Saint Fanourios

Prologue

Saint Fanourios is without doubt an important and holy youthful figure, who stands out in a par-ticular way among the other Saints of Christianity, as he is not only honoured on a single date, but the faithful often make use of the well-known “fanouropita” (Fanourios cake).

Saint Fanourios, who lived during Roman times, went up bravely against the idolatric world, for the Christian spirit of this man of God did not allow him to deny his unquestionably virtuous prin-ciples. Thus, the 12 tortures that the Saint suffered constitute for us a strong motivation for per-severance and adherence to the moral values of Christianity, to come out victors from the in-cessant struggle of unbelief and injustice of our time. This Saint teaches us with his real sacrifice that even though we do not struggle against Roman soldiers and vile Hagarenes, still we have to confront the more skillfully set traps of materialism and atheism, that attempt en masse to overwhelm the Christian order.

Saint Fanourios also taught us that the crown of a virtuous life is not easily won but only through continuous tests – with boldness, patience and perseverance. Therefore, as true fighters of the faith let us imitate the exemplary and irreproachable life of the Saint, so that we too may be found worthy to honour the Christian name we bear, as he so fittingly did.

Saint Fanourios

1. General overview of his life.

Nothing certain is known concerning the lineage and the life of Saint Fanourios because all the information about his life was lost during turbulent times.
The only information we have concerning the Saint is the discovery of his icon, around 1500 AD according to the Synaxarion, or according to other sources around 1355-1369 AD. Some main-tain that the icon of the Saint was found in Rhodes but others say in Cyprus.

2. The discovery of the icon

Let us return to the past, when the Hagarenes (i.e. Muslims) ruled Rhodes and had decided to rebuild the wall of the city, which they so barbarically demolished and leveled a few years pre-viously.

They started to send workers outside the south part of the citadel to gather stones from the semi-ruined houses of the inhabitants, to rebuild the new and strong walls of the city. Among the ruins they discovered a most beautiful church which was partially destroyed on one side. Inside they discovered a multitude of icons, which over the course of time the faces of the Saints as well as the inscriptions on them were indistinguishable.

Only one magnificent icon stood apart from the rest, one that time did not affect, which depicted a youth dressed as a soldier. The Metropolitan of Rhodes, Nilus, went immediately to the site and clearly read the name of the Saint, Fanourios. The Metropolitan, moved by the appearance of the saint, saw that he was dressed as a Roman Soldier, holding a cross in his left hand and a lit candle in his right. Around the icon the iconographer had also painted the twelve depictions of the martyrdom that the saint had suffered, clearly telling his life.
These depictions are as follows:

1. The Saint is present in front of the Roman magistrate, standing and looking like he is boldly testifying and defending his Christian faith.

2. Here the soldiers are intervening and striking Fanourios’ head and the mouth with stones to force him to succumb and deny the Lord.

3. The soldiers have thus far become enraged by the persistence of Fanourios, throwing him to the ground and beating him mercilessly with sticks and clubs to break his steadfast resistance.

4. Fanourios is in jail and is being tortured in a most abominable way. He appears totally naked and the surrounding soldiers are tearing his flesh with sharp metal instruments. The Saint is silently enduring his frightful martyrdom.

5. Fanourios is back in jail praying to God to strengthen him to the end of his tortures.

6. The Saint is again brought before the Roman magistrate to give a defense for his posi-tion. By the peaceful expression on his face it appears that neither the tortures he suf-fered nor the future threats of the tyrant can shake his faith, and thus being undeterred he is waiting for further tortures.

7. The torturers of Fanourios with rage and cruelty are burning his naked body with lit torches, thus showing his insuperable sacrifice for the Crucified One. The Saint wins again with his indomitable will and fortitude for the Lord.

8. Here his savage torturers are making use of mechanical means to achieve the worse of his tortures. They have tied the Saint on a press which crushes his bones when rotated. He is suffering without grumbling, but on his beautiful face there is an inexpressible exul-tation since he is suffering for the sake of the Lord.

9. Fanourios is cast into a pit to become prey to wild beasts and his torturers are watching from above to witness his end. The beasts, however, are totally docile through the grace of God and silently surround him like lambs to enjoy his magnificent company.

10. The torturers were not satisfied by the latest result so they removed him from the hole and are crushing him under a huge rock, convinced that they will finish him off. However, even this time they do not succeed.

11. The scene presents the Saint in front of an altar, where the torturers are urging him to sacrifice, placing burning coal in his hands. Fanourios also passes this test victoriously and a devil in the form of a dragon is shown flying in the air and crying over its failure.

12. The last scene is the end of his martyrdom, with Fanourios being cast into a large furnace standing on a stool and surrounded by flames and smoke. The Saint seems to be praying intently to God, without complaining or grumbling, and thus unwavering and without giving in, he flew to heaven, full of contentment for all the tortures he had suffered for the sake of the Lord.

3. The Erection of the Church.

The then Metropolitan of the island, Nilus, after carefully studying the icon that was found, pronounced that Fanourios was one of the most significant great martyrs of our Faith. He immediately dispatched a delegation to the ruler of the island and to ask him for a permit to erect a church. However, when the ruler refused the Metropolitan himself went to Constanti-nople and managed to obtain from the Sultan the permit he sought. He soon returned to Rhodes and built the church exactly on its old spot, outside the walls. The Church survives to this day and is a sacred shrine for all Christians.

4. Information from the discovery of the icon.

Observing the icon of Saint Fanourios that was found in Rhodes we can conclude many sig-nificant points which are as follows:

1. When we read the name of the Saint on the icon we conclude immediately that he was of Greek ancestry.

2. We also conclude that his parents were pious to give him such a Christian name (which means “Revealer”).

3. The youth would have been very educated to become a military officer.

4. We also reckon that the martyrdom of Saint Fanourios occurred during the second or third century when the persecutions of the Christians were at their peak.

5. Fanourios has obviously proven to be a great martyr from the many horrible tortures he suffered.

6. For there to be such a church found in Rhodes, we are also certain that he was honoured in churches by the pious Christians from the time of his martyrdom.

7. From the depiction of the Saint on the icon it appears that Saint Fanourios martyred at a young age.

5. Miracles of the Saint

Saint Fanourios worked many miracles for the pious who called upon his name and one of them was the following:

At one point in its history, Crete was occupied by the Latins (1204-1669 AD) who had their own Archbishop and for this reason they tried by all means to lead the inhabitants of the isl-and to Catholicism (Papism).

The Latins took an oppressive measure against Orthodoxy by banning the ordination of priests in Crete, forcing the Cretans to go over to the island of Tsirigo (Kethyra) to be or-dained by an Orthodox hierarch who served there.

At some point, three deacons set off from Crete for Tsirigo and having been ordained priests there, they were joyously returning to their tormented enslaved island. To their bad luck, Hagarene pirates captured them at sea and transported them to Rhodes, where they were sold to three different Hagarene masters.

The lot of the three priests was lamentable but a sweet occurrence came to sweeten their lot. They learned that in Rhodes Saint Fanourios worked miracles and they set their hopes in him, incessantly praying, each one separately invoking him to free them from the harsh captivity to the vile Hagarenes.

Each priest asked their master, without previously having communicated between them-selves, to allow them to go to church to venerate the icon of Saint Fanourios. They all re-ceived permission easily and so reverently venerated the icon of the Saint, wetting the earth with their tears and kneeling and praying with all their soul begging Saint Fanourios to inter-cede so that they may be relieved from the hands of the Hagarenes.

After the priests departed, having been consoled of their pain, Saint Fanourios appeared that night to all the masters and ordered them to free their captive priests, otherwise he would punish them severely. However, the Hagarene masters believed the intervention of the Saint to be some sort of magic and they chained their captives and started to torture them in the worst possible way.

However, the next night Saint Fanourios intervened more effectively. He loosed the three priests from their bonds and promised them that they would be freed from the Hagarenes the next day. He then appeared again to the Hagarenes and threatened them this time that if they did not free the priests in the morning he would use harsh measures against them.

The next morning the Hagarenes felt the punishment because they all lost their sight and their bodies became paralyzed. They were thus forced to seek the advice of their relatives and discuss the evil that had befallen them. All the masters then decided to invite the three priests in case they could help them. The only answer the priests gave them was that they would pray to God and He would decide.

The third night Saint Fanourios again appeared to the Hagarenes and informed them that if the three masters did not send in writing to his church their agreement for the release of the priests, they would never recover their health. The Hagarenes, whether they wanted to or not, wrote the letter the Saint asked for and declared straight out that they granted freedom to the three priests. These submissions were sent to the holy church of the Saint.

Even before the messengers of the Hagarenes returned from the church, the blind and para-lyzed faithless ones were completely healed according to the will of the Saint. The rich Ha-garenes gave the priests all the expenses for their journey and the priests before leaving went to the church, thanked the Saint for their release, and carefully copied the icon of Saint Fanourios, which they took to Crete where they honoured it every year with doxologies and litanies (processions).

6. The Pita (cake) of Saint Fanourios.

The great honour the Christians have for Saint Fanourios became the reason for the adoption of the customary tradition of the pita (cake) of the Saint, better known as “Fa-nouropita”.

The pita is usually small and round and is made of pure flour, sugar, cinnamon, and oil. After all these ingredients are mixed together, they are kneaded, put in a round cake form and the pita is baked under medium temperature in the oven.

The pita is prepared so that the Saint may reveal to someone a lost item, find a job for someone unemployed, deal on a lost cause, restore the health of someone sick, etc.

Our Church commemorates Saint Fanourios on August 27.

*****

Apolytikion (Troparion) – Tone 4. Kingdom diadem.

A heavenly song of praise is chanted radiantly upon the earth; the company of Angels now joyfully celebrates an earthly festival and from on high with hymns they praise your contests and from below the Church proclaims the Heavenly glory which you have founded by your labours and struggles, O glorious Fanourios.

Kontakion – Tone 3. The Virgin today.

You did save the Priests from the ungodly captivity and did break their bonds by Divine Power, O godly minded one; you did bravely shame the audacity of the tyrants and did gladden the orders of the Angels, O Great Martyr. Wherefore, we honour you, divine warrior, glorious Fanourios.

Megalynarion
To those who embrace your sacred icon with faith and asking your assistance, Martyr, heirs of the Heavenly Kingdom, Fanourios, to all your entreaties provide.
Publication: Orthodox Idryma (Foundation) “O Apostolos Barnabas”

Protopresbyter Theodoros Zisis

By:
Protopresbyter Theodoros Zisis
Professor Emeritus at Aristotle University
Thessaloniki

1. Papism and Protestantism have distorted the Gospel

Lately many members of the Church have been agonizing over the destructive and rapid development of the so-called inter-Christian relations of the Orthodox with the two big heresies of the West, Papism and Protestantism. Their concern has been expressed many times, this year with the composition of the well-known “Confession of Faith against Ecumenism” which was circulated and signed by many, and for the first time annoyed and disturbed those Ecumenists who are complacent and boast over the success.

