BISHOP ARTEMIJE AND TRUE ORTHODOXY by Vladimir Moss

[Priest Siluan]

http://www.orthodoxchristianbooks.com/a ... cle_id=331

BISHOP ARTEMIJE AND TRUE ORTHODOXY

Written by Vladimir Moss

The news that the Serbian Bishop Artemije, formerly of Kosovo and Metohija, has been banned from serving by the Synod of the official Serbian Orthodox Church has naturally been welcomed by the True Orthodox Christians. Bishop Artemije has been the foremost critic of the ecumenist and modernist course of the official Serbian Church for several years. Recently he was punished by the heretical patriarchate by being removed from his see in Kosovo, where he has strong roots. Now the break with the patriarchate seems to be complete. But is it in reality?

The ecumenist heresy has been raging for almost one hundred years now, and the Serbian Church has been a member of the completely apostate World Council of Churches since the 1960s. And yet only a small remnant of anti-ecumenists has ever made the full transition from heresy to True Orthodoxy. The question is: why?

There appear to be three main reasons – or rather, excuses – why most anti-ecumenists refuse to join True Orthodoxy. The first is the most obvious: a real, complete break with heresy always elicits persecution, if not physical, then psychological. And so it is always easier to “fight from within”, with comparatively many others in the false church, than make the final break from one’s comfortable surroundings and find oneself out in the cold, in a small minority of zealots. But we must not forget that Christ suffered “outside the gate” (Hebrews 13.12), and that all those who wish to follow Him must “go forth unto Him outside the camp” (v. 13) of the apostates and heretics. The fear of being alone, or almost alone, is understandable, but it must be resisted. The parents of the blind man did not confess the truth “out of fear of the Jews, who had already agreed to expel from the synagogue anyone who should acknowledge Jesus as the Christ” (John 9.22). They were like the Jews of whom the Lord said: “How can you believe when you look to one another for approval and are not concerned with the approval that come from the one God? (John 5.44). We must remember the words of Jesus, the son of Sirach: “Fight to the death for the truth, and the Lord God will war on your side” (Sirach 4.28). And of David: “I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that set themselves against me round about” (Psalm 3.6).

For those who find the courage to break communion with “the congregation of the evil-doers” (Psalm 21.16), a second temptation presents itself: to declare that they have not broken from a false church that has lost the Grace of God, but only from a true church that still has Grace but is “ill” in some of its parts. In this way they protect themselves from the sharpest persecution, because they do not claim to be “the True Church” but only a resistance movement against certain heretics within the True Church. However, the Holy Fathers teach that heretics are outside the True Church, and they condemn those who say that there is Grace among heretics (Apostolic Canons 45 and 46). Therefore if ecumenism is a heresy – in fact, a “pan-heresy”, the heresy of heresies – then those who confess it are outside the True Church, and they do not have the Grace of sacraments. And those who reject this heresy, and break communion with the heretics, are not simply a “resistance” or “guerilla” movement that continues to recognize the heretics as “the Mother Church”. They, and they alone, are the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

For those who break communion with the heretics and declare that the heretics are outside the Church and have no Grace, a third temptation presents itself: to refuse to join those confessors who have confessed the faith before them and already form the True Orthodox Church. There may be various reasons for this. Perhaps in the past they condemned the True Orthodox Church, and are now ashamed to admit that they were wrong. Or they wish to organize themselves independently and do not want to submit to bishops whom they do not know. Or they do not want to admit that when they were in the heretical church they themselves were outside the Church… Whatever the reason, the refusal to join the True Orthodox Church must be harmful for True Orthodoxy as a whole. It is essential that those who separate from the heretical false church unite among themselves.

Let us return now to the situation in the Serbian Church. There can be no question that the official Serbian Church has been apostate for a long time. As we have seen, it has already belonged to the apostate World Council of Churches (WCC) for nearly two generations. Moreover, the Serbian bishops have never made any official protest against the “super-ecumenist” statements of the leaders of World Orthodoxy. They did not protest against the super-ecumenism of the World Orthodox at the Vancouver General Assembly of the WCC in 1983. They did not protest against Assisi in 1986. They did not protest when Patriarch Parthenius of Alexandria called Mohammed a true Apostle of God in 1989. They did not protest when Patriarch Alexis of Moscow recognized Judaism in 1991. They did not protest against the union with the Monophysites at Chambésy in 1992. They did not protest when all the World Orthodox renounced missionary activity among Western Christians in 1992. They did not protest when the World Orthodox recognized the Roman Catholics as “the second lung” of the Body of the Church at Balamand in 1994. Not only did they not protest against these horrific acts: they signed all the statements placed in front of them.

