Ecumenism Awareness: An Introduction
AGGreen
Ecumenism Awareness: Introduction
I have set up these pages, and scanned in many of the articles, solely to
help raise the level of awareness about a problem that has caused much
controversy within the Orthodox Church. I am speaking about ecumenism (and
its midwife, modernism). Briefly, modern ecumenism is both a movement and an
ecclesiological heresy. It poses a grave threat to the very "pillar and
foundation of the Truth" (1 Timothy 3:15) itself-the Church. And it really
does matter what the "average layman" thinks about it. I hope this will
become more clear as a one's level of awareness concerning this controversy
increases. But more can be said now about the necessity of self-education.
Fr. Justin (Popovich)
Serbian Confessor
of the Faith
Life | Eulogy
It is the duty of the entire Church, the Royal Priesthood of Believers, to
not only be aware of the issues, but to speak out against clear and public
violations of our Tradition in order to preserve it: "...because the
protector of religion is the very body of the Church, even the people
themselves..."-Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs, 1848. In his First
Sorrowful Epistle, the ever-memorable Metropolitan Philaret stated, "Can any
one of us be silent if he sees that many of his brethren simultaneously are
walking along a path that leads them and their flock to a disastrous
precipice through their unwitting loss of Orthodoxy?"
On March 16, 1997, the world-renowned Orthodox scholar and layman, Dr.
Constantine Cavarnos, made the following statements during a lecture at the
Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Atlanta, GA: "We must all
rise to our responsibility to our holy Orthodox Faith, and speak out that we
do not accept the Decree of the recent Synod of Balamand, and we will not
accept the Decrees of any other Pseudo Synod that might be convoked in the
years ahead....The time has come for all faithful Orthodox Christians to
speak out and promptly put to an end this spurious form of Orthodoxy known
as 'ecumenistic Orthodoxy'. It is a betrayal of the Holy Orthodox Church, a
negation of its essence." (Victories of Orthodoxy, pp. 80-81, emphasis his)
Statements such as these have motivated me to set up this special section of
the Orthodox Christian Information Center.
Some of you will doubtless be surprised and greatly disappointed to discover
that this controversy exists within Holy Orthodoxy. If you are such a
person, read Chapter XXX from St. Basil the Great's On the Holy Spirit, as
well as Archbishop Averky's "For There Must Be Also Heresies Among You...".
There has never been a "golden age" in the Church where problems did not
exist. In fact Church history gives witness to tremendous controversies
occurring almost continually.
Let us be zealous for the Tradition of our Holy, God-bearing Fathers; but
may our zeal always be balanced by love.
And may God preserve the Holy Orthodox Faith!
...Orthodox participation in the Ecumenical Movement has degenerated more
and more into an anarchical, truth-despising and canon-despising activity.
As such, it cannot but have the strong condemnation of it by enlightened,
pious Orthodox Christians. For they take their Faith with the greatest
seriousness, regarding it as the only Truth-the Truth that leads to
salvation.
-Dr. Constantine Cavarnos, "Fr. Georges Florovsky on Ecumenism," p. 15
"The Orthodox do not expect the other Christians to be converted to
Orthodoxy in its historic and cultural reality of the past and the present
and to become members of the Orthodox Church."
-Statement of the Orthodox delegates at the WCC General Assembly in Nairobi
in 1975
Often when the Ecumenistic activities of certain Orthodox hierarchs or
jurisdictions have been openly criticized on this [email] list, the charge
has been made that this is "bad-mouthing," "gossip," "whispering," etc. But
let me make clear why these activities are not things that Orthodox
Christians can ignore. Twice in as many days I have had private e-mail from
non-Orthodox people (one a Protestant, and one a Roman Catholic) who in
response to my claims that the Orthodox Faith is the True Faith, and that
the Orthodox Church is not a church, but the Church, pointed to Orthodox
involvement in Ecumenism to refute these claims.
I will not go into the examples they gave (which were specific) because I do
not want the point I am making to be side tracked by a "did not/did so"
debate. Let it suffice to say that these non-Orthodox people interpreted
these actions as contradictory to any suggestion that the Orthodox Church is
what it has always claimed to be. Ecumenism is not a question we can avoid.
It is a deadly serious pastoral and evangelistic problem that all Orthodox
Christian are forced to deal with. I wish we could just go about the work of
Christ and say our prayers, and simply ignore the betrayal of Orthodoxy that
we see around us-but the Ecumenists do not afford us this luxury. Their
activities are an affront to our Faith and to our ministry, and are a
stumbling block that hinders those who we seek to bring into the Faith.
I should start a file, and save every post I get from the Heterodox in which
similar objections are thrown in my face on the basis of Orthodox
involvement in Ecumenism. It really is something I often encounter-and it
really does make me angry.
-Fr. John Whiteford, Russian Orthodox Church Abroad
"But we lend an air of legitimacy to such ecumenical escapades even when we
do not openly participate in them. In the words of an eminent American
ecumenist, 'You (Orthodox) give us our integrity.'"
-The ecumenist is Dr. Joan Brown Campbell. The quote is from her address at
the Banquet of the All-America Council of the Orthodox Church in America
(Chicago: July, 1995). As quoted by Fr. John Reeves in his "The Price of
Ecumenism". Emphasis mine.