Cyprian wrote:
I will shun the communion of any so-called bishop who promotes or tolerates:
1) Ecumenism, including Cyprianism (i.e. crypto-ecumenism)
2) the heresy of Evolution.
3) Hagiomachy (slander and calumny of God's holy saints), and a distorted teaching of Original/Ancestral Sin, such as was held by John Romanides, and currently by his disciples in HOCNA, HOTCA, etc.
4) Iconomachy, including rejection of the so-called New Testament Trinity icons wherein the Beginningless Father is depicted as the Ancient of days.
I just wanted to comment a little bit and contribute some knowledge on the subject.
As regard your criteria:
I'm sure you are well aware that Vladyka Andrei is opposed to ecumenism.
Greetings Ephrem,
Yes, I am fully aware that Bp. Andrei is opposed to the heresy of ecumenism. Praise God for this! The four criteria which I personally deem important were not specifically directed at Bp. Andrei or the ROAC, but criteria that I feel should be addressed by True Orthodox Synods in general.
The Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church is, in my opinion, quite blameless as regards ecumenism.
As far as I am aware, I would agree this.
The same, of course, goes for Cyprianism. As I am sure you are aware, it was Vladyka Andrei who delivered the report on Cyprianism to the 2008 Sobor of the ROAC, which condemned Cyprianism as a "crypto-ecumenism".
Yes, I have happily quoted from this Sobor in my previous posts.
Also, our Vladyka Valentine spoke against ROCOR-A's recent campaign of dialogue with all the anti-MP churches, saying "If they want to unite with us - they have to abandon the heresy of Cyprianism."
Most excellent! Glory be to God!
As for the "distorted teaching of Original/Ancestral Sin", I have seen no evidence that this is the opinion of Vladyka Andrei or anyone of our Synod. The same goes for the "hagiomachy".
Thanks for the info. I honestly don't know what view Bp. Andrei or the ROAC takes of these matters. As far as I am aware, the nearest ROAC parish is thousands of miles from where I reside, so I have never had the opportunity of hearing his grace preach, or any ROAC clergymen for that matter. Are there any ROAC sermons posted anywhere that I can read or listen to?
I do know that Gregory of Colorado has for many years engaged in hagiomachy against the saints, and that is why I found it disturbing when I learned (after the fact) that ROAC had made him a bishop. Further doubts arose in my mind after I came to learn that the current archpastor overseeing America, Bishop Andrei, (then priest Michael), was received by Gregory at Dormition Skete after his departure from the Matthewites. In the absence of direct statements on these topics given by the ROAC clergy, one is left to formulate a judgment based upon associations. If the ROAC and Bp. Andrei do not hold similar views as Gregory of Colorado, then why did they choose to associate with him? I am reminded of the words of the prophet: "Can two walk together, unless they be agreed?"
I know from personal correspondence with Vladyka that he does not condemn the use of icons depicting the Father as the Ancient of Days.
That's welcome news, but Gregory of Colorado does in fact condemn these depictions as heretical, and he was a bishop in the ROAC. What are we to make of this?
I'm sure you knew most of this, but I just wanted to clarify these things in case other people were uncertain.
As far as I am aware, there is no ROAC presence in the Pacific Northwest, where I currently reside, so I don't recall ever actually personally meeting or speaking with anyone from the ROAC before. What little I know about the ROAC has been gleaned mostly from Internet forums like this one, or from websites. So I really don't know hardly anything about any of the ROAC clergy in America, and of course I know even less about ROAC clergy abroad.
It seems that many of your concerns about Vladyka Andrei are essentially rooted in the actually heretical and impious teachings of Gregory of Colorado. These concerns are justified, considering the extreme nature of Gregory's fanaticism. You should be comforted, however, by the fact that Vladyka Andrei did not depart from the Church with Gregory of Colorado, as many of his parishioners and monks did. Let it be sufficient to say that ROAC deposed and excommunicated the former Archbishop Gregory, and that Vladyka Andrei is in accordance and compliance with this decision of our Synod.
