Anti-Ecumenist Exhortations of Elder Philotheos Zervakos (+1980)

 

The Apostle Paul, the mouth of Christ, commands: Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. In circumstances in which our Holy Orthodox Faith is scorned and insulted, reproof is permitted—even righteous indignation, most righteous indeed—whereas silence is forbidden. But even the reproof must be done with discernment and prudence, not with agitation and excessive anger; it must be done with divine wrath, for our God also says, Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.

God does not abandon His Church, and those who war against her He will humble and crush like vessels of a potter; and blessed are those who will remain faithful unto death to the Orthodox faith, to the Orthodox confession.

I believe and hope that the Founder of the Church, the Leader of our salvation, mighty and powerful in wars, will crush all those who war against His Bride, the Church, the pure and undefiled one, which He cared for with His Precious Blood, as vessels of a potter, and will preserve and save Her pure. As for you who remain, stand well, stand with fear, stand manfully, and do not bend the knee to the antichrist Pope and to his followers, the papist-loving ecumenists—Athenagoras, Iakovos of America, Meliton of Chalcedon, and the rest of the cowardly and traitorous. Stand until the end, until death, that you may receive the incorruptible crown in the heavens.

For union to take place with the Papists and the Pope, the Pope must repent and return to the one, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, which Christ delivered to us through the Holy Apostles and the Holy Fathers of the Seven Holy Ecumenical Councils. The Pope has schismed and is obliged to return to the one faith, which they falsified—both in the one baptism, which they abolished and replaced with sprinkling and pouring of water—and in the dogmas and holy traditions, which they utterly scorned. And if they desire dialogues and discussions, these must take place upon the Symbol of Faith, and within ten minutes. Do you agree? Do you renounce your delusion and your heresies? Do you return to God and to the Holy Church? We accept you. Do you not accept? Then go where the Holy Apostles, the Holy Fathers, and the Seven Ecumenical Councils send you: to anathema!

Arise, O Chrysostoms, Gregories, Germanoses, Tarasioses, Nikephoroses, Photiuses, and the rest, ancient and more recent Holy Patriarchs of Constantinople, who were sacrificed on behalf of your sheep, to see who now occupies your Throne! You, as good Shepherds, sacrificed your souls for your very own sheep, whereas the present ones sacrifice the sheep for themselves and open the gates and invite the wolves to enter and to devour the sheep.

From where has the patriarch fallen into such a descent, that he voluntarily strives to deliver his flock to the wolves to be devoured? The cause is pride—the root and cause of all sins, of all evils, of all heresies, of misfortunes and sorrows—and more than all misfortunes and sufferings, the deprivation of the grace of God.

The wolf-shepherds, false teachers, false prophets, and false-christ heretics were cast far away from the flock of Christ by the Holy Fathers—the imitators of the Chief Shepherd Christ and successors of His disciples—the good, true, and divine shepherds who convened the venerable and holy Seven Ecumenical Councils, and, as unrepentant, they delivered them to eternal anathema.

 

Greek source: https://katanixi.gr/antioikoymenistikes-ypothikes-g-filo/