From
the Monastery of Saint Shio of Mghvime
Christ
the Lord called that Church the Catholic Church which maintains the true and
saving confession of the Faith. It was for this confession that He called Peter
blessed when He declared ‘….upon this rock [i.e., of right faith] I will build
My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail againt it (Matt. 16:18).’
Saint Maximos the Confessor
(Migne PG, 132A)
‘We are
orphans and fatherless…’
(Lamentations of Jeremiah 5:3)
‘Whoso
readeth, let him understand.’
( Matt. 24:15)
The Georgian
Orthodox Church has decided to leave two major ecumenical bodies—the World
Council of Churches (WCC) and the Conference of European Churches (CEC). The
decision was taken at an emergency meeting of the Holy Synod following strong
pressure from Georgia’s leading monasteries against further participation in
the ecumenical movement. The following letter was chiefly written by
Archimandrite George of the influential Shio-Mghvima Monastery.
In ancient Sodom there lived the righteous Lot and his
family. Our long-suffering God, awaiting the conversion, the change of heart of
the Sodomites, bestowed upon them all that they needed: air, water, food…life
itself. Lot was for them a certain example of righteousness, a model for their
correction. But in vain. The measure of lawlessness and sin overflowed; the
Lord brought out the family of Lot and destroyed the city of Sodom by fire,
thus taking away that life which He himself had granted.
Like unto Sodom becomes that church in which the
abomination of heretical doctrines finds itself a lodging place. Long-suffering
and merciful is the Lord, and just as the destruction of Sodom was delayed for
the sake of righteous Lot, so too, for the sake of His righteous servants, for
the time being He shall not withdraw the grace of the Holy Spirit from that
church which is deviating into the heretical gloom so offensive to Him. But for
how long? Where is that boundary beyond which lawlessness exceeds His
long-suffering and mercy? If the time for an exodus like Lot’s is come, then
such a time is the termination of the period [allowed for repentance], it is
the time for the execution of the judgments of God, the time of righteous
anger, the time for the taking away of the very Spirit of Life. The going forth
from the midst of sin by the true children of the Church serves as an
indication of the spiritual death of the hierarchy of a Local Church. And only
then, when the Lord shall have led forth all of them, all those faithful to Him—His
true Church, will the grace of His Holy Spirit completely abandon the assembly
of those who have remained behind.
Lot forewarned his sons-in law of the approaching
judgment, but was mocked by them. And his sons-in-law were burned together with
all the Sodomites.
We also have the example of Nineveh. The Ninevites
repented and the judgment of God was suspended. But what of Sodom? Was Sodom
capable of changing? Sodom, in which there was not even a consciousness of the
need for amendment?
1. Ecumenism
is heresy! That is quite clear. Moreover,it is the heresy of heresies.
2. Of
all the errors that so-called ‘Ecumenism’ comprises, the most fundamental and profound
is its error concerning the very nature of the Church itself. This is an
ecclesiological heresy. It is contrary to the Nicean-Constantinopolitan
confession of faith, for it asserts that there is no ‘One,
Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church’.
3. The
so-called ‘World Council of Churches’
already in its very name contains this contradiction of the Orthodox Christian
doctrine concerning the Church. And in its
‘Branch Theory’ it totally rejects this dogma. And the ‘Council’
endeavors to accomplish this fundamental rejection by its militant practice
of ‘religious pluralism’.
4. The
Orthodox Church, by participating in the activities of the aforementioned ‘World Council of Churches’, declares her
agreement with all its [the WCC’s] teachings and activities.By this very means
she becomes a party to all the falsehood and errors of the Council. She becomes
heretical to the degree that the Council itself is heretical.
5. This
heresy is introduced even more deeply into the body of the Church by the
participation of her hierarchy in the various forms of liturgical
concelebrations conducted by the institutions of the Council in the course of
its routine activities.
6. The
Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC) has been an active member of the WCC for a
considerable time (since 1962). This lively participation, manifested in the
activities of her senior hierarchs, is the path of falling away into heresy, or
rather, it is essentially already heresy.
