Posted on 07/21/2005 8:16:56 AM PDT by Graves
Greece’s highest administrative court has rejected an appeal by Esphigmenou Monastery, upholding their eviction from the 1,000-year-old Esphigmenou Monastery.
According to court sources, the Council of State ruled that it had no jurisdiction to decide whether the Esphigmenou monks were schismatic, as the Patriarchate has declared. The court decided that, under Greece’s constitution, the patriarchate has supreme spiritual authority over the semi-autonomous Mount Athos monastic community and is not subject to judicial scrutiny of such matters.
The monks in Esphigmenou Monastery have been ordered out.
This is a a very odd story. Do you know the background of why these monks were declared heretical?
Some of it.
Never mind - I went to their website.
Nope, you're right. "the threat to their beliefs does not [JUST] come from Rome", but from all sorts of places. This is the velvet glove of liberalism and false ecumenism revealed in all of its ferocity. Disagree with us, if only by your silence and your failure to affirm our almighty authority, and we'll throw you out of house and home. St. Elias Skete, Esphigmenou, SSPX, SSPV, the Episcopalians in Bristol (CT), the Episcopalian layman near Syracuse (NY),and thousands of Episcopalians and Anglicans since the first woman was ordained. They all get the same exact treatment.
if so, thank you! I am not well versed in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, so this article is a bit baffling to me. Could you explain, at least for this poor ignorant soul?
This is a freedom of speech ping. This a voice crying in the wilderness and saying, "BEWARE. Nobody is safe from the liberals and from the false ecumenists.
If you dare speak up, they will come after you.
They claim they want multi-culturalism.
They claim they want diversity.
What they mean is they want to rub you out. The only diversity they allow, when push comes to shove, is diversity for themselves."
What is this all about?
Hi Petrosius. My apologies for neglecting to ping you on this ("?????? What is this [Esphigmenou]all about?"). For complete details go to the Esphigmenou website, http://www.esphigmenou.com/.
The monks refuse to publicly commemorate Ecumenical Partriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in the liturgy because they consider him to be a heretic on account of his false ecumenism. They also refuse to use the Gregorian calendar that he uses. Instead, they use the Julian calendar. They have hung a huge sign over the main entrance to the monastery that reads "Orthodoxy or Death!".
On account of their refusal to even so much as mention his name in the liturgy, they have been ordered by the EP to leave the monastery.
Since this is an internal Orthodox matter I will not comment on it except to say that I will pray that it is resolved according to the will of God.
"...this is an internal Orthodox matter..."
That's what the Germans said after Hitler took over and rounded up the Jews.
"First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me."
Pastor Martin Niemöller
Fee Fy Fo Fum
I smell the sound of pape-is-um
when'er I hear,
"The refusal...to commemorate the EP ...means they are in schism with him..."
What's worse than a Boniface VIII in Rome?
An equivalent in Constantinople maybe?
Well, he's not my bishop and, as he's not my bishop, I see no need to defend him.
You do know what we all call him don't you?
"Well, he's not my bishop and, as he's not my bishop, I see no need to defend him."
Well, he is "my" Patriarch, though I confess I feel no compelling need to defend him, at least most of the time, either!
"You do know what we all call him don't you?"
No, but I'll bet its no less uncomplimentary than what we generally call him! :)
Here's the bottom line, if any priest or priest/monk under the omophorion of a bishop refuses to commemorate that hierarch without first seeking and obtaining a release and coming under the omophorion of another hierarch, he commits a schismatic act. Now that may be the right thing to do, but there are consequences to schism and here one of those is being booted out of the monastery.
"... there are consequences to schism and here one of those is being booted out of the monastery."
Agreed. That's martyrdom. Now could all of that not be avoided? Instead of booting them, how about booting the EP?
" Now could all of that not be avoided? Instead of booting them, how about booting the EP?"
That's certainly an option which has been employed with some success in the past...but I doubt that will be the result of this dust-up. Rightly or wrongly, and especially in Greece where the laity, hierarchs and clergy have a pretty good feel for this situation, these monks are viewed as loons. IMHO, this won't be what brings down the EP.
Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from the consequences of speech.
These earstwhile monks shouldn't be surprised that they've been booted from the landlord's ranch after they've been trashing the landlord for so long.
We agree that "Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from the consequences of speech.", and that "These earstwhile monks shouldn't be surprised that they've been booted from the landlord's ranch after they've been trashing the landlord for so long."
These monks have been trashing the landlord because he is not rightfully the lord of the land. And he lost that right by the same heresy as was committed by Pope of Rome Honorius and at the same level as did Pope Honorius, at a minimum, by referring to Eutychians and Nestorians as "Oriental Orthodox". By allowing Roman Catholics to communicate at Orthodox temples (a policy intiated by EP Athenagoras), he has made things even worse. By his participation in the World Council of Churches, he engages in false ecumenism, a heresy condemned in the Synodicon of Orthodoxy. By his continued use of the Gregorian calendar, he violates three anathemas of three Orthodox synods. By all of the foregoing, he threw away his mitre. If we can fault the recent popes of Rome for their violations of the Apostolic Canons, we also can fault the EP, Bartholomew.
Nobody owes him even one ounce of respect.
Got it?
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