CESSATION OF DIALOGUE
ON THE SUNDAY of the 318 Godbeaing Fathers of the First Council, 18th / 31st May, His Grace, Bishop Cyprian of Oreoi, the Acting President of the Holy Synod of our Church, issued a five page statement on the Cessation of Informal Dialogue between the Holy Synod in Resistance and the Holy Synod of the Church of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece under Archbishop Chrysostomos [Kiouses]. Appended to this statement were four documents: 1) the Synodal Letter containing the ten [nonnegotiable—trans.] “points;” 2) the Synodal Epistle [from the Synod in Resistance—trans.] regarding the ten preceding “nonnegotiable points;” 3) the Archiepiscopal Epistle of Archbishop Chrysostomos (Kiouses); and 4) the Communiqué issued by the Church of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece. These may be viewed on the Synod in Resistance website and we strongly suggest that readers do so. The cessation of the dialogue, rather than its development, is, naturally, rather sad news, but it is without a doubt preferable that the dialogue should have been brought to an end, rather than a hasty union engineered which might have involved unwarranted compromise or the pinching of the consciences of the faithful on both sides of the divide.
CONFESSION AGAINST ECUMENISM
THE CONVENTION of Orthodox Clergymen and Monks, held in April this year, has, according to an English-language posting on the Credo.Ru website, issued a strong condemnation of ecumenism. The translation admits that it is “unofficial” and it is obviously not perfect, but it comes from a Greek original published in Thessalonica by the periodical, Theodromia. It has been signed by numerous church leaders, headed at the time of publication - (although the site is in the process of collecting more signatories) - by the Metropolitan of Kythera and Antikythera Seraphim, the Metropolitan of Aetolia and Akarnania Kosmas, the Metropolitan of Piraeus Seraphim, the Metropolitan of Gortyna and Megaloupolis Jeremiah (Professor of School of Theology Athens University), Archimandrite Joseph, Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Xiropotamos, Holy Mountain Athos, Protopresbyter George Metallinos (Professor Emeritus of the Athens University School of Theology), Protopresbyter Theodore Zisis (Professor Emeritus of the Thessaloniki University School of Theology), Archimandrite Mark Manolis (Spiritual Superintendent of the “Pan-Hellenic Orthodox Union”), and Archimandrite Athanasius, Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Stavrovounion, Cyprus.
After speaking of the errors of the various heterodox denominations, the signatories of this Confession repudiate the erroneous idea that we share one Baptism with the heterodox, and they say: “The only way that our communion with heretics can be restored is if they renounce their fallacy [falsehood?] and repent, so that there may be a true union and peace: a union with the Truth, and not with fallacy [falsehood?] and heresy. For the incorporation of heretics into the Church, canonical precision requires that they be accepted through Baptism. Their previous ‘baptism,’ performed outside the Church without the triple immersion and emersion of the one being baptized in specially sanctified water, and performed by a non-Orthodox priest, is in no way a baptism. It lacks the Grace of the Holy Spirit (Who does not remain within schisms and heresies) and as such, we have nothing in common that unites us, as Basil the Great points out: ‘As for those who have distanced themselves from the Church, they no longer have the grace of the Holy Spirit upon them, for transmission has ceased with those who have interrupted the sequence... as for the ones who have broken away, who have now become laity, they no longer have the authority to either baptize, or ordain by the placing of their hands, being now unable to provide the grace of the Holy Spirit, from which (grace) they have fallen away’ … That is why the new attempt by Ecumenists to project the position that we have a common baptism with heretics is unfounded and hanging in mid-air, as is their assertion that it is possible to support the unity of the Church with this nonexistent baptismal unity, which supposedly exists wherever a baptism may exist. In the Church however, one enters and becomes Her member, not with just any baptism, but only with the one, uniformly performed Baptism, officiated by Priests who have received the Priesthood of the Church.” The confession laments, “All the boundaries that the Fathers had set have been torn down; there is no longer a dividing line between heresy and Church, between truth and fallacy [falsehood ?].” They end: “We are therefore declaring that, for the aforementioned reasons, those who are moving within this Ecumenist irresponsibility, whichever rank they may be holding within the Ecclesiastic Organization, are opposed to the tradition of our Saints and consequently opposed to them. This is the reason that their stance must be condemned and rejected, by the entirety of the Hierarchs and the faithful People.” There follow over fifty signatories.
See: <http://www.portalcredo.ru/site/?act=english&id=345>.
