The Holy Spirit unites, not divides

The New Divisive Action of Patriarch Bartholomew

Protopresbyter Theodoros Zisis | June 1, 2026

 

 

1. The New Tower of Babel: Globalization and Ecumenism

The great feast of Pentecost gave us the prompting for the writing of the present text, during which the God-moved writers of the exquisite hymns present the salvific dimensions of the descent of the Holy Spirit “in the form of fiery tongues upon the holy disciples and apostles” and of His permanent presence and energy thereafter in the life of the Church. One important dimension of the energy and action of the Holy Spirit is the unity of all those people who become members of the Church through Holy Baptism and are incorporated into the one and unique body of the Church, which has Christ as its head. It has been written that Christ is the head of the Church, while the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church, which gives life to the body and connects, unites, the members with the head and with one another. [1]

The Church and the Holy Spirit are connected ontologically; there is no Church where the Holy Spirit does not act. As Saint John Chrysostom emphatically stresses: “If the Spirit were not present, the Church would not have been established; but if the Church is established, it is evident that the Spirit is present.” [2] The same God-bearing Father teaches that there is nothing in the life of the Church, nothing of all that relates to our salvation, which does not come from the Holy Spirit:  “…For tell me, what among the things that constitute our salvation has not been dispensed to us through the Spirit? Through Him we are delivered from slavery, we are called to freedom, we are led up to adoption as sons, and, so to speak, we are refashioned from above; we lay aside the heavy and foul-smelling burden of sins; through the Holy Spirit we see choirs of priests, we have orders of teachers; from this source also come gifts of revelations and charismas of healings, and all the rest, whatever is wont to adorn the Church of God, has its supply from here.” [3]

This view of Chrysostom, that all things in the Church are supplied by the Holy Spirit, constitutes a common place of Orthodox teaching. Basil the Great, for example, frequently enumerating the gifts and energies of the Holy Spirit, chiefly in his work On the Holy Spirit, says that “there is altogether no gift that reaches creation without the Holy Spirit.” [4] This is also repeated by the much-beloved hymn of Pentecost among the Orthodox: “The Holy Spirit supplies all things; He pours forth prophecies, perfects priests, taught wisdom to the unlettered, showed forth fishermen as theologians, He holds together the whole institution of the Church.”

Very quickly, the divided and fragmented idolatrous world, with the spreading of the Church throughout the whole world, found in the salvific preaching of Christ a great unifying factor, which, in a unique and unrepeatable way in history, united all people into one new, Christian ecumene; especially from the time when Constantine the Great, moved by God, discerned that the only spiritual power that could achieve unity in the multicultural and multireligious — interreligious — vast Roman Empire was Christianity. The Pax Romana, with political and military, and even economic, measures, was not able to unify the world as the Pax Christiana subsequently succeeded in doing, unwaveringly for one millennium and, in the second millennium, amid divisions, not by wars and violence, but by the preaching of peace, concord, love, humility, and reconciliation.

This fragmentation and multiculturality of the old world, which led to rivalries, wars, and violence, those who preach the alleged New Age and the New Order of things are attempting to bring back today tyrannically and in secret, with boasts about technological and electronic achievements, by which, as was also shown in the crisis of the Coronavirus infection, they are attempting to manipulate the world against Christ, against the Church, to deprive it of peace, rest, defense against evil and sin, fearlessness before death, and to render people timid and frightened beings, obedient to their destructive commands and directives. It is a new insolence against almighty God, which, unfortunately, the unworthy, servile, and sold-out ecclesiastical leadership not only did not oppose, but also joined in committing the same insolence by agreeing and cooperating.

It is a new Tower of Babel, the Tower of Globalization and Ecumenism, which for a century they have been raising with insolence and audacity, attempting, while boasting of the capabilities of science, to place Christ and His Church on the margins, and to inaugurate the “New Age” of the tyranny and terrorism of the Antichrist.

Certain hymns of Pentecost lead, in a God-inspired way, to these thoughts, allowing us to understand that God can easily stop any blasphemous insolence and audacity and restore unity in Christ and knowledge of God, since from the day of Pentecost the All-Holy Spirit acts and works within the Church, uniting people with the Holy Head, Christ, and with one another.

