Elder Zervakos     Rise up Chrysostomes, Gregories, Germanuses, Tarasiuses,  Nikifori, Fotii and the rest, the old and recent Holy Patriarchs of Constantinople, who sacrificed yourselves for your flocks, to see who is on your throne. You, like the good shepherds have sacrificed your souls for your own sheep, while the present ones sacrifice their sheep for themselves and they open the door and invite the wolves to come in and destroy the flock.
     When has a Patriarch fallen in such a slide, that he voluntarily struggles to deliver his flock to the wolves to be torn apart? The cause is pride, the root and cause of all sins, all the evil, all heresies, calamities and sorrows and even greater than the calamities and unhappiness, the deprivation of God’s grace.
     The wolf shepherds, false teachers, false prophets and false christs, were expelled from Christ’s flock and as unrepentant , they were placed under everlasting anathemas by the Holy Fathers, the imitators of the Chief Shepherd Christ   and His followers, the good, true and divine shepherds, the preservers of the decent and holy seven   Ecumenical Synods.
     The Orthodox Church is not used to innovations like the Westerners and the Protestants, who after their separation and without ceasing have taken up to perform innovations or reforms, to such a disrespectful and insane degree to innovate all the mysteries and holy tradition and deleting many….
     There are two reasons that make the present day Arch-hierarchs to innovate and reform the Church, first pride, which makes most of the hierarchs, save some, to believe they are wiser that the Holy Fathers, and secondly gluttony and love of self. By most of them becoming, lovers of the flesh, they were abandoned by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
     If the Patriarch, does not accept but rejects the suggestions of the Government   of the Holy Synod, Arch-hierarchs, priests and lay followers, and insists on the union (of the Churches), then he should be renounced. For in case they do not oppose but retreat and say that they will follow the Patriarch, then there would be a far reaching destruction. Then I would have nothing else to say but woe to the Orthodox Church of Greece. Woe and to the Greek nation. For it shall be immeasurably worse than the subjugation to the Muslim and the false prophet Mohammed.
     If the Pope wishes the union, let him recognize and confess all his deceits, heresies and innovations made by various Popes from the beginning and over a period of time, having separated themselves from the Orthodox Church, he will be received only if he repents, cries bitterly and humbles himself.
     If they do not reject pride, both Patriarch and Pope, and do not humble themselves, imitating our Lord, not only would they not succeed but instead they will increase the separation and they will create many scandals, disturbances, confusions and great damage to and loss of their flocks. If they would imitate the Lord and humble themselves the union will succeed, they will benefit themselves and their flocks and the name of the Father in Heaven will be glorified through them like through the Apostles, for the “Lord opposes the proud and raises the humble”.

Papism is the forerunner of the anti-christ.           

          Orthodoxy was firmed up by the Holy Apostles and the enacting Fathers through the seven Ecumenical Synods, while illumined by the Holy Spirit.
     Papism is the forerunner of the antichrist, for the Pope having been captured by arrogance and conceit, and wishing to have the highest authority of the Church and State, he tore the Church of Christ.
The Pope worshipers have fallen in many false beliefs and heresies modifying the mysteries of the Orthodox Church. Instead of the baptism they are sprinkling, instead of the mystery of communion they have Jewish unleavened bread. They got rid of the fasts and even the holy oil, nor can they perform blessings by sprinkling with holy water because they are excommunicated and thus their blessing does not hold.
     I would not refrain to mention something I witnessed myself when I went to the Holy Mountain for pilgrimage. When the Emperor Constantine Michael and Patriarch Vekkos who were Pope worshipers went to the Holy Mountain during the period 1170-1200,they were pressing the monks to receive the Papism and to co-celebrate   with the papists. Those that had accepted and co-celebrated, their bodies remained incorrupt but give off a foul odour. Those that refused to co-celebrate and were killed by the papists, their relics give off a pleasant odour. I wish through the grace of the Holy Spirit to enlighten your mind, to give you strength and reject the dream of deceit and languish and return to the bosom of the Church.
     “If the present Hierarchs do not accept the decisions, the Canons and the traditions given by the divine Apostles and Holy Fathers of the Church but ignore them, who would then respect their  own? ”
     The Church and State and their leaders of the present evil days, sleep the heaviest sleep of negligence and laziness, and if they do not wake up, as well as the clergy and the people to repentance in the service of God’s commandments, of the virtues and good works, they will have to answer during the great judgment and will be punished.

Hold fast to your faith.     

