ECUMENISM -- THE HERESY OF HERESIES.
ANATHEMA AGAINST ECUMENISM

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?

[5] Archbishop Vitaly (Oustinov, now Metropolitan, the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad), "Ecumenism", report presented to the Council of Bishops of 1967 in Mahopac, USA; Montreal, 1982, p. 9.

[6] "The Posthumous Pronouncements of the Venerable Myrrh-bearing Nilus, the Athonite". Published by the Annunciation Cell of Elder Parthenius on Athos, Athens, 1912, p. 59.

[7] The Patriarchate of Jerusalem has also made a decision about the Church of Jerusalem ceasing to participate in the dialogues with the heterodox and in the World Council of Churches. See the "Declaration of Patriarch Diodorus" in the Orthodoxos Typos, No. 842, 16.6.1989, p. 1, col. 1-3.

[8] Pravoslavnaia Rus' (Orthodox Russia) No. 10 (1271), 15/28 May, 1984, The Printing Press of St. Job of Pochaev, Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, N.Y., p. 3, col. 2.

[9] Archbishop Vitaly, "The Council of Bishops of 1983", Pravoslavnaia Rus' (Orthodox Russia), No. 10, 15/28 May, 1984, p.3, col. 2.