Submitted to Bishop Jovan Velimirović of Šabac and Valjevo
And to the Holy Hierarchical Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church
Belgrade, November
13/26, 1974
Most Reverend Fathers,
The stance of the Church of
Christ in relation to heretics – to all who are not Orthodox – was established
once and for all time by the Holy Apostles and the Holy Fathers, by Holy
Divine-Human Tradition, uniform and unchangeable.
In accordance with this stance,
Orthodox are forbidden to participate in any form of common prayer or
liturgical services with heretics. For, “What fellowship has righteousness with
unrighteousness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what concord
has Christ with Belial? Or what part has he who believes with an infidel?” (2
Corinthians 6:14–15).
The Forty-fifth Canon of the Holy
Apostles decrees: “Let a Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon, who has merely prayed
with heretics be excommunicated; but if he has permitted them to perform any
clerical function, let him be deposed.”
This sacred Canon of the Holy
Apostles does not specify precisely what kind of prayer or service is
prohibited, but it does prohibit any common prayer with heretics, even in
private (“has prayed with...”). In the case of ecumenical joint prayers, do
things not occur that are both more explicit and on a broader scale than these?
The Thirty-second Canon of the
Council of Laodicea decrees: “It is unlawful to receive the blessings of
heretics, for they are absurdities rather than blessings.” And do heretics not
give blessings at those ecumenical gatherings and joint services? – Roman
Catholic bishops and priests, Protestant ministers, and even female clergy!
These and all of the other
pertinent Canons of the Holy Apostles and the Holy Fathers were not valid only
in the ancient period, but continue to be completely valid today, as well, for
all of us contemporary Orthodox Christians.
They are unconditionally binding
in our stance toward Roman Catholics and Protestants. For Roman Catholicism is
a many-sided heresy and the heresies of Protestantism are too many to mention.
Did not Saint Sava – already in
his time, seven and half centuries ago – call Roman Catholicism “the Latin
heresy”? And how many new dogmas has the pope invented since then and made them
dogma with his “infallibility”?! It is absolutely certain that, through the
dogma of papal infallibility, Roman Catholicism has become a pan-heresy. Even
the much-celebrated Second Vatican Council did not change anything concerning
this monstrous heresy, but, on the contrary, it made it even firmer.
Therefore, if we Orthodox wish to
remain Orthodox, it is our duty to maintain the stance of Saint Sava, Saint
Mark of Ephesus, Saint Cosmas of Aitolia, Saint John of Kronstadt, and the
other Holy Confessors, Martyrs, and New Martyrs of the Orthodox Church toward
Roman Catholics and Protestants, absolutely none of whom believe correctly and
in an Orthodox manner in the two fundamental doctrines of Christianity: in the
Holy Trinity and in the Church.
Your Eminence and Holy Fathers of
the Synod,
How long will we continue
desecrating our Holy Orthodox Church of Saint Sava by our pitiful and
horrifying stance, which directly opposes Holy Tradition, towards ecumenism and
the World Council of Churches?
Every true Orthodox Christian,
who is instructed under the guidance of the Holy Fathers, is overcome with
shame when he reads that the Orthodox members of the Fifth Pan-Orthodox
Consultation in Geneva (July 8–16, 1968), with regard to the participation of
Orthodox in the work of the World Council of Churches, decided, at that time,
“to express the common recognition of the Orthodox Church that she is an
organic member of the World Council of Churches” (see Glasnik S. P. Crkve
[Belgrade], no. 8 [1968]: 168).
This decision is apocalyptically
horrifying in its un-Orthodoxy and anti-Orthodoxy. Was it necessary for the
Orthodox Church, the most pure Divine-Human Body and organism of the God-Man
Christ, to be so debased to such a pitiful degree that its theological
representatives, some of whom were Serbian bishops, should seek after “organic”
participation and membership in the World Council of Churches, which will
supposedly become a new “body” and a new “Church” above all the churches, in
which the Orthodox Church and the non-Orthodox churches will appear only as
parts – “organically” joined to each other? God forbid! Never before has there
been such a betrayal and abandonment of our holy Faith!
By this, we are renouncing the
Orthodox Divine-Human Faith, this organic bond with the Lord Jesus, the
God-Man, and His most pure Body – we are repudiating the Orthodox Church of the
Holy Apostles, Fathers, and Ecumenical Councils – and we wish to become
“organic members” of a heretical, humanistic, man-made and man-worshipping
assembly, which is composed of 263 heresies, each one of which is spiritual
death.
As Orthodox, we are “members of
Christ.” “Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of
a harlot? God forbid!” (1 Corinthians 6:15). We are doing this by our “organic”
union with the World Council of Churches, which is nothing other than the
revival of atheistic man-worship and idolatry.
Most Reverend Fathers, our
Orthodox Church of the Holy Fathers and Saint Sava, the Church of the Holy
Apostles and the Holy Fathers, of the Holy Confessors, Martyrs, and New
Martyrs, must now, at the eleventh hour, cease ecclesiastical, Hierarchical,
and liturgical involvement with the so-called World Council of Churches and
renounce for good any participation whatsoever in joint prayers and worship
(for worship, in the Orthodox Church, is organically linked together in a
totality and is consummated in the Divine Eucharist) and, in general, [renounce
for good] participation in any ecclesiastical endeavors which are not
self-contained and do not express the unique and unchangeable character of the
One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, the Orthodox Church, forever one and
unique.
If the Orthodox Church, faithful
as she is in every respect to the Holy Apostles and the Holy Fathers, were to
avoid ecclesiastical involvement with heretics, be they those of Geneva or
those of Rome, she would not thereby be renouncing her Christian mission or her
evangelical obligation: that she should humbly, but boldly, bear witness before
the contemporary world, both non-Orthodox and non-Christian, to the Truth, to
the All-Truth, to the living and true God-Man, and to the all-saving and
all-transfiguring power of Orthodoxy.
Guided by Christ, our Church,
through the Patristic spirit and character of her theologians, will always be
ready “to give an answer to every man that asks us a reason for the hope that
is in us” (cf. 1 Peter 3:15).
And our Hope, now and ever, and
unto the ages of ages, and unto all eternity, is single and unique: the God-Man
Jesus Christ in His Divine-Human Body, the Church of the Holy Apostles and the
Fathers.
Orthodox theologians should
participate not in “ecumenical joint prayers,” but in theological dialogues in
the Truth and about the Truth, as the Holy and God-bearing Fathers have done
throughout the ages.
The Truth of Orthodoxy and the
right Faith is the “portion” only “of those who are being saved” (cf. the
Seventh Canon of the Second Ecumenical Council).
Wholly-true is the proclamation
of the Holy Apostle: “salvation through sanctification ... and belief in the
Truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13). Belief in the God-Man is “belief in the Truth.”
The essence of this belief is the Truth, the only Whole-Truth, that is, the
God-Man Christ. Love for the God-Man is “love of the truth” (2 Thessalonians
2:10). The essence of this love is the Whole-Truth, that is, the God-Man
Christ. And this belief and this love are the heart and conscience of the
Orthodox Church.
All of these things have been
preserved intact and undistorted only in martyric, Patristic Orthodoxy, to
which Orthodox Christians are called to witness fearlessly before the West and
its false faith and false love.
Commemoration of Saint John Chrysostom
November 13/26, 1974
Holy Ćelije Monastery
The unworthy Archimandrite
Justin
commends himself to the holy
Apostolic
prayers of Your Eminence
and the holy Fathers and
Hierarchs
of the Holy Synod
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