The ambient policy and cultural atmosphere of globalization not only tends to erase geographical boundaries between nations, but also tends to tear down spiritual, cultural and religious boundaries. Its goal and vision is to level differences and individuality, to homogenize people in their beliefs and manner of life, to create a new type of person, without spiritual concerns and pursuits beyond this life, but for them to remain glued to this earth, in material prosperity and affluence. This serves two specific aims of the planners: people will reduced to simply being consumers, which will increase businesses’ material and economic profit and at the same time they will become slaves in their daily struggle to secure material goods, with their degree of leisure being in the hands of the powerful, so that through controlled economic crises or allocations they can keep people docile and obedient.

The second apparent aim is to place the Gospel of Christ and the Church, which constitute the only powers of resistance against materialism, at the periphery so that the new world can be governed not by Christ, but by the Antichrist. Only Christ conquered the temptation of Satan over material goods and preached that “man shall not live by bread alone” (Luke 4:4), prioritizing material and spirit, the world and God – He gave priority to God and to the spirit: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you” (Matt 6:33). And elsewhere, “for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).

The Christian world of Constantine the Great, of New Rome – Constantinople, of Orthodoxy, in which the Third Rome, Moscow, participated spiritually, lived and put into practice this ascetic and perfecting teaching of the Gospel. Now it is to be replaced by the new world of materialistic America and Europe, or Pax Christiana by Pax Americana.

Papism, having separated itself from the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, submitted to the temptations of Satan and was transformed into a worldly power with economic, dynastic, conquering, political pursuits, with dogmas and a way of life that have nothing to do with the life and teaching of the Gospel. As the great Russian intellectual Theodore Dostoyevsky powerfully said that Papism is not even Christianity; if Christ returned to earth, He would be judged and crucified by the holy inquisitors of Rome.

Those under the Pope perverted and distorted the Gospel. They did not serve as the light of the world and as the salt of the earth, for this they had no effect on the souls of the people of the West. The West, Europe and America, soon distanced themselves from untrustworthy Papism and became de-Christianized because “if the salt has lost its taste, wherewith shall it be salted?” (Matt 5:13). They threw out and rightfully trampled upon the pseudo-inscribed Christianity of the Pope.

Protestantism justly reacted against the arbitrariness and the deviations of Papism, though doing it alone without asking for help from the Church in order to return to the purity of Evangelical truth, without apostolic succession and the Grace of the mysteries (sacraments), in time being led to numerous divisions and teachings [some of] which even doubt the Resurrection of Christ, while they even justify “dishonorable passions” – as the Apostle Paul calls homosexuality in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans – as being on a level of a moral life,.

2.Double error: Inclusion with the heresies and a crutch of Papism

The planners of the New Age and Globalization want to unite us to and identify us with this distorted, abused and untrustworthy Christianity of Papism and Protestantism, [and create] a materialistic, earthly and worldly Christianity, so that the beneficial effect of the Gospel and of the Church cease in the world, so that people may not find the real Christ anywhere, so that we succumb to all the temptations of the devil, and thus establish the kingdom of the Antichrist. They have already succeeded in duping us and getting us to join in the pan-Protestant “World Council of Churches (WCC),” that is the World Council of Heresies and Fallacies. What a disgrace and shame! The Bride of Christ, the Body of Christ, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, equated and put on the same level with the numerous Protestant shoots, each one of them claiming to be the true Church. In the end, is there one Church or many Churches? Are heresies also Churches? Never has the Church identified itself with nor has it ever been included among heretical groups and organizations. This is so not due to a lack of love, but so that it may help heretics to return through repentance, and at the same time protect the faithful from heresy. It truly preaches the truth when there is danger of heresy and awaits the response of those in error. If it identifies itself with them, where will they return? They will remain where they are if we accept, as some “Orthodox” maintain, that there is salvation and truth there too. We put all those heterodox who came to Orthodoxy in a difficult position, who, if they are not stable and convinced of their salvific steps, may become scandalized and disappointed.

Papism witnessed our entry into the World Council of Churches with joy and satisfaction because we left it the only purporter of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. However, unlike us, it does not forget that in the mid 15th century, the probable alliance of the Orthodox in the reformation coucils of Constantia (1414-1418) and of Basel (1431-1439), forerunning movements of Protestantism, would have led to the synodic system prevailing and would have voided the primacy of authority of the Pope. He does not only leave us with the Protestants, but he wants us with him against those Protestants who rejected [his] many innovations. And as he then misled us to disgraceful Ferrara-Florence, so that we would not strengthen the synodic reformation – that even reached the point of the Pope being defrocked by his own cardinals – he is doing the same thing even now. He leads us to dialogues of love with his candies that we are somehow “sister Churches” and we can discuss “on equal terms.” He continues, however, to consider us schismatics and ecclesiologically deficient, in order to lead us to the recognition of Papal primacy through Unia, whose condemnation at Freising-Munich by the plenary session of the Joint Committee for Theological Dialogue (1990) he buried and made disappear. With this one-sided action, which we quietly accepted without any protest, the Pope shows that even in the theological dialogue he does as he wishes as the First and as infallible. Therefore, why should we discuss, since the Vatican accepts only what is in its favor, while what is [beneficial] to us it rejects and makes disappear? We foolishly, like in Ferrara-Florence where we signed Unia, we repeat the mistake and we again become the crutch of Papism with the unacceptable article of Ravenna and the even worse draft plan of Cyprus concerning the primacy of the Pope.

We should note that within relatively the same conditions we are repeating the same mistakes, without learning from history. Greece and Cyprus, in order to be helped by the West and the Pope, sign yet again unacceptable articles of union, like at Ferrara-Florence (1438-1439). They accept and honor Pope, the pan-heretic and distorter of the Gospel, thus pushing away and distancing divine help and offending the Holy Martyrs and Confessors of the Faith. Constantinople, which tasted divine abandonment, is unfortunately leading us to activities of false union and to a new Ferrara-Florence, in the steps of the then Cardinal Bessarion of Nicea and not of Saint Mark of Ephesus (Evgenikos), distorting the Gospel and embracing the “grave wolves” of Papism and Protestantism. That is why vigilance is needed according to the advice of the Apostle Paul, who foresaw that, “Also of your own selves shall arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-31).

Source:

The sign of modernity is that some couples live in de facto relationship; many others don’t prefer to have children; the majority who depend on family planning techniques likes to have only two children, preferably one a son and other a daughter. Our convenience and our taste are the keynotes of worship these days of ready- made consumerism of deluxe technology.

The application of the super-tech worship that vibrate an emotional fervour definitely copy a worship style of music and dancing with various postures that duplicate a pop music is not far from our worship; the same form of earth-moving style is seen in the T V in African countries. The use of violin, drum and guitar which make a concert of Holy Qurbana will eventuate because I took part in a Roman Catholic Malayalam Mass here in pure dance form by cladding with the attire of ‘kathakali dance and Karnatic music. This sort of Indianisation certainly invite an era of Lucifer’s timeless period that made him to challenge the Almighty, the reason for his fall and subsequent creation of man who fell miserably from the celestial height and landed in the earth with Lucifer legions. This evil trend of imitating Lucifer give a green signal of his ruling the whole globe for a short period. The church service is for the whole family that come together to worship the Lord of all. Acts.2: 39″`Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.’”

Our children should witness the way of repenting worship that they attend from the very first day of their church attendance. I have seen grown up people wiping their tears during the church worship. As we participate in a tearless liturgical service, we can’t appreciate it because the concert-style melodrama does go in tune with every one’s rhythm. “Let the children come; don’t prevent them for such is the Kingdom of Heaven’ is the command of the Lord. Every vibration of thought and action of the mother and father since conception make an imprint in the system of the young ones due to the chemical affinity. Keep them in the church; let them make some nuisance or noises in the beginning, then they realize and grow themselves to maturity. They understand the mood and form of the worship and absorbs them slowly from us. Don’t make much pretence of our sincerity in worship; accept that we are charlatan worshippers who congregate there to be as Sunday -club participants. How many of us participate in the passions of Christ truly because we don’t understand each step of the Holy Qurbana.

The showcase spirituality that engulfs all our daily routines of extravagant celebrations of Rasa, onam celebrations, camps and daily tea fellowship in the church and festival celebrations and cultural celebrations take a great portion of our church time. How many adults can take part sincerely in our church sacraments with true penitence. How many are in the church for matins, how many come for qurbana on time? More than half attend towards the end of the service because Sunday is the sleep-in day after the week’s work and Saturday night’s party that invite an omnivorous life style. People don’t get pleasure for their senses, as their inner senses are tuned in to mega-type musical concerts and partying. Therefore, they come and enjoy themselves in grand concerts that they want to avoid children because children’s sounds disturb their sensual appetite. Bring the children where ever we go in this family-planning society, so that we can try to conquer their hearts eventually because after the age of 15 they are not in our grip legally. Throw away the musical-oriented Qurbana that is accompanied by violins, harmonium, guitar and drums.

Our instruments for our worships are our inner senses that are tuned in to participate with the infinity that accompany with the notations of our tears; otherwise understand that an era of Satan sitting in the Temple, as forewarned by St.Paul, is already bloomed. However, my attempt is futile and sterile because the clergy that was trained by choir and musical concerts and youth politics of the political parties survive only with these paraphernalia of sensual politics and spiritual gambling. I don’t know how many of us do realiaze that a decadent doomsday religiosity has devastated the purity of orthodox spirituality.

Prof.E.S.John, Australia
Contributing Editor

Icons play a great importance in the Eastern orthodox churches also because they drifted away from the Roman church in the 11th century, whereas the apostolic era and the early church didn’t give any importance to these things.

