthodox faith. On the contrary, not only are they not accepted by God, but they even provoke His wrath.

The foundation upon which one must build the house of virtues and his salvation is only the Orthodox faith. “Therefore, whoever hears these words of Mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded upon the rock” (Matt. 7:24–26).

“There is no benefit in a pure life if the dogmas are corrupted, just as neither is there benefit in the opposite: sound dogmas, if the life is corrupted,” and “For neither will it profit us anything if we hold correct dogmas but neglect our way of life, nor if we live rightly but neglect the correct dogmas.” [4]

Holy Scripture, the patristic and monastic Athonite tradition, and the lives of the saints teach us that we are obliged to confess with our mouth what we believe in our heart.

“For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10).

This saying is interpreted by the great Basil:

“Since, according to the Apostle, with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, and the operation of both brings about perfection in these things, for this reason the Lord requires both—that is, the operation of the mouth and that in the heart. How can someone offer the treasure by means of the mouth who does not possess it in secret? But if someone possesses the good things of the heart yet does not proclaim them with speech—as if afraid even to sanctify his tongue—then it will be said to him: ‘Hidden wisdom and concealed treasure—what is the benefit in both?’” [5]

The Lord gave us the commandment to keep all His commandments in order to show that we love Him: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me,” “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him” (John 14:21, 23).

Just as we are obliged to keep the commandments of the Lord, we are also obliged to confess our faith in the Lord: “Whoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father who is in the heavens; but whoever shall deny Me before men, I also will deny him before My Father who is in the heavens.” The confession must be made before men—not in the forests and underground.

The Pan-heresy of Ecumenism is the most insidious pan-heresy of all the ages. At first, it places the dogmas of the Faith and the Holy Canons under doubt, then under discussion, and finally under deconstruction and abolition—that is, it applies the satanic method: discussion – infiltration – coexistence – overthrow. Proof of this is found in the Council of Crete, where the terms dogma, heresy, and heretic were systematically avoided.

Today’s monks are, essentially, un-catechized in matters of faith. They live in ignorance regarding what Orthodoxy is—Dogmas, Holy Canons. Each one of us searches with his conscience to untangle a confused thread within himself in order to find the Orthodox faith, the patristic teaching, and the path he must follow.

According to the Holy Fathers, ignorance is one of the three giants of the passions, which, together with forgetfulness and negligence, lead to heresy. The greatest responsibility for this lies with the Abbots.

Monks ought to be able to discern Orthodox faith from heresy. In many respects, the Orthodox criterion between truth and delusion has been lost. However, if this course continues, we fear that the younger generation of monks, nurtured in this ignorance, will render indiscriminate obedience to whatever is asked of them—even to the detriment of the Orthodox faith.

In the history of the Church, however, we do not have even one saint who was indifferent or cowardly in the confession of the faith and of Holy Tradition. Today, a new threat has begun to appear on the spiritual horizon—a new type of “saint,” an ecumenist “saint,” one who believes that a person can become sanctified solely through his “lofty spiritual life,” without engaging in matters of the faith. He thinks he can be indifferent and remain silent under the pretense of being “very discerning,” to go along with worldly powers and enjoy a good reputation. They have forgotten the words of the Apostle: “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12). This too is one of the results of ecumenism.

The ignorance, indifference, and confusion are so great that, at this point, one must be either an ecumenist or a supporter of ecumenism, or a crypto-Orthodox, or a “zealot” in the negative sense that the term has come to bear—that is, to belong to some unhealthy condition. Are we, then, forbidden to be simply Orthodox?…

Therefore, after all these sorrowful observations, which for years we have witnessed unfolding on the Holy Mountain—our spiritual homeland—and after much pain and prayer, for reasons of ecclesiastical and monastic conscience, we believe that we are obliged, as Athonite monks, to declare to all:

a) First and foremost, that the Patriarchate of Constantinople must renounce and condemn, in an Orthodox and synodal manner, the pan-heresy of Syncretistic Inter-Christian and Interfaith Ecumenism.

b) That it withdraw from all inter-Christian and interfaith ecumenistic organizations, such as the W.C.C. (World Council of pseudo-churches), and the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Astana.

c) That all unrepentant ecumenist patriarchs, bishops, priests, monks, theologians, and laypeople be deposed, and that they publicly seek forgiveness from the Orthodox faithful of the entire Orthodox Church, whom they trouble and scandalize.

d) To the Holy Community and the Abbots of the Holy Monasteries, we are obliged, for reasons of ecclesiastical conscience and Orthodox confession, to publicly declare that we neither agree with nor consent to the lukewarm stance they display on matters of the Faith, because they do not distance themselves, nor do they proceed to the necessary cessation of the commemoration of the Patriarch, thereby ultimately following the line of the Patriarchate and of the pan-heresy of Ecumenism.

We separate our position before the dreadful Judgment, and with the grace of the Lord we shall follow the path of the old holy Athonite Fathers and the enduring tradition of the Holy Mountain, which is one. The cessation of the commemoration of the heretical Patriarch shall be upheld until he either repents or is condemned synodally.

e) To the Athonite Fathers

We believe that the majority of our beloved fellow monks are not inspired by heretical-ecumenist mindsets and do not agree with what the Patriarch does and preaches. Nevertheless, they bear a tremendous spiritual responsibility, since their silence and indifference support this situation. Such a stance reveals rather servility, self-interest, desire to please men, and vainglory, and we beseech them to reflect upon the words of the Gospel:

“…and among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God.” (John 12:43).

