The Seventh Ecumenical Synod as a Landmark for the Unity of the Church

 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The Sunday of Orthodoxy celebrates the restoration of the sacred icons that took place in the year 843 AD, and in fact it is the implementation of the decision of the Seventh Ecumenical Synod, which took place in the year 787 AD in Nicaea of Bithynia. An iconoclastic period preceded it, during which an intense debate about icons took place, people were divided into iconoclasts and iconophiles and many arguments were heard from each side.

The important thing about this case is that the politicians of that time were heavily involved in this debate. This was not unprecedented since, unfortunately, theology is always connected with politics, to be more precise I would say that politics used and still uses theology to implement its plans. This will also be made evident in today's speech.

The Orthodox: Arrival and Dialogue (Fr. John Romanides) - Part 5 of 5

 ...continued from part four.

VII

 

From an Orthodox point of view many aspects of Roman Catholic-Protestant differences are really divergent consequences of similar, sometimes identical, presuppositions. This means that on several key issues the Orthodox consider dialogue between Roman Catholics and Protestants really soliloquy which can become true dialogue only when the Orthodox are included.

Such three-way dialogue might help break down the thousand-year-old impasse between the Latin and Greek churches. Thus far two-way dialogue between those two groups has proved impossible because each has interpreted the other's theological language according to his own categories. For instance, the Greeks rejected the dogmatic formula of Filioque (that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son as well as from the Father) because, according to their categories - which are those of the First (325) and the Second (381) Ecumenical Councils - it is sheer heresy. On the other hand, the Latins in a legalistic way accepted the decisions of those Greek councils as authority, but with little understanding of the categories dominating the lengthy debates which provided background. One calls to mind St. Augustine's complaint that he could not understand what the Greeks meant by distinguishing between essence and hypostasis in the Trinity (De Trinitate, v, 8, 10), and this happens to be one of the foundation stones of Greek Trinitarian theology. When difficulties arose about the Filioque the Latins, consistent with their trinitarian categories, insisted that it is a dogma of faith necessary for salvation. The seventh century Greek theologian St. Maximus the Confessor calmed Greek suspicions by translating the Filioque into Greek categories. The enthusiasm of later Frankish and Latin theologians led the West to claim that the Filioque is consistent with and implicit in the decisions of the early Greek Ecumenical Councils, even that it was taught by the early Greek Fathers. For a while the Latins accused the Greeks of having removed the Filioque from the Creed and thus having betrayed their own tradition. Eventually they repeated that accusation in regard to other aspects of doctrine on which differences exist - such as grace, merits, sacraments, purgatory, authority, ecclesiology, even piety. The practical effect of many centuries of such anti-Greek propaganda has been to create a Latin image of the Greek as a stubborn and tricky churchman who because of pride refuses to be faithful to his own tradition.

"Orthodoxy Has Its Own Methodology and Pedagogy" (St. Justin Popovich)

Orthodoxy is not a library that you can study, but an experience that you are called to live. Orthodoxy is first of all a way of life and in fact a Venerable Way of Life, and then a teaching and even a teaching of life, grace, which has nothing from the dead scholasticism and rationalism of Protestantism. Orthodoxy has its own methodology and pedagogy - the Lives of the Saints.

 

- St. Justin Popovich 

 

 

Nikolai Gogol and the Miracle of Saint Spyridon

The Venerable Elder Ambrose of Optina, in one of his letters to his spiritual children, mentions a miracle witnessed by the great Russian author Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (1809-1852). N.V. Gogol himself visited Optina Monastery to submit for publication his book on George the Recluse of Zadonsk to Fr. Porphyrius Grigorov, and he told him about a miracle he saw with his own eyes that took place while on a pilgrimage to the island of Kerkyra, where he went to venerate the incorrupt relic of Saint Spyridon.

The Myth of the "Calvinist Patriarch"

This article was reproduced and edited from the Orthodox Christian Information Center in response to a Protestant publication called Credenda Agenda in their articles "Confessio Fidei" and "The Reformation that Failed" (by Chris Schlect; see Vol. 6, No. 5). It is a pretty good summary of the issue. For more information, see the Saint Cyril Loukaris Resource Page.

By Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna

Just as today one must see the Orthodox world in its greater historical context, so in Patriarch Kyrillos’ day, too, Orthodoxy existed in a world of political reality that must be carefully studied, in order to see what implications rise above his specific witness and faithfully address Orthodoxy at a general level. To this end, let me just say, as a general observation, that with the fall of Constantinople the Orthodox East fell under Latin domination and the Turkish Yoke. Its survival threatened, its spiritual and intellectual primacy relinquished to the West, Orthodoxy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries took on an historical character that cannot be applied universally to the Church’s experience and ethos, and especially, again, without careful examination and precision.

Saint Elias Iorest the Confessor, Metropolitan of Transylvania (+ 1678)

St. Iorest the Confessor of Transylvania (Feast Day - April 24)

Saint Iorest the Confessor was born in 1600 into a peasant family of Transylvania (Ardeal), and received the name Elias in Baptism.

At an early age he entered the Puta Monastery and was tonsured with the name Iorest. He made great progress in the spiritual life, and was also a calligrapher and an iconographer. Because of his virtuous life, the abbot of the monastery recommended him to be ordained to the holy priesthood. Saint Iorest served in the altar with great compunction and fear of God, edifying others by his sermons.

In 1640, Prince Basil Lupu of Moldavia proposed Saint Iorest to succeed Metropolitan Gennadius of Transylvania, who had reposed. By God’s will, Saint Iorest was chosen to lead the Church in Transylvania, and was installed as Metropolitan in 1641.

Saint Nektarios and the Protestant Who Became Orthodox

What follows is the testimony of a recent miracle of Saint Nektarios:

On June 20 [probably of 2009] we went with the Unborn Child Protection Society on a pilgrimage trip to Aegina. We venerated the grace-flowing relics of Saint Nektarios and went to his bedroom, his grave and his new majestic church, built by the late Metropolitan Hierotheos of Hydra.

An Anglican Hagiographer on Saint Symeon Salos

The Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould (28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. Despite his broad range of knowledge, often dealing with and writing about strange things, it is interesting how offended he is by the life of Saint Symeon Salos, more popularly known as Saint Symeon the Fool for Christ. The text below comes from his book Curiosities of Olden Times under the chapter titled "Some Crazy Saints", written in 1896.

By the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, M.A.

In the modern Roman Martyrology we find on July 1 St. Symeon Salos given as a confessor, approved by Rome as a model for Christians to take example by. M. Wratislaw has lately drawn attention to St. John Nepomucene, and has shown how careless Rome has been in her assertions about the circumstances and the date of his martyrdom. The case of St. Symeon Salos also deserves attention.

On the Application of the Term "Theologoumenon"

By John Sanidopoulos

The term "theologoumenon", or its plural "theologoumena", is an ancient Greek word that means either "something that is theologized" or "that which is said about God or divine things", and in the scant use of the word from patristic writings, this is how it was understood. In theological literature today, the word "theologoumenon" takes on a different or added meaning, usually summarized as being an "individual theological opinion". But this is not how the term was ever meant to be used, at least from an Orthodox Christian perspective.

Hank Hanegraaff (a.k.a. "the Bible Answer Man") Received Into the Orthodox Church

By John Sanidopoulos

Yesterday, 9 April 2017, Palm Sunday, I found out through a friend of mine in Charlotte, North Carolina that Hank Hanegraaff (a.k.a. "the Bible Answer Man") was received into the Orthodox Church through chrismation along with his wife Kathy and two of his twelve children, at Saint Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church, in Charlotte. I had heard Hank had been a catechumen for some time, which surprised me, but when his chrismation was confirmed for me yesterday, I was even more astounded. It was something I had always hoped for him, but never really expected. Hank had played a major role in my early Christian education, as he did for countless others, even though I was an Orthodox Christian. I will share just a few ways how this is true.

Saint John Climacus and his Heavenly Ladder (Fr. George Florovsky)

By Fr. George Florovsky

The Paucity of Facts of his Life.

The biography of St. John — ό της κλίμακος — must rather be called an encomium. This is a description of him as one who prays and contemplates: "For John approached the mystical mountain where the uninitiated do not enter, and, elevated along the spiritual steps, he received the statute inscribed by God and a vision." He was some newly-appeared Moses.

