Saturday, June 04, 2016

Fr. Peter Heers: From Vatican II to the Pan Orthodox Synod - Signposts on the Way to Crete

Delivered to the Diakideio Institute for the Education of the People in Patra, Greece, May 18, 2016.
 
It is an overused but necessary cliché to state that the Orthodox Church is the Church of the Oecumenical Councils. It is more essential to state that the Orthodox Church not only held and lived through those Councils, it also lives daily by the words spoken by the Holy Apostles in that first of all Church Councils in Jerusalem: it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us (Acts 15:28); first to the Holy Spirit and then to the Apostles and all the successors of the Apostles. This theanthropic way of being, which began in earnest in council on the day of Pentecost, is integral to, irremovable from, the life of the Orthodox Church and of Orthodox Christians.

It is the implication of this reality, or rather the absence of evidence thereof among those at the highest levels of the Church, which makes my presentation to you tonight all the more difficult, even painful.

The Orthodox Church stands just weeks away from the long awaited “Great and Holy Council,” which will convene in Crete on the Feast of Pentecost. This Council is unique in the history of the Church for the length of time it has been under preparation, but also for another first: the degree to which its preparatory meetings, organization and certain of its texts have, under the influence of a council of the heterodox, the Second Vatican Council, diverted from the Orthodox way.

This is the reason that, immediately upon the publication of the pre-synodical texts, a wave of objections arose on a Pan-Orthodox level. Certain among the more fanatical enthusiasts of ecumenism have attempted to downplay the serious and studies critiques which have been levelled against the pre-synodical texts and the Council itself asserting the criticism is coming from “extremists” and “fanatics” who are “against the council,” have no respect for the conciliar system or an ecclesiastical ethos. These critics neglect the fact that objections to the ecclesiologically abysmal texts have been expressed on a pan-Orthodox level by...

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1 comment:

Gregory Manning said...

I am completely mystified as to why Moscow is going along with, or appearing to go along with this disastrous agenda. With the passage of time Moscow holds more and more cards in her hands. She doesn't need to align herself with the ecumenical movement. She doesn't need to kow-tow to anybody, least of all the Phanar or Rome. She is in "symphonic" alignment with the Russian Federation which is emphatically anti-globalist which should make her anti-one world religion. She has upstaged Bartholomew and, to some extent, forced her will on the upcoming council. What oh what is her strategy here? I'm clueless.