The kontakion of the feast, which always seeks to summarize the spiritual message of the celebrated event or Saint, says: “When the Most High came down and confused the tongues, He divided the nations; when He distributed the tongues of fire, He called all to unity, and with one accord we glorify the All-Holy Spirit.” …

Along the same line, the doxastikon of Vespers also says: “The tongues were once confused because of the daring of the tower-building; but now the tongues have been made wise, because of the glory of the knowledge of God. There God condemned the impious by their fault; here Christ enlightened the fishermen by the Spirit. Then speechlessness was brought about, for punishment; now concord is inaugurated, for the salvation of our souls.” … [5]

2. “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us”

Indeed, from the day of Pentecost a wondrous unity and concord was inaugurated within the Church, because of the continual presence and energy of the Holy Spirit. The kontakion’s phrase “He called all to unity,” which we quoted, became and continues to become a reality.

Of course, from the time of the Apostles until today, disruptive and divisive phenomena have not been absent from the history of the Church; these are usually caused by Luciferian egoism and pride, which also became the cause of the Devil’s losing his unity with God, being darkened, and then trying to darken others also, as the chief instigator and accomplice of divisions and schisms.

There exists in the life of the Church through the ages a wondrous unity and concord, whose agent and creator is the illuminating and unifying presence of the Holy Spirit. Decisions are not monarchical and tyrannical, but synodal and collective, always being taken in the Holy Spirit. And when it sometimes happens that human designs and antichristian powers hinder the illuminating and unifying presence of the Holy Spirit in synodal assemblies and processes, then the Holy Spirit withdraws from those synods and enlightens individual hierarchs, clergy, monks, and laypeople to restore true synodality, so that the Holy Spirit may return and act in a unifying manner.

The Apostolic Council of Jerusalem (49 A.D.) became the model of all subsequent councils, because it expressed the faith of the whole Church and not of certain persons or groups. The Acts of the Apostles, narrating the matters of the Council, write that “Then it seemed good to the apostles and the presbyters, together with the whole Church.” [6] And at the end of the decisions which resolved the differences and divisions, the chief and decisive factor of unity and concord, the Holy Spirit, is placed: “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” [7] Indeed, this phrase has accompanied all the decisions of councils ever since, although sometimes it is pretended and false, because even heretical and schismatic councils seek to present their decisions as having been taken in the Holy Spirit.

3. The excommunication of heretics and schismatics does not harm the unity of the Church

The Holy Spirit-inspired function of this synodal system was kept unswervingly by the Holy Fathers; for this reason, even until today the Church is One and undivided, identified with the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of the Orthodox, and united in faith, worship, and administration.

The excommunication of heretics and schismatics from the body of the Church does not impair unity, but strengthens it and safeguards it, as is proven in practice by all the synodal decisions against heresies and schisms, and as the 15th Canon of the First-Second Council of St. Photios the Great (861 A.D.) states with emphasis. This canon, defending the clergy who cease the commemoration of the name of a heretical or heresy-professing bishop, declares that these clergy not only must not be condemned, but, on the contrary, must be praised and honored. For they did not turn against true and genuine bishops, but against false bishops and false teachers. And they did not cut the unity of the Church by schism, but were zealous to deliver the Church from schisms and divisions: “Such persons are not only not subject to canonical penalty for walling themselves off from communion with the one called bishop before a synodal determination, but they shall also be deemed worthy of the honor due to the Orthodox. For they condemned not bishops, but false bishops and false teachers; and they did not cut the union of the Church by schism, but were zealous to deliver the Church from schisms and divisions.”

During the first millennium, the unity of the Church was threatened by great heresies and schisms, but through the oversight of the Holy Spirit the wounds and injuries were limited to the minimum. Even when heresies sometimes dominated the administration of the Church for long periods of time, they were not able to capture the whole, the fullness of the faithful of the Church, where, as in a great and genuine council, the Holy Spirit was acting and preserving unity. For those of us who occupy ourselves with and research ecclesiastical texts, the agreement that exists among the Holy Fathers of all eras causes wonder; this is due to the fact that the same Holy Spirit guides and illumines them, and of course it is not possible for the Holy Spirit to contradict Himself with different instructions in each era.

This agreement of the Fathers and this unity is also due to the fact that the later Fathers follow the earlier ones as instruments of the Holy Spirit, and do not nullify or question their decisions. The phrase “following the divine Fathers,” together with “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit,” are the fixed lines of the synodal and patristic course, whose basic characteristic is the condemnation and severance of heresies and schisms, so that the unity of the Church may be preserved unharmed.

4. Papism, and now the Ecumenism of Bartholomew, of those before him and those with him, dangerously strike at the unity of the Church

The second Christian millennium began with the formalization of the secession of Papism from the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church in 1054 A.D. It was indeed an insolence against God and His Church, especially against the Holy Spirit, through the heresies of the filioque and of the denial of the uncreated Grace of the Holy Spirit.