Few facts are given in the biography. He was also called “Scholasticus” — σχολαστικός — but he is not to be confused with John Scholasticus, the patriarch of Constantinople (d. 577). It even remains unclear when St. John lived and where he was from. From circumstantial data it is possible to hazard a guess that he died in the mid seventh-century. His life is usually given from about 570 until 649. He came to Sinai in his early youth and spent his whole life there. However, it seems that he spent some time in Egypt, in Scete, and in Tabennesis. For many years he contended in obedience to a certain elder. After the letter's death, St. John withdrew into seclusion and lived as a hermit in a cave, which was not far off but was secluded.

A Greek Orthodox View of Ecumenism (2 of 2)

...continued from part one.

A Greek Orthodox View of Ecumenism (Part Two)

By Rev. John S. Romanides

(Orthodox Observer, December 1964)

In contrast to these developments in the West, the Churches of the East were not confronted with the problems of a feudal society, since the East Roman Empire continued to exist for almost a thousand years after the Western half of the Empire collapsed. Even within the areas conquered by Islam the basic administration of Church affairs remained that were established during Roman times. Whereas the emperor showed effective concern in the election of the bishops of the capital cities, he did not interfere in the election of the bishops of the provinces, and there were no feudal lords to interfere either. The several autocephalous and autonomous Churches of the East continued to administer their own ecclesiastical areas by means of local synods of all the bishops of each respective grouping. Apart from certain of the Slavic Churches the more or less democratic character of Church administration continued, and there was nothing like the Church-State crisis which shook the foundations of medieval Western society. The Churches of the East Roman Empire could not even evolve theories, let alone dogmas, concerning centralized Church administration, since the very numerous Churches of apostolic origin were careful to preserve their ancient customs and privileges. One is reminded of the insistence of the Third Ecumenical Council of 431 that the Churches of the Island of Cyprus had been independently self-governed or autocephalous since ancient times. Then there is the peculiar phenomenon of St. Catherine's Monastery on Mt. Sinai, which is a self-governing autocephalous Church headed by an Archbishop elected by the monks and enjoying a status equal to the other autocephalous Churches and higher than the autonomous Churches.

Fr. John Romanides and Neo-Barlaamism

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

Fr. John Romanides attached great importance and weight to the neptic tradition, because there is detected difference, besides dogmas, between the Orthodox tradition and the tradition of the Franco-Latins and Protestants.

Indeed, he found this in the terms "analogia entis" (analogy of being) and "analogia fidei" (analogy of faith) that consist of different ways of experiencing the revelation of God.

Life of the Holy Hieromartyr Cyril Loukaris (4 of 5)

...continued from part three.

In 1628 there arrived in Constantinople, an envoy of the Calvinists from Geneva, the Arminian theologian Anthony Leger, as pastor and counselor of the Dutch Embassy. He, along with Dutch Ambassador Cornelius Haga "proved to be the evil demons of Cyril Loukaris," because they took advantage of the friendship and difficult position of the Patriarch and tried by various means to spread Protestant ideas. Their actions created confusion within ecclesiastical circles, which increased when Calvinists in Geneva in March of 1629 published in the name of Cyril and the Patriarchs Gerasimos of Alexandria and Theophanos of Jerusalem the so-called Lucarian Confession.

The Relationship Between Orthodox and Other Christians

By Archbishop Anastasios of Albania

Our relations with other Christians have gone through several phases. Today, two positions can be distinguished. The first one represents a closed mentality, distrust of others, which often goes back to the past with negative ideologies and points out the dangers of contacts with other Christian denominations. The second is expressed by those who believe in approaching and cooperating with other Christians. Usually the first pose the question: What can we take from the West? The second emphasize that the correct attitude is: What can we offer? And of course we have a lot to share together. Something obvious, yet it is ignored by several Orthodox, is that other Europeans did not choose to join a heresy, which is the Christian confession they belong to today, but they were born in a country where for centuries their confession prevails. For example, a Norwegian belongs to the Lutheran Church and the Scottish is Presbyterian. How can we judge them for not being Orthodox?