Actually, I am not all that concerned with Gregory of Dormition Skete, since he seems to be content abiding alone, in isolation from everyone else. I don't hear much talk of planned union with Gregory.
But if we were to ask ourselves, where did Gregory get his formation in these false opinions? As most people know, his monastic formation was with the Panteleimonites of HTM in Boston. The HOCNA slanders the saints and officially rejects the holy icons as well. I know this firsthand, since I regularly attended a prominent HOCNA parish here locally, for a handful of months. I quickly became acquainted with their modus operandi. If we trace these poisonous teachings back further, we will learn that many of these ideas come from John Romanides, of sorry memory. The Boston monastery thinks very highly of him, and of course it should not be overlooked that John Romanides was a professor at Holy Cross seminary back in the late fifties until 1965, during the time Fr. Panteleimon was also living in Boston and establishing his monastery. Let's not forget that Fr. Panteleimon was a new-calendarist until 1965, the year Fr. John Romanides left Holy Cross. So it is apparent that Fr. Panteleimon learned to slander the saints from his association with John Romanides.
Now that we have traced this poison back to professor John Romanides, let's examine where his theological formation originates. When John Romanides was ordained in 1951, he was attending Yale University Divinity school, a Protestant college. A few years later, he traveled to the Parisian school of St. Sergius Institute, the same place that gave us so-called "theologians" such as Bulgakov and Schmemann.
Allow me to quote from "Fr. Seraphim Rose, Not of this World":
Fr. Schmemann came to New York from Paris in 1951, and very soon became the unrivaled ideologue of the American Metropolia. There were many things which he felt needed changing. Like his predecessors, he was critical of "old-fashioned piety," particularly that of pre-Revolutionary Russia. He believed this "piety" (the very word he used in a pejorative sense) was the result of unfortunate "cultural accretion" which had to be reevaluated and stripped off in layers by modern scholars. He said that Orthodoxy had come under "Western captivity," that its theology had been completely dominated by "Western influences" in recent centuries. He spoke of finding "new ways of Orthodox theology," of intellectually "mastering history" and thus "restoring" Orthodoxy to what he regarded as its pure form. This, he said, was the task of the new theological "movement" that had sprung up in the 1920's to supersede the old, "antiquated" understanding of Orthodoxy. As Fr. Seraphim put it: "For Fr. Schmemann, the whole of Orthodoxy is transformed into a series of tremendously important 'problems' to which only a few of the academically elite have the approach to any 'solutions.'"
Accusing everyone (but themselves) of being "scholastic" and under "Western influence" is precisely what you get from the likes of John Romanides, and his disciples Fr. Panteleimon, Abp. Gregory (Abu-Assaly) and most recently Bp. Christodoulos of the HOTCA. They are renovationists. They want to start a new protestant reformation in Orthodoxy. One can observe that St. Vladimir's and the OCA publish writings condemning iconography wherein the Father is depicted as the Ancient of days, and they also publish writings which calumniate St. Augustine and other Western fathers, and promote the heresy of evolution. A perfect example of this is the retired OCA Abp. Lazar Puhalo. He's part of this same liberal Parisian tradition. He slanders the saints, fights against certain holy icons, rabidly promotes the heresy of evolution, rejects traditions relating to the toll-houses, and reviles Fr. Seraphim Rose. You could also add Alexandre Kalomiros to this group, for he slandered the Western saints, most prominently St. Augustine of Hippo, carried on about "scholasticism" and "Western captivity," and of course got into contentions with Fr. Seraphim Rose over his foolish conception of Adam as an evolved ape. He also fought against the traditional icons wherein God the Father is depicted, and left his Greek old-calendar parish over this issue, if I am not mistaken.
