Preserving and protecting…

The Orthodox Observer came in the mail sometime earlier this week. Knowing that it would be mainly full of honorific, formal essays and various kinds of Greek panegyrics, and a big dose of advertising, I laid it aside till today. While taking a light lunch of a salami sandwich I sat down at the table, grabbed the newspaper, and started mining it for anything of value. What I came to first was the icon reproduced above (click on it to zoom), of the Birth of Christ. It was on page one of the Greek language section. It's unusual and I wanted to share it with visitors to my blog.

It's a folk style icon. First of all we notice that both Mary and Joseph are up close to the manger with two shepherds, one with his yarmulke in his hand, the other one starting to uncover his head. The angels are close up too, one is right there in the cave (the stable was actually a cave), while his two companions are holding up a scroll on which is written in Greek "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, to men evdhokia (hard to translate, it means that God is pleased with men). The colors are bright and pure, and the symbolism is simple. Conspicuous by their absence is the three kings or wisemen, ‘magi’ normally shown on horseback. This icon really sticks it to us, showing us the real story without any chronological conflation. (Icons can only show images of literal events, but sometimes they conflate, or combine, several events in the same picture, as though happening simultaneously, for didactic purposes.) The only other thing I note, is that the donkey looks like he's still trying to get some hay out of the manger, while Jesus is lying in it. The ox knows better.

As I started my blog this year with the theme of the prophets, and as I've carried this theme through the year, living it and sometimes writing about it, I also want to close the year 2007 with a prophetic theme. I'm not a prophet nor ever claim to be, but there are movements afoot in the Church that anyone can see who has not bent the knee to baal (Romans 11:4). The title of this post is taken from the headline on the following page, again from the Orthodox Observer.
I'd like you to zoom in on the above image of the patriarch of Constantinople just once before you continue reading, so you can see patriarch Bart up close and what they say about him. This is from an advertisement of support by the archons of the ecumenical patriarchate, who call themselves "defenders of the faith."

The Greek church in America is actually a major segment of the flock belonging to this hierarch, along with the Australians and other peoples of the isles. If it weren't for us, this "second among equals" (the Orthodox pope of Rome would be "the first" if there was one), would have a miniscule flock consisting of any Greeks still living in Turkey (most have been killed or driven out) and on a few of the islands in the Aegean sea, and small local churches like Finland, Estonia and Poland. He really ought to pull up stakes and come to New York, so that he can function as his title boasts, "the guiding Light… of God's oikoumene". (Oikoumene means the whole human world.) Instead he wants to stay where he is, be heroic and try to stay the tide of Islam at the eastern gateway to Europe. As they've been doing since the Middle Ages, the Turks have again slipped past him, or gone around him, and are now everywhere in Western Europe. Meanwhile, by hobnobbing with the Roman pope Benedict, he is growing in stature and favor with men. Before you know it, he'll have been elevated to become an Orthodox "pope," as this recent advertisement suggests…

Click to zoom.

"His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, our worldwide spiritual father."

Duh, when did he become that? I know that historically speaking the bishops of Constantinople have held these and other titles, stopping short of this style "our worldwide spiritual father." But isn't it time to start pruning the tree so it actually bears fruit instead of adding even more deadwood? His "All Holiness"? What's this supposed to mean? Don't we listen to what we sing in every communion service… "One is Holy, One is Lord, Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father"? And "our worldwide spiritual father"? How is this man even the spiritual father of Romanos the sinner? By his deeds and even his words, he more often scandalizes than edifies me. And this is the man that the archons praise with their flattery…

Click to zoom.
The archons "will continue to advocate for religious freedom… so that guiding light of the Phanar [the neighborhood where patriarch Bartholomew lives] may forever enlighten God's oikoumene."

My question is, how has this guiding light enlightened God's holy Church, recently or even in the recent past? If he is in fact a shepherd appointed to care for the Lord's flock, let him do that, and let him acknowledge where the true Light is to be found. At every liturgy we sing, "We have seen the Light, the true Light. We have received the heavenly Spirit. We have found the true Faith, worshipping the undivided Trinity, for He has saved us." And the scriptures themselves declare, "Now Your Word is a lamp to my feet, a Light on my path" (Psalm 119:105), as well as many other things concerning Who it is that enlightens us. Again, how is this patriarch anyone's guiding light? Will he teach the pope the irrefutable Truth of Orthodoxy, so that his soul may be saved by Him who alone saves us, Jesus Christ?

Ah, so I continued reading my Orthodox Observer…

The headlines: Evangelization Theme of Orthodox, Catholic Bishops' Meeting, and Orthodox-Catholic Dialogue Discusses Church Structures. What was in these articles, I leave to you to find out by reading the newspaper online. Some of the papers presented by theologians in this "dialogue" had titles like, An Orthodox Papacy: Primacy as Principatus.
Hey brothers! You're heading down the wrong path!

“Be aware not to be corrupted from the love of the heretics; for this reason, do not accept any false belief (dogma) in the name of love.” (John Chrysostom)

The de-natured version of papalism (Roman Catholicism) that's currently being met by Orthodox leaders in good faith is just as dangerous, voracious and soul-destroying as the full version ever was. More dangerous, in fact, because it has infiltrated the Orthodox and Protestant churches to a degree that we seem not to have noticed the change, by and large, thinking that all this friendliness and sharing is according to brotherly love.

Baptists who pull back when Catholic ceremonies and customs are introduced into their church are considered somehow to have left the fold.

More easy-going denominations have drifted into their nets because they have not even tried to stay faithful to the Word of God, and so the indictment of the prophets has fallen on their deaf ears, "Vanity they pursued, vanity they became" (Jeremiah 2:5).

Next and finally, Orthodoxy may be swept under the rug as our leaders stumble over each other in a rush to kiss the pope's feet.
But I hope not.

Sergei Fudel wrote in his book, Light in the Darkness…

The Church truly lives. Its life is a mystery, first of all because of its invincibility. There is also another aspect of the Church, a kind of "external court of the temple." The Church of God lives but there is an enclosure around it. The true Church expresses itself outwards. It lives not only within itself, but also exists externally in human history. Yet there are also things that exist as "churchly" externally, but are "full of hypocrisy and iniquity within" (Matthew 23:28).

During the course of its history the "external court" of the Church may be reduced to almost nothing, but at other times it can grow larger and be filled with darkness.

"As for them, they are of the world, and so they speak the language of the world, and the world listens to them. But we are the children of God."
1 John 4:5-6a Jerusalem Bible