Thus in a letter to the Pope dated January 17, 1992 Patriarch Pavle asked for "a true ecumenical dialogue between our two sister Churches".[1] Again, a year later he wrote to the Pope: “We sincerely rejoice that this joint prayer… (with) representatives of other Christian churches and confessions in Europe, as well as representatives of Islam and other great religions,… will take place in Assisi, the homeland of that righteous one and true servant of God, whose spiritual legacy and teachings have made him an apostle of humility, repentance, peace and love. He has built a real bridge between Christians of the West and East. You may rest assured, Your Holiness, that on this day, as well as on every day given us by God, we are in communion with you in prayer for peace and the salvation of all. This is so, although the undersigned… is regretfully unable to be able personally and physically at the concelebration in Assisi. We ask you to do us a favour and receive our delegation as soon as possible in spite your enormous volume of work and all your great difficulties. This delegation will be instructed to cooperate with these organisations which you appoint for the preparation of our meeting with Your Holiness. If God is merciful, and the meeting takes place in the not so remote future, this will be the first meeting between the Pope of Rome and the Serbian Patriarch. We once more thank Your Holiness for the invitation, attention and love which you have shown us. We assure you that on the 9th and 10th of January, during the prayer in Assisi, we ‘with one mouth and one heart’ will offer up to the Throne of our Lord and Saviour, together with Your Holiness and all the Bishops and believers of your Holy Church, our sincere prayers for peace in the whole world and peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”[2]

Only in the mid-1990s was there a mass reaction against ecumenism in Serbia. This movement was led by Bishop Artemije and included about 300 clergy and monastics, who wrote to the Serbian Synod: “We ask ourselves: how long will our Holy Synod of Bishops be silent while facing the fact that one Bishop of the SOC (Bishop Irenaeus Bulovic of Backa) organized a reception of the Cardinal of Vienna in 1996 in his cathedral church as if someone more important than the Serbian Patriarch was coming. He took the Cardinal to the Holy Sanctuary and allowed him to kiss the Holy Table. During the liturgy he also exchanged the kiss of peace with the same Cardinal. One other Bishop (Laurence of Sabac) has often taken part in common prayers with ecumenists, pseudo-Christians, pagans and sectarians.

“Do we, Orthodox monks, not have the right to ask a question and require an explanation, which is the last degree of tolerance for our eternal salvation because we do not want to lose our soul by being led by such bishops?

“That is why we require an official explanation about the validity of attitudes which we have hitherto expressed.

“Another question is: Was it necessary to receive the money from the WCC for the new Theology School building in Belgrade so that heretics might teach their heresy to our students of Theology, while our professors of the School force the students to take the blessings from the Protestants and take part in their lectures.”

However, Patriarch Pavle remained unmoved, the movement produced no concrete results, and Serbian hierarchs have continued to the present day to pray with heretics, especially Catholics. Thus in 2000 the Catholic Archbishop of Zagreb celebrated a mass in a suburb of Novi Sad in northern Serbia which was attended by the local Orthodox bishop, and joint prayer services took place in Belgrade during a Catholic-Orthodox conference of bishops that took place in Belgrade at the invitation of the Serbian Church.[3] The Serbian bishops declared that “during these three days our sense of brotherhood in Christ was deepened through our [joint] prayer and work.”[4]

Now, at last, Bishop Artemije has been expelled from the official Serbian Church. We, the True Orthodox Christians, welcome this act, and look with hope towards Bishop Artemije. Will he now not only anathematize ecumenism, but also the ecumenists, especially the Synod of the official Serbian Church? Will he declare that the official Serbian Church is heretical and without Grace? Will he overcome the three temptations I have described, and join the True Orthodox Church?

So far we have not seen answers to these questions. Less than a week has passed since Bishop Artemije was banned, so we must be patient and give him time to answer. However, before we recognize him as truly Orthodox he will have to answer these questions in a truly Orthodox spirit. For we are not permitted to recognized a bishop until he has shown himself completely Orthodox in word and deed. Otherwise, if he does not answer these questions, we will regretfully conclude that, while the official Serbian Church has succeeded in getting rid of a nuisance and increased its own unity in evil, the True Orthodox Church has not acquired a new champion…

Vladimir Moss.

November 9/22, 2010.

[1] Florence Hamlish Levinsohn, Belgrade: Among the Serbs, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1994, p. 238.