The ecclesiology of the Vatican abolishes the synodal system and the phrase “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” The pope is placed above the council, and everything is decided “as it seemed good to the pope.” As we had written earlier, the Papists believe that the successor of Christ after His Ascension into the heavens is not the Holy Spirit, as Saint Gregory the Theologian writes, [8] but Peter, and the pope as Peter’s successor. The Ecclesiology of Papism moves and develops along the line Christ – Peter – pope, while Orthodox Ecclesiology follows the line Christ – Holy Spirit – Apostles, that is, council. [9] According to the apt observation of the Russian theologian Paul Evdokimov, “while Orthodoxy is lived as a continuing Pentecost, drawing from this the principle of a collective, synodal authority, in the West Rome is affirmed as a continuing Peter, the sole ruler and representative of all the powers of Christ.” [10]

The consequence of this unspiritual course of Papism was that, under the guidance not of the Holy Spirit but of the pope, dozens of heresies and delusions were adopted, the chief of which was that of the First Vatican Council of 1870, concerning the doctrine that the pope does not merely have the primacy of authority over the whole church, but is also infallible.

Indeed, with regard to the timeliness of our own days concerning the mystery of the Divine Eucharist, and evidently under the influence of notions similar to those of today, as well as for the exaltation of the clergy over the people, they deprived the laity of communion of the blood of Christ under the natural element of wine, and they distribute only the body under the strange form of the unleavened host, thus avoiding the use of the holy Lavida, the little spoon of the unbelievers and blasphemers of the most holy and greatest mystery of the Divine Eucharist.

This first attempt at building a Tower of Babel, with the pope exalted above the stars to the heights of divinity, according to the example of Lucifer, did not take long to bring about the confusion of theological tongues within the bosom of Papism, through the various heresies of Protestantism. Unity was lost not only in relation to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, since there was agreement neither in faith, nor in worship, nor in administration, but also within the bosom of Papism, with Protestantism intensifying and increasing the confusion in theological language. The West, without the active presence and action of the Holy Spirit, became dechristianized and secularized.

Unfortunately, the Orthodox Church too is now following this path, with the Ecumenical Patriarchate taking the lead from the beginning of the 20th century. In another study of ours we analyzed, on the basis of texts and sources, this abandonment of the holy spiritual and patristic line which was faithfully maintained up to and including the 19th century, [11] but was then abandoned by those regarded as great figures of patriarchs in ecumenistic circles, yet in truth incorporated into the plans of the “New Age” and the “New Order” of things, such as Patriarchs Joachim III, Meletios Metaxakis, Athenagoras, and the present Patriarch Bartholomew.

The changes in the faith of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church were not enough for us: the recognition of heresies as churches and the ratification of our participation in the “World Council of Churches,” that is, of heresies, by the pseudo-council of Kolymbari in Crete (2016), as well as the abandonment of the synodal manner of convocation and functioning of the “Council.”

The intended change in the administration of the Church was not enough for us: the imitation of the papal primacy of authority by the Ecumenical Patriarch and the newly developed heretical ecclesiology concerning the “first without equals” (primus sine paribus), which was applied through the divisive intrusion into the boundaries of another ecclesiastical jurisdiction during the recognition of the schismatics of Ukraine.

So many heretical deviations of Patriarch Bartholomew were not enough for us, since he no longer takes into account either “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit” or “following the divine Fathers,” but he too, like the pope, is building within the space of Orthodoxy a new Tower of Babel, which, however, will soon collapse, because confusion and disagreement have already begun in the language of theologians and clergy.

He had to dare to strike even at unity in Divine Worship, agreeing with the planners throughout the world of the closing of churches and of fear regarding communion of the body and blood of Christ. The slips of the hierarchs of the Ecumenical Throne throughout the world, concerning the abandonment of the traditional manner of distributing the Divine Eucharist with the Holy Lavida, in America, Australia, Great Britain, Holland, Germany, Belgium, and elsewhere, are scandalous. Mask-wearing priests masquerade and debase the Great Mystery, being masqueraders themselves and not ministers of the Priesthood. And instead of rebuking them and censuring them synodally, he covers them, transforming a pastoral issue that until now did not exist into a great problem requiring pan-Orthodox treatment. We create a problem and then seek to solve it in an un-Orthodox and anti-traditional manner, even with the hypocritical and reassuring declaration “that we in no way intend to depart from what has been handed down to all of us by our blessed Fathers.” These things are written by Patriarch Bartholomew in a patriarchal letter which he sent on June 1 to the primates of the autocephalous churches, concluding with the following: “In view of the conditions being formed, we desire to hear Your fraternal reasoning and thoughts, so that together we may proceed to the pastoral treatment of the challenges to the established manner of distributing Divine Communion.”

