The Clergy of Greece and Cyprus Publishes a Petition Against Patriarch Bartholomew’s Views
Sedmitza.ru – 07/12/14
The Patriarch’s views on the nature of the Orthodox Church and its relations with other denominations are criticized in the document.
Athens. The petition was published in Greece, which strongly criticizes recent statements of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, preceding a meeting between Pope Francis of Rome and the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople during Pope Francis’ visit to Turkey on November 28-30, 2014. In particular, the criticism focuses on the nature of the Orthodox Church and its relations with other Christian denominations and other religions.
The petition is entitled “The New Ecclesiology of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew”. It was written by several archimandrites and archpriests of the Greek Orthodox Church. At the present time the petition is signed by over 2,000 people, including six bishops, priests, monks of the Greek and Cyprus Orthodox Churches, and monks of Mount Athos.
That’s not true… There are just some extremist groups who are against any ecumenical movement or even against non-greek Christians… They are almost Old Calendarists all of them. The same hapens with the schismatics in Russia. The Orthodox Christians in Greece and Cyprus Love the Ecumenical Patriarch.
Is there a good English translation available?
The position of the Old Calendarists (or the New, for that matter) is incomprehensible. First, why not be an Old-Old Calendatist, and stick to the Jewish calendar for Passover as the basis for Pascha?
Second, all Christian calendars have Christ’s birth date wrong, since the Gospel tells us He was born during lambing season when the shepherds were in the fields at night (i.e., Springtime). It’s probably a good thing liturgically that we have it wrong, since Christmas would most often fall into Great Lent, but it is still an inconvenient fact for the picky.
Yes, let’s fight over calendars and other things, stay divided, and continue to allow the wolves to nibble away at the Body of Christ. We will not heed Christ’s prayer that we be one, but we’ll be right on the important things.
Yes, you can find it here : http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/Petition-Concerning-the-New-Ecclesiology-of-Ecumenical-Patriarch-Bartholomew.aspx
The letter is not form old calendarists.
By speaking for Old Calendar I do not mean the Canonical Old Calendarists like Russians, Mount Athos etc., I mean the non-canonical Old Calendarists who are not church at all… In Greece, as well as in other countries, we have “self-ordained” bishops and priests who claim to be Old Calendarists in order to confuse the faithful. Those charlatans I mean in my previous comment, not the Canonical Old Calendarists!
Oh, OK, thanks for the clarification. I have to admit that while I would like to see all of the Christian churches which descend from bishoprics founded by the Apostles to be joined by ecumenical intercommunion, a unified liturgical calendar is not of importance to me. I not only don’t mind Eastern and Western churches on different calendars, in some ways I like it (but I must admit that I liked the “unified” calendar we had in 2014 too). Whatever brings people to Christ is what is important, hence to point of my previous post. God bless.
265056 279420But another intelligent weblog! Completely cannot wait for a whole lot much more! 354314