[2] Russkaia Mysl’ (Russian Thought), January 22, 1993 (in Russian).

[3] “Serbskaia Patriarkhia i Katolicheskaia Tserkov’: ‘V Sovmestnoj Molitve… My Stali Yeshcho Blizhe’” (The Serbian Patriarchate and the Catholic Church: ‘In Joint Prayer… We Became Still Closer), Vertograd-Inform, №№ 7-8 (64-65), July-August, 2000, pp. 18-19 (in Russian); Church News, vol. 23, № 7 (89), October, 2000, pp. 5-6.

[4] www.spc.org.yu/News/07/27-7-00_e5, the official website of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

[Cyprian]

The Synod of Bishops of the Patriarchate of Serbia stated their intentions to officially withdraw from the World Council of Churches in the 1997 Sobor. More than thirteen years later and they have yet to make good on their promise.

Fool me once, shame on you...

[Despotovac]

Blog SerbianTrue Orthodox:
Culmination of the “Case” of Bishop Artemije
Friday, November 19, 2010

Today's news - about Bishop Artemije's openly rebelling against the Belgrade Patriarchate after having promised not to create a schism – somewhat changes the outlook on this situation. Now it is obvious that a schism in the SOC will happen, and this, in itself, is not a bad thing. But an important question arises: Why did Bishop Artemije do this? Was he stimulated by Holy Zeal, by fighting to preserve the Orthodox Faith, or by something else? If the Belgrade Patriarchate were to give him his eparchy back, after everything that has occurred, would he go back in obedience to them?

With what does Bishop Artemije charge the Patriarchate as his main reason for his separation from them? Is it the taking away of his eparchy, or is it the heresy of ecumenism? If it is the second, why then did he not do something so radical while he was a lawful and effective bishop? In his current situation – expelled, forbidden to serve, between a rock and a hard place – Bishop Artemije looks more like someone who is struggling bitterly for his lost position in the realm of the World Orthodox SOC, if even in the role of a (supposed) extreme opposition.

To get to the point, let us ask this question: If he is truly a fighter and zealot for the Faith, why does he not go on the well-cleared path already trodden by the confessors of Faith of the Russian Catacombs, of the Russian Church Abroad, and the Greek and Romanian fronts for the defense of the patristic, traditional calendar – the path of True Orthodoxy? These are the true defenders of the Faith, who have, not once but many times, anathematized the heresy of ecumenism and brought forth true saints whom God has glorified through the revelation of their incorrupt relics. Will he lead the Serbs on some other path? To be precise, will he lead them down the wrong path of opposition to ecumenism by “fighting from within”? That path is not blessed by the Lord. As long as Bishop Artemije still acknowledges the Belgrade Patriarchate as the Church, he cannot oppose it effectively, for it is no longer a true Church, and therefore his “opposition” is undermined by a false premise. And, furthermore, if he is confident that the Belgrade Patriarchate IS the Church, then he must be consider himself a schismatic for separating from it .

In the first place, Bishop Artemije, like all current bishops of the official SOC in the post World War II period, possesses apostolic succession connected to Patriarch German's service to the godless communists and to super-ecumenism, now confirmed abundantly by long years of concelebration with many ecumenists, Sergianists, and New Calendarists. If he really wants to regularize his canonical position and come into union with True Orthodoxy, he must turn to the already-existing True Orthodox bishops, whether Russian or Greek.

If Bishop Artemije neglects to do this and instead creates his own PERSONAL church organization, not confirmed by anyone, it will be similar to the “church” of Mirash Dedeich, the Montenegrin metropolitan who created his own “church” which none of the “official” Orthodox Churches recognize.

In spite of all that we have said above, however, we can still congratulate Bishop Artemije and his followers on this bold step of open resistance to the Belgrade Patriarchate.

• an editorial of the blog Serbian True Orthodox

A FEW COMMENTS:

1)

• The Serbian True Orthodox Church has Her faithful flock and sympathizers who understand the essential difference between World “Orthodoxy” and True Orthodoxy.

• Bishop Artemije has a flock and sympathizers who poorly understand the difference between World “Orthodoxy” and True Orthodoxy.

• At this moment, it is not clear what stance Bishop Artemije will take when he leaves the SOC and they defrock him. His position will certainly be even more tenuous and vague, since no one in World Orthodoxy will recognize him, while simultaneously he has no intention to become True Orthodox.

• What will his church organization be? Of course, no one is thinking about this now, because his followers are euphorically supporting him on the path of uncertainty onto which he is leading them.

