A Voice crying in the wilderness, 2

In the Serbian Orthodox Church, the first and most consistent opponent of ecumenism was and remains Father Justin Popovich of blessed repose, who motivated others by his example, his words and his deeds, and inspired many to follow him. Fr. Justin succinctly expressed his Orthodox theological position on ecumenism in his well-known book The Orthodox Church and Ecumenism, first published in Thessalonica in 1974. In this book, Fr. Justin gave a concise but comprehensive definition of ecumenism. According to him, “Ecumenism is a collective name for pseudo-Christianities, for the pseudo-Churches of Western Europe. All European humanisms, headed by Papism, have given it their wholehearted support. And all these pseudo-Christianities, all these pseudo-Churches, are nothing other than a collection of heresies. Their common evangelical name is pan-heresy.” Fr Justin believed that he would best show all the abnormality and deformity of ecumenism as it appears in our time if we reflected it in the mirror of the One True Church of Christ. And that he did, presenting the Orthodox teaching (of the Orthodox Church) about the True Church of Christ, the Church of the Apostles and Holy Fathers, and Holy Tradition, in the most meaningful and succinct way. Only if one has true and full knowledge of the teaching of Christ is it possible to readily discern and recognise all false and heretical teachings.

The origins of ecumenism as a movement to unite Christians, its historical progress and development, as well as the various traps into which many Orthodox Christians, including quite a few clergy and a good number of Bishops, fell, and continue to fall, was described and systematically reported by Hieromonk Sava Janjic of the brotherhood of the Monastery of Dechani in his book Ekumenizam i vreme apostasije [Ecumenism in the time of apostasy] published in Prizren (Kossovo) in 1995. In it ecumenism is clearly and primarily defined as an “ecclesiological heresy,” the purpose of which is to transform the Body of Christ (the Church) into an “ecumenical organisation,” striking thus at very root of the Orthodox faith - the Church.

Ecumenism, in fact, according to Fr. Sava, seeks to arbitrarily “correct” the theanthropic teaching of the Lord Christ, reducing it to the level of a social, humanistic and pacifistic idea, and attempting to replace Christ Himself with the atheistic and secularised European man.

On account of its clear anti-ecumenical position, Fr. Sava’s book was attacked by many and even banned from being sold in church bookstores; however, no one even attempted, let alone succeeded, in denying or contesting anything presented within it.

More recently, nonetheless, the main champion of opposition and resistance toward ecumenism in the Serbian Orthodox Church has been and remains Sveti Knez Lazar [Holy Prince Lazarus], a magazine published by the Diocese of Raska and Prizren for the past twelve years. This magazine carefully follows all ecumenical events and provides commentary, articles, reviews and viewpoints of all those for whom the purity of faith and Orthodoxy is the primary matter in life, even more important than life itself. It publishes articles of rebuttal and translations of letters, decisions and the testimony of the monasteries of the Holy Mountain on various issues.

When, in the field of theology or the domain of practical “ecumenizing,” in the dialogue between Orthodox and non-Orthodox, boundaries would be overstepped and result in the purity of the Orthodox faith and Church being brought into question, the voice of conscience would be heard, first from the monks from the Holy Mountain and then from individual students of theology and theologians from Thessalonica, Athens, and other local Orthodox Churches. Sv. Knez Lazar would make such reviews, appeals and protests available on its pages, which greatly contributed to strengthening the resistance to ecumenism in the heart of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Among such texts were those critical of the decisions reached in Balamand, including the letter of the Holy Community of the Holy Mountain of Athos sent to His Holiness Œcumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the end of 1993; the Report of the Holy Community of the Holy Mountain of Athos on dialogue between the Orthodox and the anti-Chalcedonians held in Chambésy in November 1993, and many others. There were similar reviews and reproofs from individuals and groups within the Serbian Orthodox Church itself. Worthy of mention is a text by novice-monk Ilija, entitled Nesto gore i od ekumenizma [Something even worse than ecumenism], where he presents horrible testimony about ecumenical prayers by Orthodox, Roman Catholics and Muslims at the beginning of 1992 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In connection with this, we wrote a brief commentary, Bog se ne da ruziti [God cannot be corrupted] in which we point out that this kind of trampling on the traditions of the Holy Fathers and the canons of the Holy Orthodox Church leads directly, by God’s allowance, to inter-ethnic conflict and bloodshed.