Conclusions of the Conference “The challenge of Ecumenism today”
The Center of Patristic Studies (“Hestia Paterikon Meleton”) has held an on-line conference
on September 19th, 2021 on the subject of:
“The challenge of Ecumenism today”.
The conference was dedicated to the late Father Georgios Metallinos, a venerable keeper of the firm orthodox spirit, a formidable disputant of Ecumenism.
The conclusions of the aforementioned conference are summarized as follows:
The modern Ecumenical movement begun in early 20th century by specific individuals of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Ecumenism was gradually imposed upon the orthodox world based on social and political criteria, through premeditated authoritarian procedures. Ecumenism is the resultant of all heresies, as it infringes holistically the orthodox faith, without seemingly disputing it; eroding orthodox Ecclesiology, Salvationology and Christology, promoting a mutated “Christ”, the god of the New Age.
For more than a hundred years, Ecumenism acts as a catalyst and has worked systematically against the Orthodox faith and, like a Lernaean Hydra, grows new “heads” of misbeliefs and heresies. All the traitorous and orchestrated methods of the Ecumenists have only one goal: the deconstruction of the Spiritual Holy unity of the Church, the imposition of a First with no other equals – in total opposition to the canonical Paradosis (tradition) of the Church (the Primusinterpares) – the recognition of ecclesiastical (reverence) status of the heretics, and finally, the imposition of a fake unity which aims to “the unification of all the churches”, ultimately the Pan-religion of the New Age.
All these attempts to deconstruct the Church have been expressed by the so called “Synod” of Crete (June 2016). The regular ecclesiological and doctrinal deviation from the canons expressed by the aforementioned “Synod” was not the conclusive result of its works, but constituted a rather pre-determined choice of the leadership of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople; a methodologically targeted and well prepared deviation, within the general context of the Ecumenistic attempt to deconstruct the unity of the Church, an effort which has resulted into granting an ecclesiastical status to the heresies.
Since this so called “Synod” of Crete, the totalitarian tactics of the Ecumenists to destroy the Orthodoxy have grown to be even more aggressive and dangerous, especially through the circumvention of Synodicity, the adoption and support of politocracy, serving third party interests foreign to the purpose of any given Synod. The most recent example of this forms the “recognition” of the Ukrainian Autocephalus Church and, through that, the violent enforcement of the primacy of power exercised upon the orthodox Autocephalus Churches.
A thorough analysis and evaluation of all that is expressed nowadays verbally and in writing by the leading supporters of the Ecumenical perversion, reveals a huge leap of the New Age towards the actual abolishment of Ecumenism leading to the path for Unification of all religions, based on the notion known as Perennialism. According to Perennialism, all ideas and aspects of the different religious traditions in the world, share one unique metaphysical truth or source through which all knowledge and teachings originate and flourish.
Western Christianity, deprived of the Divine Grace as a consequence of the Great Schism, is dominated by the politocracy. In the west, Christianity has been transformed to a human-based culture, which served as the basis of all western humanisms that have followed. Due to this deprivation of the Divine Grace, the totalitarianism imposed through the pandemic era we experienced, has not had a significant impact on the life of the Christians of the West. This totalitarianism, served as the means to the full submission of humanity, and assisted by the politicians and the Media, promoted health as the ultimate and unique well been of mankind; not only has it deprived people of their essential rights, it also inserted in the Orthodox Church an absolute politocracy aiming directly into the deprivation of the living presence of God in believers’ daily life, yet even more especially in the context of the worship of God. The prohibition of Litanies, the required “sanitaire protocol” in the churches, all these aim to the desecration of the Temples. Furthermore, the attempted change of delivering Holy Communion tends to equate the Orthodox Christians with the heretical Christianist tradition. The coronavirus is being used as the trojan horse for Ecumenism ; an obvious proof of its promotion was witnessed through politics.
Having experienced the means of its constitution, the proceedings and the decisions taken of the so called “Synod” of Crete, which disrupted the Body of the Church and, moreover, recognized an ecclesiastical character to the heresies, one wonders: When such statutory decisions of the assembly of the Church, referring to the boundaries of the content of their faith and life, are biding to all believers? The orthodox tradition gives the answer to the question above. We are obliged to obey to such decisions, only when they abide to the Holy Spiritual Character of the Fathers, and if they comply to the genuine synodical mode of the Synods of a local or a Panorthodox Church, thereby ensuring the authenticity of the trinitarian faith and life in the Church. This is the unique way for the synodical assembly of the bishops, who live by and are gathered under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to rule, as “The Holy Spirit and we have agreed” (Acts 15,28), in the First Ecumenical Council. In this context, the decisions of the synodical bishops have an authentic character and are accepted holistically and over time by the living members of the fullness of the Church, who experience the authenticity and Devine credibility of such synodical decisions.
The principal cause for the diversion of some orthodox leaders in the context of the pan-heresy of the Ecumenism and the gradual downfall towards the religious syncretism, is the spiritual relaxation. It happens in the precise way that kept happening through time at every downfall of the human race. This loosening leads to acedia, to oblivion, and to ignorance of God according to St. Maximus the Confessor. This relaxation comes in pair with pride and lack of penitence. It is for this reason that the sermon of the Prophets as well as of the Holy Fathers focuses constantly on repentance of the lords and the people as a necessary condition for the deliverance from the fallacy of idolatrous syncretism of the Old Testament and the misbelief of identification of the society of the Church with the devious heresies and the various religions throughout the life of the Church.
In order to face the cunning methods of evil and the wicked that work towards the apostasy from the Church of Jesus Christ, the Orthodox believers don’t have any other choice but to follow the commandments of Christ as addressed to His disciples through the end of times: they should be “humble like lambs and integral like the pigeons”. That means that believers should oppose to violence and to empathy. According to St John Chrysostome, believers should be indulgent towards those who have different ideas than theirs and towards all kinds “enemies of the truth”. Therefore, the confession of Faith should not be based on egoistic nor on ideological criteria, but must be made with Christ “present and active” in the heart of the believer; this certifies the purity of the life of the person that confesses Christ and it helps effectively the heretics or those who tend towards heresy to disengage from their misbeliefs, through the mystical energy of the Divine Grace that is transmitted by those united with Christ. This is exactly why we all, clergy and laymen, should realize that Christ is in no need of “public accusers” or “rebels”, but of workers of the vineyard and of the harvest who will come forward in repentance with a flowless life to harvest, through the Orthodoxy and Orthodox conduct towards their neighbor, any bad seeds sowed by the devil through Ecumenism, following the raw model of all the saints and charismatic Elders of the 20th and 21st century who have worked in this precise way.
Conclusions in Greek / ΤΑ ΠΟΡΙΣΜΑΤΑ ΣΤΑ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ (Press Here)