7. Both
in their numerous public appearances, and also ex cathedra, the
senior hierarchs of the GOC have shown themselves to be apologist and preachers
of the heresy of Ecumenism. At the Local Council in 1995, participation in this
movement was recorded in the official documents and confirmed by the
ecclesiastical authority. By this means this heresy was definitively implanted
into the body of the Local Georgian Church.
8. When
the Church begins in any degree to accept heretical teaching, then saving grace
wanes in her. Once the Church as a whole accepts a heresy, then saving grace
departs from this community, since salvation for its members has become
impossible, even if they were to lay down their lives for their convictions.
9. There
are only two routes of escape from the situation that has arisen in the GOC:
either the church renounces its error, or else those seeking salvation quit the
assembly of the unfaithful.
10. The
Church’s rejection of the heresy of Ecumenism must be expressed by its
departure from the WCC. There is no other way.
11. This
can be done only by the senior hierarchs of the GOC-this is their prerogative.
But the hierarchs refuse to do this.
12. Some
of the hierarchs consider such a step inconsistent with the contemporary processes
of global intergration. Subordinating, in their own conceptions, the life of
the Church to the mere laws by which society functions, they threaten the
Christians with economic difficulties, political, religious, and cultural
isolation, and a like multitude of imagined horrors.
13. Such
a way of thinking is based on a lack of faith in the providential care for the
Church by her Creator and Founder. This is unbelief, this is real atheism that
captivates the mind and conscience. They do not realize that the Lord does not
abandon His true servants. His eye slumbereth not, and mighty is His right
hand.
14. Others
of the hierarchs, not possessing a true Christian consciousness and not wishing
to comprehend the very essence of the dogmas of the Church of Christ, consider
that membership in the WCC is not so very significant a sin. Such as these seek
by means of various compromises to deceive both God and themselves.
15. So
what then remains for an Orthodox Christian seeking salvation to do, who is
certain that this very salvation is not possible without a true faith free of
heretical abomination?
16. ‘…..and
they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were
counted worthy to suffer shame for His name’ (Acts 5:41).
…..But as for those who ….sever themselves from
communion with their president, that is, because he publicly preaches heresy
and with bared head teaches it in the Church, such persons are not only not
subject to canonical penalty….,but are worthy of due honor among the Orthodox.
For not bishops, but false bishops and false teachers have they condemned, and
they have not fragmented the Church’s unity with schism, but from schisms and
divisions have they earnestly sought to deliver the Church.
( Canon XV of the First-Second Council of Constantinople)
In his commentary on Canon XIV of the Fourth
Ecumenical Council, Zonar writes: ‘Those
are also heretics who even partly disagree with the teaching of the Church or
who only slightly distort it’.
The Monastery of our Righteous Father Shio of Mghvime
(the Cave-dweller) severs eucharistic communion with Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia
II because of his heresy of Ecumenism.
Archimandrite George, Abbot of the monastery
Archimandrite John
Hieromonk Nicholas
Monk Kyrion
Novice Bssarion
Novice Guran
APRIL 14/27,
1997
The Abbot of the Lavra of the Righteous David of
Garedzhe, Archimandrite Gregory, severs eucharistic communion with
Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II because of his heresy of Ecumenism, and resigns
from the office of abbot.
Archimandrite Gregory APRIL 17/27, 1997
Betania Monastery severs liturgical communion with
Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II because of his heresy of Ecumenism.
Hieromonk Haggai, Abbot of the Monastery
Monk Gabriel
Monk eutyches APRIL 18/MAY 1, 1997
The Abbot of the Zarzma Monastery, Archimandrite
George, severs eucharistic communion with Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II and
Bishop Sergius of Akhaltsikhe on accoun of their having fallen into the heresy
of Ecumenism.
ArchimandriteGeorge MAY 2/15, 1997
Note: On May 19, a group of parish priests joined the
monastics calling on the Holy Synod to withdraw from the WCC:
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