Subdeacon Nektarios, M.A.
In September 2024, the World ‘Orthodox’ Patriarchates made further bold strides in ignoring the decrees of the Holy Fourth Ecumenical Council and the canons of the Holy Orthodox Church by announcing a joint conference with both Official ‘Churches’ and the heretical Monophysite jurisdictions. This ecumenist event was attended by the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, and the local churches of Cyprus, Greece, Poland, Albania, and the Orthodox Church in America on the Eastern Orthodox side. On the Monophysite side, representatives from the Coptic, Syrian Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic (Echmiadzin and Cilician Catholicosates), and Eritrean confessions were present, according to a news article posted by the Official Moscow Patriarchate Department of External Church Relations [1].
During this meeting, a greeting from the Arch-Heresiarch Bartholomew of Constantinople was read, despite the ongoing schism between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. At this heretical ecumenist gathering, according to the Department of External Church Relations (MP), the following statements were adopted:
i) the two joint subcommissions on liturgical and pastoral questions will continue their work.
ii) the two Co-Chairs of the Commission will visit the Primates of the Orthodox Churches and the Ancient Eastern Churches to report on the positive results of the dialogue and to receive their feedback on the signed Common Statements and Proposals;
iii) a joint website will be created containing all the necessary documents from the previous bilateral dialogue, available to the new members of the Joint Commission, who will be appointed by their Churches, to facilitate the decision-making process;
iv) the two Orthodox [church] families will involve all levels of clergy, monks and laity in the implementation of the dialogue [2].
In point four of the “unanimously agreed” statements, the Moscow Patriarchate (which includes the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia) recognized the heretical Monophysites as an Orthodox Church, considering it a legitimate “church” outside of its own communion. Essentially, this professes that there can be multiple churches that are equally legitimate, thereby dividing the Body of Christ into “two Orthodox [church] families” [3].
In addition to their heretical fourth point of agreement in this document, the article by the Department of External Church Relations (MP) states, “The participants of the Conference advocated the return of all Christian Churches to a single date for celebrating Easter in accordance with the definitions of the First Ecumenical Council of 325. The Joint Communiqué adopted following the Conference stated that ‘since 2025 will mark the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea and Christians throughout the world will celebrate Easter on the same day, the representatives of the Churches participating in the Conference expressed the desire that all Christians throughout the world celebrate Easter following the canonical tradition of Nicaea and the Orthodox Paschalia’” [4].
On the surface, one might think that celebrating Pascha according to the Orthodox Paschalia should be something to rejoice in. If taken at face value, it sounds wonderful. However, will these heretical confessions, which have separated themselves from the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, repent of their Monophysitism? Will they reject the heretical Monophysite ‘saints’ they have adopted, and will they accept the nine Ecumenical Councils of the Orthodox Church? As we have seen time and again, the likelihood of this is not very high.
What is more likely is that they will continue their joint prayers in opposition to the Apostolic and Ecumenical Canons, discard the decrees of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, ignore the liturgical texts of the Church that condemn the monophysite heretics, and maintain the status quo and continue to promulgate their heretical syncretistic branch theory.
In another example, just recently, the Middle Eastern Council of Churches (MECC) held a Golden Jubilee Celebration at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Abassia, where bishops and priests of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchates of Antioch and Alexandria prayed with Monophysite heretics in violation of the canons, which state the following:
Canon XLV: Let a bishop, presbyter, or deacon, who has only prayed with heretics, be excommunicated: but if he has permitted them to perform any clerical office, let him be deposed [5].
Canon LXIV: If any clergyman or layman shall enter into a synagogue of Jews or heretics to pray, let the former be deposed and let the latter be excommunicated [6].
Canon XXXIII: No one shall join in prayers with heretics or schismatics [7].
These heretical events will continue to shock the conscience of the laity, but nothing will change due to the fact that each of these official churches are full fledged members of the heretical World Council of Churches and other local council of churches such as the Middle Eastern Council of Churches, and more importantly because the laity sit on their hands, lukewarm about these issues.
The ultimate problem “with all of these joint statements, resolutions, and declarations are that they bring into question the authority of the Ecumenical Councils, the Church Fathers, and their divinely inspired actions and official decrees which defined our Holy Orthodox faith. Do these modernist academic theologians know more than the saintly fathers of these Ecumenical Councils who they seem to question at every turn? Concerning the subject of the Orthodox and Monophysite relationships in our modern time, let us adhere to the timeless and divinely inspired decision of the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon which says to the Orthodox faithful, 'These things, therefore, having been expressed by us with the greatest accuracy and attention, the holy Ecumenical Synod defines that no one shall be suffered to bring forward a different faith (ἑτέραν πίστιν), nor to write, nor to put together, nor to excogitate, nor to teach it to others. But such as dare either to put together another faith, or to bring forward or to teach or to deliver a different Creed (ἕτερον σύμβολον) to as wish to be converted to the knowledge of the truth, from the Gentiles, or Jews or any heresy whatever, if they be Bishops or clerics let them be deposed, the Bishops from the Episcopate, and the clerics from the clergy; but if they be monks or laics: let them be anathematized.[…] This is the faith of the fathers: let the metropolitans forthwith subscribe it: let them forthwith, in the presence of the judges, subscribe it: let that which has been well defined have no delay: this is the faith of the Apostles: by this we all stand: thus we all believe'” [8], [9].
References
[1]. “The Conference of Local Orthodox and Ancient Eastern Churches took place in Egypt,” Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, accessed September 23rd, 2024, https://mospat.ru/ru/news/92262/
[2]. Ibid.
[3]. Ibid.
[4]. Ibid.
[5]. The Canons of the Holy and Altogether August Apostles, “Canon XLV,” in Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Volume 14, ed. Philip Schaff & Henry Wace (Peabody: Hendrickson Publications, 1999), 597.
[6]. Ibid., 598.
[7]. The Canons of the Synod Held in the City of Laodicea, “Canon XXXIII,” in Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Volume 14, ed. Philip Schaff & Henry Wace (Peabody: Hendrickson Publications, 1999), 150.
[8]. Fourth Ecumenical Council, “The Definition of Faith of the Council of Chalcedon,” in Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Volume 14, ed. Philip Schaff & Henry Wace (Peabody: Hendrickson Publications, 1999), 265.
[9]. “The Patriarchate of Antioch & Their Eucharistic Communion with The Heretical Monophysites,” Orthodox Traditionalist Publications, accessed September 23rd, 2024, https://www.orthodoxtraditionalist.com/post/the-patriarchate-of-antioch-their-eucharistic-communion-with-the-heretical-monophysites
Interested in learning what the Heretical World Council of Churches (WCC) is? Read an entire detailed article here: