ORTHODOX DOGMAS AND ANATHEMAS

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d9popov
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Re: ORTHODOX DOGMAS AND ANATHEMAS

Post by d9popov »

No. The source has absolutely nothing to do with HOCNA. It is an easily available online English translation, translated from the original Greek liturgical texts that all Orthodox worldwide accept as dogmatically correct. The teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas on uncreated grace was ratified as binding dogma by the Councils of 1341, 1347, 1351, and 1368, and by the Synodicon of Orthodoxy in the Greek Lenten Triodion. The liturgical texts that I quoted show the reverence towards Saint Gregory's teaching that all Orthodox are obligated to accept and DO accept. There is nothing controversial in the Orthodox Church about this. All Orthodox Christians accept these teachings

d9popov
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Re: ORTHODOX DOGMAS AND ANATHEMAS

Post by d9popov »

To everyone: Христос воскресе! Christ is risen! Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Hristos a înviat! Христос васкрсе!

In response to Bishop Irineos, Joseph, and Maria: let me clarify that the original (shorter version) text of the Synodicon of Orthodoxy was written in or around AD 843 by Saint Methodius and/or his co-workers and was a summary of the theology of the Seventh Ecumenical Council's teaching. Later, other anathemas were added to the Synodicon from later Councils of Constantinople that dealt with major dogmatic issues, between 843 and 1351. The Synodicon (full version) was finalized between 1351 and 1368, probably 1352. I also have wondered why the Synodicon omits the Filioque issue and the Orthodox councils that dealt with it. The Councils of 879-880 and 1285 certainly are extremely important councils. The Palamite Councils, especially the very long dogmatic definition of the Council of 1351, were considered so essential to Orthodoxy that a summary of their teaching was added to the Synodicon.

Joseph, you are correct that there has been massive pressure from the Latins (and Latinophrones in the East) on the Orthodox not to recognize the councils of 879-880, 1285, and the Palamite synods (1341, 1347, 1351, 1368) as ecumenical. The Orthodox defied this pressure to the extent that the Palamite synods were made dogmatically binding on the entire Church through the final version of the Synodicon. So, it is possible for a council to have universal Orthodox authority, even though it is not always called "ecumenical." I do not know why the councils that dealt with the Filioque were not given this status in the Synodicon. The Palamite synods were. The liturgical texts that I quoted are a summary of how the Church venerates Saint Gregory Palamas and specifically his teaching on uncreated grace. A key point is that this teaching was not an innovation, but a teaching that goes back even into the Old Testament. The prophets taught that God (God's essence or "face") was invisible, but God's "glory" or "back"(which is God Himself, but not His essence) can be visible, as when God appeared to Moses and when the Solomonic temple was dedicated. So, the teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas on the uncreated Taboric Light, was in no way an innovation, as the Latins taught, but was a 3,000 year old settled teaching of the people of God. That is why dogmatic texts such as the Synodicon, the Palamite Councils, and the liturgical texts that summarize dogma are so important. Many of these liturgical texts are only in matins. If a Orthodox Christian does not attend matins (in a language he understands) and listen to these summaries carefully, then he misses these key dogmatic texts. That is why I posted some of them. (The all-caps in some of the texts were there already, I did not add them.)

The long dogmatic decree of the Council of 1351 is one of the most important dogmatic texts of the Orthodox Church. It exists in English, translated by Catharine Roth, in Pelikan and Hotchkiss's book Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition. Hopefully, someone will type it up and post the English online. Those who can read Greek can easily find the original Greek, both in print and online. The Syndicon and the liturgical texts that were posted, summarize the Council of 1351. But the full text of the Council of 1351 should also be read in it's entirety. Many, many people in the Christian East (both true Orthodox and new calendarists) call it the Ninth Ecumenical Council of the Orthodox Church. It has certainly been accepted by the entire Church as binding dogma. There is not an equivalent long dogmatic text on the filioque, although the Synodicon on the Holy Spirit and the 1285 decree may come close. I genuinely do not know why the Synodicon of the Holy Spirit and the decree of 1285 have not been given as much prominence as the Palamite texts have been given by the Church.

