Due to the recent controversies among certain Russian Orthodox and schismatic Old Calendarists who have resurrected Name Worshiping, the following texts below are presented to inform the reader of this heresy.
At the beginning of the 20th century there arose the heresy of name-worshipping (imyaslavie or imyabozhie in Russian), which consists in the belief that the Name of God is not only holy and filled with the grace of God, but is holy in and of itself, being God Himself. It arose among Russian monks on Mount Athos, with the publication, in 1907, by Schema-monk Hilarion, of a book on the Jesus prayer entitled On the Mountains of the Caucasus. This book was at first well-received and passed the spiritual censor; but later its claim that the name of God is God elicited criticism. Soon monastic opinion in Russia was polarized between those who, like the monks of the Kiev Caves Lavra, approved of the book and its name-worshipping thesis, and those, like the monks of the Pochaev Lavra and the Optina Desert, who rejected it. The heresy was condemned by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1912 (under Patriarch Joachim III) and 1913 (under Patriarch German V), and by the Russian Holy Synod in 1913 (Charter No. 758 of Patriarch German V to Mount Athos, dated February 15), and by the Russian Holy Synod in 1913 (Epistle of May 18, and Decree of August 27, No. 7644).
Wikipedia: Imiaslavie
A Note on the Heresy of Name-Worship
Heresy on Mt. Athos: Conflict over the Name of God Among Russian Monks and Hierarchs, 1912-1914
The Name Worshippers
The Name-Worshipping Heresy
A Response to Certain Name-Worshippers
Epistle of Ecumenical Patriarch Germanos V
Letter of Patriarch Germanos of Constantinople Concening the "Name-Worshippers"
