Declaration – Confession of Faith

Against Ecumenism and the So-Called “Holy and Great Council” of Crete

A. Nikolaou, Doctor of Theology | September 2, 2026

 

 

Prompted by the recent ecclesiastical ordeal of Metropolitan Tychikos of Paphos and the demand that the so-called Council of Crete be accepted, even though four Autocephalous Orthodox Churches did not participate in it and many hierarchs, clergymen, monastics, and laypeople in Cyprus, Greece, and throughout the Orthodox world continue to voice serious objections concerning its content and authority.

“Stand fast, and hold the traditions” (2 Thess. 2:15).

Holding fast to the faith of the Holy Apostles, the Holy Fathers, and the Holy and Ecumenical Councils, we raise our voice in confession.

We lay claim to no new faith.

We seek no new ecclesiology.

We do not accept that the Tradition of the Saints should be portrayed as outdated, harsh, or unsuited to modern man.

With sorrow, yet also with boldness, we declare that we do not accept the so-called “Holy and Great Council” of Crete as a Council binding upon the fullness of Orthodoxy, nor do we accept those ecclesiological formulations which, according to our confessional conscience, engender confusion concerning the One Church of Christ.

IT WAS NOT TRULY PAN-ORTHODOX

An assembly presented as an expression of the catholic consciousness of Orthodoxy cannot disregard the absence of four Autocephalous Churches.

The absence of the Churches of Antioch, Russia, Georgia, and Bulgaria is not a mere detail, but a grave ecclesiological fact.

The Church is not a parliamentary mechanism in which truth is determined by numerical majorities or procedural decisions.

Patristic Testimony

Saint Vincent of Lérins:

“What has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.”

The catholicity of the Church is not a title conferred administratively, but agreement with the Apostolic and Patristic Tradition.

NOT EVERY COUNCIL THAT CALLS ITSELF “HOLY” IS HOLY

The history of the Church knows of Councils that were convened with great pretensions, but were later rejected by the consciousness of the Church.

A title does not sanctify the content.

A designation does not automatically render a formulation Orthodox.

Patristic Testimony

Saint Maximus the Confessor:

“The Orthodox Faith is the true confession of the Church.”

The history of Saint Maximus likewise teaches us that truth is not always identical with outward power, majorities, or the pressures of the age.

IT IS NOT “GREAT” BECAUSE OF ITS TITLE, BUT IS JUDGED BY ITS TRUTH

A Council is not great merely because it proclaims itself to be so.

That Council becomes great which defends the truth, clearly articulates the Orthodox Faith, and rejects error.

Patristic Testimony

Saint Gregory the Theologian:

“It is not the multitude that determines the truth.”

The truth of the Church is not weighed by numbers, nor is it validated by publicity.

One confession of truth is worth more than a thousand silences born of compromise.

WE REJECT THE DESIGNATION OF THE HETERODOX AS “CHURCHES” IN AN ECCLESIOLOGICAL SENSE

The disputed text of Crete refers to the acceptance of the “historical name” of other heterodox Christian “Churches and Confessions.”

Even if this is explained as merely an “historical designation,” such usage has created, and continues to create, extremely serious ecclesiological confusion.

We confess:

The Orthodox Church is the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

Patristic Testimony

Saint Cyprian of Carthage:

“He cannot have God as his Father who does not have the Church as his Mother.”

The Church is not an invisible confederation of conflicting confessions.

She is the one Body of Christ.

WE REJECT THE THEORY OF A DIVIDED CHURCH AND OF “BRANCHES”

The Church of Christ has not dissolved.

She has not been fragmented.

She has not lost her unity.

She does not consist of equal branches now seeking to establish a new unity among themselves.

Patristic Testimony

Saint John Chrysostom:

“The name of the Church is not a name of division, but of unity and concord.”

The unity of the Church is not some future human project.

It is a gift of Christ and a reality within the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

WE REJECT ECUMENISM WHEN IT IS TRANSFORMED INTO A SYNCRETISTIC ECCLESIOLOGY

Love for every human being is a Christian commandment.

Prayer for the salvation of all is our duty.

Dialogue as a witness to the truth is not the same as betraying the Faith.

We do not, however, accept dialogue that leads:

to the relativization of dogmas,

to placing truth and error on an equal footing,

to the theory of “Sister Churches” possessing ecclesiological equality,

to the creation of a new, supra-confessional Christianity.