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Maria
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Re: ORTHODOX DOGMAS AND ANATHEMAS

Post by Maria »

d9popov wrote:

No. The source has absolutely nothing to do with HOCNA. It is an easily available online English translation, translated from the original Greek liturgical texts that all Orthodox worldwide accept as dogmatically correct. The teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas on uncreated grace was ratified as binding dogma by the Councils of 1341, 1347, 1351, and 1368, and by the Synodicon of Orthodoxy in the Greek Lenten Triodion. The liturgical texts that I quoted show the reverence towards Saint Gregory's teaching that all Orthodox are obligated to accept and DO accept. There is nothing controversial in the Orthodox Church about this. All Orthodox Christians accept these teachings

Who translated this English text, which jurisdiction or synod sponsored this translation, and in what year was this translated?

Modernists and ecumenists have provided many corrupted translations especially during the late 1800s and throughout the 1900s. In fact, St. Nectarios of Aegina wrote many books attacking these modernists and ecumenists before he died in 1920.

I have been having great difficulty accessing the weblink which you have provided.

The connection has timed out

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

d9popov
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Re: ORTHODOX DOGMAS AND ANATHEMAS

Post by d9popov »

CHRIST IS RISEN!!! If you google "the good shepherd of Thessalonica and the true glory", you will find these liturgical texts quoted in seven different places on the internet. The Lenten Triodion translated by Mother Maria and Kallistos Ware (2002 edition) will have these texts as well. Any English translation in print or on the internet of Saint Gregory Palamas Day in Great Lent will have these texts. They are fully and perfectly Orthodox!!! They show the unfailing loyalty all Orthodox Christians have towards Saint Gregory Palamas's teachings on uncreated grace. The hymns, the councils (1341, 1347, 1351, 1352, 1368), Saint Gregory Palamas's own writings, and the Synodicon all reinforce these same dogmas about uncreated grace. All Orthodox accept these teachings as dogmas of the Faith!

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22the+ ... 20&bih=949

d9popov
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Re: ORTHODOX DOGMAS AND ANATHEMAS

Post by d9popov »

THE MOST IMPORTANT DOCTRINAL DEFINITION OF THE ECUMENICAL COUNCILS ON CHRISTOLOGY

THE SIXTH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL
English based on NPNF, Denzinger, Tanner, and Pelikan & Hotchkiss; with reference to Greek in Karmires, Denzinger, Tanner, etc.

Following the five holy Ecumenical Councils and the holy and approved Fathers, with one voice we define that our Lord Jesus Christ must be confessed to be true God and true man, one of the holy and consubstantial and life-giving Trinity, perfect in Deity [Godhood] and perfect in humanity [manhood], true God and true man, consisting of a rational soul and human body; one-in-essence [consubstantial] with the Father with respect to His Deity and one-in-essence [consubstantial] with us with respect to His humanity; like us in all things except sin; begotten of His Father before all ages according to His Deity, but in these last days for us men and for our salvation made man of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary, who is strictly and properly the Mother of God according to the flesh; one and the same Christ our Lord the Only-Begotten Son, to be recognized in two natures without confusion, without change, without separation, without division, the peculiarities of neither nature being lost by the union, but rather the properties of each nature being preserved, concurring in one person and in one hypostasis, not parted or divided into two persons but one and the same Only-Begotten Son of God, the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Prophets of old have taught us and as our Lord Jesus Christ Himself has instructed us, and the Creed of the Holy Fathers has delivered to us; defining all this we likewise declare that in Him are two natural wills and two natural energies, without division, without change, without separation, without confusion, according to the teaching of the Holy Fathers. And these two natural wills are not contrary one to another, God forbid!, as the impious heretics assert, but His human will follows, not as resisting and reluctant, but rather as subject to His divine and omnipotent will. For it was right that the flesh should be moved but subject to the divine will, according to the most wise Athanasius. For as His flesh is called and is the flesh of God the Word, so also the natural will of His flesh is called and is the proper will of God the Word, as He Himself says: “I came down from heaven, not that I might do Mine own will but the will of the Father Who sent me!” where He calls His own will the will of His flesh, inasmuch as His flesh was also His own. For as His most holy and immaculate animated flesh was not destroyed because it was deified, but continued in its own state and nature, so also His human will, although deified, was not suppressed, but was rather preserved according to the saying of Gregory the Theologian: “His will is not contrary to God, but altogether deified.”
We glorify two natural energies, without division, without change, without confusion, without separation, in the same, our Lord Jesus Christ our true God, … a divine energy and a human energy, according to the divine preacher Leo, who most distinctly asserts as follows: “For each form [μορφὴ] does in communion with the other what pertains properly to it, the Word, namely, doing that which pertains to the Word, and the flesh that which pertains to the flesh.”
For we will not admit one natural operation in God and in the creature, as we will not exalt into the divine essence what is created, nor will we bring down the glory of the divine nature to the place suited to the creature.
We recognize the miracles and the sufferings as of one and the same [person], but of one or of the other nature of which He is and in which He exists, as Cyril admirably says. Preserving therefore the unconfusedness and indivisibility, we make briefly this whole confession, believing our Lord Jesus Christ to be one of the Trinity and our true God ... His two natures shone forth in His one hypostasis in which He both performed the miracles and endured the sufferings through the whole of His incarnate life [οἰκονομικῆς ἀναστροφῆς], not in appearance only but in true deed, by reason of the difference of nature that must be recognized in the same Person, for although joined together, each nature wills and does the things proper to it, without division and without confusion. Therefore we confess two wills and two energies, concurring most fitly in Him for the salvation of the human race.