The reasoning of the patriarchal letter is ecclesiologically worse even than the slips of the hierarchs of the Throne and of others who debase the mystery of the Divine Eucharist, because, as was rightly written, “it raises an issue out of nothing. It raises a question that does not exist, precisely in order to give it existence. To elevate it into a field of reflection!!!” [12] If the declaration that we are not going to change what the Holy Fathers handed down to us is indeed valid, and one of these things is the distribution of Divine Communion with the Holy Lavida, this alone was sufficient to bring the hierarchs of the diaspora into line, but also to send a message to the other churches to conform at last to an Orthodox position of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

In any case, the synodal decisions of the Church of Greece and also of the Church of Crete pleasantly surprised us. The first decided, during the session of June 3, and indeed after it had taken cognizance of the Letter of the Ecumenical Patriarch, that “the procedure for distributing Divine Communion to the faithful remains as it is and as it has been handed down to us by the Holy Fathers and by our Holy Tradition.” The second “unanimously announces, and in every direction, that the All-Holy Mystery of the Divine Eucharist is non-negotiable, and ecclesiastical experience bears witness that the established manner of distributing the All-Holy Body and the Precious Blood of our Christ to the faithful is not a cause of illness; for this reason, it is not subject to any discussion or dialogue.” [13]

The concern, however, remains, because both at the pseudo-council of Kolymbari and in the Ukrainian matter we had synodal Orthodox decisions, which were finally abandoned so that most might align themselves with the un-Orthodox positions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which under its present leadership does not seek to support and express the Orthodox Tradition, nor to function synodally and patristically in the Holy Spirit. It adopts and supports innovations and delusions and proceeds to actions that destroy the unity of the Church, as happened with the calendar reform of 1924, with our participation in the “World Council of Churches,” with the pseudo-council of Crete, with the Ukrainian pseudo-autocephaly, and now with the manner of changing the distribution of Divine Communion.

In any case, instead of helping toward the prevalence of a unified theological line and a unified theological language, expressing the agreement of the Fathers (consensus Patrum), by its post-patristic — anti-patristic — line it causes confusion and divisions which will inevitably provoke the intervention of God, so that the building within Orthodoxy of the new Tower of Babel of Ecumenism and Globalization may be stopped, and the unity and concord of the Holy Spirit, of the Apostolic and Patristic Tradition, may return; so that Orthodoxy may again put on the tunic of Truth, as we chant in the kontakion of the Sunday of the Holy Fathers before Holy Pentecost: “The preaching of the Apostles and the doctrines of the Fathers confirmed one faith for the Church; and she, wearing the tunic of truth, woven from theology from above, rightly divides and glorifies the great mystery of piety.”

 

NOTES

1. See Protopresbyter Theodoros Zisis, Following the Divine Fathers: Principles and Criteria of Patristic Theology, Thessaloniki 1997, p. 157.

2. On Holy Pentecost 1, 4, PG 50, 459.

3. Ibid. 2, 1, PG 50, 463.

4. On the Holy Spirit 24, PG 32, 172B.

5. The relevant Old Testament account of the Tower of Babel is found in the book of Genesis 11, 1–9.

6. Acts 15, 22.

7. Ibid. 15, 28.

8. Oration 31, 29, Fifth Theological Oration, On the Holy Spirit, EPE 4, 244: “Christ is born, He precedes; He is baptized, He bears witness; He is tempted, He leads up; He works miracles, He bears witness together; He ascends, He succeeds.”

9. Protopresbyter Theodoros Zisis, Following the Divine Fathers, p. 180.

10. Paul Evdokimov, Orthodoxy, Vasilis Rigopoulos Publications, Thessaloniki 1972, p. 41.

11. See the study “From Orthodoxy to Ecumenism: The Great Overturning of the 20th Century,” in our book Holy and Great Council: Should We Hope or Be Concerned?, “To Palimpsiston” Publications, Thessaloniki 2016, pp. 15–48.

12. Sofia Tsekou, I discern a staged scene… or rather, backstage activity, AKTINES website, June 2, 2020.

13. See the website Romfea.gr, 27.5.2020.

 

Greek source: https://katanixi.gr/p-theodoros-zisis-to-agio-pneyma-enonei/