FORWARD IN ORTHODOX FAITH

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Archbishop Hilarion, Primate

WE HOPE THIS SITE HELPS YOU

Fr. MichaelSuperior, Saint Petroc Monastery

The Church of England has massive, irreparable problems that now render it wholly un-catholic.

So, Where to go? ........

For a Church of England person, there are problems of where to go:

The Pope still claims to be infallible - a required belief - his church still issues indulgences as if he has power over your afterlife - and it still has the ongoing - increasing - problem of widespread paedophile priests. He has divested himself of the title "Patriarch of the West" and seeks to place himself in some sort of totally supreme position - the Vicar of Christ - the human who is for humans acting as if he were Christ. The Anglicans looking at the Ordinariates joining with Rome will find that this is just a Priests club (like many others within the Roman church) for those pro-Roman Anglican clergy - and there will be no second generation clergy.
The Protestants are divided amongst many competing "churches" and they are not catholic in any sense.

Anything else? .......

Well, yes, there is another alternative - one you've never thought of .....

THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

It is the second biggest Church in the world - about five times as large as the whole Anglican Communion.

It is Catholic - but it has no pope - it is organised much like the Church of England used to be. It is NOT Greek (or Russian or anything else).

It is the only true continuation of the Early Church, unbroken through two thousand years. Our ancestors in this country were Orthodox for a thousand years - up until the Norman invasion. The Orthodox Church records Saint Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre as saying that the Church in Tyre sent Saint Aristobulus (Aristibule) as Bishop to England in AD 37 - just a few years after the Ascension of Christ.

The Orthodox Church re-introduced the Western Rite in 1870 and has a hundred year old authorisation for services being taken from the BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER and adapted for Orthodox use - "traditional Anglican" if you like - services that you, as a Church of England person would be very familiar with - not Italian or Irish or Greek but English. And it uses the complete Bible - not the truncated (fourteen books missing) version so common today. The Western Rite had existed within Orthodoxy from AD 37 until the 1300s - the official re-authorisation of Western Rite within Orthodoxy in 1870, was specifically intended for us here in England.

These "traditional Anglican style" services are contained in the officially authorised Saint Colman Prayer Book. ____________________________

“Coming to Rome, much labour and
little profit! The King whom you seek
here, unless you bring Him
with you, you will not find Him.”

Irish, author unknown; 9th Century

JOIN WITH US NOW To Join with us, please click HERE Or if you prefer send us an email, please click HERE ________________________________________________________ ..................................................THE CHURCH

"The whole mystery of the Christian faith is found in the Church; the whole mystery of the Church is in the God-Man; the whole mystery of the God-Man lies in the fact that that God became flesh and brought his entire Godhead, with all His divine values and perfection, with all the mysteries of God, into that flesh. The entire Gospel of the Theanthropos, the Lord Christ, is condensed into a few words, into this Good News: Great is the mystery of true religion, God was manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16)"
Indeed, the entire life of the Church as the theanrthopic Body of Christ lies in this truth. It is in the Church that humanity is united to divinity, since it is the body of Christ that was raised to the right hand of the Father. It is in the Church that the Holy Spirit breathes His uncreated gifts, manifesting the Son and uniting man to Him, since it was Christ the Word that sent the Spirit which proceeds from the Father to His disciples. And it is to the Church that all of humanity is called, summoned to freely participate in the life of God as He partakes in humanity's.
Thus, in Orthodoxy, the Church is not merely a socio-temporal community, since it is the unity of humanity; it is not merely an institution, since it is not limited to its administrative structures and hierarchies; it is not a cultural artefact, but a mode of life, a mode of thought, a mode of being that is ineffably inter-penetrated by the life uncreated Godhead.

