The Howling Abyss [On the danger of an Orthodox schism over Ukraine]

Notes on Arab Orthodoxy ^ | 10-12-2018 | Jad Ganem

[NRx]

It's one thing to read about schisms in the Church in history-books. Watching the brisk steps being taken toward it in your own time is something else entirely. For years, stubbornness has been in control of the situation. Voices of caution are raised, but no one wants to listen. Theology is transformed into points of view or, you could say, into arguments justifying the slow crawl towards the abyss of schism. We have witnessed a solid engineering to create an Orthodox papal ideology and sabotage true conciliarity. We have experienced the disavowal and destruction of all the rules that guided common Orthodox relationships. We have seen with our own eyes those who deny what they themselves have said, what they themselves have written, what they themselves have taught. We have dealt with those who assign no value to others' opinions. We have witnessed those who have no concern for building consensus, who have no scruple about fanning the flames of discord, who persist in saying one thing and its opposite according to their whims and interests.

Many gave warnings. Many wrote. Many objected. Many boycotted. But the plan continues. How can you have dialogue with those who only want to hear their own voice? How can you speak according to a churchly logic with those who act like they're an secular NGO? How can you convince those who see the Church as a collection of frozen canons that she is a living body that is not frozen in past times and forms. How can you convince those who have lost their glory that smashing the glories of others will not bring back what they have lost? We fear that those who have engineered the slide toward schism and those who crawl toward the abyss are not concerned about either Christ or His Church so much as they are concerned about their authority and glory. Has the time not yet come to stop rousing small conflicts, enlarging them and deepening the rift between peoples? Who will put out the flames and who will lessen the enmity if the Church has abandoned her role? Are we now in need of someone who will cleanse the temple of money-changers? Come, Lord Jesus!

[NRx]

He never mentions Bart by name, and yet manages to scorch him.

[ETL]

WCC welcomes meeting of Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill for unity and peace

12 February 2016

Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), has issued a statement on behalf of the Council hailing the historic meeting of Pope Francis, pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, and Patriarch Kirill, primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The two leaders met on 12 February in Havana, Cuba.

The Russian Orthodox Church is the largest member church in the WCC..."

https://www.oikoumene.org/en/press-centre/news/wcc-welcomes-meeting-of-pope-francis-and-patriarch-kirill

_______________________________________________________

Catch that? The Russian Orthodox Church is the largest member of the World Council of Churches! (WCC)

That is all you need to know to understand that it is a sham operation. Reverend Wright’s fake church United Church of Christ (UCC) is also a member. In fact, his (communist) “Liberation Theology” was concocted by the KGB.

The Russians must laugh their butts off at how easily westerners can be tricked and deceived.

The Russian Orthodox Church is a member of the (communist) World Council of Churches:
https://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/russian-orthodox-church
____________________________________

From David Horowitz's FrontPageMag.com/DiscoverTheNetworks.org:
Profile: WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES (WCC)

• Long-time proponent of Liberation Theology
• Infiltrated by the KGB during the Cold War
• Funded Marxist insurgent groups throughout the world
• Calls for capitalism’s “reform” according to socialist principles

  [lots more at link...]

  http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=7514

  _______________________________________________________

  From David Horowitz's FrontPageMag.com/DiscoverTheNetworks.org:
  Profile: LIBERATION THEOLOGY

  “...liberation theology’s real creator was the Soviet Union’s foreign intelligence and domestic security agency, the KGB.

  Patriarch Kirill, who today heads Russian Orthodox Church, secretly worked for the KGB under the code name “Mikhailov” and spent some 40 years promoting liberation theology.

  Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking Soviet-bloc official ever to defect to the West, writes: “Liberation theology has been generally understood to be a marriage of Marxism and Christianity.

  What has not been understood is that it was not the product of Christians who pursued Communism, but of Communists who pursued Christians....

  Its genesis was part of a highly classified Party/State Disinformation Program, formally approved in 1960 by KGB chairman Aleksandr Shelepin and Politburo member Aleksei Kirichenko, then the second in the party hierarchy after Nikita Khrushchev.”

  Adds Pacepa: “In 1971, the KGB sent Kirill — who had just been elevated to the rank of archimandrite — to Geneva as emissary of the Russian Orthodox Church to the World Council of Churches.... Kirill/Mikhailov’s main task was to involve the WCC in spreading the new liberation theology throughout Latin America.

  In 1975, the KGB was able to infiltrate Kirill into the Central Committee of the WCC — a position he held until he was “elected” patriarch of Russia, in 2009.

  Not long after he joined the Central Committee, Kirill reported to the KGB: ‘Now the agenda of the WCC [World Council of Churches] is also our agenda.’”

  http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=2990
  ____________________________________________

  August, 2006

  

  North Korea Builds an Orthodox Church

  The first-ever Russian Orthodox church will open in Pyongyang, North Korea this weekend.

  It’s an odd project considering that freedom of religion exists almost exclusively on paper in the closed communist country.

  North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il is supposed to be a communist atheist.

  So why has he made promoting the Russia Orthodox Church his latest pet project?

  On August 13, the country’s first Orthodox church is to be opened in the capital city of Pyongyang.

  Russian Metropolitan Bishop Kyrill, second in command within the Church after the Patriarch, will travel to Pyongyang to christen the new house of worship. ...”

  http://www.spiegel.de/international/kim-jong-il-and-religion-north-korea-builds-an-orthodox-church-a-431310.htm

[BEJ]

I think this is perennial to the Orthodox tradition — there was always a nationalism that makes itself known. The Catholic Church is now suffering with a new danger from the modern era. But I think national tensions has always existed in the Orthodox faith. I could be wrong, but I seen it come out enough times.