d9popov
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Re: ORTHODOX DOGMAS AND ANATHEMAS

Post by d9popov »

SAINT JOHN OF DAMASCUS ON THE UNITY OF CHRIST'S TWO NATURES
from Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

It is worthy of note that the flesh of the Lord is not said to have been deified and made equal to God and God in the sense of any change or alteration, or transformation, or confusion of nature: as Gregory the Theologian [Oration 45, 13, PG 36:641] says, “... the one deified, and the other was deified, and, to speak boldly, made equal to God [ὁμόθεον]: and that which anointed became man, and that which was anointed [that is, the human nature, soul and flesh] became God.” For these words do not mean any change in nature, but rather the incarnate union (I mean the union in hypostasis by virtue of which it [the flesh] was united inseparably with God the Word), and the permeation of the natures through one another.... just as we confess that God became man without change or alteration, so we consider that the flesh became God without change. For because the Word became flesh, He did not overstep the limits of His own deity nor abandon the divine glories that belong to Him: nor, on the other hand, was the flesh, when deified, changed in its own nature or in its natural properties. For even after the union, both the natures remained unconfused and their properties unimpaired. But the flesh of the Lord received the riches of the divine energies through the purest union with the Word, that is to say, the union in hypostasis, without entailing the loss of any of its natural attributes. For it is not in virtue of any energy of its own but through the Word united to it, that it manifests divine energy...
Wherefore the same flesh was mortal by reason of its own nature and life-giving through its union with the Word in [one] hypostsis. And we hold that it is just the same with the deification of the will; for its natural activity was not changed but united with His divine and omnipotent will, and became the will of God, made man...
Observe further, that the deification of the nature and the will points most expressly and most directly both to two natures and two wills.... the deification does not bring about one compound nature but two, and their union in [one hypostasis].

d9popov
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Re: ORTHODOX DOGMAS AND ANATHEMAS

Post by d9popov »

THE CONFESSIONS OF FAITH RECITED BY A BISHOP-ELECT BEFORE HIS CONSECRATION
(adapted from the Hapgood prayer book)

FIRST CONFESSION OF FAITH
The first confession of faith is the Symbol of the Faith (the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed)

SECOND CONFESSION OF FAITH
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, and of all things visible and invisible. He is without beginning, unbegotten, and without cause, but is Himself the natural principal and cause of the Son and of the Spirit.

I believe also in His Only-begotten Son, changelessly and timelessly begotten of Him, being of one essence with Him, by Whom all things were created.

I believe also in the Holy Spirit, Who proceeds from the same Father, and with Him is glorified as co-eternal, being of one essence, with Him, and equal in glory, and enthroned together with Him, the Creator of the creation.

