So tell me, because I truly don't know who you lump into each category, what juristictions are ecumenist, which are heretics, and who is not Orthodox (of those who claim to be). Please state why each is condemned.
Paleocon,
I am not inclined to pass personal judgment on anyone, so who is “condemned” and who is not is not something I have ever considered. I do recognize the Orthodox faith however - that I can speak about.
It is enough for me to know that once a bishop preaches or accepts a heresy I can have no communion with him – they have cast themselves out of the Church and according to scripture and the Holy Fathers, they are self-condemned. All those who commune with such a bishop, according to their knowledge the heresy, place themselves in the same lot.
In history we see that a vast majority of priests and bishops were in fact Orthodox in faith, but because they did not want to fight the Arian heretics, they remained with them. You see, the Arians, like the ecumenists today, cleverly worded the explanation of their heresy so that it could also be interpreted in an Orthodox way. It was only when they were really pressed that you could prove they were Arians. Anyway, those Orthodox priests accepted Arianism in all its cleaverness, and mostly for material benefit. But we however, never called them Orthodox - they have always been considered Arians. Only those few living in disorganized groups which often fought with eachother were considered Orthodox.
The ecumenist heretics today come under many different banners, espousing many errant beliefs. All of their heresies depreciate toward one goal – ecumenism. These are the synods of bishops who declare against the proclamations of ecumenical councils and commune with Monophysites; they are the ones who declare the heretics as being the same Church and whose Mysteries are the same as that of the Church of Christ. Ther are the ones who are slowly trying to subvert the flock because they know it cannot be done in only a few years. They are the ones who destroy not only the faith, but also the practice of the Church, the salt of which Christ warned us not to loose. So we see it is nothing anymore to be a mason and go to confession once or twice in your lifetime, if that. Most in the GOA and many in the OCA and others don't even fast. There is so much that I could write for many days with examples.
It was enough for the church in earlier times to know these simple truths only by Holy Tradition, that is, the understanding that was passed down to them without the benefit of any means to verify it through books or other resources. Then it was enough for three words to be added to the Creed in order to break communion. But today, when we have vast resources to draw upon and can read of countless examples of the Fathers very few people seem to see straight, they are all matted down with their own desires of what they would prefer to do. Their way, the way of the masses, is not a struggle for truth, it is a struggle to be left alone to follow ones own desires. And they, they have not added words to the Creed, they are changing the meaning of the words; so that One Baptism no longer means just the Baptism of the Orthodox; and One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church no longer means just the Orthodox.
As I have said before, the Grace of the Church flows from Christ through his High Priests. There is not a new-calendar bishop today (or priest for that matter) who is not aware of what is going on, but accepts it nonetheless. It is because of this that Holy Tradition, seeking to protect the flock, demands we declare they are not the Church of Christ preaching the right faith. Whatever condemnation you believe this is, it is only so because they have brought it to themselves – not us.
The Iconoclast heretics were not nearly as bad as we have today. It is not as though they would not allow Icons - they certainly did allow icons. It was just that they demanded the icons be hung a little higher is all, so that they could not be venerated. And to think the Church "condemned" them for something so "trivial".
