July 17, 1948
We have arrived at a full and
complete understanding, that at the present time the influence of the
non-Orthodox is directed upon the Orthodox Church from at least two sides.
On the one hand, the head of the
Roman Catholic Church (in the person of the Pope) having lost, as it were, the
feeling of a saving faith in the invincibility of the Church of Christ by the
gates of hell, and being concerned with maintaining earthly authority by
following the line of utilizing political ties with the great ones of this
world, is trying to tempt the Orthodox Church to an agreement with her. The
Papacy tries to achieve this latter aim by creating various forms of unifying
organizations, which tend in this direction.
On the other hand, Protestantism,
in all its multiformity and division into sects and movements, has lost faith
in the eternal nature and the immutability of Christian ideals, in its proud
disdain of Apostolic rules and of those of the ancient Fathers, and strives to
enter upon a way of resistance to Roman Papalism. Protestantism seeks an ally
for this struggle in the Orthodox Church so as to acquire for itself the
significance of an influential international force.
And here Orthodoxy will be faced
with an even greater temptation, that of evading the search for the Kingdom of
God and of entering into a political realm which is so alien to it. Such is the
practical task of the ecumenical movement today.
Together with Orthodoxy proper,
other Churches are subjected to the same kind of influence—the
Armeno-Gregorian, the Syro- Jacobite, the Abyssinian, the Coptic and
Syro-Chaldean non- Roman Churches, and also the Old Catholic Church, so closely
related to Orthodoxy.
Taking into consideration that:
(a) The aims of the ecumenical
movement, as expressed in the formation of the ‘World Council of Churches’,
with the further aim of organizing an ‘Ecumenical Church’, in our contemporary
sphere, do not correspond to the ideal of Christianity or to the aims of the
Church of Christ, as understood by the Orthodox Church.
(b) The directing of their
efforts into the main stream of social and political life, and to the creating
of an ‘Ecumenical Church’ as an important international power, appear to be, as
it were, a falling into that temptation which was rejected by Christ in the.
desert, and a turning of the Church on to the path of attempting to catch human
souls in the nets of Christ by un-Christian methods.
(c) The Ecumenical movement, in
its present plan of work in the ‘World Council of Churches’, unfavourably for
the Church of Christ and far too prematurely, has renounced its confidence in
the possibility of reunion within the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
The predominantly Protestant membership of the Edinburgh Conference in 1937,
either having failed or anticipating failure, hastened to close down any
efforts towards the achievement of the reunion of the Churches through grace.
For the sake of self-preservation Protestantism followed along the line of least
resistance, along a path of abstract ‘unionism’, based on social-economic and
even political foundations. This movement has even based its further work on
the theory of the creation of a new external apparatus, “The Ecumenical
Church’, as an institution within the State, which is in one way or another
tied to it and which possesses secular influence.
(d) In the course of the whole of
the last ten years (from 1937 to 1948 inclusive) the theme of the reunion of
the Churches on dogmatic and doctrinal grounds, so far as documents show, is no
longer discussed, only a secondary pedagogical significance is ascribed to it
for some future generation. Thus our contemporary ecumenical movement does not
safeguard the task of the reunion of the Churches by the way and means of
grace.
(e) The lowering of the
requirements for conditions of unity to a single one, namely that of
recognizing Jesus Christ as Our Lord, debases Christian doctrine to the kind of
faith which, according to the Apostle, is available to devils (James ii, 19;
Matthew viii, 29; Mark v, 7). Hence, making a statement about this present-day
situation, our Council of Heads and Representatives of Autocephalous Orthodox
Churches, having called in prayer for the help of the Holy Spirit, has resolved
as follows:
To inform the ‘World Council of
Churches’, in reply to the invitation sent to all of us to participate in the
Amsterdam Assembly as its members, that all the Orthodox National Churches,
which are participating in the present Conference, are obliged to refuse to
take any part in the ecumenical movement in its present-day shape.
(Signed) humble ALEXEI, by
the mercy of God Patriarch of Moscow and of all Russia.
humble CALLISTRAT, Catholicos
Patriarch of all Georgia.
A.E.M. Patriarch of Serbia,
GABRIEL.
humble JUSTINIAN, by God’s mercy
Patriarch of Rumania.
humble STEPHAN, Exarch of
Bulgaria.
From the Church of Antioch:
Metropolitan of Emessa,
ALEXANDER;
Metropolitan of the Lebanon,
ELIJAH.
From the Church of Alexandria:
Metropolitan of Emessa,
ALEXANDER; Metropolitan of the Lebanon, ELIJAH.
From the Polish Autocephalous
Orthodox Church:
humble TIMOTHY Archbishop of
Byelostock and Belsk.
From the Albanian Orthodox
Church:
Bishop of Korchinsk PAISSY.
The Exarch of the Moscow
Patriarchate in Czechoslovakia, ELEUTHERIUS, Archbishop of Prague and
Czechoslovakia.
The Armenian Church joins the
above in this decision on the question of the ecumenical movement.
(Signed) GEORGE VI,
Catholicos of all Armenians.
Source: Documents on Christian
Unity, Fourth Series, 1948-1957, edited by G. K. A. Bell, Oxford University
Press, London, 1958, pp. 33-35.
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