Canberra 1991 the forfeiture of the Orthodoxy in Australia

COME, HOLY SPIRIT, RENEW THE WHOLE CREATION

• which Spirit was in Canberra? The holy spirit or another spirit?
• Have they given an Orthodox testimony?
• How the Archbishop Stylianos accepted this forfeiture of the Orthodox Church?

ECUMENISM -- THE HERESY OF HERESIES.

For everyone familiar with Church history, particularly with the history of its struggle with heresies, it is becoming clear that ecumenism is the heresy of heresies. The World Council of Churches has "concentrated in itself, like in a certain focus, all blasphemy, delusions and oppositions to Truth which existed throughout the entire spiritual history of mankind, from Cain, Ham to Judas the traitor, Karl Marx, seducer Freud, and all our contemporary blasphemers" [5].

As we look at what is going on in the contemporary world, we involuntarily remember the words of St. Nilus the Myrrh-bearer concerning the end-times when "in their wicked deeds men will surpass the demons and will be of one spirit with them" [6] .

We live in the age of apostasy, the age of false values. The total apostasy from God is the sign of our times and it is inseparably bound with ecumenism. The mirage of ecumenism, its substitute for Christian charity, is promoted and glorified throughout the world. At the present time all Local Churches belong to the WCC, except the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad [7].

In 1983 the Bishops' Council of the Church pronounced anathema against ecumenism. Its text reads as follows:

"To those who attack the Church of Christ by teaching that Christ's Church is divided into so-called "branches" which differ in doctrine and way of life, or that the Church does not exist visibly, but will be formed in the future when all branches or sects, or denominations, and even religions will be united into one body; and who do not distinguish the priesthood and mysteries of the Church from those of heretics, but say that the baptism and eucharist of heretics is effectual for salvation; therefore, to those who knowingly have communion with these aforementioned heretics or who advocate, disseminate, or defend their new heresy, commonly called ecumenism, under the pretext of brotherly love or the supposed unification of separated Christians, Anathema!" [8].

Metropolitan Vitaly writes: "By pronouncing anathema against ecumenism, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad is protecting its flock from this apocalyptic temptation. At the same time it has involuntarily imposed a serious task upon the conscience of all local Churches as, sooner or later, they will have to resolve this issue in one way or another. Their further spiritual destiny in the Orthodox Church will depend on how they solve this problem. De jure, this anathema pronounced by us is of a purely local character (of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad), but, de facto, it is of great historical and universal significance only because ecumenism is itself the heresy of a universal scale. The place of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad is apparently on the conscience of all Orthodox Christians. This is the large cross which the Lord has placed on our shoulders. It is impossible to keep silent any longer, because any further silence could be likened to a betrayal of the truth, and may God deliver us all from that" [9].

Only the "little flock" remains faithful to Christ, knowing that the Lord will not leave comfortless those who love Him (John 14, 18).

The canonical purity of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad now attracts a great number of people in Russia who are pure of heart. The official lies and slander which the Moscow Patriarchate casts on the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and its parishes in Russia, are now useless.

The time will come when the Moscow Patriarchate will be made answerable before God for the damage done by ecumenism to longsuffering Russia. It is terrible to go against the truth of the living God and to create the church of "the wicked". What will happen, if through its sins the MP will soon lose grace, and this will become obvious to all, especially to the "little ones" whose pure faith alone upholds the holy Orthodoxy in Russia?
Check out the link with the churches who participate the S.A council of churhes:http://www.sacc.asn.au/en/index.php?rubric=en_who_members

What is Heresy?

In a letter to his spiritual child Amphilochios of Iconium written c. 373 A.D, St. Basil the Great distinguishes three ways in which there can take place a separation of a baptised person from the communion of the Orthodox Church. These three ways affecting Christian unity were said to be heresy, depending on whether a disagreement fell on actual faith in God, on church discipline or on ecclesiastical rulings.
    Heresy. From the writings of St.Basil we find that from antiquity heretics were considered to be people

“who were altogether broken off  and alienated  in matters relating to faith.”

Heresy is a disagreement , a discrepancy on vital issues of faith and culminates in the negation of the unity of God and the Church. As causes of separation  St. Basil mentions pride and arrogance  originating in the human faculty of free choice . Because it was an act of deliberate choice, heresy was not tolerated in the churches. Its authors were cautioned first; then if they refused to obey, they were excommunicated from the churches.
In describing the impropriety of those who originate rival assemblies St. Basil uses the term nondiscipline the opposite of  the good order and discipline of the church. Each parasynagogue or constitution of a rival assembly implies the breach of ecclesiastical unity resulting in exclusion from the Eucharistic Communion of the Church.
Canon 5 of the Council of Nicaea (324A.D) speaks of breaches of church unity caused by unruly clergy. According to the canon the end result for the unruly clergy is  “to become excommunicated”. The cleric becomes excommunicated, not necessarily in the juridical term, but in the sense that unless he repents he can no longer receive Holy Communion in the Church in which alone abides the Holy Spirit.
Today the concepts of heresy-schism-parasynagogue in a certain manner overlap and in this sense constitute an indivisible unity.

Where does this place the few "ECUMENISTS GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCHES"?
The few so called Greek Orthodox Ecumenists Churches are indeed a heresy that to some is exposed but to many others is camouflaged. The fact that it camouflages itself means that it causes more harm than an exposed heresy. In Adelaide these “churches” are generally regarded as   heretical in that their potential for communion into the Genuine Orthodox Church is prayerfully anticipated and patiently waited.
Due to the extraordinary characters serving in Adelaide’s Few Ecumenists Greek Orthodox Churches, these churches present themselves mainly as Canonical.
These Churches are camouflaged with the word "Canonical" (many Priests, Bishops, luxurious Churches") But the heresy remains there.

CAN HERETICS HAVE THE GRACE OF SACRAMENTS?

No question divides contemporary True Orthodox Christians more than the question whether or not the ecumenist Orthodox, i.e. those Orthodox who are members of Churches belonging to the World Council of Churches, possess the grace of sacraments. Some have argued that “the question of grace”, as we shall call it, is a secondary issue. The important thing, they say, is to agree that Ecumenism is a heresy and flee from communion with the heretics. However, a moment’s thought will demonstrate that there can hardly be a more important question than that whether some millions of people calling themselves Orthodox Christians have the grace of sacraments and are therefore members of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church having a good hope of salvation, or, on the contrary, do not have the grace of sacraments and are therefore outside the Church and on the path to destruction. Hard as one may try, it is impossible to escape this question; for the answer one gives to it affects in a significant way one’s attitude to the ecumenist Orthodox. Are they like the people of whom the Apostle Jude says: “On some have compassion, making a difference” (v. 22), since their sin is not a sin unto death, a sin that estranges them completely from the Church? Or are they like those of whom he says: “Others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (v. 23), because their sin is not only a sin unto death, estranging them completely from the Church, but also contagious, liable to contaminate us if we are not extremely careful in our relations with, and attitude towards themThe Orthodox Church as a whole is unerring and invincible,” writes Metropolitan Cyprian. “It is possible, however, for Christians and for local Churches to fall in faith; that is to say, it is possible for them to suffer spiritually and for one to see a certain ‘siege of illness within the body of the Church’, as St. John Chrysostom says. It is possible for Christians to separate and for ‘divisions’ to appear within the Church, as the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians. It is possible for local Churches into fall into heresy, as occurred in the ancient Orthodox Church of the West, which fell into the heresies of Papism and Protestantism and finally into the panheresy of ecumenism.

Please check out the link for the churches that are members to the church world council in South Australia : http://www.sacc.asn.au/en/index.php?rubric=en_who_members