HOCNA Encyclical...

[Matthew]

Yes, and not just coverage, but POSITIVE coverage! God save us.

Symeon

[Maria]

Twice I tried to access the link that J.Gress posted, but it locked my computer each time and I had to force quit.

I am glad that the news was positive.

[Matthew]

No, not positive, as in against the Name Worshipping, but in support of it. This is bad news.

[Maria]

Lord have mercy.

Well, I am not surprised because there are a lot of Protestant and Catholic charismatics who go around proclaiming: "There is power in the Name."

I was talking with one of my long-time friends who is interested in True Orthodoxy but who remains in the Roman Catholic Church. When I mentioned the Name-Worshipping heresy, she said to me, "We are supposed to worship the Name of Jesus because we are told in the Bible, 'At the Name of Jesus, every knee shall bow.' "

When I responded, "We do honor and venerate the Name of Jesus, just as we honor and venerate His Image in an Icon, but we do not worship and adore His Name nor His Icons," she disagreed with me.

I wonder how prevalent this Name Worshipping Heresy is among the Protestants and Roman Catholics?

In a post at either NFTU or Paradosis, George Ellis (formerly a monk at HTM), who has recently admitted being a Name-Worshipper, asked if we are worshipping the Holy Cross when we sing the hymn in place of the Trisagion on the Third Sunday of Great Lent: "Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship, and Thy holy Resurrection we glorify."

Looking at Third Sunday of Great Lent, there is this hymn:

"Seeing today the precious Cross of Christ laid down, let us adore it in faith, rejoicing, and embrace it with longing, imploring the Lord who on it was willingly crucified, to make us worthy to adore the precious Cross, and to reach the Day of Resurrection free of all condemnation."

Reference:
Divine Prayers and Services
Compiled and arranged by the Late Reverend Seraphim Nassar
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of N.A. 1993, p. 684

[Matthew]

I responded, "We do honor and venerate the Name of Jesus, just as we honor and venerate His Image in an Icon, but we do not worship and adore His Name nor His Icons," she disagreed with me.

George Ellis (formerly a monk at HTM),... a Name-Worshipper, asked if we are worshipping the Holy Cross when we sing ... this hymn:

"Seeing today the precious Cross of Christ laid down, let us adore it in faith, rejoicing, and embrace it with longing, imploring the Lord who on it was willingly crucified, to make us worthy to adore the precious Cross, and to reach the Day of Resurrection free of all condemnation."

Thanks Maria for the good question.
First, I would want to see the original language in which it is written. Many translations are being made into many languages, especially into English, and there is something of a business in issuing translations with new wordings just to make copyright and secure the ability to publish and sell texts in competition with already available texts from other monastic or diocesan publishing houses.

SEcond, I would want to see how other translators have rendered the same passage into English.

Third, translations are not canonical or authoritative, much less inspired by God and inerrant.

Fourth, Our faith is based upon or decided by this or that particular hymn. Just because errors could have been introduced even in accepted hymns of the Church does not mean we are obligated to accept them. We only have to accept the mind of the Church as it is more surely established throughout the history of the Church and well-established in multitudinous texts.

[Maria]

Here is a website apparently by a former HOCNA, but now HOTCA (GOC) monk at Ascension Monastery. This blog deals not only with Name-Worshipping that is being taught at HOCNA, but also allegations of moral wrong-doing by the now defrocked Panteleimon.

http://forthosewhohaveearstohear.blogsp ... chive.html

I am posting this information here as it concerns both HOCNA and the GOC-Kallinikos jurisdiction.

[Archimandrit Nilos]

Very interesting and unmasking this discussion between GOC Kallinikos and HOCNA/Makarios !