So as one can see, these birds of a feather flock together, and they all tend to discredit Fr. Seraphim Rose every chance they get, brandishing him a "neo-gnostic," and they label St. Augustine as a "neo-Platonist" and slander his holy memory, and they all tend to promote evolution (although some of them are afraid to admit it openly), and they tend to reject certain holy icons as "Western," etc.
From chapter 63 of "Seraphim Rose, His Life and Works":
In the end, Fr. Seraphim identified this neo-traditionalism as a kind of "renovationism from the right." "'Boston Orthodoxy,'" he wrote, "is actually a kind of right wing of 'Parisian Orthodoxy'—a 'reformed' Orthodoxy which happens to be mostly 'correct,' but is actually just as much outside the tradition of Orthodoxy as Paris, just as much the creation of human logic. A terrible temptation for our times."23
Getting back to John Romanides. After returning to the States in the late 1950's, his bio says he continued "his studies and research at the Harvard Divinity School and then at the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences." More liberal protestant schooling.
Throughout his entire career, Prof. Romanides traveled around as a representative of the schismatic new-calendar Church of Greece, participating as a member of the central committee of the World Council of Churches.
This is taken directly from the World Council of Churches website:
YEARBOOK 2002:
OBITUARIES
The saints who joined the church triumphant in 2001 included leaders whose lives and witness had contributed significantly to the Christian movement of the 20th century and suggested new directions for the faithful:
Ioannis Romanides, an Orthodox priest and theologian who was a member of the WCC's central committee, died in Athens on 1 November at the age of 75. He had been involved in the WCC from its founding and was active on its governing bodies and working committees over five decades. Father Romanides devoted his energy to the cause of Christian unity throughout his career and held a wide variety of positions in his church and the ecumenical movement. He made substantive contributions in the field of inter-religious dialogue.
John Romanides never had a genuine Orthodox formation, and it's sad to see Bp. Christodoulos in bondage to his teachings.
My real concern is not Gregory of Dormition Skete, since he is largely discredited amongst the Genuine Orthodox. The greater concern is those who seek communion or concelebrate with Bp. Christodoulos of the HOTCA. I have zero confidence in him, and will not go near him. He has shown us that he has cast his lot with the "Boston Orthodoxy," inspired by the liberal Parisian school that Fr. Seraphim warned everyone of.
The Scripture says "Ye shall know them by their fruits."
We see the poisonous fruit of Bp. Christodoulos sprouting forth. HOTCA clergy invited HOCNA clergy to a liturgical celebration, jointly prayed with them, and in a declaration posted on their website referred to the HOCNA as "True Orthodox Christians" and a "True Orthodox Jurisdiction".
Visit of HOCNA clergy to St. Maximus Parish
Thursday, 27 August 2009 21:37
http://www.hotca.org/index.php?option=c ... &Itemid=74
On August 10/23 Bishop Demetrius of Carlisle, together with two other priests of HOCNA, Fr. John Fleser and Fr. Peter Farnsworth, attended a festal Liturgy at St. Maximus parish in Owego, New York. At this celebration Metropolitan Pavlos awarded Fr. Thomas Marretta, the rector of St. Maximus, the office of Protopresbyter for his dedicated service to the Church as a priest for 30 years. Metropolitan Pavlos invited the clergy from Boston to attend as a sign of unity among the True Orthodox Christians; this being especially appropriate in view of Fr. Thomas’s long-standing friendship with the clergy of HOCNA and the fact that he was baptized into the Orthodox Faith at Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Boston, MA. We wish Fr. Thomas Many Years on his reception of the honor of the protopresbytery, and pray that such demonstrations of brotherly support from other True Orthodox jurisdictions will become more frequent!
Bp. Christodoulos belongs in HOCNA. He is of the same mind as them. Just go to his Facebook page, where, not surprisingly, he is promoting poisonous writings by John Romanides. When Bp. Christodoulos is not scandalizing the Faithful with his "movie night" in the basement of the cathedral of St. Markella's, he has a "book night," and of course he is having people read, you guessed it, John Romanides.
With love in Christ our true God,
Cyprian
