Written By: Diogenis D. Valavanidis
the Center for the protection of Christian identity and
president of the council for religion of the Center for geostrategic studies
One does not need to be a great connoisseur of ecclesiological and geopolitical circumstances in order to conclude that the Orthodox Church today finds itself in a vortex of numerous political combinations and geopolitical redistributions. This sequence of events was predicted by the wise André Malraux (1901-1976), a famous French politician, intellectual and Minister of culture in the government of the famous French statesman Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle from 1959. until 1969. "the church and faith will have an important place in the creation of the geopolitics of the Twenty-First Century."
In this context, analyzing the causes and motives that led to the interruption of the Eucharistic communion of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which represents one of the greatest dangers to the survival of the unity of the Orthodox Church, we come to the conclusion that these are the greatest heresies of the modern age, which are in addition to ecumenism, modernism and liberalism., and a new false teaching on Eastern papism.
It is a teaching that originated about 100 years ago, and whose founder, according to St. Justin of Celia, was patriarch Melentius Metaxakis of Constantinople, who was also a mason. In essence, papism is the main false teaching of the papists. a Roman Catholic, whose basic message is that the Roman Pope is not only the first among equals in honor, as always believed by the whole Church of Christ, but also the first in power, i.e. without equals. In other words,"he is above all the other patriarchs and the only substitute of Jesus Christ on Earth"? This false demonic teaching, which is a consequence of the pride of the Roman popes, originated even before the 11th century. century and the Great Schism of the Eastern and Western churches, i.e. the fall of the Roman Church from one Catholic and Apostolic Church – the Orthodox Church, precisely because of many false teachings and innovations, such as papal primacy, filioques, infallibility, the Immaculate Conception of the Theotokos, purgatory, indulgence, Holy Eucharist, baptism and holy anointing. In this way, the Roman Catholic Church renounced the observance of the canons of the Christian Church of the first millennium. This was the reason why the holy patriarch of Constantinople Photios, at 9. for a century anathematized the powerful and proud heretic Pope Nicholas I (858-867), for whom contemporaries wrote: "Nicholas makes himself emperor of the whole world" (Nicolaus Totius mundi imperatorem se fecit).
Today, the main cause of the huge earthquakes in the entire Orthodox Church lies in the uncanonical decision of Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople to invade the field of jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in a barbaric way. Orthodox Christians watched with suspicion and horror as the Primate of the ancient Patriarchate of Constantinople decided to annex a part of another local church to his canonical territory, while declaring those who were considered schismatics by all local Orthodox churches to be part of the canonical Church. It was these actions of the Heretic of Constantinople that triggered a wave of State terror against the members of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UPC), in the form of arrest and mistreatment of hierarchs, as well as persecution of monks from their monasteries.
The outcry came from many local Orthodox churches, primarily through a multitude of critical texts and statements. Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus raised his voice, saying: "all attempts to justify canonical lawlessness constitute an anomalous canonical practice, which can only be compared with the Ottoman slavery of the Church as well as the difficult period when a number of local churches directly depended on the patriarch of Constantinople, and when the canonical ecclesiastical order of the Saints was suppressed.the Holy Spirit."
Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the littoral said after the Council of Crete: “in this regard, the Serbian Orthodox Church sent a statement of the Bishops ' Council in May, in which it draws the attention of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to the fact that the granting of autocephaly by Constantinople would jeopardize not only the unity of the Orthodox Church.the church, but also the position of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, not to mention the unity of orthodoxy. This was confirmed when the Moscow Patriarchate made a decision, which could have been expected after direct interference in the internal life of the Russian church. At the same time, this caused great concern among other local churches. Many Orthodox bishops expressed their indignation at this act of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Photo By Diogenis Valavanidis
All Orthodox, especially the Patriarchate of Constantinople, should know that the Imperial, Constantinian period in the history of the Church is over. During the imperial period, which began with Emperor Constantine, Constantinople occupied an important place in history, and after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. in the year, the Moscow Empire took on its obligations to help all Orthodox churches, saved the Church of Jerusalem, the Patriarchate of Antioch, helped Constantinople as much as possible, and Imperial Russia helped us in Montenegro, both the state and the metropolis. The Montenegrin theocracy could not survive without help from Russia. The year 1922. millions of Orthodox Greeks were expelled from Turkey, after the Second World War they expelled the Greeks from Constantinople, so today there are not even 2-3 thousand Orthodox believers in Constantinople. With this in mind, how can Constantinople play the same role it played in the imperial period?“.
