Encyclical
of the Holy Hierarchal Council of the Serbian True Orthodox Church
Honorable
Clergymen, Venerable Monastics, Pious Brothers and Sisters, Faithful Children
of St. Sava’s Serbian Church,
In regards to the resolution made at
the Church-Laity Council of the Serbian True Orthodox Church in October, 2013
AD, we the hierarchs of the Serbian True Orthodox Church publish the following:
CLARIFICATION
In the Homologia (Confession of Faith) which was adopted and published by
the Church-Laity Council of the STOC
(15/28 October 2013), the following decision was made concerning the
matter of reception of Orthodox faithful into the True Church from the fallen
ecumenist churches:
In the
instance of receiving those from the heretical and schismatic communities, the
Serbian True Orthodox Church follows the practice of the Serbian Orthodox
Church for reception until the Second World War, along with that of the Russian
Church Abroad and their historically continuous local church practice and
conciliar resolutions which were based on the ecclesiological principle of
oikonomia, so that, according to the words of the First Hierarch of the Russian
Church Abroad St. Philaret (Vosnesensky), “many not be repelled from the
Church.” We determine that those from
the Belgrade patriarchate who enter the True Church should be received by
oikonomia through repentance, and clergy with the performance of a
supplementary laying-on-of-hands (cheirothesia) by hierarchs of the True
Orthodox Church for the purpose of fulfilling the ordination which the
clergyman received from the heretical hierarchy of the Belgrade Patriarchate.
As it is well known that, in the past,
under the influence of the Greek Old Calendarists, we received those from the
fallen Belgrade Patriarchate by chrismation or baptism, some may be surprised
by the change in practice and think that this represents a weakening of our
stance against ecumenism. The remainder
of our Homologia, however, clearly
conveys the knowledge that we have not changed our position.
The Church is the fount of all the
Holy Mysteries, and She has sovereign authority to apply these sacred remedies,
these Holy Mysteries, as She decides is necessary, for the salvation of
souls.
The Serbian Church’s practice
mentioned above, whose foundation was based on the principle of oikonomia, is related to the centuries-old condescending
position concerning the reception of Roman Catholics with repentance, and
Protestants with chrismation. Neither
one nor the other of the heretics above were received by rebaptism in the
centuries-long practice of the Serbian Church.
This manner of reception of Roman
Catholics and Protestants we are making stricter and have resolved that for
them akrivia will be applied. That is, we will receive Roman Catholics and
Protestants into the Orthodox Church by the Holy Mystery of baptism.
By the recent example of the principle
of condescension which was held by our fathers, in the case of the
newly-emerged heresy of ecumenism we will apply the principle of
oikonomia.
According to Orthodox teaching, by
whatever manner a man is received from heresy into the True Church - whether by
baptism, chrismation, or simple repentance – upon reception, he receives all
the grace of the Holy Mysteries, even if those which he already received were
not legally perfect. He who unites to
the true Church by one of the three ways mentioned above, after he communes the
Holy Mysteries once, through Communion receives everything: both his baptism and chrismation - and
priesthood, if the practice is applied of receiving clergymen in their
already-existing rank - become valid; that is, the grace of the Holy Gifts
completes the form which was received outside the boundaries of the Church, and
any other sort of “fulfillment” later is unnecessary. In the very moment of their uniting to the
True Church, the grace which was lost as a result of communion with the
heretical hierarchy is given to them, that fullness of grace which is proper to
the Orthodox Church. “Content
compensates for form” as Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky said.
What is necessary above all for the
much-suffering Serbian nation is encouragement for this decisive step, to
extend a hand of brotherly help in order to cease the fatal communion with the
heretical hierarchy of the Belgrade patriarchate and with this act to return
into the saving bosom of the Church! As
the ministers of God’s mysteries and those with apostolic authority over the
small but faithful remnant of the Serbian Church, who have been appointed, by
the mysterious Providence of God, despite our human weakness, to bе
the bearers of Svetosavlje in these darkest of times for our Holy Church, we
consider that we have not only the canonical right but the duty to apply this oikonomia in the extraordinary
circumstances of our time - the time of universal apostasy on the part of the
historically Orthodox hierarchs. Due,
however, to the ostensible maintenance of the Orthodox confession at the level
of the official Local Church, there
exists a deception due to which the better part of the faithful do not
understand and do not recognize that their bishops are heretics and are leading
them down the wrong path.
