Hieromonk Lavrentie | May 18, 2026
The most important media channels
of the Patriarchate reported on the visit of the “Faith and Order” Commission
to Romania, to Sibiu and Bucharest, for the promotion and implementation of the
ecumenist program among us. Thus, both the Basilica agency
and Ziarul Lumina,
as well as the Trinitas
media trust,
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhwKDxBz_tU)
presented in laudatory terms the
itinerary of the aforementioned WCC commission.
The Heresy of the Incomplete
Church
Unfortunately, the poisoned apple
is explicitly displayed by Metropolitan Nifon in the words: “The ecumenical
movement has the purpose of promoting dialogue among the various churches that
make up the World Council of Churches in various fields, all of which must lead
to the realization of the visible unity of the Church of Christ the Savior.
Orthodoxy strongly affirms its values.” As though the Church had lost her unity
and were fragmented into several divided parts. In other words, all the
heresies and sects of today are viewed as members of the Church of Christ in a rift
which we are called to overcome, that is, to absorb it and to pursue a
dissipated, illusory unity.
This conception is in flagrant
contradiction with the Orthodox Creed in “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic”
Church, identified only with the Orthodox Church. The right-glorifying faith is
holy and unshaken, preserved pure from heresies within Orthodoxy. The amalgam
of a confused religion in which the truth is possessed by the various
confessions in a syncretistic manner, in an undifferentiated fusion, is an
attack against the revealed and clear truth, and a renunciation of the
revelation of the Lord and of the Gospel.
But statements of this sort by
Metropolitan Nifon are already no longer anything new after the one at Busan in
2013, for which there was not even a retraction. We must beware of this leaven
of teaching, even if it is officially promoted and encouraged as the
abomination of desolation in the holy place.
This branch theory, which asserts
in various ways that the Church of Christ is divided within itself into several
factions, contradicts true ecclesiastical history, namely, that the heretics
and the heresies promoted by them were excluded from the bosom of the Church
through official anathematization within the Ecumenical Councils, or the Local
Councils in the first centuries. They did not remain in her after
excommunication, but are entirely broken off.
Dialogue with them makes sense
even without initially requiring them to recognize us as the only authentic
Church, because we cannot impose the right teaching on someone from the
beginning, but only later through convincing arguments. However, it is absurd
for us ourselves to deny from the outset the fact that we are the Church of
Christ fully, unitedly, and exclusively, and to conduct a dialogue from this
already apostate position.
The Trojan Horse of the WCC:
The Influencing of Orthodoxy by Heretics
Metropolitan Job of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate emphasized the important role played by the Patriarchal
Encyclical of 1920 in laying the foundations for the later World Council of
Churches (1948). Moreover, Metropolitan Germanos composed that text at the time
under the influence of Swedish religious and political leaders who had laid the
foundations of the first ecumenist associations in 1910.
Unfortunately, even some Saints
were initially drawn into these dialogues and searches for unity, such as Nikolai
Velimirovich, who sent a written paper to the Lausanne Conference in 1927
without being present,
(see https://www.livingorthodoxtradition.org/sacraments)
and, later, Dumitru Stăniloae or
Fr. Georges Florovsky. Nevertheless, the subject of the ecumenical movement was
clarified by many other contemporary Holy Fathers, such as Paisios the
Athonite, Justin Popović, Seraphim Rose, John Maximovitch, and even by those
whom I named previously and who dissociated themselves from it.
The appearance of dialogue can,
and indeed sometimes does, deceive even those who are experienced, as can be
seen. But precisely for this reason, the subject of ecumenism must be treated
and resolved in an Orthodox manner, without compromises, in the spirit of the
right faith, not of Christian and even religious syncretism. And the
harmfulness of this so-called dialogue consists in the fact that it begins from
false premises, namely from the renunciation of declaring ourselves to be the
only Church of Christ in the midst of wolves, that is, of the so-called
heretical “Churches.” This departure means that it is no longer a matter of
dialogue, but of negotiating the faith, or rather of outright selling it and
betraying it.
For a sound approach to the
subject of ecumenism, I recall the Romanian Orthodox position, and not only
that, when the question of dialogue and union with heretics was first raised in
1902: The Response of the Local Orthodox Churches to the Encyclical of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate.
[Romanian response to the Encyclical
of 1902, translated from the above Romanian link: The Church is obliged to
guard the truth of the faith, but also all the secondary teachings. She also
guides those who have gone astray to return to the true path. Their return is
proof that the Church grows and is strengthened only on the foundation that has
been laid, which is Christ. “Therefore, where the true Shepherd is, there also
is and will be His flock; and where the Head is, there, and not elsewhere, will
the body also be.” Those who did not listen to the Shepherd’s voice in order to
remain in His flock have lost the right judgment of the gentle Master and have
a share in many misfortunes; but the Church calls them back, since she is the
guardian of the true teaching. The history up to the division between the
Church of the East and that of the West, provoked by the latter, is known.
Likewise, the phases through which the “Roman Catholic Church” passed are also
known, until the Protestants split off and each laid another foundation for
himself, different from the Orthodox one. Since then, each of these has sought
to dominate the Church of the Lord, the Orthodox Church. Consequently, we
cannot overlook even a single syllable of the teaching of the faith, nor do we
have any point of meeting with them. “The path of the Holy Orthodox Church is
very smooth and without any obstruction. There is no need for anyone to make it
cleaner than it is.” If anyone wishes to come onto this path, we show it to
them, but “we do not accept proposals as regards the manner of entry, because
it is the sincere faith” received from the Lord Jesus through His disciples and
dogmatized in the seven Councils. If the heterodox set conditions as to how
they are to be received, then we must defend our faith, knowing that the Lord
is powerful to bring others into the kingdom in place of the sons unworthy of
the table of the heavenly Bridegroom, and then to open their minds and hearts
as well, so that they may be received with humility into the flock of the
Shepherd.
The Old Catholics cannot be
received through concessions, but through repentance. After their separation
from the Church of Rome, they introduced unacceptable reforms, such as the
abolition of confession and of the fasts. They also made all sorts of agreements
with the Anglicans at Bonn in 1874 and 1875, and at Lucerne in 1892, and they
negotiate the faith. Orthodoxy recognizes no changeable confession apart from
the one that contains her dogmatic and moral truth.
The calendar should remain
unchanged, because it is impossible for the canonical ordinances not to be
affected. If God wills something else, He will enlighten us through the Holy
Spirit as to what we should desire and what we should do.]
Those who believe that there is
no real danger threatening us from the side of the heresies should also look at
these official receptions of the members of the WCC and at the un-Orthodox
theological framework in which they are carried out.
Romanian source:
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