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In 2009, the Holy Synod of the ROCOR determined that all Western Rite within its jurisdiction is under the direct control of the Primate, Archbishop Hilarion, who has directed us to set up Western Rite Missions here in England. ROCOR is an autonomous Church within the Patriarchate of Moscow, its Primate is a member of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate. The Western Rite missions in England are thus a canonical activity with the blessing both of the Primate and the Synod. _____________________________

A STATEMENT BY THE LEADER OF WESTERN RITE ORTHODOX MISSIONS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

The primary purpose of the Western Rite Missions within the Orthodox Church remains the re-calling of the nation and indeed all of Europe to its Christian roots. The primary task of re-calling Europe probably falls to Patriarch Kyrill who alone among Christian leaders has not got the problems in the eyes of the general public to impede his leadership.

The Orthodox Church can clearly lead Europe back towards a moral and just Christian society. We in the Western Rite can provide the missionary setting within European and United Kingdom culture to allow the un-churched majority to at least connect once again with the Christian Church.

We therefore urge all men of good will to join with us to meet the challenge posed by the secularisation of our society. We urge Christian Members of Parliament, Christian business leaders and others of like mind to help us find ways of bringing back to Christianity, those of the now third and fourth generations of post-Christian people.

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PLEASE VISIT our major new website for world-wide Western Rite Orthodoxy:

http://orthodoxwesternrite.wordpress.com

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                       NEWS SECTION

February 10th 2012

Those Anglicans of a Catholic mind who hope they can maintain intact the illusion that the Church of England is still the ancient Catholic Church of this land, that they can carry on somehow pretending that things are not as they have now once more unmistakeably been shown to be, should take careful note of these things. And then they should act accordingly.

Mr Frank Field MP has tabled a motion in Parliament for the Parliament of The UK to force the Church of England to have bishopesses. People forget that the Church of England is an Established church and that Parliament has to review and accept ALL legislation passed by the General Synod. Not only that, but Parliament can (and has in the past) legislate anything it likes for the Church of England. This is truly an erastian "church" and as such it really has no claim to be a Church in the body of Christ - it is a State Department of religion or philosophy.

The reason for Mr Field's motion is the fear that the bishopess move could be foiled by a technicality of the civil law.

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May 5th 2011.
Mattins and the Litany are done at Saint Dunstan's church, Poole, Dorset on Sundays at 09.45.

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February 10th 2012

Bishop Jerome is head of the Western Rite Missions in the UK.

March 30th 2011.
Bishop Jerome will visit Christminster Monastery in Canada on the weekend of May the 29th, where with Archbishop Hilarion's blessing he will perform an Ordination.
This will be the first hierarchical Liturgy in the Western Rite in ROCOR since 1967.
It may also be the first-ever ROCOR bishop's Mass in the Roman (as opposed to the "Restored Gallican") rite since Archbishop Anthony of London and Archbishop Alexis in the 1960s and will be partly in Latin and partly in English.
Sunday, May 29, will be the Mass "Vocem Jocunditatis" -- "With a Voice of Singing Declare Ye..." - the 5th Sunday after Easter.

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March 9th 2011. His Eminence, Archbishop Hilarion gave his approval to the formation of the Saint Drostan Hermitage in Scotland. The Hermitage will be set up in late 2011 by Fr. Michael.

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February 27th 2011. Fr. Michael, Assistant to the Archbishop for the UK, today Blessed Margaret to be a Novice at the Columban Life-Giving Spring Hermitage near Edinburgh.

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February 11th 2011. With the blessing of Bishop Jerome, ROCOR Western Rite has launched a major new web site for communities around the world. It can be found at http://orthodoxwesternrite.wordpress.com    Western Rite communities can contact the webmaster and send material. The website contains a news section and the whole site - all pages - will be subject to constant (weekly) updating.

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January 26th 2011: Orthodox Christians do NOT use the same Bible as the Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Protestants use. Go to http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/05/why-orthodox-christians-prefer.html for an excellent article explaining some of the very important differences between the late mediaeval Masoretic text used by the Roman Catholics and Anglicans and Protestants and that of the Septuagint - the ancient text used by Christ and His Apostles - and still used by the Orthodox Church today.

