To the pious monks of Athos, the
Holy Mountain, the Sacred Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church
Outside of Russia wishes joy. May grace and peace be with all the inhabitants
of the Holy Mountain of Athos who are faithful to Holy Orthodoxy.
Your epistle on the subject of
the dialogue with the Roman Catholics reached us only after a considerable
lapse of time.* We read it with such attention as befits the importance of that
question for each Orthodox person. The Sacred Synod of Bishops has subsequently
resolved to inform you of our decision.
By the intercession of the
All-holy Theotokos, the fathers of Athos have throughout the ages overcome
various misfortunes and temptations, ever standing guard over Holy Orthodoxy.
These temptations are growing in the apostate world which surrounds us, in
which the might of Antichrist reveals itself ever more manifestly. They not
infrequently lure from the path of truth individual bishops and the entire
hierarchies of certain Churches who forget that their true task is to preserve,
protect and preach the faith of the holy apostles and fathers of the Church.
The first and second canons of the Seventh Ecumenical Council remind us of this
in particular. According to the latter, a hierarch must have the fervor “to
read with discernment, not cursorily, the holy canons, the holy Gospel, the
book of the divine Apostle and all the divine Scriptures, to progress in
accordance with the commandments of God and to teach the people entrusted to
them.”
From the writings and decrees of
the holy hierarchs who were faithful to this command, the Tradition of the
Church was formed, which, as the first canon of the Seventh Ecumenical Council
expresses it, must serve for all Orthodox as a “testimony and direction.” And
we, having been driven from our homeland as a result of its enslavement by the
enemies of God, see the principal aim of our life to be the preservation of
that pure Orthodoxy which we have inherited from our forebears.
At the outset of our exile, we
found consolation in the oneness of mind and the love of the other Orthodox
Churches, since their leaders had not yet begun to push towards union with the
heterodox, setting such a goal above the steadfast preservation of the faith of
the holy Fathers.
In recent years, various actions
and statements of representatives of the Orthodox Churches, of which you also
write, have repeatedly caused us consternation and grief, inasmuch as we have
found them to be more attempts to please the heretics than any desire to bear
witness to the world of the genuine truth of Holy Orthodoxy. We see particular
danger in the modernization and ecumenism foretold in the Apocalypse as the
manifestation of indifference to the truth (Rev. 3:15-16). The intrusion of
modernism began with the acceptance of the new calendar, which was introduced
not for the purpose of strengthening Orthodoxy, but in the name of
rapprochement with the heretical West.
For this reason our Church has
never accepted this calendar and has not participated in the so-called
ecumenical movement. We maintain that its fundamental principle, which aims at
the unification of all who call themselves Christians without oneness of mind
in the dogmas of Orthodoxy, is contrary to the principles established by the
holy Fathers. We know and we understand that the holy Fathers did not seek to
conclude agreements with those in error but rather called upon them to renounce
their heresy, to confess the truth and unite with the holy Church of Christ.
For this reason we declared in the past to His All-Holiness, the Ecumenical
Patriarch, that we will not accept any compromising agreements with the
heterodox and that we do not recognize the Russian Church which is
participating in these negotiations, for, apart from us, it does not have a
free, legitimate hierarchy which can speak in its name. There is sufficient
evidence that the patriarch in Moscow and other hierarchs in Russia can neither
be elected, nor govern freely, but are appointed and govern in accordance with
the directives of the antichristian, atheistic regime. Its seal is set on their
right hands, which sign resolutions pleasing to the godless regime.
Under such conditions it has been
with great spiritual consolation that we have become acquainted with the
statement made in behalf of the monks of the Holy Mountain on the subject of
the recent conferences on the island of Rhodes between representatives of the
Churches of the East and the Latins. It is in agreement with our faith, is
close to our hearts and brings us joy.
We give thanks to our Chief
Shepherd Who has inspired you to make such a statement which is Orthodox in
content, and we beseech God, that He instruct you to oppose every manifestation
of modernism and the spreading of the heresy of ecumenism, which contradicts
the Fathers’ dogma that there is but one true Church in the world. Of this,
Canon 68 of the Council of Carthage writes that she is “the dove, the sole
mother of Christians, wherein all eternal and life-creating mysteries are
salvifically received, which, moreover, subject all that remain in heresy to
great condemnation and torment.”
We hope that all of you
God-loving monks of the Holy Mountain will not forsake the struggle for the
preservation of true Orthodoxy, just as we do not intend to forsake it, even
were we to remain in the world as but half of the minority of which the Savior
spoke, saying: “Fear not little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to
give you the Kingdom” (Lk. 12:32).
May the all-holy Mother of God
cover us all with her precious omophorion, and through her prayers may she
strengthen you and us in the fearless confession of the holy Orthodox Faith.
† Metropolitan Philaret,
First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
† Bishop Gregory,
Secretary of the Synod of Bishops
* See http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/athos.aspx
Source: Orthodox Life, Vol. 30, No. 5,
September-October 1980, pp. 11-13.
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