I believe that One of the same super-substantial and life-creating Trinity, the Only-begotten Word, came down from Heaven, for us men, and for our salvation, and was incarnate of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit, and was made man; that is to say, was made perfect man, yet remaining God, and in no way changing His divine essence by His participation in the flesh, neither being transmuted into anything else: but without mutation assuming man’s nature, He therein endured suffering and death, being free in His divine nature from every suffering. And on the third day He rose again from the dead; and ascended into the Heavens, and sits at the right hand of God the Father.

I believe also those divine traditions and interpretations of the one Catholic and Apostolic Church which we have received from God and the men of God.

I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.

I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come.

I confess also one person, the Word made flesh; and I believe and proclaim that Christ is one and the same in two natures after His incarnation, preserving those things that were in them and from them. Therefore, also, I worship two wills, in that each nature retains its own will and its own energy.

I worship relatively, but not in the way of adoration, the divine and august icons, of Christ Himself, and of the all-pure Mother of God, and of all the Saints, addressing to their prototypes the honor shown to them. I reject as heterodox those who believe otherwise.

I anathematize Arius and those who are of one mind with him and are sharers of his demented and evil doctrine. With a clear and mighty voice I proclaim that I reject and anathematize Macedonius and those with him, who are rightly called enemies of the Holy Spirit; likewise, I reject and anathematize Nestorius and the other heresiarchs and those of like mind with them.

To all who teach heresy, anathema.

To all heretics, anathema.

I truly confess and proclaim our Lady, Mary the Birthgiver of God, as having borne in the flesh one of the Trinity, even Christ our God. And may she be my helper, protector, and defender all the days of my life. Amen.

**

THIRD CONFESSION OF FAITH

In this my confession of the holy Faith, I promise to observe the Canons of the Holy Apostles, and of the Seven Ecumenical Councils, and of the holy Local Councils, the traditions of the Church, and the decrees, orders, and rulings of the Holy Fathers. And all things whatsoever they have accepted I also accept; and whatsoever things they have rejected those I also reject.

I promise also to preserve the peace of the Church, and firmly and zealously to teach the people entrusted to me, and not to devise anything whatsoever that is contrary to the Orthodox Catholic Christian Faith all the days of my life; and that I will, in all things, follow and always obey the Most Holy Synod; and to be, in all things, of one mind with my fellow Hierarchs and conjointly with them submissive to the divine law, and the sacred rules of the Holy Apostles and Holy Fathers; and with all sincerity to cherish towards my fellow hierarchs spiritual affection, and to regard them as brothers.

I promise also to rule the flock committed to me with the fear of God and in devoutness of life; and with all diligent heed to guard it against all heresies of doctrine.

I also confess, in this my written profession of faith, that neither by the promise, nor by the gift of gold, or of silver, have I come to this ministry; but, on the contrary, I have received it by the election of the Most Holy Synod.

And herewith I promise also to do nothing under constraint, whether coerced by powerful persons, or by a multitude of the people, even if they would command me, under pain of death, to do something contrary to the divine and holy laws: nor to celebrate the Divine Liturgy in a diocese other than my own, nor to exercise any other episcopal function without the permission of the bishop of that diocese; and that I will not ordain either a priest, or a deacon, or any other ecclesiastic in another’s diocese, nor receive such into my diocese without letters of dismissal from their own bishops.

I will deal with the opponents of the Holy Church with reasonableness, uprightness and gentleness, according to the words of the Apostle Paul: “And the servant of the Lord must not dispute, but be gentle unto all, and a teacher, and forbearing, in meekness instructing those who set themselves in opposition, if perchance God might give them repentance unto the acknowledging of the truth.”

I promise to visit and watch over the flock now confided to me, after the manner of the Apostles, to discern whether they remain true to the Faith, and in the exercise of good works, more especially the priests; and to inspect with diligence, and to exhort and inhibit, that there may be no schisms, superstitions, and impious veneration, and that no customs contrary to Christian piety and good morals may injure Christian conduct.

And all those things, my bounden duty, which I have this day promised in word, I also promise to perform in deed unto my uttermost breath, for the sake of the covenanted good things to come. And may God, Who sees the heart, be the witness to my vow. And may our Savior Himself be my helper, in my sincere and zealous governing and my performance thereof; and unto Him, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory and dominion, honor and worship, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

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