This pan-heresy would have ceased if the Holy Mountain had continued the struggle of confessing the Orthodox faith through the cessation of the commemoration of the Ecumenical Patriarch, as Bishop of the Holy Mountain. This is the only remedy.

f) We remind once again the decision of the extraordinary Double Assembly of the Holy Community, which holds the weight of a spiritual law: “The commemoration of the name of the Ecumenical Patriarch is left to the conscience of each monastery.” [6] This decision, as we have already mentioned, is based on the Patriarchal letter of Patriarch Athenagoras, where even he—the great ecumenist—respected the freedom of conscience of each monk.

g) At the very least, let them show the self-evident respect for our universal human right to follow the voice of our Orthodox conscience, as free persons.

h) To those holding responsible and public positions, we earnestly ask: do not forget that you too will one day give account before the dreadful Judge. You are obliged always to express the enduring conscience of the Church and of the Holy Fathers. Matters of Faith and Morality are not a personal matter for anyone! We all bear responsibility for matters of faith and tradition. Let the holy Representatives know that when they do not rightly divide the word of truth and Orthodoxy, then they are not our representatives, but express only themselves. We are grieved, because this stance of theirs does not represent us, does not express us, does not inspire us. We, for our part, pray that all of us, as Athonite monks, may be of one mind and one soul, holding, doing, and following the same things.

 

“Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you; but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” (1 Corinthians 1:10).

We were born Orthodox Christians and, with the grace of Christ, we desire to die Orthodox. We wish to follow, as humble servants of Christ, the command of the Apostle to the Nations, Paul, to Timothy: “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them... For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine... and they shall turn away their ears from the truth... but watch thou in all things” (2 Timothy 3 and 4).

“But thou, flee these things; and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” (1 Timothy 6).

 

“One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism.”

As Athonites, we also bear a great historical responsibility before all of humanity—and above all before God and the Most Holy Theotokos—to preserve the Orthodox faith and the holy tradition upon these myriad-sanctified and sweetly fragrant rocks, where thousands of sanctified souls struggled ascetically. The Garden of the All-Holy Virgin in which we live—Mount Athos—also belongs to us, the humble kellion-dwellers. It is our homeland, our home, our family; for us, it is everything, and we grieve for it… All expect much from us Athonites. We are in need of unity—Orthodox and genuine. All of us Athonites together, united as the Body of Christ—coenobites, skete-dwellers, and kellion-dwellers—by the grace of the Lord, can and must change things for the better.

We are all in need of sincere repentance, in order to spit out this apostasy of the Pan-heresy of Ecumenism.

We beseech our Panagia and pray that she may once again work her miracle, to help us preserve her Garden as we received it from the Athonite fathers before us, by imitating their life, their faith, and their virtues. The principal mission of the Holy Mountain is to remain the light of the world and to transmit to all peoples the Orthodox faith and the universal values of the Helleno-Orthodox civilization. It is unthinkable to allow such a millennia-old history to fade away. Mount Athos, “the Garden of the Theotokos,” as it is called by the whole world, exists for no other purpose than to enrich the Church with Venerables, Saints, Martyrs, and Confessors. The Holy Mountain must remain a harbor of repentance and a workshop of salvation.

The Orthodox Church, as we know from history, is tossed by waves but not submerged, fought against but not overcome, and conquers all. The path is one—the very path that all our saints walked. The eternal words of Christ resound in our ears:

“I am with you, and no one is against you” (Apolytikion of the Ascension).

“God is with us; know this, O nations, and be defeated, for God is with us.”

Mount Athos, this unique and unrepeatable miracle of the Theotokos, must live in order to give life and renewal to the whole world.

Mount Athos is identified with the Most Holy Theotokos, who gave birth in time to the Timeless One, the One without mother from the Father and without father from the Mother, the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the worshipped Holy Trinity, the Redeemer and Judge of mankind.

Mount Athos is obliged to remain the guardian of Orthodoxy.

“As the Prophets have seen, as the Apostles have taught, as the Church has received, as the Teachers have dogmatized, as the world has agreed, as grace has shone forth, as truth has been proven, as falsehood has been driven away, as wisdom has spoken boldly, as Christ has awarded—thus we think, thus we speak, thus we preach Christ, our true God.” [7] Amen.

 

NOTES

1. Gregory Palamas, On the Letter of Antioch against Palamas, E.P.E. 3, 608.

2. Vol. II, Spiritual Awakening, p. 17.

3. See the prophecy of Abba Moses the Ethiopian and of Abba Pambo, Saints and wise men concerning things that are to come. D. Panagopoulos, pp. 6–8. Emmanuel Anthidis, The Hour of the Prophecies, Steréoma Publications, Athens, n.d., pp. 77, 89.

4. Saint John Chrysostom, Homily 13 on Genesis, PG 53, 110 B.

5. E.P.E., Series 20, p. 30.

6. Session 52 of November 13, 1971.

7. Synodicon of the Seventh Ecumenical Council.

 

Source: Το Άγιον Όρος και η Διαχρονική του Στάση Έναντι των Αιρέσεων [Mount Athos and its Enduring Stance Against Heresies], by Hieromonk Chariton the Hagiorite, Holy Kellion of the Divine Ascension, Mount Athos, 2017, pp. 289-306.