Ecumenical Issues ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ THE FATHERS ABOUT “TRUTH AND ECUMENISM”  ……… "It is impossible to recall peace without dissolving the cause of the schism-the primacy of the Pope exhalting himself equal to God." St. Mark the Evgenikos "The Latins are not only schismatics but heretics...we did not separate from them for any other reason other than the fact that they are heretics. This is precisely why we must not unite with them unless they dismiss the addition from the Creed "filioque" and confess the Creed as we do." St. Mark the Evgenikos My brothers, I studied for forty and fifty years. I read many books about the Jews, the idolaters, and about the impious and heretics. I studied the depths of wisdom. All the other faiths are false and counterfeit. Only our own faith, the Orthodox Christianity, is True and Holy. St. Kosmas the Aitolos Neither the Papist nor the Protestant church can be considered as the True church of Christ. The first was altered by a number of innovations and the accursed despotism (Primacy) due to which resulted the schism from the Orthodox. The same goes for the Protestants whose innumerable innovations lead to total anarchy and chaos. Only the Orthodox church maintained the teachings of Christ flawlessly without a single innovation. Only in the Orthodox church does unity exist. The unity which the Savior was petitioning from the Father saying, "Holy Father keep them in your Name those that you gave me so they can be one just like we were one." (John 17:11...) St. Nektarios of Aigina "Those that are not reborn by the divine grace in the only ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH, they do not consist of (comprise) any church, neither visible nor invisible." St. Nektarios "Through the dogma of "Infallibility" the Western church lost its spiritual freedom. It lost its beauty and balance, and was deprived of the wealth of the grace of the Holy Spirit, the presence of Christ- from spirit and soul ended up a dead body. We are truly grieved for the injustice done to the church and we pray from the bottom of our hearts that the Holy Spirit illumine the mind and the heart of the Most Blessed Pontiff to have him return to the ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH that which he took from her, something that should never have taken place." St. Nektarios The "Third Fall""In the history of mankind there are 3 falls: The fall of Adam, of Judas the Iscariot and that of the Pope. The essence of falling into sin is always the same: the desire to become God by oneself. In this manner, a man insensibly equates himself with the devil, because he also wants to become God by himself to replace God with himself...The fall of the Pope lies exactly in this very thing; to want to replace the God-man with the man..." Justin Popovich of Serbia Papacy is a heresy"The papacy is included among the heretical weeds forever appearing in the church of God which is very often plagued and continues to plague the salvation of mankind in Christ; in being bad seeds and rotten members they are justly cut off from the healthy body and the Orthodox Catholic Church of Christ." Ecumenical Patriarch Anthimos 1895 "All those of you that are genuine children of Orthodoxy, leave as quick as possible from the priests who succumbed to Latin rule (Uniads), and neither congregate with them nor accept a blessing from their hands." St. Germanos of Constantinople "The Latins are unbaptized because they do not keep the three immersions while baptizing...let them learn that a baptism is not complete by petitioning the Holy Trinity only, but what is also needed is the likeness (typos) of the death, the burial and the resurrection of the Lord...for us to be participants in the likeness of the death of Christ and His three-day burial; it is imperative that the three immersions take place otherwise this is impossible..." St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite Finally, Father Philotheos Zervakos writes (1923) My dear lady,It is an honor for me to write to you even though I do not know you personally and I hope you do not misunderstand my doing so because my action does not come from any other motive other than pure innocent Christian Love, from Christian brotherly duty and the commandment given from our Christ the Savior. Having arrived in Naxos a few days ago, I was informed that you are the assistant principle of the Academy and that you abandoned the Orthodox religion of our Fathers and have embraced that of the Latins (Roman Catholics). This made me grieve deeply and it continues to grieve me and rightly so, because I think of all people as my brothers. So when I see one of my brothers or sisters to suffer some physical injury or calamity I grieve; how much more must I grieve and weep when this calamity is spiritual...I'm not aware of the reasons which pushed you to deny Orthodoxy (which was founded by the Holy Fathers through the Seven Ecumenical Counsels, illumined by the Holy Spirit) and bow down to Papism which is a forerunner of the Antichrist because it was pride and arrogance that ruled over the Pope who desired to become the highest authority of the church and of the state. By this action, he tore apart the church of Christ accepting the addition to the Creed and going against the words of the Lord who told His disciples when He was about to be crucified, "The Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father"(John 15:26-27).Following this, the Pope worshippers fell into innumerable innovations (cacodoxies) and heresies, turning upside down all the sacraments of the Orthodox Church...You may tell me that we Orthodox have many faults, this I also confess and I preach that clergy and laity have lost their purpose in life but this is no reason for us to betray our religion because of the sins of others. Christ said that many are called but few are chosen and that the gate that leads to life is narrow and sorrowful and few will enter through it. The path to perdition is wide and spacious and many are walking through it... "Indeed, Ecumenism - in the manner that the meaning of this term has prevailed - is certainly a heresy, because it denotes a renunciation of basic characteristics of the Orthodox faith; for example, the acceptance of the "branch theory" - i.e., that each Church has a portion of the Truth and therefore all "churches" should unite, by placing on a table all the segments of the Truth in order to complete the whole.  We believe that Orthodoxy is the One, Holy, Catholic (=overall) and Apostolic Church. Full stop. There can be no argument about this, and subsequently, whosoever believes the opposite can be called an ecumenist, and as such be a heretic."  Archbishop of Athens, Christodoulos (†)    From an interview at the Radio Station of the Church of Greece, on the 24/5/1998.   «Accept no illegitimate dogma on the pretext of love»  ( PG 62,191 )    St. John Chrysostom (c. 349–407) Index ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ‘PAPISM’ – The insurmountable obstacle of Christian unity Papism is not a “Church” ! “One must not pray together with heretics”  -  Part 1 “One must not pray together with heretics”  -  Part 2 UNIA  -  The face and the disguise Papism as the Oldest Protestantism How should we behave towards atheists or heterodox? Heresies, Ecumenism : The Ecumenist Dialogues Unmasked Chalcedonians and Monophysites:  Do We Share the Same Beliefs?