The Mother of Jesus is neither a saint nor a saint’saint; she is the Queen in the Kingdom of God, Ps.45. Just as the herald John the Baptist, Lk.7: 28, was the greatest on earth, the God bearer St.Mary is the greatest in the Kingdom of God. As we don’t place the portrait of God in our worshipping venues, keeping an imaginary person’s photo in our worshipping area is seemingly also is violating the 2nd Mosaic commandment. As the portrait of St.Mary painted by Baby Chengannor apparently look like a sari-clad teenage beauty model holding a
sleeping son is a ridiculous sacrilege for the Orthodox Church. The old form of Mary holding a son in texture form, not in real painted colours, seems to be ideal portrait that may be placed in homes and presbyteries for children to have an image of the Incarnate Son and the mother. Just like yejur Veda didn’t prescribe any idol worship, but in the other later Vedas we see that idols make an important role in Hindu pujas, photos and icons which have taken a secondary
role in our worship is seemingly a sacrilege. Though cherubim were placed in the Jerusalem Temple for the significance of a celestial presence, they were not worshiped at any time of the decadence of the Jewish worship. Catacomb is a different era of church history, not to be likely taken seriously as a sign of missionary work. The sacred heart portrait seems to be an idolatrous painting that loudly thunders the Immaculate Conception is a later derivation of
paganised Christianity. Placing the portraits or photos of Parumala thirumeni or Vattrasseril thirumeni in our homes and parsonages donâ’t go in contravention against the image worship because we have seen them and know their profile and image, but placing imaginary figures and prostrating in front of them is certainly encouraging image worship in our parishes. There is a photo of Baby Chengannor’s portrait of St.Mary hung at a key place, entrance, in a church building, and I have seen many people falling on the floor and shedding tears after the Holy Qurbana and putting currency notes in the adjacent money box.

Some members asked during MC meetings to remove that photo from there, but it was not done – there was a money box built on the wall safely underneath the portrait; yet for the second time, a thief got in and broke the wall and fled away with the box. The blood money is meant to buy the potter’s (plotters’) field only. The wall was repaired and a portable box was kept that was to be emptied every week.

It is the recent money culture and commercial spirituality that has swallowed up our faith and church.

The ‘Sacred heart’ is a Mary syndrome that is a heretic component which the Orthodox cannot accept. Celebrating this ‘ettu nomb’ (celebrating the birthday of Holy Theodokos for eight days with fasting, which is a Roman catholic Practice) without a Kalpana (without the approval of the Holy Episcopal Synod) is just like Saul, the first anointed king of Israel, who brought the fattened booty for a sacrifice to God by disobeying the commandment of God. An evil spirit that haunted thereafter due to this disobedience and a vendetta against King David led him on to commit suicide, thus ‘ettu nomb’ is a proven faith suicide.
It is a great contribution that the church from this year on has given a Kalpana to observe the period from 1st September onwards for two weeks as prayer weeks that certainly erase the heretical fasting and charismatic prayers of ‘ettu Nomb’.

Prof. E.S.John, Australia
Contributing Editor

Patriarch Athenagoras I was born in the province of Ioanina, Epirus on March 25, 1886, at that time still apart of the Ottoman Empire. The son of the village doctor, his mother died when he was only 13. In 1903, he entered the Halki Theological Academy near Istanbul. In 1910, he graduated with his degree in theology, was tonsured as a monk and ordained as a deacon. In December of 1922, while still a deacon, he was elected as the Metropolitan of the island of Corfu. In 1930, he was elected the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of North and South America and served as our Archbishop until 1948. During his 18-year tenure, the women’s Philoptochos, the philanthropic arm of the Church was established. He also established an orphanage, St. Basil’s Academy, and a seminary, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. Elected Patriarch of Constantinople in 1948, Athenagoras was active in the ecumenical movement, seeking to establish better relationships among Christians. Perhaps most notable was his meeting with Pope Paul VI in Jerusalem in 1964, which resulted in the mutual lifting of the anathemas that had separated Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians since 1054 AD. This symbolic gesture opened the possibility of authentic dialogue between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches for the first time in centuries. Patriarch Athengoras died on July 7th, 1972.

The excerpts below are taken from a book, Conversations with Patriarch Athenagoras written by the French Orthodox theologian and writer, Olivier Clement in 1969.

DIALOGUE AMONG CHRISTIANS

I do not deny that there are differences between the Churches, but I say that we must change our way of approaching them. And the question of method is in the first place a psychological, or rather a spiritual problem. For centuries there have been conversations between theologians, and they have done nothing except to harden their positions. I have a whole library about it. And why? Because they spoke in fear and distrust of one another, with the desire to defend themselves and to defeat the others. Theology was no longer a pure celebration of the mystery of God. It became a weapon. God himself became a weapon!

I repeat: I do not ignore these difficulties. But I am trying to change the spiritual atmosphere. The restoration of mutual love will enable us to see the questions in a totally different light. We must express the truth which is dear to us – because it protects and celebrates the immensity of the life which is in Christ – we must express it, not so as to repulse the other, so as to force him to admit that he is beaten, but so as to share it with him; and also for its own sake, for its beauty, as a celebration of truth to which we invite our brothers. At the same time we must be ready to listen. For Christians, truth is not opposed to life or love; it expresses their fullness. First of all, we must free these words, these words which tend to collide, from the evil past, from all political, national and cultural hatreds which have nothing to do with Christ. Then we must root them in the deep life of the Church, in the experience of the Resurrection which it is their mission to serve. We must always weigh our words in the balance of life and death and Resurrection.

Those who accuse me of sacrificing Orthodoxy to a bind obsession with love, have a very poor conception of the truth. They make it into a system which they possess, which reassures them, when what it really is, is the living glorification of the living God, with all the risks involved in creative life. And we don’t possess God; it is He who holds us and fills us with His presence in proportion to our humility and love. Only by love can we glorify the God of love, only by giving and sharing and sacrificing oneself can one glorify the God who, to save us, sacrificed himself and went to death, the death of the cross.

But I would go further. Those who reproach me with sacrificing truth to love have no confidence in the truth. They shut it up, they lock it up like an unfaithful woman. But I say, if the truth is the truth, we must not be afraid for it; let us give it, let us share it, let us show it in its fullness, let us welcome all that there is of light and love in the experience of our brethren. If we continue in this attitude, then truth will become clear of itself, it will conquer all limitations and inadequacies from within, on the basis of the common mystery of the Church. Let us enlarge our hearts, “let each one of us, as the apostle says, look not to our own things, but rather to the things of others” (Phil. 2:4). We have a sure criterion – life in Christ. Faced with a partial expression of the truth, let us ask in what measure it conveys the life in Christ, or in what measure it is liable to compromise it.

Orthodoxy, if it goes back to the sources of its great tradition, will be the humble and faithful witness to the undivided Church. The Orthodox Churches, in coming together themselves in mutual respect and love, will set a movement of brotherhood going throughout the Christian world, giving the example of a free communion of sister Churches, united by the same sacraments and the same faith. As to the Orthodox faith, centered as it is on liturgical praise and worship, and on holiness, it will bring the criterion of spiritual experience to ecumenical dialogue, a criterion which will allow us to disentangle partial truths from their limitations so that they may be reconciled in a higher plenitude of truth.

But we Orthodox: are we worthy of Orthodoxy? Up till the efforts we have made in recent years, what kind of example have our Churches given? We are united in faith and united in the chalice, but we have become strangers to one another, sometimes rivals. And our great tradition, the Fathers, Palamas, the Philokalia: is it living and creative in us? If we are satisfied to repeat our formulas, hardening them against our fellow Christians, then our inheritance will become something dead. It is sharing, humility, reconciliation which makes us truly Orthodox, holding the faith not for ourselves – if we did that we should simply be affirming yet one more historic confession of faith – but for the union of all, as the selfless witnesses of the undivided Church.

COMMUNION AND FORGIVENESS

To those who reduce the Eucharist to a mere brotherly meal one must say that such a meal, even when shared in love, will not prevent us from dying. The Eucharist is first and foremost union with the Risen Christ, who raises us up. It is the bread of heaven which even now imparts eternal life to us. And that is why it is, at the same time, the only meal of total brotherhood, indeed of more than brotherhood, for Christ makes us ‘members one of another,’ as St. Paul says, and He identifies us in his flesh.

But people do not forget the evil they have done and the evil they have suffered, above all when those who have committed the wrong are men or collectivities that are still alive. People don’t forget. And you can’t force them to forget. But if you lay down your arms, if you dispossess yourself, if you open yourself to the God-man Jesus Christ who makes all things new, then the evil past is done away with, and He grants us a new time, in which all things are possible. Forgiveness; it is God himself who takes flesh, dies on the cross and rises again. He forgives us, and allows us to forgive, for He renews time, even the past. This is the mystery of repentance.

As to the future, we cannot dictate it. We only know that in our lives, as in history, the Resurrection will be the last word. That is why we have no fear; we turn our eyes to God and put absolute trust in him for the events of the future. So we can welcome the present and live in it as intensely as possible. Every day I get up, thankful to be alive, and I receive the new day as a blessing. And every promise of life which comes from the past and is turned towards God’s future, I try to make grow today, as I live the moment in its fullness.

Nothing troubles me. Nothing can trouble me. I am in the hands of God. In suffering and in troubles there always remains for us the naked faith that God loves us with an infinite love. There always remains for us the blood of Christ, and the tenderness of His most holy Mother. I know those moments when the situation is quite beyond you, when you can no more do anything. Then I altogether let go of the weight of my weakness, and abandon myself in trust. And peace comes to me, that peace which the Lord gives us, which passes all understanding.

REPENTING OF OUR SINS AS A CHURCH

What have we done? What have we done? Christ has left us. We have driven him away. Our hatreds, our pride, our pharisaical self-sufficiency have driven out the spirit of the Gospel. And Christ has gone. Christ has gone. Oh, how satisfied we are with ourselves! We are the pure, we possess the truth, and we condemn others! But life and history go on. They are knocking at the doors of the Church, and putting ultimate questions to us. Everything is changing. The scientific revolution is advancing, it is modifying and not only man’s environment, but man himself, his education, the relationship between the sexes, his psychology, and tomorrow perhaps his heredity and character as well. Not that science and technology necessarily build a world without God, as is sometimes said. But they force man, and they will force him more and more to ask where all this is going, what is the meaning of it all, what is the meaning of his own life.

What is most lacking among men of the Church is the spirit of Christ: humility, selflessness, an open welcome, the capacity of seeing the best in others. We are afraid, we want to hang on to what is over and done with, because we’re used to it. We want to be right over against the others, and under a language of conventional humility we hide the spirit of pride and power. We carry on apart from life. We have made the Church into an organization, just like all the other ones. We have put all our energy into setting it up, and now we put all our energy into keeping it going. And it works more or less; rather less than more, but it works. Only it works like a machine, and not like life.

THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH

All the peoples of the world are good; all the races. All must find their place in the unity of mankind. I belong to all peoples. Christian unity must be the ferment of human unity. The unification of mankind is at once the expression and the search for our perfect unity in Christ, where we are all members one of another. There is only one Church, the Church of Christ; only one theology, the proclamation of Christ risen from the dead who raises us up and gives us the power to love. Soon men will be going to the moon, but they no longer know the meaning of life. We Christians ought not to be afraid of anything. We have nothing to ask of others, nothing to impose on them; but we must bear witness that life has a meaning, that life is boundless, that it opens onto eternity. For God exists, God exists; and He, the Unknown, is our friend.

Source:

By:
Theodore Riginiotes, theologian.

On September 16, 2009, I saw a documentary on television presenting the life of one of the indigenous tribes living in the Amazon region. In Greece we know very little about these tribes: only that they are ancient, that their ancestors were wise and brave warriors, with well-organized nations and noteworthy civilizations, and that from the 15th century onwards, various white warlords led armor-clad warriors who came from the sea and who slaughtered the people of these tribes, ransacked their treasures, destroyed their cities and villages, and seized their land. It is on this land which was seized from the Indians that we now find all the countries that are on the continent known as “America”: North, Central, and South.

We Greeks have gone through more or less the same. We too had wise and brave warriors, with well-organized states and important civilizations, and from the 13th century onwards, various white warlords leading armor-clad warriors came from both land and sea and slaughtered our people, ransacked our treasures, destroyed our cities and villages and seized our land. These warlords had exactly the same flags as those who destroyed the lives of our brothers, the natives of America.

From the 15th century onwards, what was left of our land was seized by other barbarian warriors who came from the East, whose like our native American brothers had not confronted. These had likewise seized our land, even though we constantly revolted against them, until 1830, when a large portion of it was liberated, little by little. However, we were still weak and torn by civil wars among our own warlords (brave, but not wise ones; fortunately there were a few wise ones), and so, instead of becoming truly free and strong, we fell into the hands of our previous overlords, who placed us under their authority – not with weapons this time, but with cunning known as politics and diplomacy.
Even in our day, we are still struggling to free ourselves and to regain the wisdom and bravery of our ancestors. So, my Indian brothers, I think I can understand your tribulations, enough to address a few words to you. In a manner of sorts, I am, so to speak, “one of you”.

In the documentary that I mentioned previously, I saw something that deeply wounded my heart: some Indians were standing on the ocean shore, at the place where the white invaders had disembarked from the sea and had planted a giant Cross, just before beginning their “labour” of exterminating the Indians. The modern-day Indians told the filmmakers who were preparing the documentary: “This is the spot where the white men began to seize our land. The Cross is the spirit of destruction, the spirit of extermination. That’s what we have learnt.”

Given that I too have hung a Crucifix on my bosom as a “protective amulet”, and my temples are full of Crucifixes (which are far more ancient than the white men who exterminated the Indians as well as my people), I would like to clarify to my Indian brothers two things: 1) what the Crucifix truly symbolizes and 2) exactly who those white men were, who had planted the Cross on the seashore and had incited the Indians to hate it. I beg you to please listen to me.

I know that nowadays, most Indians have a university degree and it is not necessary for me to speak in simple words, the way I would need to speak to people who live in the middle of the jungle. However, I will try to speak plainly, so that my words can be comprehended by both those with a university degree and by those who live in the wilderness. I beg my Indian brothers who live in the cities and have access to modern technology to convey the spirit of my words to their brothers (and my brothers) who live in the wilderness and still preserve the ancient wisdom and way of life of their ancestors unadulterated.

1. The Crucifix and us

Long before the Earth, the mountains, the rivers, the sea, the trees, the animals, the birds, man, there were the spirits. Spirits are both good and bad, luminous and dark; there are spirits that love people, and others that hate them and try to harm them. Many of these evil spirits sometimes appear as benevolent ones and they perform some good in order to fool people, but eventually cause them even more harm and make them their slaves forever.

But, even before these spirits, there exists another Spirit, Who created everything. This Great Spirit is the One Who created the Earth and all that exists on it: the mountains, the rivers, the trees, the animals, the birds, and mankind. However, it is this same Great Spirit Who had also created all the other spirits – all the spirits, the good ones and the (eventually) evil ones.

The Great Spirit is benevolent and luminous, and had made all of Creation out of an infinite love. And everything that the Great Spirit had created was created with goodness. (Even the evil spirits, when they were originally created, were benevolent.) Similarly, the first humans who were created were benevolent, just as every person who is born is good. But, given that people have been created with a free will, they are able to choose to remain good or become evil. This applies to the spirits also, who can choose to be good or evil. Thus, long before mankind was created, certain spirits had chosen to become evil. But the Great Spirit, being full of love, did not destroy them, but instead allowed them to live, even though they had stopped loving Him.

However, these evil spirits had tricked the first humans, and convinced them to stop loving the Great Spirit. From then on, people distanced themselves from the Great Spirit; they refused His protection, and even forgot that He exists. They only vaguely recalled His existence, in fairy tales and the songs of their people, but nothing clearer about Him. And so, they became wicked, they began to fight amongst themselves and began to worship wicked spirits. But the Great Spirit had never forsaken them, nor did he hate them; He always waited for the right moment to help them.

Now this Great Spirit is not alone. He has a company of two other Great Spirits, equally Great, benevolent, and almighty. These Three Great Spirits are related to each other: the one Great Spirit made the other two come into existence – NOT by “creating Them” externally, but by “bringing Them out of Himself” (to use a human term, which does not befit spirits as well as it does humans). He did this out of His infinite love, and thus, the other two Great Spirits also love the First Great Spirit (Who brought them into existence) so much, that we do not regard them as three separate Great Spirits (even though they are three), but as One, which is comprised of the company of all Three. There are no earthly creations that are united with such a love, so we are not able to fully understand how the Three Great Spirits can be so united, that they can simultaneously be Three and One, but we can understand to a small degree what this means, if we think on how powerfully love unites people who feel it.

Thus united (as the Three Great Spirits have eternally been), the Three of them, as One, created the Earth and all that exists on it: the mountains, the rivers, the sea, the trees, the animals, the birds, man and the spirits and whatever else they wished to create. They created them, as we said, out of Their infinite love, in order to share this love with other beings; and not only this love, but also Their benevolent energies, which enable Their creations (when they so desire) to embark on an actual association with the Great Spirit, Who is simultaneously a company of Three Great Spirits.

The Greeks call this Great Spirit “Theos” and “Agia Triada” and those who speak English call Him “God” and “Holy Trinity”, while all peoples give Him a name in their own language, at times with a lesser knowledge about Him and at times with a greater knowledge.

Anyway, many centuries had gone by, while the benevolent and wise Great Spirit continued to wait for the appropriate time to help mankind escape from the wicked spirits and return (if they so desired) to the relationship that they had with the Great Spirit originally. For this purpose, He did something incredible – something that only someone with tremendously great love would ever do: One of the Three Great Spirits was incarnated into a man. He assumed a human body and soul; He became an infant by residing in the womb of a pure young girl, the purest ever to have been born on earth. He was born to this young girl, breastfed like any infant, grew up, and, when He reached adulthood, began to speak of the Great Spirit Who had brought Him into existence from the very beginning, and Whom he referred to as “His Father”. And, having shown us just how much He loved us also and how He identified Himself with us, He referred to the Great Spirit as “The Father of us all”.

He spoke to the people about truth, justice, and love, and asked them to forgive their enemies and to be humble. He asked them to love all people – good and wicked (because no one is perfectly good, to have the right to despise the wicked); to not be interested in wealth and glory, but to purify their heart of hate and selfishness, and to follow Him. He also healed the sick, the blind and the paralyzed, and He cast out evil spirits with His great power, which he eventually imparted to His disciples, so that they would also be able – by invoking His name – to perform such marvelous good deeds. But the wicked people who ruled that land arrested that kind Teacher (and naturally without believing that He was the Great Spirit who had become a man); they tortured Him, and killed Him, by crucifying Him with nails through His hands and feet, to a wooden cross! When He died, His disciples took His body and buried it inside a cave, then hid themselves, despairing and frightened.

Three days later, however, the good Teacher came back from the dead and appeared to His disciples. He explained to them again who He actually was and what He had come to Earth for, and He instructed them to travel to the ends of the Earth and to speak of Him to all the peoples of the world, because all people are children of the Great Spirit, who created all things. Then, after he had accompanied them for forty days, He left, ascending into the heavens.

Ten days later, the Third Great Spirit came down from heaven, taking on the form of a flame. It divided itself among the disciples of the great Teacher and thus filled them with heavenly wisdom, so that they could understand what the Three Great Spirits (who are One God) really are, and gave them courage, so that they might speak of The Three Great Spirits to all people, no longer fearing the violent attacks that the evil spirits would direct against them.

Beginning then, the disciples themselves became teachers and spoke of all this to as many people as they could until certain wicked people, under the power of evil spirits, caught them and killed them one by one in different places of the earth. Whoever showed trust in their words (which were the words of the great Teacher) became their disciples and learned how to be united with the Great Spirit through humility and love. There were thousands of people like this, among many nations, and of all colours. There are thousands of such people today as well.

So the cross, on which the body of the great Teacher was nailed, became sacred and acquired the power to expel evil spirits. This is why the disciples of the Teacher and their disciples, until today (in other words, ourselves), regard the cross as a symbol of the love that we must have for others (in other words, we must offer them love and every possible assistance and pray for them to the Great Spirit) and as a charm: we use it as a weapon that wards off evil spirits. Hundreds of instances have been recorded where people protected themselves or healed others from the influence of evil spirits by using small models of the cross on which the great Teacher was crucified.

This Great Spirit, which became man and taught love and was crucified and resurrected, had a human name, as well: He was called “Jesus”, which, in the language of the people to whom he was born, means “God saves”. And, since (even though he was a real man) He had inside of Him all the power of the Great Spirit, we call Him “Christ” (anointed with holy oil, like the kings are anointed). He is Jesus Christ, and the people who accepted His teachings and those of His disciples are called “Christians”.

Whatever you think of Christ, whatever you have been told or believed because of the suffering and the tragedies of your people, in reality Jesus Christ was He who taught love and was crucified and resurrected, in order to once again unite people with the Great Spirit, our Creator.

For us who follow the teachings of the great Teacher sincerely (or rather try to follow them, because very few actually try as hard, so that they might actually love like He taught it), the Cross is a dearly beloved object. It is a symbol of love and a weapon against the evil spirits, not a symbol of death and destruction.