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January 25th 2011:    From confidential conversations with Church of England clergy and reported conversations of some C of E bishops, it now appears that we are about 30 months from the near-simultaneous consecration of about 15 female bishops for dioceses all over England. We understand there will be a fairly rapid consecration of others following the first consecrations. If this information is correct (and we have no real way of verifying it) then Church of England people need to start making up their minds as to where they will go - how they will handle the situation in the light of the fact that Synod seems disinclined to make any serious provision for those who do not want a female bishop or priest.

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January 19th 2011: A Statement by Fr Michael.

We in canonical Orthodoxy now offer sincere Catholics in the west the opportunity to join in unity with us in our Western Rite Orthodox mission to UK and Europe. I have been named in a Decree by Metropolitan Archbishop Hilarion as his Assistant for missions in UK and Europe and I invite sincere, independent catholics to contact me and seriously consider what we are doing.

The Western Liturgies (three of them) fully authorised for use in the Orthodox Church, active missions, a truly Western resurgence of Orthodoxy as our ancestors had it before the Great Schism, within the great worldwide Orthodox Church - the only Church validly claiming to be actually founded by Jesus Christ.

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January 18th 2011. The Missionary Organisation now has the first Priest in place ready to open the first Western Rite mission on mainland Europe this year. Saint Swithbert Mission in Holland already has a private chapel, and is looking for more public premises. Western Rite services have previously been held in Belgium, but no permanent mission was possible at the time. Western Rite services have been held under the Moscow Patriarchate as well.

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January 18th 2011: The Russian Synod through the local bishop has asked one of our people to provide a full collection of Belgian saints for presentation to the Holy Synod in June for approval to use from 2012

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January 11th 2011: From a recent statement by Fr. Michael:

From discussions recently, we understand that the Moscow Patriarchate may be seeing our Western Rite Missions here in England as the first tiny beginnings of a resurgent British Orthodox Church - a western Orthodoxy spread throughout the British Isles and beyond to Europe. That is certainly my hope.

We are not Russians nor Greeks and we do not try to squeeze our people into these foreign national ideas. We are English, Scots, Welsh, Irish - not middle easterners. We have a perfectly viable culture which grew from our Christian beginnings in AD 37. We have a long Orthodox liturgical history and our Christian culture pre-dates that of any currently Orthodox nation. We can build on that - even a thousand years of enforced heresy cannot obliterate our heritage.

For literally a thousand years our ancestors managed to hold a fully Orthodox faith - and develop Liturgy within our culture which expressed that theology - the Western Rite. Here in the British Isles, we developed the Liturgy of Saint John the Divine (the Stowe Missal) which we have in full today. The Liturgy of Saint John the Divine developed into the basis of the Sarum Liturgy - which in turn developed into the Liturgy of 1549. We use both Sarum and a 1549/Sarum derivative as blessed by our Church.

So I ask people to financially and otherwise support our work as we start our first small missions - as Saint Aristibule did in England in AD 37 - missions in north Devon (Saint Nectan) Dorset (Saint Eanswythe) and Holland (Saint Swithbert).

Pray for Fr Gregory (who needs a secular job urgently) and for me (who needs accommodation urgently) as we start this work. Pray for clergy to volunteer and pray for funds to support us.

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January 1st 2011: Anglicans in America interested in joining the Orthodox Church as Western Riters may also contact Bishop Jerome at vrevjrs (at) execpc.com if they wish.