In addition to the scandalous and uncanonical granting of autocephaly to schismatics in Ukraine, The Heretic of Constantinople is 21.06.2024. the year went a step further in order to reaffirm loyalty to Western sponsors, creating a political scandal by signing a declaration of support for Kiev at a conference in Switzerland. At the same time, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted and asked for an explanation from the organizers in Bjürgenstock, i.e. host Switzerland, to explain the reason why they invited the patriarch of Constantinople to sign a political declaration of support for Kiev.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Bartholomew I was banned from political activity and recalled that the 1923 Lausanne peace treaty. it was determined that the patriarch of Constantinople could engage exclusively in worship for Greeks living in Phanar, Turkey. Also, let us add that in accordance with church-canonical law, the patriarch of Constantinople is strictly forbidden to deal with any political topics.
To make the absurdity greater, unlike the patriarch of Constantinople, who signed the Declaration in Bjurgenstock in the manner of a subject, the Vatican representative joined the decision of the 15 countries that did not sign this document, because Russia was not invited to the conference.
In this context, I consider it important to emphasize that we Orthodox Christians, who today are more than 20 centuries away from the time when the Lord Jesus Christ lived, the least we can and should do in gratitude to our Creator who, despite all our sins, loves us more than anyone else, is to defend Christian identity and the very essence of our faith, which is today threatened more than ever before in its long history.
Today we are living in a time when we are facing completely changed social and political circumstances at the geopolitical level, which have threatened the survival of the Orthodox faith, much more than ever before. Today, the Orthodox faith is not only threatened on the spiritual and moral plane, but also its physical survival.
In this regard, there is an unequivocal impression that the demonic powers of this world want to undermine the unity of the Orthodox Church. Therefore, it can be clearly concluded that the whole world is in a serious crisis, and humanity is in Great Temptation and downhill, with a special focus on Europe. He would say that human civilization has found itself on the sidelines, and is in serious decline. One of the main factors of this crisis lies in the fact that the world, and thus Europe, has renounced its own traditions.
When it comes to the Old Continent, European Christianity is on the defensive, i.e. in retreat. It can be freely said that most of the countries of Europe have ceased to be Christian, because it is quite obvious that there is a struggle between Christianity and anti-Christianity at work. The power and cunning of the father of evil is so great that he has managed to infiltrate the church itself. That anti-Christians also interfered in the church, we can see that some hierarchs began to speak their language.
In order not to make this completely clear to most people, smoke has been released on a global level in order to obscure the view, so that artificially marketed topics that are not at all a priority, but are useful to talk about and discuss while in the background of a conflict in which the fate of the entire Orthodox world is resolved. That is why topics such as digitalization, pandemics, homosexuality, global warming are imposed. This is precisely the goal of the anti-Christian forces, to be occupied with peripheral rather than essential issues.
Also, we are witnessing the unprecedented political pressure of the Anglo-Saxon west in the direction of fragmentation of the Orthodox Church, which was encouraged by the uncanonical actions of the highest church authorities of the ancient Church of Constantinople. In other words, this assures us that the "Apocalypse of modern man"has already begun in the West.
The opening of a very important issue of eastern papism that destroys the unity of the Orthodox Church is a painful cry towards the preservation of the original values of the Orthodox Church of the first millennium, based on the Apostolic rules, the tradition of the Holy Fathers and the decisions of ecumenical and local councils. Undoubtedly, these are extremely serious and important issues, which is the reason why they should not be hidden from the public eye, but on the contrary, they should be made visible to everyone, just as the Epistles of the apostles are available to all Orthodox Christians around the world. We should take this as a great and important warning, because the crucial moment has come when it is necessary to react decisively and courageously in defense of the survival of the Orthodox Church as we know it.