B. People who followed Christ’s teaching to the end

Jesus Christ, the Great Teacher, the Great Spirit that became a man 2000 years ago in order to lead us closer to God, taught people that they will approach God and be united with Him when they love everyone, even their enemies. He did this, by forgiving His disciple who betrayed Him to his enemies, but also by forgiving His enemies themselves, when He was nailed to the Cross (although they probably did not acknowledge this forgiveness – with the exception of the centurion Longinus, who later became a Christian and died for Christ’s sake). But since it is impossible for a person, on his own spiritual powers, to reach the point of loving his enemies, the Teacher left us instructions to ask Him for help (He always listens to us) in order to acquire such strength. We call our communication with Him “prayer”. He also asked that we always remain united with Him (with the Great Spirit, in other words), and gave us ways to begin this union. We take on His good energy, by being baptized in water in the name of the Three Great Spirits, which constitute One, Supreme, Great Spirit. By using the names that Christ taught us, we address the Spirit that gave existence to the other ones “Father”, the one that became man we call “Son” (this is Christ), and the one that came down to the disciples in the form of a flame we call the “Holy Spirit”. We are baptized, then, “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”, and we thus become Christians.

The night before He was crucified, Christ took bread and wine, conferred upon them His benevolent Energy (we call it “Grace”, in other words “Gift”), and distributed them to His disciples. He said to them: “This bread is My Body, and this wine is My Blood. Eat and drink these, to commemorate me.” Ever since then, Christians repeat the same action. A priest, who has received the Grace of Christ through a special ceremony, repeats Christ’s action with the bread and the wine and we Christians eat a small amount of it, as did His disciples that night. Since the bread and wine take on the Grace of God, they are invisibly transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus. Thus we are united with Him and we take on (those who wish to, since there are weak and wicked people) the power to love all people.

In this ritual no one sees or tastes flesh or blood, only bread and wine. We eat bread and wine. But we know that these two are invisibly transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus, because some Christians who arrived at perfect union with God (we call them “saints” and they are the teachers of every generation) saw this transformation with their spiritual eyes.

For the first three hundred years after Christ, the great empire that ruled our world at the time (the Roman Empire) tried to exterminate the Christians, forcing them to worship various spirits, which were worshipped by the ancient peoples but which were not the Great Spirit. They resorted to every kind of torture to force them. The Christians did not raise weapons against their enemies, not because they were not brave, but because they knew that, if they did what their Teacher told them (to not confront violence with violence), their souls would go to live with the Great Spirit, bathed in His light and receiving His love. Hundreds of thousands of Christians, men, women, and children, were tortured to death and gave their lives smiling. And three centuries after Christ, without spilling blood, the Christians won: the rulers of the Roman Empire became Christians themselves.

Of course, the problems did not stop (evil spirits always want to take people far away from God, either through violence or through trickery), but it is not now necessary for me to continue telling this story. The more educated of my Indian brothers can find books from which they can learn details, if they wish.

From generation to generation there have been thousands of people who have been perfectly united with Christ and acquired the great love that He spoke of. Many of them distributed all of their property to the poor and kept only the clothes that they wore. Some even gave their clothes and lived naked in a deserted place, praying to God. They all helped their fellow people in whatever way they could, since their love for Christ made them follow His example. Those who were most united with God acquired the gift of performing miracles (to heal the sick, to expel evil spirits, etc), not by using magic, but simply by uttering Christ’s name. We respect and honor all of these people, we speak with them (they can hear us even after they die and go to the place of the souls), and we call them “saints”, in other words, those who are united with God.

Let us mention just a few of them:

Saint Makarios of Egypt was so kind-hearted that, when a young woman who was pregnant from a secret lover accused him of being the father, he accepted her accusation, suffered all kinds of insults from the local populace, and began working twice as much in order to support the woman and her child. Later, when the truth was discovered, he left secretly and never sought to be vindicated.

In the fifth century AD, Saint Paulinus, after spending all his wealth buying and freeing slaves from barbarian invaders (the Vandals), gave himself up as a slave in order to free the only son of a widow.

In 1015, when the Russian saints, princes Boris and Gleb, realized that their wicked brother Sviatopolkos had invited them to his palace with the intent to murder them, they went anyway. They preferred to die rather than force their soldiers to fight for their sake.

Saint Moses the Hungarian was a slave who preferred to be tortured for many years and eventually die rather than become his owner’s lover.

The seven year old saint Ivan Chi Chung, after being tortured in Peking, China, in the summer of 1900, full of spiritual power from the Grace of God, said that it is not harsh to suffer for Christ and simply asked to be buried near the church where he was baptized.

Saint Nicholas of Pskof, a “fool for Christ” (he pretended to be crazy so that people would not realize he was a saint), stopped the murderous king Ivan the Terrible in the middle of the street and offered him raw meat to eat, in order to show him that the way he was ruling Russia was like eating people!

Saint Andrew, another “fool for Christ”, on the night that God informed him would be his last, went to the street in Constantinople where all the brothels were located and died there after praying all night for all the sinful people of the world to seek God’s Light.

Saint Mary Skobtsova, who helped many people escape from the Nazis during World War II, was executed in the Nazi concentration camp of Ravensburg. It was reported that she changed places with another woman who was condemned to death, and allowed herself to be killed in order to save the other woman.

C. The false “Christians” who killed the Indians

At the beginning of the eighth century AD, a group of warriors in Western Europe, along with their king, who was known as Charlemagne, created another type of Christianity, changing many of the things that Christians had believed and taught until then. They thus created a different “version” of Christianity, which they wanted to use to conquer Europe. This different version was essentially a warlike religion, which was lacking in love and the compassion of true Christianity.

Two centuries later, the descendants of these warriors, who had become numerous and powerful, led their army and conquered the most important Christian city of Europe – Rome. They evicted the spiritual leader of the Roman Christians from his position and replaced him with one of their own. From then on, they imposed their own form of Christianity on all the peoples of Western Europe. They called this form of Christianity the “Catholic Church”, which was the term used by all Christians until that time, when referring to the one Church. They are also called “Roman Catholics”. We, however, who belong to the ancient tradition of authentic Christianity, call this version of Christianity “Papism”, from the leader of the roman Christians, the Pope. The departure of Rome (and all of the West) from the original body of Christianity is called “The Great Schism”. Only ancient Christianity is properly called the “Catholic Church”, but since the time of the Great Schism our ancestors have begun to refer to the original Christianity with the title of “Orthodoxy”.

The papist kings immediately began to attack the neighbouring peoples near them and after two centuries, they also conquered Constantinople, the capitol of the Christians of Eastern Europe (who are our ancestors, and who preserved the ancient form of Christianity that we share with them), destroyed our churches, raped our women, ransacked our treasures, stole our land and kept many pieces of it as their own, for four whole centuries, until they were taken away from them by barbarian warriors who came from the depths of the East and knew almost nothing of Christ.

In the pursuant centuries, the people of Western Europe lived in violence, poverty, and fear. And yet the worst part about this was that those who oppressed and terrorized them took solemn oaths that they were “Christians” and they even used the Cross as their symbol! Good people were deeply saddened, and many lost their lives (they were killed) trying to defend justice and truth. Thus many people in Western Europe came to believe that the Cross was a symbol of death and evil (just as our Indian brothers do), instead of a symbol of love and goodness.

In the fifteenth century, those who could do so took boats and left Europe, because they could no longer tolerate the situation. These were the boats of the white men who landed on the shores of America. But unfortunately the people who traveled in them did not remember Christ’s teachings about love and justice, believing that only gold has value in life. Thus, when they saw the rich cities of the native people, their minds were clouded and the desire to ransack them entered their hearts. Thus the evil began. Unfortunately, my brothers, you know the rest.

In the sixteenth century certain people in Western Europe created another version of Christianity, in order to escape from Papism. I believe that this was a mistake. They should have returned to the ancient, authentic version of Christianity, Orthodoxy, which the peoples in Eastern Europe – despite all their suffering – never lost. This new version of Christianity was named “Protestantism” (denoting their protest against Papism). During the next centuries many white Protestants came chiefly to North America and fought with the Indians who lived there. Unfortunately these white men also behaved barbarously: they exterminated the tribes and stole their land. Thus, once again Christianity as a whole was unjustly accused.

Since many Indians are wise, I am sure that they will understand what I am about to say. In all nations (among us and among the Indians) there are good people and there are bad people also. The white men, who originated in Western Europe and whose children and grandchildren now live in America and who are called Americans, are not evil. But the conditions that have prevailed in Western Europe since the Great Schism had prevented them from distinguishing good from evil. What the Indians suffered at their hands resembles what we suffered, even though we are Christians, just as our enemies supposedly are.

Until the twentieth century, people from Western Europe, who used the cross as a symbol of violence and death, tortured and killed our people and other peoples of the East, who guarded Orthodoxy as a precious treasure, and until today there are many people who follow Christ’s teachings to the utmost and become saints. In the second world war, roughly 1,500,000 people were killed in the country now known as Serbia because they refused to abandon authentic Christianity and adopt Papism.

D. Why I wrote this letter

I wrote this letter in Greek and showed it first to my brothers (in other words, to my dear friends) who are Orthodox Christians and who love all people. Some of them translated it into other languages. My heart’s desire is for it to be translated not only into the languages that are spoken by the white men of America, but chiefly into the languages of the Indians. Thus it will be able to reach even those Indians who don’t speak the languages of the white men, like those who live on reservations, in the American desert, and in villages in the woods.

I wrote it for two reasons. First, because I felt great sorrow when I heard some Indians (with whom we have so much in common) say on television that they consider the cross (the symbol of love) to be a symbol of death and destruction. This, which is an excusable but terrible mistake, excludes them from knowing Him who was once nailed to a Cross in order to save people from evil spirits – the Great Spirit who became a man, Jesus Christ. And (I speak the truth) our Indian brothers will never find the completion of their own civilization and religion if they do not come to know Jesus Christ, who (along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the “nuclear” Great Spirit) is the Creator of all things, even the spirits that they worship.

I do not want to steal that which they have, nor make them adopt the white men’s way of life. Indeed, at least half of this way of life is bad. I want them to remain Indians, wise and brave, to preserve their historical memory and their civilization, but to also learn about Orthodoxy, so that they can be not only wise and brave, but also holy – so that they can themselves, with their own Indian Orthodox priests, call upon the Grace of God to enter in them and their children and dwell there forever.

I am not a teacher, only a simple and humble student; a student, though, of the holy teachers of Orthodoxy of all generations. I do not at all have the wisdom or the right to advise my brothers what they should do. I ask them only to learn about Orthodoxy, and nothing more. I believe that the knowledge of Christ’s teaching, as it is preserved in the ancient and authentic Orthodox Christian tradition, is by itself enough to make them trust and love it.