Patristic Testimony

Saint Justin Popović:

“Ecumenism is the common name for the pseudo-Christianities of Western Europe.”

Love does not require us to deny the truth.

True love calls others to the truth; it does not conceal it.

WE DO NOT ACCEPT AMBIGUITY CONCERNING THE “RESTORATION OF CHRISTIAN UNITY”

Language concerning the “restoration of Christian unity” must be interpreted with absolute precision.

The Church has not lost her unity.

She has not ceased to exist.

She is not awaiting reconstitution through an agreement among confessions.

Patristic Testimony

Saint Mark of Ephesus:

“We have never separated ourselves from you, but we have separated ourselves from the heresy.”

True unity is not built through concessions in matters of dogma.

First comes the truth of the Faith—and within it, true unity.

NO PARTICIPATION IN THE ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT MAY BE ALLOWED TO OBSCURE THE CONFESSION OF FAITH

Orthodoxy can bear witness before the world.

She can engage in dialogue.

She can explain her Faith.

But she cannot participate in any ecumenical process at the cost of remaining silent about the truth.

Patristic Testimony

Saint Theodore the Studite:

“When the Faith is in danger, silence is not permitted.”

Silence on matters of faith is not always peace.

Sometimes it becomes complicity.

Orthodoxy does not come before the world to negotiate the truth, but to bear witness to Christ.

NO COUNCIL IS ABOVE THE JUDGMENT OF THE CHURCH

History has shown that there have been councils that were rejected.

There have been patriarchs who fell into error.

There have been bishops who signed erroneous confessions.

Yet there have also been Saints who stood alone against emperors, patriarchs, and majorities.

Patristic Testimony

Saint Maximus the Confessor:

“Even if the whole world is in communion, I will not commune with error.”

Truth does not become error because many abandon it.

Nor does error become truth because many accept it.

WE CONFESS THE FAITH OF THE HOLY FATHERS WITHOUT CONCESSIONS OR COMPROMISES

We do not seek a “modern” Orthodoxy.

We do not seek an Orthodoxy adapted to the demands of globalization.

We do not seek a Church pleasing to everyone, if, in order to please them, she must remain silent about the truth.

Patristic Testimony

Saint Paisios the Athonite:

“Orthodoxy does not need modernization; it needs an Orthodox mindset.”

The words of the Saints call us not to alter the Faith in order to conform to the spirit of the age.

We do not change the Faith to make it conform to the world.

We call the world to be transformed in Christ.

FINAL CONFESSION

Therefore, with the fear of God, but also with boldness of conscience, we declare:

We do not accept the imposition of the so-called “Holy and Great Council” of Crete as an indisputable and universally binding expression of the Orthodox Church.

We do not accept that a title should supplant judgment according to the truth.

We do not accept any ecclesiological ambiguity that obscures the confession of the One Church.

We do not accept the theory of a divided Church and of equal branches.

We do not accept the placing of Orthodoxy on an equal footing with heretical confessions.

We do not accept an ecumenism that sacrifices the truth in the name of an outward unity.

For this reason, in accordance with our confessional conscience, we declare that we do not recognize the gathering in Crete as a “Holy,” “Great,” and universally binding Council of Orthodoxy, since its texts and the manner in which it was convened continue to be the subject of serious theological objection and ecclesiological dispute.

WE DO NOT HATE PERSONS—WE STRUGGLE FOR THE TRUTH

We do not set ourselves against individuals.

We do not desire divisions.

We do not rejoice in anyone’s trials.

We pray for all.

But love for others cannot mean silence when we believe that the purity of the confession of faith is in danger.

 

One Church.

One Faith.

One Baptism.

One Body of Christ.

One Truth.

We seek no new faith.

We invent no new ecclesiology.

We do not negotiate the Tradition.

We do not subject the truth to the spirit of the age.

And with the help of God, we remain steadfast in the faith:

of the Holy Apostles,

of the Holy Fathers,

of the Holy Confessors,

of the Holy Martyrs,

and of the Holy and Ecumenical Councils.

“Stand fast, and hold the traditions.”

Orthodoxy is not an ideology.

It is the life of the Church in Christ.

The Truth is not put to a vote.

It is not modernized.

It is not negotiated.

Christ is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Amen.

 

Greek source: https://aktines.blogspot.com/2026/09/blog-post_78.html