Father Seraphim Rose on "Traditionalist" groups

[GOCTheophan]

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Geronda means elder doesnt it? Well St Ignati in the 19 th century said that there were no real elders left in his time.

So what if he thought that? He was wrong. You obviously are not familiar with the Greek church that you belong to.

Anastasios

St Ignati, a great struggler, wrote especially for our sad times and therefore one cannot have a "so what" attitude to someone who saw the apostasy of the 20 th century looming like no other. There are no Spirit bearing elders left who can reveal directly the Will of God, there are however Holy people who have the gift of discrimination to a much greater degree than others. Given the controversial recent past of Despota Pavlos I would think calling him an Elder is very overblown.

Theophan.

[George Australia]

Father Seraphim is a modern father of the Church,

According to whom? A bunch of neophytes in the USA who went juristiction hopping until finally being accepted by the Church of Serbia and made to revise all their previous claims about him?

[GOCTheophan]

I find that Fr Seraphim was holy but focused too much on issues that only affected the Russian Church--notice we Greeks did not have these controversies over such minor issues as "the Dogma of Redemption" spill over into our Church. If the "Dogma of Redemption" were really such a big issue, it would have made it into other local churches and be something we'd all have heard about. but we haven't, and your focusing on it is well, a bit overdone in my opinion. Ecumenism is a much bigger issue than "the Dogma of Redemption."

Anastasios

Pardon me- but this sounds like it came from the same demons who whisper you can believe in evolution and still be a Christian...Think! Anastasios, please think! How could the central pivot of the Christian faith be a side issue? We are talking here of one of the central Mysteries of the Faith! Also how could someone ( like Romanides) who spent most if not all his life outside of the Church help others to accquire a thoroughly Orthodox mindset as you say?

False ecumenism arises out of modernism which again rises out of a lack of ascetic struggle. The idea that we just have to say our morning and evening prayers, go to Temple on Sunday, keep the fasting laws and give occasionally to the poor and God is then in His Heaven and all is right with the world- this is what brought on the revolution and if we really want to see the Empire restored we must struggle hard to accquire the Mind and the life of the Fathers to be the best of our very limited ability if its not already to late. That means purging ourselves of all the corruption of Christianity that has taken place in World Orthodoxy.

Please read the Sermons of St Symeon the New Theologian that Blessed (?) Seraphim translated in the "First Created Man" and than read the first two books of the "Life in Christ" by Nicholas Cabasilas aswell as chapters 4 and 5 of the fourth book before going back to read Romanides book "The Ancestral Sin"- then very probably the fact that so many people admire it will fill you with terror. Have you read the Arena by St Ignati?

Theophan.

[GOCTheophan]

Father Seraphim is a modern father of the Church,

According to whom? A bunch of neophytes in the USA who went juristiction hopping until finally being accepted by the Church of Serbia and made to revise all their previous claims about him?

George there are people who consider Hieromonk Seraphim a modern Church Father who dont have any truck with the Brotherhood of St Herman after his repose.

I like your slogan at the bottom a lot by the way !

Theophan.

[GOCTheophan]

Well I agree with you in that at least- that he is far more trustworthy than members of an internet forum. Still he was infected by a general ROCOR fuzziness- the proof of that was that he didnt come out straight and call Met Krapovitsky a heretic even though his writings fell under several Concilar anathemas.

Theophan.

Perhaps Blessed Seraphim understood his place as a monk, in not having the authority to judge a patriarch of the Church. You don't know the difficult choices that religious leaders sometimes make for the survival of the Church in the face of persecution.

Peace.

Matthew I wasnt refering to Sergianism here- though Met Sergius was a close friend of Met Anthony and helped him put together his infamous book on the Dogma of Redemption.

Met Anthony Krapovitsky was the first First Hierarch of ROCOR.

Theophan.

[jckstraw72]

Fr. Seraphim Rose is the manski, or the manopolous in Greek.

[Pensees]

Father Seraphim is a modern father of the Church,

According to whom? A bunch of neophytes in the USA who went juristiction hopping until finally being accepted by the Church of Serbia and made to revise all their previous claims about him?

I wouldn't be surprised if, within the next ten years, ROCOR declared him a saint. Father Seraphim was a very holy man, and provided the truth of Orthodoxy in an age where the faith was constantly under attack. He's known, for good reason, as the American apostle to Russia.

Peace.