Chief Seattle’s response to President Franklin Pierce in 1854, that he could not sell his people’s land because it does not belong to them but rather the people belong to it, has become a memorable piece of American history. In exactly the same time period, a Greek saint went from village to village saying exactly the same things to my people, the Greeks, who had just acquired their “own” state, but were being ruled by the powerful countries of Western Europe, who had dazzled them with their wealth and culture. This saint was called Christoforos Papoulakos (which means “dear old man”). The people in power captured him and he died in prison, but his words influenced our future.

In 1977 the “Message of the Iroquois Confederation of the Six Nations to the Western World” was presented at the International Conference of Indian Nations in Geneva, under the auspices of the Non Governmental Organizations of the UN. In this message, the ancient wisdom of the Indians was compared against the utilitarian and invasive culture of the white men, the culture that now essentially rules the whole world and which in reality is only the culture of the Western white men, not ours. Similarly, the reproaches against Christianity included in this message, that “Rome is the real place that it is modeled after”; that it “de-spiritualized the world”, and that it “came to prominence with weapons”, refer to the false versions of Christianity that were created in the West, not to ancient Christianity or to Orthodoxy. A few years earlier, during the second world war, an Orthodox saint, imprisoned at the Nazi concentration camp of Dachau, the bishop Nikolaos Velimirovich, sent a moving message to all the people of Europe, wherein he too compared the ancient wisdom of the Orthodox Christians with the culture of the West, the same culture critiqued by our Iroquois brothers as well as every wise and thinking Indian.

E. Among religions, Orthodoxy

Perhaps there are many people, of different religions, large and small, simple and strange, who are trying to convince the Indians to follow them. I am not suggesting a new religion to the Indians, but rather the oldest one, the one that comes straight from the creation of the world, from the Great Spirit who waited thousands of years for the time to come to reveal it to mankind.

And, ever since we discovered it, many centuries have again passed until the time came for Orthodoxy to arrive at the land of the Indian peoples, the land of America. Unfortunately, it arrived after Papism and Protestantism; in other words, the truth arrived after its false permutations; love arrived, after the violence and the fire.

In the nineteenth century, thousands of Native Americans from various northern tribes (such as the Aleuts) were baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and became Orthodox Christians. Some of them became saints, who are now honored by us, the white Orthodox people, such as Saint Peter the Aleut, who heroically endured torture to the death in California in 1815 at the hands of Spanish Jesuits, who tried to force him to deny Orthodoxy and become “Catholic”. Also, Saint Iakovos Netsetof (1802-1865), a just and wise Aleut priest, who traveled great distances over the frozen American north, speaking of Christ and distributing Holy Communion, the repetition of the last supper of Christ with His disciples (this is the supreme religious ritual of Orthodox Christians, which takes place every week). He also translated some Orthodox Christian books into the language of his people. In 1979 Saint Olga of Alaska reposed in the Lord; she was a member of the Yupik tribe – a midwife who offered a great deal to the people of the local community and herself became sanctified through her love towards people and God. You can read more about her, here: http://oholy.net/stolga/olga_index.html.

Furthermore, since that time, several true and wise teachers of Orthodox faith and love have lived on American soil, spending many years with the tribes of the American north; they loved them and were loved in return, and they frequently defended the natives against all types of white colonizers. Among them was Saint Herman of Alaska (1836), who settled on Spruce Island and lived a simple and poor life there (full of miracles and communication with the Great Triune God and the good spirits, His angels), helping the Aleuts as much as he was able. Also, Saint Innocent Veniaminof (1797-1879), Saint John Maximovitch the Wonder-Worker (1896-1966), who with his prayers stopped the typhoons on the island of Tubabao in the Philippines for 27 months, Saint Nicholas Velimirovich (1880-1956), and others.

The difference between Orthodoxy and other religions is this: many religions all over the Earth worship spirits, and many also recognize the existence of the Great Spirit and pray to Him, as each one understands Him. But the ancient, authentic Christianity, Orthodoxy, suggests not only a teaching about the Great Spirit or a prayer to Him, but also the union of a person with the Great Spirit (which is a company of Three Great Spirits), a union which the saints achieve through the Great Spirit who became a man and who always has communication with people: Jesus Christ.

This is why many people from other religions or from other versions of Christianity, when they learn of Orthodoxy, after careful research, leave the religions that they previously followed and become Orthodox. But, as one of the most worthy of them, the holy monk Seraphim Rose (1931-1982), said, “When you become Orthodox, you don’t lose any of the real truth that you learned before.”

In 1891, the priest Alexis Toth and along with him 3,614 Catholics from Minneapolis, Minnesota, left Catholicism together and became Orthodox.

On January 22, 1984, in Mexico City, the Orthodox bishop Paul de Ballester (who had become Orthodox in 1953, when he realized that Papism, to which he had belonged until then, was misguided) was murdered as he left the church, in which he had celebrated the great holy liturgy ritual of the Orthodox.

On May 18, 1985, in the city of Santa Cruz, the Orthodox priest Ioannis was murdered inside the church by people who clearly worshipped evil spirits. After his death, God revealed through various miracles that he was a saint.

In 1987 a group of 2000 Protestants, along with their pastors, left Protestantism and became Orthodox, and over the next years they were joined by many more. In 1996 the young Russian soldier Evgenios Rodionov was beheaded after imprisonment and torture lasting 100 days, because he refused to deny Orthodoxy and follow another religion. After his death, miracles have shown that he is also a new saint.

The blood of these saints, like the blood of Saints Ioannis and Evgenios, is added to the blood of countless other Orthodox who gave their lives in the twentieth century. We already spoke of the 1,500,000 holy martyrs of Serbia. I will mention only one more instance: in 1919 at the monastery of Oranki in Russia, 11,000 Orthodox priests were murdered because they refused to abandon their faith.

I will be frank. We Orthodox Christians recognize and honor the good spirits that were created by the Great Spirit, we build churches in their honor and pray to them. We call them “angels” (messengers). But we do not think that the spirits worshipped by our Indian brothers are good. We know that the good spirits recognize and worship the Holy Trinity, and recognize and worship the Great Spirit that became man, Jesus Christ. We have countless examples where the good spirits, the angels, recognize Jesus Christ as the Great God and offer him worship. They do this continuously in their own world, where they live. Thus, every spirit who does not recognize and worship the Holy Trinity and Jesus Christ cannot be a good spirit, even if it seems to be.

The “spirit of the world”, which our Indian brothers recognize and respect (some of them call it “Manitu”, a name that has become known to white men), seems to be the Grace of the Holy Spirit, of the “core” Great Spirit, that created the world, preserves it, and protects it.

The Orthodox saints live with love for all beings of the world; many of them live in the forests with the creatures of the wild; they are their friends and they communicate with them. However, they do not worship “animal spirits”, but rather the Great Spirit who created all the other spirits. With their prayers and their sacred ceremonies they bring the Grace (blessing) of the Great Spirit to the mountains, the forests, the rivers, the cities and all the world.

It is not important to us, if someone acquires “special powers” with the help of spirits. The saints heal the sick and predict the future with the Grace of the Father, the Son (Christ), and the Holy Spirit, in other words of the Great Spirit Himself, and not with the help of other spirits. Of course, they honor the good spirits of the angels and the souls of the saints; they often speak with them, and are very careful to distinguish the communication of the good spirits from the traps of the evil ones (in general we honor all the deceased brethren and continuously pray to the Great Spirit that they will all eventually end up in His Light).

Thus, I urge and beseech our Indian brothers to learn about Orthodoxy, not only reading books and articles on the internet, but also visiting holy places in America, like Orthodox churches and monasteries all over the American continents. Some such places, among many others, are St Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery in Arizona and the St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood in Platina, California, while it would certainly be useful to contact Fr. Peter Gilquist and his colleagues from the Evangelical Orthodox Mission of the Archdiocese of Antioch in the USA – those who came to Orthodoxy from Protestantism in 1987 after organized and rigorous research.

We Orthodox Christians are like all people, full of weaknesses and faults. Not all of us are good. But even today there are many who apply Christ’s teachings to the fullest extent and arrive at a union with Him. There are even obscure, poor people in neighborhoods of cities and villages who have reached a great saintliness.

My homeland, Greece, is today very poor and controlled by the large multinational companies, like the rest of the world. Many of us have almost forgotten our tradition and have adapted to the culture of the Western nations, which has taken over the whole world – a culture that has been resisted by the Indians. Fortunately there are still many of my people who also resist, as well as some regions that guard the precious treasure, the culture, wisdom, and holiness of Orthodoxy. One such a place is the “Holy Mountain”, Mount Athos (a unique example in the world), with is located in Greece. There, many people from many nations of the world have come to know Orthodoxy and have understood how important it is for them and for all humanity.

At this link, you can see the story of an Indian chief who lived and died as an Orthodox Christian, at the same time defending his tribe’s tradition. He even began translating the words of the most holy ceremony of Orthodoxy into his own people’s language: http://www.oodegr.com/english/empeiries/indianos1.htm.

At this link, you can see the story of an African American who discovered Orthodoxy and became an Orthodox priest, thus finding true freedom and the way to fight for it for the good of his people, our black brothers: http://www.mosestheblack.org/.

At this link, you can see the story of a white American Buddhist priest, who Christ Himself called to Orthodoxy, something that he never imagined possible: http://www.sfaturiortodoxe.ro/orthodox/orthodox_advices_yoga.htm.

You haven’t learned anything important about Orthodoxy through this letter of mine. It was only a humble invitation, full of love, for to you to learn even more.

I wish you peace and the Grace of the holy and Great Spirit, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, to your hearts. May every just desire of your people, and of every persecuted people, be fulfilled.

With true respect for your history and culture,
From faraway Greece,
Theodoros Riginiotis.

Mere observations leads to confusion; getting to know the totality is an aspiration of the soul; when these two work together, we may tend to be absorved with the infinite and shoreless realities slowly and gradually. The close affinity that emanates from the faith in Jesus’ sacrifice is called love. We saw in my last message on this topic that God’s love towards His created ones is reciprocated as faith kindle the brotherhood of man which reflects back to the Father make the cycle of relationship between God and man. Mar John chrysostum and golden-tongued Mar Ivanios’ interpretations that were given in general, while making observations on parables in Mt.25 consists of 3 parables. Besides, they who lived in the early Christian period didn’t have the experience of reading and comprehending the wealth of prophesies that have fulfilled and experienced like the fortunate ones of today because tons of printed materials give food for our further thoughts, whereas those monks in those periods depended on traditions and scarce parchment writings. As we are living in the apocalyptic time that is the penultimate period of transmutating for a cosmic life, there seems to have more spiritual materials that help us to fight against the mushrooming churches which are the false prophets and false christs. Interpretations out of observations and mystic revelations are the two integral sides of the same coin, the former out of analytic studies and the latter revelations by a medium. Intuition illogical becomes illusion, whereas revelations that have a continual effect are reliable.

