The Shepherd, June 2005

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A Voice crying in the wilderness, 6

Taking into account everything we have stated above, on the one hand, and the eternal and unerring evangelical measure “that every tree can be recognised by its fruits” on the other, it is as clear as day what we should do. At this same Assembly, we must pass a decision that the Serbian Orthodox Church must withdraw from the WCC and from all similar organisations (such as the European Council of Churches and others) and put an end to its participation in all ecumenical and atheistic gatherings.

This must be done for the following reasons:

1. Out of obedience toward the holy Apostle Paul, who counsels and commands: “As for a man who is factious, after admonishing him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him” (Tit 3:10).

2. Because it is consistent with all the holy Canons of the Orthodox Church, against which we have now grievously sinned.

3. Because there is not a single one among the Holy Fathers of the Church who by his teaching, life and deeds could serve as an example for us that would justify our joining and continuing to remain in the non-ecclesial organisation of the WCC and others like it.

4. For the sake of the salvation of our souls, of the souls of the flock entrusted to us, which we have severely scandalised and spiritually harmed by our ecumenizing to date, as well as for the sake of all those who are still outside the Ark of Salvation - the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Church, - whom such a decisive and clear action on our part can help more in seeking and finding the truth and the path to salvation than the continuation of our colourless and godless association with them.

The Decision to Withdraw

Two years after our report, the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church decided at its council of May-June 1997 that the Serbian Church should withdraw from the WCC, that is, it decided that the Serbian Church should no longer be an organic member of this organisation. In the explanation of this decision, the Bishops stated that the World Council of Churches was created as an expression of the desire for the establishment of a unified Church, especially among the factions of the Protestant world (beginning in 1910). As we have seen, the Orthodox Churches, each in its own way, regularly participated in the so-called Ecumenical Movement, especially after 1920, in order to realise Christ’s commandment “that they may be one” (Jn. 17:11).

In the beginning eminent theologians took part in ecumenism, including the holy Bishop Nikolai of Zhicha, Bishop Irinej (Ciric) of Backa, Bishop Irinej (Djordjevic) of Dalmatia, Protopresbyter Georges Florovsky, Dumitru Staniloae and others. At every opportunity they witnessed to Eternal Truth and the position of Orthodox theology that “without unity of faith there is no unity in the Church as the theanthropic organism of Christ, and there cannot be.” At all ecumenical meetings and assemblies, they separated their Orthodox positions and decisions in separate conclusions. Only later, with the forming of the WCC, this principle was gradually abandoned, and Orthodox representatives increasingly melted into the common (essentially non-Orthodox) conclusions and decisions. This is especially demonstrated by the justification presented at the council of the Serbian Orthodox Church explaining and justifying the decision to withdraw from the WCC, as follows:

* Because in its activities the WCC has begun to neglect it’s original position regarding the unity in faith as a precondition for the unity of the Church;

* Because this Council has begun to have the nature of a super-Church and to behave in this spirit, practically accepting in its activities the Anglican “branch theory,” which is unacceptable to Orthodoxy, and more recently called the theory of “Christian traditions,” according to which the “traditions” of some Protestant sects (created, for example, in the previous century) are equated and considered equal with the living Tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which has existed in continuity since apostolic times;

* Because the WCC is increasingly influenced by secularism;

* Because of the very organisation of the WCC, where Protestant communities hold the overwhelming majority, the Orthodox Church is always outvoted, and consequently the Orthodox Church cannot influence the WCC’s decisions nor be adequately represented;

* Because questions of faith and order and unity in faith and the One authentic Church of Christ are being increasingly neglected in official circles of the WCC because of pragmatism and everyday secular policies;

* Because official circles of the ecumenical movement are dominated by the spirit and organisation of religious syncretism in practical expression and implementation (especially after the general assemblies in Uppsala and Canberra);

* Because instead of trying to reduce existing dogmatic and canonical differences in the spirit of ecumenism, some of the most important members of the WCC (for example, the Anglican Church) are introducing new “church” traditions and practices that they dogmatically justify, customs that imperil the ethos of the Gospel, and the entire Christian tradition of East and West (eg. the ordination of women “bishops” and “pastors”), creating a radically new order, ecclesiology and morality in the “church;”

* Because the WCC tolerates some Christian communities among its members that accept and bless unnatural and anti-natural sexual practices (the marriage of persons of the same sex - lesbians and homosexuals) that are “shameful to even hear.”

* Because this ecumenical, syncretistic and secularist spirit is also being transmitted to certain Orthodox circles, especially among the diaspora and mixed areas, where intercommunion and prayer meetings with the non-Orthodox deny the very ethos and the patristic manner of thinking and life in the Church (meaning it has a negative impact on the Church itself);

* Because organic membership in the WCC causes scandals and serious polarisation among local Orthodox Churches within the Fullness of Orthodoxy (meaning that instead of contributing to pan-Christian unity, this type of membership directly endangers unity within the Orthodox Church itself, let alone the ecclesiological unacceptability of these kinds of memberships!);

* Because of all the reasons given above, the Serbian Orthodox Church, the faithful witness and guardian (together with the other local Orthodox Churches) of the faith and ethos of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ, announced its withdrawal from the WCC; and its resignation as an ORGANIC member of this organisation (as has also been done by the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Georgian Church). In doing so, however, the Serbian Church does not withdraw from continuing to work on the “unity of all” and continuing to cooperate with all, including work with the WCC in the humanitarian field, as well as in other areas of inter-Christian responsibility for peace, justice and unity among the peoples and states of the world.

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