Our fatherland is Orthodox Serbia, and
our fathers, since their conversion to Christianity, never, not even for one
moment, fell into heresy, in contrast to the Orthodox Greeks, for example, to
whom this happened on several occasions during the first Christian millennium
and afterwards. Today among the Serbian
faithful there are still many who were baptized in the pre-war, war, or
post-war period when the Serbian Church was canonically without reproach, along
with priests who have a genuine ordination from that period. We had to take these circumstances into
consideration when we were making judgments on the level of apostasy of those
returning to the grace-bearing bosom of the Church. For our brothers who are in communion with
the Belgrade Patriarch, it is difficult, in fact, impossible, to imagine that
they, Orthodox Serbs, are not Orthodox after all.
Let us be honest: pious people
within today’s ecumenist Belgrade Patriarchate believe in Orthodoxy, not in
ecumenism. What is more, many of them are fiery opponents of the heresy of
ecumenism. In order for them to return
into the embrace of the True Serbian Church, all that is necessary is for them
to cease communion with the heretical hierarchy and unite, through the Holy
Mysteries of Confession and Communion, with the existing, correctly believing
hierarchy of the Serbian True Orthodox Church.
Would anyone dare to say that our
brothers who are now in communion with the ecumenist hierarchy are more
estranged from the True Church than the then centuries-long hardened heretics
like the Roman Catholics and the Protestants of the beginning of the last
century? How then is it possible to use
the same, or rather, even stricter practice of reception for our deceived
brothers than the practice of reception of the above-mentioned centuries-long
heretics applied by the Serbian or Russian Orthodox Churches at the beginning
of the last century?
People associate re-baptizing and
chrismation with the complete alienation from the Orthodox Church and
Orthodoxy. This is an important point in
the formulation of the problem and the clarification of the situation in which
the Serbian Orthodox people finds itself, for the believing nation has not
accepted the heresy of ecumenism. In the
end, we cannot use the same measure
for the New Calendar Ecumenists and the Old Calendar Ecumenists. The Belgrade Patriarchate has not introduced
the use of the new calendar in the services in Serbia, which would be an open,
clearly visible form of apostasy, even for the conscience of the most simple
believer (although the believing people is guilefully deceived in this manner,
for through the recognition of the other Local Churches which have introduced
the new calendar and communion with them, the Belgrade Patriarchate in fact
accepts the apostate New Calendar reform).
It should be clear that with the cessation of communion with the
heretical hierarchy and uniting with the True Serbian Church - the
Church of their fathers, the Church to which they belong according to their
faith – our brothers will neither renounce their Serbian Orthodox identity nor
will they unite with some new church structure which is historically and
organically disconnected from the Serbian Orthodox Church. Let us clarify this a bit more: in the moment that an Orthodox clergyman,
monastic or simple layman recognizes the apostate nature
of the hierarchs of the Belgrade Patriarchate and ceases communion with them,
with this act they do not leave the Serbian Church. On the contrary, with the union with the
Serbian bishops who keep firmly to the Orthodox Confession of Faith they return
to Her, for the Church can be recognized not by the external institutions
acknowledged by this world, nor by the number of bishops and believers, but by
Her true confession of faith.
The Serbian Church did not disappear
immediately upon the appearance of ecumenism (as in church history, a heresy
which has lasted only a few decades is “only a moment”). In general, the Serbian Church, of all the
Local Churches, held out against the introduction of innovations the longest. Usually it is considered that She remained
unwavering until the death of Patriarch Gabriel Dožić in 1950, and only
then began Her gradual involvement in the Sergianist, Ecumenist, and modernist
church movements. In Serbia, there was
no such event which so clearly indicated departure from the traditions of the
Church like the introduction of the New Calendar in Greece (1924) or the
Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius in Russia (1927). After 1950 there were still great spiritual
figures like the holy Bishop Nikolai Velimirović
(+1956) or Fr. Justin Povović (+1979),
who raised their voices in defense of Orthodoxy. Likewise, they also long kept in closest
bonds with the Russian Church Abroad which was the greatest and most important
of all the churches separated from “World Orthodoxy,” so that the Serbian
Church was also, through the Russian Church Abroad, in indirect Communion with
the True Orthodox Churches, Russian or Greek.