The parable of the ten wise women, Mt.25: 1-13

This parable is the extension of the signs of the 2nd coming of the Lord that is given in Mt.24. The ultimate ‘little flock’, Lk.12: 32, that is the saved ones by Jesus’ first coming is seemingly only a minority of the world population. The church that represents by st.mary is a virgin, feminine gender. Thus 10 virgins are 10 churches. They all have lamps, the faith in Jesus Christ as our Saviour, with them, but only the 5 wise have oil with them. Oil is the one that is used for continuous glowing or for burning. This oil is the symbolic form of the Holy Body and Blood of Jesus that is instilled in us from time to time vide Jn.6. Though I gave in my previous posting that the oil is the chaste faith of the apostolic church, I meant that both these imperatives are inclusive. The Jesus’ Body that came from Heaven and we take it intermittently is for the whole life; it continue burning for the whole life as like the oil.

The parable of talents, Mt.25: 14-30

The master who went for the long journey gave his property, the Holy Bread and Blood, to his 3 servants according to their ability, the first one 5 talents, the 2nd one 2 and the 3rd one 1. Those servants were expected to bring as many believers in to the Kingdom of God by serving them with His property and add the numbers according to their ability. Just like the wise 5 virgins, they traded their talents and acquired the double of what the Lord had entrusted with. In the beginning of the Christian mission, there was only one church. When they split as two, the unwise virgin started outnumbering the wise by temporal and imperial reasons which caused the wise to be dwindled down to a small minority. The adulterated one began to multiply due to the power of the leavened bread. This is how the wise was unable to share their oil with the other ones in His 2nd coming. The servants who multiplied two times of their talents get rewards on the ground of their sincere work and devotion towards their Lord.

Parable of the segregation of the sheep and goats

The Son of man is the one who makes the last judgement that is basing on the good or bad deeds and actions, on the ground of doing moral things to his fellow beings, we do here. There is lot more to say here, but ‘brevity is the soul of wit’. He concludes his 3 parables with this sentence, “you know after 2 days the Passover is coming…”. These two days have deep significances. Jesus doesn’t make judgement with regard to the faith of people in His sacrificial provision of salvation, but that part work is given to the 12 apostles, Lk.22: 30 and Rev.20:4, and His area of judgement is based on ethical and moral works that give help to the suffering humanity.

Prof E.S.John , Australia

Protopresbyter Theodoros Zisis

Unia as a Model of False Unity:
The Limits of Diversity within Unity

A Talk Given by Protopresbyter Theodoros Zisis ,Professor EmerituS of the Theological School of the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, at the Metropolis of Piraeus’ Conference on the Theme “‘Primacy,’ Synodicality and the Unity of the Church”
Peace and Friendship Stadium, 28 April 2010

One of the chief marks of the previous century – the twentieth – was the Christian world’s attempt to restore unity. After Papism fell away from the Church at the beginning of the second millennium (1054) and then the Protestant’s subsequent breach with Papism in the 16th century, East and West were deeply divided and the West was much divided within itself. Yet the Church lost neither its unity nor its catholicity – its wholeness: heresy and schism may wound and scar the body of the Church but they do not divide it, just as a tree is not said to be divided if someone clips off one of its branches. From this viewpoint, the oft-used terms ‘the undivided Church’ of the first ten centuries and ‘the union of the churches’ are incorrect. The Church is ever undivided, be it after the schism of 1054 or any other schism whatsoever. Moreover, there are not many churches needing to be brought together: there is the “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church” alone, whose life continues undivided and uninterrupted in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Those heterodox Christians of the East and West who have broken away, falling into heresy and schism, cannot be called churches; they must instead seek union with the Church, denouncing heresy and delusion. Unity is not achieved by ‘uniting the churches’, but rather through ‘union with the Church’.

Following the schism, throughout the whole of the second millennium, many attempts were made at achieving unity, in particular through the calling of great synods aimed at unity such as those of Lyon (1274) and Ferreira-Florence (1438-1439). Though union between the Orthodox and the Papists was officially accepted at the later of these and almost all of the Orthodox bishops in attendance signed the terms – with the exception of Saint Mark of Ephesus and a few others – it remained unapplied: nothing more than a simple piece of paper. These councils did not aim at true Christian peace and unity – unity in truth; they did not ground themselves on the true model of unity as is found in the teaching of Christ, the Apostles and the Saints. Rather, like Unia, they were based on newly invented, false models of unity which serve ulterior motives – other malevolent, egotistical, autocratic, divisive motives. These not only failed to help the cause of unity, but enlarged the chasm and provoked new divisions. The members of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between Orthodox and Roman Catholics concluded this unanimously at the sixth plenary session of the Commission’s General Assembly held at Freising, Germany in June 1990. The text they signed reads as follows: “Unia as a method – wherever it was applied – did not succeed in its aim of bringing about rapprochement between the churches. Conversely, it brought on new divisions. The situation that it created became the cause of conflicts and trials which have left their mark on the collective memory and consciousness of the two churches. Thus for ecclesiological reasons the conviction that other methods should be sought has been made firm.” (¶ 6c)

Papal and Patriarchal texts, studies produced by theologians and even the Theological Dialogue itself create the chimerical impression that the supposed new model of unity being sought after is the ecclesiological model of ’sister churches’. In connection to this the aforementioned Freising text writes: “Now that our Churches have come together on the ecclesiological foundation of communion between sister churches, it would be a grievous matter to destroy the excellent work toward the unity of the Churches achieved through the Dialogue by returning to the method of Unia.” (¶ 6d) This model indeed applies when speaking about relations between the local autocephalous churches of the Orthodox Church, where conciliarity on both the local and international levels prevents anyone from asserting universal jurisdiction not only over the other patriarchs, but also over the ecumenical councils. The Vatican, on the other hand, does not accept, nor is it going to accept, the equality of the primates, or even that of the bishops, nor the supreme authority of the ecumenical councils. Such is apparent from the decisions of the Second Vatican Council as well as from its contemporary declarations and actions, like the abolition of the Pope’s ancient title ‘Patriarch of the West’ which limits his jurisdiction topically. Thus, the Vatican is deceiving us with the ’sister churches’ model. In reality it seeks a new Unia; a Unia that is broader and elastic, having boundless diversity on matters of faith and life so long as the primacy of the Pope is recognized.

Fundamentally, this is the model espoused by the older version of Unia which allows those Christians in union with Rome to maintain their own liturgical rites, holy icons, vesture of clergy, and other customs and practices, in some cases not even demanding unity in faith. Seeing that the first model of unity that Papism used – that of Latinization – produced no long-standing results (whether applied violently, as it was during the Crusades, or through personal proselytism), the Jesuits invented the deceptive method of Unia as a more effective means of bringing about union with Rome. They did this despite the fact that Unia was neither a holy nor true means of union; but for the Jesuits ‘the end justifies the means’. According to Christian ethics, however both the means and the end must be holy. Unity of faith and worship cannot be sacrificed in order to secure unity under the Pope, whose office is itself false and contrary to the Gospel since it subverts the God-given and apostolic model of administration – the synodical – to implement the absolute monarchy of the Pope. True unity is achieved through unity of faith, worship and administration: this is the model of unity in the ancient Church, which the Orthodox Catholic Church has maintained unswervingly. The method of Unia introduces a false unity, a unity in name only, because, outside of the fact that it allows for unlimited diversity in faith and worship, it is based on heretical ecclesiology since it overturns the Church’s synodical system of administration – a divine institution – with the primacy of the Pope – a human institution. In the Church, diversity is only permitted in secondary matters of local tradition and practice, which do not touch on the fundamentals of faith and worship and administration.

Those who in our day adhere to and promote the true unity – unity in faith, worship and administration – are troubled by what has been plotted and packaged for us from above within the Theological Dialogue, without the knowledge of the people. There at the Dialogue, as expressed in the Ravenna text (which was also discussed in October 2009 in Cyprus) the Papists lured the Orthodox into discussion of the imaginary universal ‘primacy’ of the Pope, without which no proposed union can be accepted by Luciferian Papism.

We have a new Unia at our doors; on account of this the co-chair of the Dialogue’s Mixed Committee, Cardinal Casper, expressed his satisfaction at the fact that the Orthodox discussed the universal primacy of the Pope in some form for the first time in centuries. We have been deceived by the Vatican: there can be no union with the Papists without the primacy of the Pope. For it to be otherwise they would have to call an ‘ecumenical council’ to change their ecclesiology, to change the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church produced at Vatican II. Even if the Roman Catholic theologians involved in the Dialogue were convinced by the Orthodox and they signed a text rejecting any form of Papal primacy, accepting that the Pope – along with the other Patriarchs – are first in honour alone, and accepting that above all is the authority of the Ecumenical Councils, this text would be immediately rejected by Rome. It would be made to disappear, as if it had never been produced. This is precisely what occurred with the Freising text of 1990 which condemned Unia. Rome rejected it, it disappeared and Rome lured us into the composition of a new text on Unia at Balamand, Lebanon in 1993. There, a reduced Orthodox delegation (without representation from six autocephalous churches) exonerated Unia along with the Papist theologians so as to be in line with Vatican II, which praises Unia, and so that it might remain a model for unity with the Orthodox as per the Ravenna and Cyprus texts. Rome, therefore, accepts only what is in line with its own innovations and rejects the things of the Gospel and of the Church. Can this facade, this caricature of a dialogue be considered a dialogue? Is it acceptable for us to participate in an ostensible, false, disingenuious dialogue, a dialogue whose outcome is already known: that is to say, the rejection of all that does not agree with Papal dogma?

Since the repose of Archbishop Seraphim, our ecclesiastical leadership’s stance on these matters has been disappointing. We have even arrived at the point that many of us are considering invoking the 15th canon of the First-Second Council (called by Saint Photios in 861), which permits cessation of the commemoration of those bishops who are not upholding Orthodoxy, just as was done in 1970 when Metropolitan Augustinos of Florina, the ever-memorable Metropolitans Paul of Paramythia and Ambrose of Elevtheropolous, and almost all of the Monasteries of Mount Athos ceased commemoration of Patriarch Athenagoras.