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December 16th: Saint Petroc Monastery, through its Saint George Hermitage has launched "Monastery Made" Vestments - dedicated to making quality vestments at lower cost. Monastery Made does not use man-made fabrics, but seeks out lower cost natural material. It can be found on line at http://monasterymadevestments.blogspot.com/

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Fr. Michael, Assistant to the Archbishop for the UK

Superior of Saint Petroc Monastery

Fr. David, Abbot of Our Lady of Mount Royal Monastery _____________________________ The mission of Saint Nectan, South Molton, Devon holds its services at the disused Roman Catholic church in East Street South Molton at 10.30. Please contact Mr. Philip Pughe-Morgan at 01769 573841 - email: philip.pughe-morgan@tiscali.co.uk. ....................................________________________________

Archbishop Hilarion Kapral has published formal DECREE 11-58/10 appointing Fr James (Deschene) Abbot of Christminster as being Assistant overseeing Western Rite in the USA and Canada and Fr Michael (Wood) Superior of Saint Petroc Monastery as Assistant overseeing Western Rite in the UK.
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Father Joshua, with the patronal blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Hilarion has received notice that a donation of 48 acres of high desert land located at the foot of the Mazano Mountains (a spur of the Rocky Mountains) due East of Belen, New Mexico has been donated for an Orthodox Western Rite Christian Hermitage. This project has elicited a pledge of between 30,000 to 50,000 cement blocks along with the donated services of a world-class architect. ....................................________________________________

This week in November 2010, His Eminence, Archbishop Hilarion is receiving ten former Anglican parishes as Western Rite into the Orthodox Church in the USA. The parishes were formerly Continuing Anglicans and are spread across the USA with most of them on the east coast. While they have been calling themselves Orthodox for some time as they began to study the Faith, only now have they been received. Ten Parishes and eighteen new Western Rite clergy. The former Anglican Priest - Bishop - Anthony Bondi will be Ordained as an Orthodox Priest in December by His Eminence Archbishop Hilarion.

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The service at Saint Magnus the Martyr went off quite well on Saturday the 6th - several dozen attendees - and the meeting afterwards sparked some interesting discussion. It is thought that at least two new missions will result - as well as another decided outside the meeting. ....................__________________

The biggest problems that we have in England at the moment are these: We urgently need to find one or two Priests to work in our small Western Rite Orthodox missions in the West Country and south-central England. These are of course entirely unfunded positions! We urgently need to find accommodation in the south-west/south central area for a single (poverty-stricken) monastic Priest for five months from October while he works at missionary activities.

CONTACT: frmichaelnw5@gmail.com

Telephone: 07954189626

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On Tuesday the 24th of August, His Eminence, Archbishop Hilarion visited Christminster Western Rite Orthodox Benedictine Monastery in Hamilton, Ontario. He was there for several days, joining with the community in its regular monastic hours and the Divine Liturgy.

The Archbishop also met members of the local congregation and managed to become familiar with local problems.

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We welcome Saint Thomas the Apostle mission with its ex-Roman Catholic Priest Fr. J..... which is now serving under the direction of Saint Petroc Monastery. This young Priest and a hundred or so of his people are an example to their surrounding community of a devotion to truth and piety.

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We announce the addition of the Saint George the Martyr Hermitage as part of the Saint Petroc Monastery. The Hermitage is being headed by Fr. Joshua, and involves an intense period of building. Prayers of the faithful are requested for this work which will involve outreach to various parts of the community at large.

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We heard last night of the sad death of Abbot Augustine (Whitfield). Abbot Augustine brought the Western Rite Benedictine Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Royal into the Orthodox Church in 1962. He did much important liturgical work - some of which is preserved in our present (Western Rite) Saint Colman Prayer Book. His repose, in his nineties after a long illness was sad but not unexpected. He was for a long time the sole representative of Western Rite in the Russian Church. He carried the banner - and he did much valuable work. We owe much to God's faithful servant. We, who have taken up the work - Fr. James, Fr. Michael, Fr. Barry and lately Abbot David and others, rest our work upon the shoulders of Abbot Augustine and give fervent thanks for his life and work.

Abbot David (Pierce) the present Abbot of Our Lady of Mount Royal Benedictine Monastery has for many years looked after Abbot Augustine as he grew weaker.