All the way until the 1960s and 1970s, it was possible for a believer of
the Serbian Orthodox Church to commune with Greek Old Calendarists or Russian
Catacombists in the very churches of the ROCOR.
Most likely it is just for this reason that our movement of True
Orthodox Christians, as a reaction to Sergianism, Ecumenism, and innovative
tendencies in the Serbian Orthodox Church, appeared relatively late, that is,
not until the ‘90s of the last century.
Thus every awakened Serb who breaks
off communion with the ecumenist hierarchy and accepts True Orthodoxy realizes
within himself with this very act the potential to be a child of the Serbian
Orthodox Church which historically and organically has not ceased to exist.
We are deeply convinced that the
battle for the faith of the Serbian people should not be hampered by such a barrier
as the demand for re-baptism which was emphasized by our Greek brothers. That
is why it is very important that in Serbia church oikonomia be applied, and that the Orthodox who cease communion
with the Ecumenists be received into the Church by repentance. The Church, therefore, like a caring and
co-suffering Mother who does not wish that anyone perish, opens the doors of
salvation wide, through oikonomia
removing every possible stumbling-block which would make return into Her saving
embrace more difficult.
Some might blame us, saying, “But you
receive people who were not baptized by three immersions, but by pouring or
sprinkling. In such a case oikonomia is impossible.” Our reply is that oikonomia is not impossible:
that is a misunderstanding based on a legalistic and ritualistic
conception of the Holy Mysteries. All
the Local Churches, including the Greek, in some historical periods received
Roman Catholic heretics, who do not have the correct form of baptism, by oikonomia. Why was this so? Did the Local Orthodox Churches centuries ago
make mistakes? Of course not. They relied on the ancient practice of the
Churches which had and has the power to apply church oikonomia. In the late first
and early second century the Didache
testifies to the fact that in certain conditions, such as in the lack of enough
water, baptism by pouring was accepted by the apostolic generation. To this very day, clinical baptism on the
sick bed or in other extraordinary circumstances, by pouring or sprinkling, is
accepted by the Church. Legalists could
again say “But this is not a matter of the lack of water or the sick bed, but a
sheer rejection by lazy or innovationist clergy to baptize by immersion.” We would reply: oikonomia
is the practice which is used in extraordinary circumstances which demand a
departure from the norm. Only the blind
could not see that the situation of the entire much-suffering Orthodox Serbian
people over the last century has created precisely such circumstances.
“But perhaps critics will contest,
bringing up new faults, that oikonomia
can only be applied to individuals, not for entire nations or groups.” This is also a misunderstanding. The ordination of iconoclasts – and that was
the better part of the hierarchs and clergy of the East – were received by oikonomia by the Seventh Ecumenical
Council. A large number of Uniates with
their clergy were received into the Orthodox Church by oikonomia not long ago. Are
our contemporary Serbian brothers deserving of less condescension? Are we on such a high spiritual level that we
can demand such a level of humility from our contemporary Serbs who have been
unwillingly bound to the dark deception of ecumenism - and only for a few
decades at that - a level of humility which hierarchs much greater than us in
spiritual stature, ecclesiological education, and pastoral judgment, did not
demand? Indeed, they did not demand this
of those who had been estranged from the Church and openly united with condemned
heresies and errors for centuries.
While defending our right and
obligation to apply oikonomia for our own flock, in accordance with our
specific historical circumstances and the ethos of our nation, we completely
support our brother True Orthodox hierarchs in their right and obligation to
apply oikonomia or akriveia as they deem best for their own
Local Church. If they believe that the application of akriveia is more appropriate for their own flock, who are we to
object? They know their own people, as
we know ours. Let every archpastor and
pastor act according to conscience.
“Let us love one another, so that with
one mind we may confess Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Trinity One in
Essence and Indivisible!”
St. Spyridon of Trimethus
The Paraclete, 12/25 December 2013
The Holy Hierarchal Council of the
Serbian True Orthodox Church
The President of the Holy Hierarchal Council
Bishop Akakije of Uteshiteljevo
Bishop Nektarije of Shumadia
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