The Shepherd, June 2005
A Voice crying in the wilderness, 3
The question of ecumenism and the attitude of the Serbian Orthodox Church toward it, as well as the question of the membership of the S.O.C. in the World Council of Churches, was also a frequent topic of discussion in those years at the Holy Assembly of Bishops. We were most often the instigator and inspirer of these discussions with our communiqués, as well as articles published in our magazine, Sveti Knez Lazar. This was the very reason why the Holy Synod of Bishops issued a decision at the end of 1994 (no. 3128 dated November 17, 1994) for us to prepare and submit a brief overview of the history of the WCC for the Holy Assembly of Bishops, as well as an examination of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s membership in it. Thus, in carrying out this decision of the Holy Synod in May of 1995, we submitted the following report to the Holy Assembly of Bishops from which, we hope, our personal position toward the WCC and toward ecumenism is clearly understood.
We explained, first of all, that the very name “World Council of Churches” is untenable, since the Holy Fathers of the Second Œcumenical Council laid down the dogma that there is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, and not many, out of which it would be possible to build or create some kind of “council” or “union” which would be a type of super-Church.
We then briefly presented the history of the creation of the WCC in 1948, showing that it has its roots in a modern heresy - the pan-heresy that is called ecumenism, which sprouted up in the lap of Protestantism at the end of the 19th century in order to meet its particular needs. Only later was this movement and its anti-ecclesial ideas (such as the so-called “branch theory”) gradually adopted and accepted by individual local Orthodox Churches, which joined the WCC and became an organic members.
The Serbian Orthodox Church long resisted this temptation of ecumenism. Finally, however, it, too, became a member of the WCC in 1965 and, making an effort not to lag behind the example of local Orthodox churches that became members earlier, took active part in all ecumenical dialogues and activities regardless as to what extent they were contrary to the tradition of the Holy Fathers and the canonical regulations of the Orthodox Church.
[What follows are excerpts from the report to the Holy Assembly of Bishops:]
The Creation of the WCC
1. The very name “World Council of Churches” contains the entire heresy of this pseudo-ecclesial organisation. The church is One and Catholic, and in it is all Truth, all Grace, and all that the Lord brought with Him to the earth and gave to the people, and left among them for their salvation. The Church is One and Catholic because it gathers all who desire salvation into one, into wholeness, which is the Body of the God-Man Christ. Hence the very idea of a “council” or “union” of churches is unthinkable, inadmissible and unacceptable to the consciousness and conscience of the Orthodox person.
2. The WCC was born out of a modern heresy - the pan-heresy that is called ecumenism. Today the phenomenon of ecumenism is not anything new and unknown. Quite a bit has been written and said about it for decades, and it can be rightly said that it is a very complex phenomenon. Ecumenism is above all an ecclesiological heresy because it strikes at the very root of Orthodox faith - at the holy Church, attempting to transform it into an “ecumenical organisation” stripped of all the theanthropic characteristics of the Body of Christ, thus preparing the path for the Antichrist himself. The foundations of ecumenism were laid as early as the end of the 19th century, in 1897, at the conference of 194 Anglican bishops in Lambeth, England. The basic principles of the future ecumenical union of Christian “churches” were formulated at this gathering. The Lambeth Conference defined a dogmatic minimum, stemming from the idea that unity should be sought in the lowest common denominator of theological teachings. This lowest common denominator should be sought in the Holy Scripture (but outside the context of the Holy Tradition), in the Symbol of Faith [Creed] of Nicea and Constantinople, and in just two holy mysteries: Baptism and the Eucharist. In addition, there was an emphasis on the so-called “Principle of Tolerance” toward the teaching of other “churches” in preparation for the introduction of a “compromise of love.”
|