John Wycliffe and Saint Gregory of Sinai

St. Gregory of Sinai

By Protopresbyter Fr. Thomas Vamvinis

History can inform us to interpret the present. Within it is treasured the experience of previous generations, as it is preserved in the texts of the past as well as by its modern scholars and analysts.

We will attempt, therefore, referring to history, to draw a parallel between the ecclesiastical actions of two people, one a "western" priest and professor at Oxford, who was one of the precursors of the Reformation in the area of England, and an "eastern" contemporary of his, a Holy Father, whose texts are in the Philokalia of the Sacred Neptics.

Going back to the fourteenth century, the people we will occupy ourselves with are John Wycliffe and Saint Gregory of Sinai. The point we will focus most of our attention on is the view of Wycliffe concerning the "general priesthood" and the teaching of Saint Gregory on the "spiritual priesthood".

The Theological Crisis and Its Impact on Daily Ecclesiastical Life (2 of 6)

Fr. George Florovsky

...continued from part one.

2. The Alteration of Theology

The issue of the alteration of theology is great and one can explore it from different angles. I would prefer to start with how we see this alteration in the second millennium of ecclesiastical life, in the relationship between lex credendi and lex orandi. In the first millennium, after many struggles, there was basically a balanced relationship between dogmatic theology and the prayers of the Euchologion.

Andrew Sopko has argued that in ancient tradition there was a close relationship between doctrine and prayer, as shown in the Proceedings of the Ecumenical Synods, Holy Scripture, the Mysteries and worship. Over the years a dichotomy was created between these two factors. This is shown clearly in that the language of worship, with its terminology, its purpose and its aim has remained steady, but from time to time the dogmatic terminology of some theologians varies. This is shown in Orthodox doctrinal manuals that have been affected by other traditions, particularly scholastic, while worship was the same. An example of this are the western influences on the theological work of Eugenios Voulgaris (George Panagopoulos).

An Orthodox Appraisal of the Protestant Reformation

In this special two part interview, Kevin Allen (Host of Ancient Faith Today) sits down with Father Josiah Trenham, to discuss his new book Rock and Sand: An Orthodox Appraisal of the Protestant Reformation and Their Teachings.

This book has been written for three purposes. First, to provide the Orthodox reader with a competent overview of the history of Protestantism and its major traditions, from its beginnings in the 16th century to the present day. This overview relies heavily upon the Reformer's own words as well as the creeds of various Protestant faiths, in order to avoid misrepresentation and caricature. Second, to acquaint Orthodox and non-Orthodox readers with a narrative of the historical relations between the Orthodox East and the Protestant West. Finally, to provide a summary of Orthodox theological opinion on the tenets of Protestantism.

Saint Paisios and the Young Man With Protestant Leanings

The following conversation between Fr. Paisios with a pious young man, who had been deceived by the falsehoods of Protestantism, was published in the annual publication O Hosios Gregorios of the Holy Monastery of Gregoriou in Mount Athos in the year 1995.

The late elder with seemingly simplistic answers to the existential questions of the young man, saved that soul from being lost and restored him to the embrace of the Orthodox Church. The Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Gregoriou, Archimandrite George, gave us permission to republish the text of this conversation.

A Severe Illness Requires a Big Hospital

Eventually I decided to go to the Orthodox Church. I confessed and began to receive communion regularly. Yet I had many serious questions to which I could not find answers. I sought the answers by meeting with theologians and clergy, but still to no avail.

Saint Sava Brancovici, Metropolitan of Transylvania (+ 1683)

St. Sava the Confessor (Feast Day - April 24)

Saint Sava was born into an old Serbian family from Hertzegovina who took refuge near Arad in Transylvania at the end of the sixteenth century. He was born at Inau around 1620, and received the name Symeon in Baptism. His parents were named John and Maria.

At first he was tutored at home, then he traveled in Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria. After visiting his uncle, Metropolitan Longinus, at the Comana Monastery south of Bucharest, he decided to stay there to complete his education. The Metropolitan tutored him in religious and secular subjects. After completing his studies, Symeon returned home and got married at the age of thirty. He was ordained to the holy priesthood, but his wife died soon after this. Not long afterward, his mother became a nun. Fr Symeon continued to serve in the Lord’s vineyard for ten years, converting many Muslims, and reconverting Christians who had embraced Islam.