I say this because Patriarch Bartholomew I has been trying for a long time to establish a chair of an “Eastern Pope“ which, in his opinion, should only be a transitional form towards unity with the Roman Catholic Church. Everything indicates that Patriarch Bartholomew is in a hurry to meet in 1700. anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council (2025 the union between Rome and Constantinople, for which the phanariot magnates had already declared themselves. As an example, Archbishop Elpidophoros ' lecture on "the future of Orthodox-Roman Catholic relations in the United States" delivered at Fordham University in New York, where he clearly opted for union with Rome. This is also the case with the study paper presented on the 13th. June 2024. in Rome, by Cardinal Kurt Koch, responsible for ecumenical Affairs, and Maria Grech, secretary general of the World Synod of bishops. The document "suggests" to Christian churches that in the future they should accept the pope as "honorary primate", which would represent a new understanding and a different exercise of papal primacy that should "contribute to the restoration of Christian unity".
More than obvious is the reason why today the Roman Catholic Church uses Latin cunning and promotes the idea of "a new understanding and a different exercise of papal primacy, which should contribute to the restoration of Christian unity". In order to deceive the local Orthodox churches and obscure the true reason, it is even proposed to change the reading of the doctrine of the first Vatican Council, which was in 1870. he proclaimed the infallibility of the Primate of the Roman Catholic Church in dogmatic matters, and thus of him as supreme legislator and judge of the entire Christian Church. It is more than clear from the annex, that by signing the Union in 2025. the Roman Catholic Church wants to achieve papal primacy at all costs, which it has strived for centuries.
Despite the aspirations of the patriarch of Constantinople to impose himself as an Orthodox Pope, an example that tells us a lot, is the silence with which he accompanied the barbaric seizure of the Orthodox shrine of the Church of St. Sophia in Constantinople by official Ankara, which completely discredits the attempt of such an intention. In other words, The Silence of the patriarch of Constantinople fully illuminates the unfounded aspiration to rule the Orthodox world. In a specific example, he showed that he was not capable of defending the Church of St. Sophia, which is a few hundred meters from his chambers, and how could he represent the whole orthodoxy?
In his capacity as president of the "Center for the protection of Christian identity" from Belgrade, the writer of these lines sent an open letter to the president of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan 13. July 2020. in 2008, he asked to reconsider the decision that converted the Orthodox Church of St. Sophia into an Islamic place of worship, which was erected by Emperor Justinian from 532-537. years. The letter was delivered at the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Belgrade.
Also, in a separate letter, Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople was asked to invest his authority and do everything to return to us the Church of St. Sophia, where generations of our ancestors prayed with the peace of God to the only Lord.
The response of the patriarch of Constantinople to this letter never came!
Remaining in the mission of preserving the Orthodox faith, we are convinced that the Russian Orthodox Church is today the only one that can protect and preserve the Orthodox Church from the demonic forces and temptations to which it is exposed. In this context, in this place I will paraphrase the words of St. Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović, who said that in the struggle of truth and lies and justice, to be neutral means to help the evil. As with a sharp sword, Christ divided the people into two groups, saying, "He who is not with me is against me." In other words, it means that those who are neither hot nor cold, therefore neutral, are disgusting to him. It is difficult to imagine a Christian who behaves neutrally in such circumstances, i.e. to stand aside and watch the battle between the crossbowmen and the crossbowmen.
St. Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic points out that today's generations lack heroism. In this context, he emphasizes that today people are a great fire without fire, and he notes that a burning fire is better, but a pile of wood in the snow, which is as cold as the snow. Heroism is the fire that ignites our heart and warms our soul.
In conclusion, I would like to point to the words of the famous Greek theologian Georgios Metalinos: "the essential difference between Eastern and Western man is that the Western man sacrifices others for himself, while the Eastern man sacrifices himself for others".
10. July 2024.