     Hold onto your faith firmly and remain immovable on the traditions of the Divine Fathers, for we have arrived at the age that even the strong in faith are lost. Toil by studying and learning, for everything good is achieved with hard work and suffering. We shall not feel the labourl of virtue when we consider   the clouds of martyrs and saints and in the future we shall be glorified.
     How happy and blessed we shall be, if through a little toil we shall be judged worthy to camp in the lovely camps of Paradise and inherit the goods of the Heavenly Kingdom of God. Amen.
     The apostle Paul, the mouth of Christ, commands: “Do not communicate in the works of sterile darkness that you may not become controlled.  In cases where our Orthodox Faith is ignored or slandered, it is permissible to check it and have just anger, most justifiable, but silence is not permissible. But the checking must be done with discernment and prudence not with disturbance and anger, but with divine anger. God does not give up His Church and to those who fight her He will humble them and they will be smashed like a ceramic roof, but those who hold their Orthodox faith and confession till death, shall be blessed.
     I bless you from the heart to never be timid in your struggles, even if you see the enemies of the Church becoming stronger….The one that struggles for the Orthodox faith and for our holy Church has the Almighty God for an ally, while the one that struggles for deceit has the ever cunning devil for ally, the weak master of darkness, of lies and all heresies, fallacies and wickedness. There is nothing more honourable, modest and holier when one struggles for the faith. And if while struggling he is killed by the enemies, without bending, he is the brightest victor and he will receive the trophy of the call above and the heavenly crown. So fight for the faith and struggle until death, to become worthy heir of the Kingdom of Heaven.
     In the present time, when the Church is attacked in many ways and means by many and diverse fighters, your effort in confronting and combating will succeed, with God’s help and will save some from to- day’s flood of sin.
     I congratulate you for your zeal for the dissemination of the Christian truths and for the benefit of the Christians. We should know that according to the toil and willingness each one works, rewards will be given by the wage giver Christ. While there is time, let us work spiritually and sow with labour so that we may reap in peace.

(Elder Philotheos Zervakos –         
Ecumenism, Orthodoxy and Heresy)  

     

WCCThe report on the WCC by Bishop Raskas Artemios, that he submitted to the Synod of the Serbian Hierarchy, we publish the following important excerpts).

                …… The Church is one and catholic and in her is the complete and all the truth, all the grace, everything the Lord brought with Him to earth and delivered to the people and left for their salvation.
               It is one and catholic because it brings together all those that wish to be saved in an interior union, in the body of the God/man Christ.
               For this, this idea of one “council” or “union” of the Churches is impossible, not permissible and unacceptable to the conscience of every Orthodox.
               The boundaries, set by our Holy Fathers have been trampled, the boundaries between truth and falsehood, light and darkness, Christ and belliol.
               The main aim of all these overblown emotions (basically it regards plain hypocrisy) is the wish for the Orthodox Christians to learn the “truth”, that they are brothers in Christ and members of the one and true Church together with the heterodox. This is what is discussed at the meetings, conferences and printed in the newspapers, magazines, books, the broadcasts by radio and television. All these demand to our being led to the “common cup”, the common communion that comprises the founding goal of the “dialogue of love”.
              All these, according to Father Justin Popovitz, who likens it to the betrayal of Judas, the terrible betrayal of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the whole Church.
              …….. As a result of this cooperation, the Serbian Orthodox Church was receiving for some time material help from the WCC, such as medicines, scholarships, trips to Switzerland, financial subsidies, for example towards the construction of the new building of the theological school. For these crumbs of help we have lost in the spiritual sphere the purity of faith, the canonical heritage of the Church and the faithfulness of the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church>
               The presence of representatives from the Orthodox Churches at the different ecumenical meetings bear no canonical justification. They do not go there to courageously  proclaim openly and firmly the eternal and unaltered truth of the Orthodox Faith and Church, but embark on compromises and more or less to agree in all the decisions and schemes that are offered to us by the non-Orthodox.
               Through such actions we arrived at the Balamand, Sambezie, and Assissi, since all these include the unfaithfulness and betrayal of the Holy Orthodox Faith.
               During all this period of collapse and even loss of the Church of Saint Savvas, a single and lonely voice was heard, the voice of Archimantrite Augustin Of Tselie (V1979), who alone kept the unaltered and alert conscience of the Serbian Orthodox Church. It was him who felt deeply and lived liturgically the apostolic and patristic spirit of truth and wrote about the “achievement” of Patriarch Athenagoras: “The Patriarch of Constantinople? He, with his neopapist behaviour in words and deeds scandalizes already for approximately ten years the Orthodox conscience, denying the single and totally correct Truth of the Orthodox Church and Faith, while recognizing the Roman Pontiff with all his demonic and anti-ecclesiastical pride….”.
               Remembering in one hand what has been said and in the other the extreme and infallible word of the Bible, “every fruit tree is known by its fruit” it is simple to understand what we have to do.
               Already in this conference we must decide “the Serbian Orthodox Church must leave the WCC and all similar organizations (such as the Council of European Churches etc) and put an end to the participation in ecumenical and atheistic manifestations.

                This must be done for the following reasons.

  • 1. In obedience to the Apostle Paul, who advises and recommends: “After a first and second admonition of a heretic let him go”.
  • 2. This (the participation) happens to be in conflict with the holy cannons of the Orthodox Church against which we have sinned grievously.
  • 3. There is nothing by the Holy Fathers of the Church that could justify the union and continuing participation in the non-ecclesiastical organization of the WCC and other similar with it.
  • 4. For the salvation of our souls and the souls of the flock, that has trusted us and which for some time now we have scandalized and damaged by our participation in ecumenism, as well as for the salvation of those who still find themselves outside the ark of salvation, of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church and whom our determined and clear action could help them in their search for salvation and Truth, something that cannot be achieved by a retreating and godless comradeship with ecumenism.

Orthodox Kypseli Publications – Thessaloniki