NEWS  SECTION

 

ARCHBISHOP CHRISTODOULOS DIES

 

THE ARCHBISHOP OF ATHENS (New Calendar Hierarchy), His Beatitude Archbishop Christodoulos died of cancer on 28th January, after a failed liver transplant which he underwent last year.  He was born in Xanthi in Northern Greece in 1939, and rose to become Bishop of Volos.  He was elected Archbishop on the death of Archbishop Serapheim in 1998.  As such he fought against the secularisation of society in Greece, and appears to have been rather ambivalent regarding ecumenism, sometimes speaking out against it, and yet being the primate who received the first papal visit to Greece in 2001.  He was said also to be concerned for the youth of his country and fiercely patriotic.  Now at the end of his life’s course on earth, may he find God’s mercy.

  

 

 

SERBIAN BISHOP SPEAKS OUT

 

IN A INTERVIEW with Daily Danas, Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren spoke of his reaction to the Ravenna Statement adopted by members of Joint Theological Commission of Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Church.  He said: “I’m against ecumenism because I think … ecumenism is damaging the purity of Orthodox Faith and will not lead to the healthy union of Christians, but to dilution of the Orthodox Faith and weakening the piousness of the Orthodox Christians.  Though the  Ravenna Document is available, the hierarchy of the Serbian Orthodox Church has not been officially informed by those present in Ravenna what happened there, what was signed, what the paper actually means and what competencies and to whom it offers (sic).  In any case, I think that the way that some representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church, regardless of being empowered or not, signed on our behalf is something without the authorization of the Council or Synod, is not binding to anyone in the Serbian Orthodox Church, as long as it did not pass through the meeting of the Holy Council.”  Speaking on the question of Roman primacy, he added: “It is absolutely unacceptable to any Orthodox soul, not only for the entire Serbian Orthodox Church, since when we speak about Papal primacy we know it is only one of the reasons causing the Roman Catholic Church to apostatise from the Church of Christ in 1054.  Among other things, never have the Bishops of Rome had the primacy in the Orthodox Church in the sense that is being applied by Roman Catholics today and tried to be imposed on everybody else.  As the Bishop of Rome, he had the primacy of honour because of the significance of the city where he resided, which was the capital of the Empire in Christ’s time, the entire known world of that time.  We cannot even speak about the issue of honour today, because he is not a bishop of the Church until unity in Faith is achieved.”  Speaking of those Orthodox who engage in ecumenical dialogue, he explained: “There exist only those persistent in their exposition of Faith and those ready for various kinds of compromise and œconomia.  Many Orthodox participants at those ecumenical gatherings are not confessors of their Faith, accordingly they cannot represent the teaching of the Orthodox Church.  If they were really representatives of the Orthodox Church and Orthodox Faith, they would, above all, listen to the Apostle Paul who says: “stay away from a heretic after the first and second approach” [Titus 3:10].   How long are we going to attend those dialogues, commissions – until eternity?  Are we counseling there those in heresy, in error?  No, we are seeking compromise with them.  True love of a Christian is to provide eternal life to a neighbour, meaning one needs to say straightforwardly and frankly that the other one is in error and try to get him back to the truth and direct him to the path towards salvation.  Approving someone to remain in his error is not love, it is hatred of a man, according to St Maximos the Confessor.”  (The translation is somewhat deficient, but we believe the meaning is clear, and Bishop Artemije’s views, although not shared by most of his fellow hierarchs in SOC, are pertinent).

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