Posted on 04/04/2008 5:54:11 PM PDT by gimmeone
Declaration and Confession of the True Orthodox Christians
We, the hierarchs, clergy, and people of the True Orthodox Church, under the presidency of His Beatitude, Auxentius, Archbishop of Athens and all Greece, seeing that Ecumenism teaches of a Church of Christ consisting of branches with differing or even opposing doctrines and practices; that it attributes efficacy for salvation to the sacraments of the non-Orthodox—who have lost or never had the canonical form of baptism, and of whom many ordain women to the priesthood and episcopacy, while others do not recognize the priesthood at all; that it manifests these beliefs in joint services and common prayer with Orthodox, heterodox, and even non-Christians and pagans; and that in so doing it seeks to enslave our spiritual freedom and the Truth of Christ to falsehood and to the powers and concerns of this world, which is the spirit of Antichrist; we hereby declare Ecumenism to be the culmination of all heresies, entirely contrary to the Apostolic Faith of the Fathers, abhorrent to the Holy Trinity, and the preparation for Antichrist, and that any of the Faithful who holds communion with Ecumenists or espouses their tenets is subject to all the anathemas that fall upon heretics.
Considering, furthermore, the great betrayal of the Church perpetrated by Metropolitan Sergius, the locum tenens of the Patriarchal throne of Russia, on July 16/ 29, 1929, when he enslaved the Church to the atheist Communist state—or rather when he created a schism from the Church to enslave himself and his followers to the prince of this world; considering the seven decades of murderous persecution inflicted by the Moscow Patriarchate upon the Orthodox who remained steadfast in the confession of faith expressed in the encyclical letter of September 14 ⁄ 27, 1927, issued from the Solovki concentration camp itself by the confessing bishops and martyrs, condemning Metropolitan Sergius and all who followed his treacherous path; and considering that his heirs, the present hierarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate, have neither condemned Sergianism, which gave what is God’s to Caesar, nor ceased to betray the Apostolic Faith by their participation in the World Council of Churches and the heresy of Ecumenism, nor cast out of their congregations the protestantizing spirit of the “Living Church,” condemned by the sainted Patriarch Tikhon, with its transgression of the canonical baptism by triple immersion and many other innovations which make it unrecognizable as Orthodox in its doctrines and practices; we solemnly declare that any of the Faithful who holds communion with any of the Sergianists and their successors is violating the Truth and Faith of Christ and is submitting to the spirit of Antichrist and is subject to the anathema of the Church.
Wow......heavy duty statement.....if I read it and understand it correctly.
Whatever one might think, one cannot accuse these folks of mincing words. They certainly cannot be accused of telling us it all depends on what the meaning of is is.
IMHO, this is the kind of language Gyrenes can understand and relate to.
This statement is NOT from any hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. They are NOT in communion with any Orthodox Patriarchates. These people are a group of nuts, most of whom here are converts who see themselves as holier and more Orthodox than the Orthodox. Any time you see something like “True Orthodox Church of Greece”, or wherever, its a non canonical bunch. By the way, note the date of the article. There’s nothing even remotely “timely” about it.
We have our Sedevacantists. You have your “True Orthodox”. Sad. As if we don’t have enough important reasons for our disunity we have to occasionally deal with pockets of “holier than thou” hubris in our own camps!
“As if we don’t have enough important reasons for our disunity we have to occasionally deal with pockets of “holier than thou” hubris in our own camps!”
I don’t know about your Sedevacantists, but we have as little asossible to do with our “One Honest to God Really We mean it Orthodox Church of Malakaland”. Mostly here in America they attract those prone to what we call “crazy convert disease”, which saves us the trouble of dealing with them. The Russians have had their go arounds with these sorts and as a result of the recent reunion of ROCOR with the MP, something we prayed for for years, some old ROCOR parishes have turned that way. In Greece, these groups can be troublesome, for example the group of crazy monks at Mt. Athos who reject the EP and the ones off the Holy Mountain who prayed that the pope would die on his way to Greece. Years ago we made excuses for them or were embarrassed by them. Now we simply reject them. They aren’t Orthodox.
Hubris is something we Greeks have raised to a fine art form. Its one of the reasons the NT was written in Greek. We need all the help we can get to become like Christ. These “True Orthodox” clowns put the rest of us to shame in the hubris department! I hope you guys pay as much attention to their ravings as we do to the Sedevacantists, which is to say absolutely none.
Thanks for your clarification, it was very helpful. I was not familiar with this group at all, and thankfully they do NOT have any legitimate connection to the Greek Orthodox Church.
“Thanks for your clarification, it was very helpful.”
You are welcome. I’m glad I could clarify who this bunch is.
Well, okay ... maybe not. :-0
“It is impossible to recall peace without dissolving the cause of the schism— the primacy of the Pope exalting himself equal to God.”
“The Latins are not only schismatics but heretics... we did not separate from them for any other reason other than the fact that they are heretics. This is precisely why we must not unite with them unless they dismiss the addition from the Creed filioque and confess the Creed as we do.”
St. Mark of Ephesus
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.”
“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.”
Gilbert K. Chesterton
These people are evolutionists. I know from personal experience.
Interesting tagline, G. I take it you are a supporter of the pride filled, disobedient, schismatic, criminal monastics at Esphigmenou. Are you an Old Calendarist and are you Greek or simply a Xenos who got caught up with the wrong crowd?
You do realize that GK Chesterton was Catholic, right?
LOL...is this designation as pregnant with meaning as I suspect it is?
Xenoi kai Barbaroi! ;)
Important points but I wonder if the authors in their grand proclamation of being anti the anti-Christ, have not fallen into the trap of the “modernist” (anti-Christ) sink hole - that of lack of compassion, mercy and love and adherence to doctrine and structure over Christs commandments.
I hear they are hard on certain members of the Church in the then Soviet Russia. One ownders how they would fare under torture and threats of death to one self and those close.
In that statement there is a total lack of compassion and most of all “Love”. Who are these people to judge who may and may not come into common communion?
These same people would condemn the Saviour for sitting and eating with sinners and tax collectors.
This is “Pharisaism” pure and simple. All white and clean on the outside, but inside filled with dead mens bones and all corruption.
Too much judgement in that statement and not enough love.
The Pharisee and the Publican come to mind immediately on reading.
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