• The clergy, monastics, and faithful who follow him on this path will find themselves in some kind of vacuum, neither cold or hot, which will be a new disaster for the Serbian people, from which may God save us!

• In a way, we are afraid of another church structure in Serbia which will lead the Serbian people onto the wrong path, because that kind of church organization certainly will not be canonical.

• We will wait and see in which direction Bishop Artemije's separation from the SOC will head from the SOC in the creation of a new church structure on the territory of the Serbian land.

May God help us all!

2)
The episcopal cadre in the SOC is not chosen by chance! All of these events in connection with Bishop Artemius can look like some kind of ‘conspiracy theory’ senario. If we compare this with the political scene and ‘opposition’ which is made by those who control and enthrone those in power, then we can make the logical conclusion that all of this is very possible. But we cannot judge anyone in advance. We will wait a bit, and time will make many things clear. Maybe a miracle of God will happen; maybe Bishop Artemius will take the helm of the Serbian TOC, as in the past Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Florina became the head of the headless Old Calendarist Greeks.

http://serbiantrueorthodox.blogspot.com ... st_19.html

[Despotovac]

Comments from a True Orthodox priest on the “Artemije affair”

I remember well the time in the 1990’s when Bishop Artemije, along with Fr Savva of Decani Monastery and many other follows, made his public statement of opposition to the pan-heresy of ecumenism. It was at that moment that he “drew the line in the sand,” and it was obvious to anyone with a correctly formed conscience that if he retreated, he would sear his conscience and fall into the pit of consciously and publicly chosen communion with heresy. But this is exactly what happened. Thus he fell from a moral pinnacle – making a bold confession of Faith and being on the verge of breaking communion with heretics – to what he is today: a pitiful figure with no identity, neither hot (i.e., a confessor of the Faith), nor cold (i.e., a pampered Eurocrat pseudo-bishop like the rest of the Serbian Patriarchate), but a lukewarm nonentity with a vague and confusing ecclesiology, vainly trying to hold on to some kind of ecclesiastical position.

Bishop Artemije did the one thing an anti-ecumenist must NOT do: He identified the ecumenists… and then remained in communion with them! This is the ultimate ecumenism: for the anti-ecumenist to concelebrate with the ecumenists! It is the most complete triumph of ecumenism imaginable – ecumenism thus triumphs as such a universally corroding mental and spiritual poison that even the anti-ecumenists feel compelled by some demonic fatal attraction to pray with the ecumenists, thus confessing most clearly precisely that which the ecumenists teach: it does not matter what you believe, as long as you pray together.

By doing this one thing the confessor of the Faith must NOT do – identifying the heretics and then remaining in communion with them – Bishop Artemije has seared his conscience, disabled his ability to make good decisions, misled the faithful, and damaged the cause of the true Faith.

Now, years later, will he have the moral clarity to see this mistake and undo it? Today, here and now, will he have the courage and purity of mind and soul to say, “I publicly confess that I should have broken communion with the Patriarchate YEARS AGO, because they are HERETICS! I publicly confess that I should have joined the True Orthodox years ago and now intend to join them!”? Let us pray that he may, for his salvation and that of many souls!

Fr Steven Allen
Church of St Spyridon (GOC)
Detroit, Michigan

[theoktistos]

It is truly sad to see such learned men and members of the clergy engage in such polemics; they have become masters of the propaganda game instead of propagators of true Christian love. Do we forget that Bishop Chrysostomos of Florina, the great warrior of the resistance to innovation, refused to condemn the Church he walled himslef from, was he too an ecumenist!

[Priest Siluan]

It is truly sad to see such learned men and members of the clergy engage in such polemics; they have become masters of the propaganda game instead of propagators of true Christian love. Do we forget that Bishop Chrysostomos of Florina, the great warrior of the resistance to innovation, refused to condemn the Church he walled himslef from, was he too an ecumenist!

Archbishop Chrysostomos of Florina condemned the New Calendarist as schismatic and graceless in 1935 and 1950, he reposed on this position, don't forget.

[theoktistos]

This according to your interpretation sure and according to historical record and fact. Also don't forget that it wasn't the 197os that the Late Archibishop Auxentios and the Holy Synod at that time renounced Grace in State Church mysteries. Furthermore the Late Metropoiltan Petros of Astoria, who's nephew today tolerates the kind of attacks some of the bloggeres here unleash, until his very late years communed those from the new calendar without any correction to their status, this I know first hand.