Though the clouds of Ecumenism and Philo-Papism are yet thick, the horizon has again begun to open – there are streams of light; there is the Hierarchy of the Church of Greece’s decision from last October to provide guidelines for its representatives at the Theological Dialogue in discussions of the Pope’s ‘primacy’, returning it to the path of the Holy Fathers; there is also your strong voice, your tireless and unceasing action, Your Eminence [addressing Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus]. Your boldness and outspokenness on a host of matters of faith and life amazes us. Already you have been placed at the head of the anti-Papal and anti-ecumenical struggle as today’s conference, taking place under your patronage, proves; there are those amongst your fellow bishops who signed the Confession of Faith against Ecumenism together with you, and there are other bishops who did not sign but do agree; there are the six hagiorite and a host of other monasteries – male and female – who have signed; hundreds of abbots, hieromonks, married clergy, monks, and thousands of laity who have signed and continue to sign and who, surpassing every expectation, have flooded this great auditorium tonight.

We hope and believe that we will not be led into a new Unia, into the recognition of the universal primacy of the Pope in any form. If, however, the powerful and influential, the new Beccuses, Basserions, and Isidores, impose this development, all of us, with God’s help and the prayers of the Most-Holy Theotokos and all the saints who have struggled and confessed the faith, will once again quash it and ensure it is not applied.

Source:

Life is a cycle that is created. In the end of time, it is only the beginning. If there is a birth, there is death that is irrefutable and irrevocable, this is applicable to this planet and others too. Your first sentence itself betray you, (“All those Bible predictions are going to come true at some point of time”). Do you agree that it will take at some point of time? What does inhibit you in calculating that that time is ripe now? This is the culture of the Church that throws blame upon somebody and then lives like the ‘cat that drinks milk by closing its own eyes’. “You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, you cannot interpret the signs of the time”, mt.16: 3. watching out the signs of the time is our duty. The flowering of a Noah’s and Lot’s time is one of the signs, also ‘where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together’, and many more signs that pertains to our life and the created order,Lk.17: 26 ”Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man….—it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.”

Quote: “Even the Son of Man said HE doesn’t know”.

You quote from Mt.24: 36. This is a monumental excuse of everyone, Ronnie. I wrote about this issue last month also. While the Orthodox mob lives in a fool’s paradise, others sleep in a derailed world of heretical delusions. The Orthodox teaches that the Holy Trinity is inseparable, the fundamental and the core teaching of the Orthodox. The Roman Catholics and the Oriental Orthodox drifted away as two churches on this issue of the inseparability of the Holy Trinity. Jesus gave importance to the Father because of His humility and obedience, hence stated that the Son doesn’t know the timing of His coming. He also said, ‘The Father is greater than me”, Jn.14: 28, but listen to Jn.10: 30, “I and the Father are one’. As Jesus is obedient Son Incarnate, the same blind obedience and total submission is our currency which we have to give at the feet of the Son of Man. If the Orthodox people know everything, why this division and vote-catching bait that cost money and the weapon of slander that flourish during the season of bishop’s election and parish and Diocesan elections that pave way for the disgruntled flock to say goodbye to our church for ever? God gave 4,000 years of warnings to the Jews through His prophets and they were waiting with sufficient preparations to receive their king, but they couldn’t understand Him when He came because their inner eyes were closed by the leavened bread; same is the case now for the Orthodox too. We should try to understand the meanings of the parables and the writings of the apostles who gave enough signs of the Lord’s coming in a subtle way.

“Because our 1000 years can be one day for God. So, all these numbers whether it is 7 or 40 or 1000 or 6000 or 7000 days or years have no meaning in itself.”

No meanings in itself, but everything that is in Heaven has imagery on earth, Heb.8: 5. why don’t we people sit quiet and drink and enjoy for the first 40 days of the departure of a person, and then do penance and celebration after one year. If one live like a hermit and pray in the Himalayas for the rest of one’s life, he doesn’t have to give any importance to numbers like 7, 40 or 1000 days or years that denote a celestial time. There are 3 types of times: celestial, terrestrial and psychological. Living in these three dimensions is the duty of a Christian. Why did God give statutes, ordinances, commandments, festivals and festivities in the OT periods that reflect all our existence and observances? Why did Jesus ask the Jews to dismantle the Jerusalem Temple , the beauty of architecture and design in gold, Mt.24: 2, that took 46 years to construct and He said that He would reconstruct it in three days? This was the only charge that the Jews could present for His death at the cross-examinations. Has the number got any meaning? “Behold I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the 3rd day I finish my course?, Lk.13: 32. Does it pertain to 3 days only, or a period?. Because they were hard-hearted people all symbolic signs were given, is there any difference in our stubbornness in the GRACE period that is now. Watch out and pray; then get the hidden meanings of THE WORD. But the reality is that such people will be haunted and hunted by the Devil, so that the infernal guard makes others to accuse him as a hypocrite who lives a double life. Mediocrity is a cheap way of living that gets all the material salvation.

Quote: “Jesus said the Kingdom of God has come upon you. The Kingdom of God is within you. The Kingdom of God is near to you. Past, present and future. Therefore, God’s Kingdom is not just something which is for future alone.”

Unquote: Very serious topic, which it needs volumes to be written. I have published a book, called God and the Devil that deals also with Heaven and hell, the 3rd book of the series,”Shunnayamakkunna Mlekchatha”. The kingdom of God is not within us; it is far away in another distant galaxy. 20 “Once Jesus* was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; 21nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among* you.’ “ Lk.17: 20-21(RSVP version). In another version says that ‘it is in the midst of you’. It ‘is in the midst of you’ means that it is with them at that point of time because Jesus was talking to them, means that Jesus is Heaven. John the Baptist also said, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”, Mt.3: 1, as Jesus was standing among them. But the ecstasy/pleasure of that distant kingdom sprouts within us and continue while we become a vehicle of the Spirit of God here. If that celestial plane is within us now, what is the meaning of death that becomes futile for ever? My grief hasn’t dried out yet after hearing a preaching by a minister that supporting Heaven and hell are on this earth here. They hesitate to acknowledge that hell is within the earth, against the biblical teaching, while they fear that science and scientists and cosmetic/moderate theologians will laugh and mock at them. Ignorance or mockery, thy name is religion. “20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God . 21 ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, …. 23Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven..,. 24 ‘But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 ‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. ‘Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 26 ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets. Lk.6: 20-26; Mt.5: 3.

Opulence and pomposity is the reason for so many weeds that have germinated in the church. The Protestants, who don’t remember the memory of the departed, started the celebration of birthday and wedding day. Knowing that it is a thriving industry and earning a high status in the parish and the community, our clergy and Managing Committee blindly followed these celebrations for money-making and cajoling the members, together with the support of the consumer society. Is ecumenism anything different? Our clergy preach in the pulpit that we the Orthodox cherish and cajole the apostolic faith, but they organize the ecumenical movements that certainly give ammunitions for the heresy to flourish because our members are the worshippers of the flamboyant ministers, not the devoted clergy that doesn’t have a mask. Is it not a double-edged sword? Is global salvation is the aim that get a big name among the larger community, why don’t the clergy go for a multi-faith single religion for the whole world? Christ exclaimed and ask a question, ‘You too, Judas! If Heaven is on earth, Jesus says, ‘You live here, inside the earth, for ever’. Heaven is at the infinite heights, not on earth, but hell is in our juxtaposition.

A True Orthodox Believer

Fr. Yohanes Bambang giving food to the poor families who live around St. Demetrios Orthodox Chape

Scholarship to poor Children

Fr. Yohanes plants muchroom in order to help the people who need a job

Giving rice, nodles and sugar to the poor who live around St. Demetrios Orthodox Church

Divine Liturgy

PHILANTHROPY OF ST.NIKOLAOS GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH IN SURABAYA – EAST JAVA – INDONESIA

In the view of God, Children are very important and even can be said as a precious diamond, therefore Children must have a chance to have a good education and to be educated and taught so that they will be a good children and have a good future. Base on this fact, Christ Himself said: ”Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And He laid His hands on them and departed from there” (Matthew 19:14-15). This means that Christ Himself never refuse them to come before Him and to ask His mercy. Christ take care them, and even He laid His hands on them, referring to the fact that Christ want them to grow in good ways: have a good education, live in God’s ways, humble, polite, love to their parents, and even love to God and God as the protection of their life.

To implement What Christ did to the Children, St. Nikolaos Greek Orthodox in Surabaya – East java – Indonesia, want to help the children to have a good education, a good future , better life and love to God. Because how can they have a good education and good future, while they came from the poor family? It is impossible, therefore they need our help and our love to embrace and to elevate them to have a chance to study. Because many of them out there, crying, suffering and seeing of their future is full of darkness. No Hope and even they are asking for themselves when will we have a good chance to study just like other children? when will we have an enough food and clothes to eat and to dress ? These questions need to be answered and as good Christians, we have a responsible to answer these questions and willing to help them

And even because the Grace and the love of God, and because the guidance of Our Metropolitan Nikitas. St. Nikolaos Greek Orthodox Church in Surabaya, built the Orthodox Kindergarten and the name of this orthodox kindergarten is “AGHIA WACANA” means “The Holy Teaching”. The Purpose of this orthodox kindergarten establishment is beside to plant the seed of Orthodoxy in the heart of children and also to help the poor family who want to school their children.

As we said before, that this school was built to help the poor family who want to school their children, it means that we have to subsidize in every its month to hire the teachers, school operational and some other things of school needs. Base on this your help is needed, we do not see how much you will help, one pennies, one dollar or whatever, your help will be very useful for the goodness of the children future. We will be very appreciate all your help that you will give to us, and we will allocate properly according to the children need.

The Other thing that has been done by Philanthropy of St. Nikolaos Greek Orthodox Church at Surabaya – East java – Indonesia, beside to help the poor family to school their children, also to help the poor people, by giving some clothes, noodle, rice, sugar and some other things, this case has been done to help their daily need, so that the coming of Our Orthodox Church in East Java is not just showing the depth of our faith, but also showing the love of Christ to these people. Because Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said : “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to Me “ ( Matthew 25:40). That means that to help the poor people, is a kind of proof that we love to Christ. And St. Nikolaos Orthodox felt to be called to take care of them, but without your participation and love to help this activities, then impossible for us to materialize this good work.

Donation :

Our Bank Account : Bambang Cahyo Wicaksono, Bank Central Asia, Bank Account number : 0501514143, Bank Address : Jln Cokroaminoto No : 5, Mojokerto- Jawatimur – Indonesia, Swift (IBAN) : Cenaidja.

And by sending your donation to help the children school and the poor family, meaning you have participated to give them a good education and embrace them to be meaningful persons in the future and relief the burden of the poor family, So that they felt happy and helped by God through His Church.

Thank you for your help, and your help will properly be used and allocated for the need of the children school and for the poor people who need our help. For your help and behalf of the Children and the poor people, we would like to express our gratitude of your help and goodness, God will see what you did, God be with all of us, amen.

Yours In Christ,
Fr. Yohanes Bambang Cahyo Wicaksono