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We welcome our brothers and sisters in the new Western Rite Monastery Mission of Saint Anastasia in Davao City, Philippines. The mission is led by Chrysostom Canezal and is seeking a house to rent which will be a chapel, library, meeting room and bedroom for visiting Priests. ______________________________ The Saint Dyfan Western Rite mission is hosting a visit by Ordinand Peter during the week 1st - 7th of July 2010. ______________________________ The former Continuing Anglican Bishop in New Zealand, Bishop Alistair Price and his wife have converted to Orthodoxy as a result of being unable to accept the TAC submission to the Roman Catholics. Bishop Price joins the former Continuing Anglican Bishop Robert Waggener in America who converted to Orthodoxy a little while ago and is now an Orthodox Parish Priest. ________________________

Our Ordinands Michael, Peter and Ari. Michael completes his Masters degree this year and will commence theology next year. Peter is completing his theology this year and Ari is completing his Masters and has started theology.

EASTER 2010

Abbot David and server Ari Adams during the Easter Midnight service at Saint Brendan's Western Rite Orthodox Mission .......

....... and distributing the Eulogion Bread at the end of the service.

The Easter Altar at Saint Dyfan Western Rite mission.

Both Saint Brendan and Saint Dyfan are Missions of Saint Petroc Monastery - which also oversees Saint Eanswythe Mission and Saint Nectan.
SAINT EANSWYTHE MISSION - Bournemouth-Christchurch, Dorset Mattins and the Divine Liturgy at the chapel in Jumpers Road, Christchurch at 10.30 Check on Saturday: Tel. 07954189626. email frmichaelnw5 - at - gmail.com.http://kentorthodox.blogspot.com SAINT NECTAN MISSION Devon Mattins the Great Litany and Divine Liturgy at South Molton. http://saintnectan.blogspot.com Doncaster-Selby, YorkshireStarting soon.

___________________ ..........................................THE WESTERN RITE An interesting development growing steadily in recent years is the Western Rite within the Orthodox Church. This now has a small, but growing presence in England, and is already established in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the USA and the Philippines.

After the Great Schism between Rome and the rest of the Church, the Western Rite persisted in the Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, Constantinople and Mount Athos, for two hundred years, after which it ceased to be present – having been in the Church for about twelve hundred years. The Synod of the Church of Russia re-authorised the Western Rite for use in England in 1870 and again in 1907 with a report requested by Archbishop Tikhon (Belavin) (later Patriarch of Moscow, canonised as Saint Tikhon) authorising the adaptation of the services from the Book of Common Prayer.
In 1958 the Synod of the Church of Antioch followed the Russian Synod and authorised the Western Rite with a Western Rite Vicariate in the USA. This has grown quite well in recent times receiving Episcopalian, Continuing Anglican and Charismatic Episcopal parishes, including recently Bishop Robert Waggener – a Continuing Anglican bishop, now an Orthodox Priest.

Today we have the Saint Colman Prayer Book which is based on Sarum/1549 (similar to 1928–English Missal-ish). This includes the Liturgies of Sarum, St Gregory (Roman, pre- Trent) and the English Liturgy (‘Anglican’), along with Mattins, Evensong, and all the normal occasional services.
The Western Rite is under the personal control of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), Archbishop Hilarion, who, with Bishop Jerome and Bishop Peter, generally handles Western Rite matters.
ROCOR has Western Rite parishes/missions in Australia, Canada, the USA, England and the Philippines and three Western Rite monasteries. Archbishop Hilarion divides his time between Sydney, where he is the Archbishop, and New York, the location of the Synod headquarters. He is a Canadian born and bred who was educated both in Canada and the US, and is a strong supporter of the Western Rite within Orthodoxy. In England in November last year, he authorised me to set up officially our Western Rite Missions.
ROCOR is the most conservative in all Orthodoxy, which makes it attractive to those disillusioned with their present churches. We have the Saint Eanswythe Mission as a sort of umbrella for England – with the Saint Nectan Branch. We may have missions in Yorkshire and Ireland in the fairly near future, as well as London.

