Why Should I Become A Traditionalist Orthodox?

Gregory · Post by **Gregory** » Tue 20 January 2004 10:59 am

Glory to Jesus Christ!

I am currently in the OCA at a very good parish...rich liturgical life, devout believers, no ecumenical spirit, etc.

There are no ROCOR parishes near me and my family, nevermind ROAC.

Just curious for your thoughts...

Greg

OrthodoxyOrDeath · Tue 20 January 2004 11:27 am

Gregory,

If you believe the OCA is an Orthodox Church, then why leave? But if you don't believe this, then you should search for an Orthodox priest to get sound advice.

Now if you are asking if whether the OCA is Orthodox, that is another question entirley.

Gregory · Post by **Gregory** » Tue 20 January 2004 12:21 pm

Thanks OOD --

I guess my question should have been: Why is my parish (or the OCA) not Orthodox in your view?

Greg

OrthodoxyOrDeath · Post by **OrthodoxyOrDeath** » Tue 20 January 2004 1:37 pm

Gregory,

What I find amazing as I reflect on the great many discussions here and elsewhere is that the issue is as clear as the air we breath. Yet people write piles of big and "important" books explaining positions and ideas in an effort to muddy the boundaries of the Church and sell their own personal ideas.

Firstly, any idea and faith, even ones closely resembling Orthodoxy, can be packaged up with instructions on how to use it, and sold to people who are looking to satisfy their own desires. These are indeed "traditions of men". It is really like a supermarket of faith serving and fulfilling peoples desires. Ask a Mormon and they will not be short of any answer and defense. Talk to a Uniate, and they will offer great volumes of defenses borrowed from their Latin brothers. Dialog with an new-calendarist, and they will not be short of an answer to any question you might ask. And of course this can be said of me, you ask me, and I will most certainly have some kind of answer.

Despite all of this, humans are like angles. they are divided up between the friends of God and the enemies of God, and here on Earth, the enemies are many and grow as “tares” even next to the “wheat” – that is, the falsehoods are often very close in resembling the truth of Orthodoxy. Many times in the history of the Church, falsehoods were even more persuasive with the appearance of numbers and popular support.

For the Orthodox, the greatest temptation is not the Mormon sect, or the Jehovah’s Witnesses, it is an Orthodoxy which is just a little bit different a person can be tricked into accepting with the lure of a more “appealing” “choice”; a choice between comfort and struggle, and between peace of the world and peace of conscience. But in the end it is the same as any other heresy. It is a joining with the compromises and calculations of the world and a betrayal of everything holy and sacred.

But as I have said, the answer to your question has been answered over and over again by the Church, and its witness is undeniable: Holy Tradition as witnessed by the Fathers of the Church. Let any of the popular internet defenders of the new-calendar pseudo-church reply to this and offer an answer; because to show why the OCA, the JP, and the MP wanna-be's, or any other in the ecumenist communion is not Orthodox I only have to make one small foray into the most obvious illustration: Bartholomew and his many friends and comrades are clearly heretics and the Holy Orthodox Church has demanded that no person can be in communion with a heretic.

Now, is there any defender of the new calendar communion who can offer an example of a Holy Father who says communion with heresy is acceptable alternative in the slightest? Is it not true that the Holy Fathers say that such people are enemies of God? Or is there an argument that Bartholomew and those like him are not heretics? (these questions are not necessarily directed at you Gregory, and the Lord knows that it has been several years now and I have never once received even an attempted answer to this)

If you or any others don’t have any objections to the above, I will continue into the specific errors of the OCA…:) or the countless heresies of the new-calendarist communion in general.

Joe Zollars · Post by **Joe Zollars** » Tue 20 January 2004 2:56 pm

Dear Gregory:

There is a ROAC Priest and Church relatively speaking close to you in New Jersey. His name is Fr. Vladimir Siskhoff.

In Christ,
Nicholas Zollars

Gregory · Post by **Gregory** » Tue 20 January 2004 2:56 pm

If you or any others don’t have any objections to the above, I will continue into the specific errors of the OCA… or the countless heresies of the new-calendarist communion in general.

No objections, please continue.

However, one question...

Bartholomew and his many friends and comrades are clearly heretics and the Holy Orthodox Church has demanded that no person can be in communion with a heretic.

In order to be considered a heretic (let us say the EP or MP), doesn't that bishop need to be officially excommunicated by the whole Orthodox Church? If so, when and where was this done?

I am honestly looking for answers...I am not trying to start trouble.

Greg

Gregory · Post by **Gregory** » Tue 20 January 2004 3:02 pm

There is a ROAC Priest and Church relatively speaking close to you in New Jersey. His name is Fr. Vladimir Siskhoff.

Thanks Nicholas. But, I am not interested in long-distant relationships

Greg