The advantages to joining us are:
They would be joining the Church – the original Church that was actually founded by Christ and has remained continuously ever since. It is the second largest group of Christians in the world – about five times as large as the whole Anglican Communion – and has Orders that are questioned by no one and whose doctrine, ecclesiology and morality has been fully settled for two thousand years.
It is a well-established thing, with the strong support and prayers of His Eminence Archbishop Hilarion – therefore the option is available immediately. It does not require special organizations to be set up. In England the organisation already exists. The Orthodox Church normally has married clergy.
The process of becoming Orthodox (either as individuals or groups) in this country is a matter for myself and Archbishop Hilarion. No one else is involved, so it is quick and simple.
Most Catholic Anglicans already hold much of the Orthodox faith and can easily learn/adapt to the rest.

The Orthodox ecclesiastical organisation is much more like the classical CofE organisation than is the Roman Catholic, in that we have no pope; rather, Christ is the Head of the Orthodox Church. Each diocese has a ruling bishop assisted by his clergy synod, and is a constituent of a Province with a Metropolitan Archbishop. ROCOR is attached to the Russian Orthodox Church Inside of Russia (although autonomous) and therefore has Patriarch Kyrill as its Patriarch, who has influence but very little power outside of his own diocese. The above article was published in the July 2010 issue of New Directions.

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WITNESSES

We are the witness to Christ here on earth, we are the People of God - we - in The Church - the Orthodox Church - the only spiritually safe place on this earth. There are many places where people imagine themselves to be safe, but they are not! They are in fact open to the predations of satan - they are places that pretend to be The Church, but they are not, they are in fact his exceedingly subtle places of distraction. They look like the places of God, but they are not.

There are many good people who are thus distracted by satan when they worship in places that are NOT God's Church - but human copies, forgeries in fact.

The Bible, for instance, was given in its entirety to Bishops of the Orthodox Church of God. But nowadays many human churches presume to use a book which is not the Bible in its entirety - but a truncated version. How do these people imaging that they are in Christ's Church? They are not - and when we tell them, they prefer their human church to Christ's Church.

____________________________________ .................................................WESTERN RITE PICTURES Following are pictures of an Orthodox solemn celebration of the Western Rite Divine Liturgy with the Primate (Archbishop Hilarion) presiding. Using a borrowed church, the Liturgy was celebrated by Fr. Michael, Superior of Saint Petroc Monastery (ROCOR), with Fr. Barry Jeffries (ROCOR, Launceston) assisting as Deacon and Fr. Dcn John Whiteside (Antiochian Orthodox) acting as Sub Deacon.

Fr. Barry (Deacon) censing the icons after the Altar had been censed by Fr. Michael.

The Priest, Deacon and Sub Deacon in line before the Altar.The Archbishop is on his throne off to the left.

The Sub Deacon (Fr. Dcn. John) reading the Epistle.

His Eminence, Archbishop Hilarion preaching the sermon

The Offertory Procession (Great Entrance) with the Deacon bringing the Sacrifice to the Priest at the Altar.

His Eminence naturally, made his Communion at the Liturgy.

The recession with the Priest (Fr. Michael) reading the Last Gospel (as Sarum requires) followed by the Archbishop's (Eastern Rite) Chaplain and His Eminence.

After the Eulogion (Antidoron) Bread had been blessed on a side table, the Archbishop distributed it to the congregation, with Deacon (Fr. Barry) assisting him and Fr. Michael and Fr. Dcn. John watching. It is worthwhile noting that Patriarch Saint Tikhon of Moscow was a very strong supporter of the Western Rite and successfully petitioned the Moscow Synod to further authorise it. Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of London himself celebrated the Western Rite. Most importantly the much celebrated Orthodox Saint - Saint John of Shanghai celebrated the Western Rite when he was Archbishop in Paris in the 1960s:

Here he is seen celebrating the Western Rite in Paris.

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If this is the kind of Church that you want in this country - it is already here! Just contact Fr. Michael at

frmichaelnw5 - at - gmail.com
or ring him on 07954 189626

_______________________ BUY THE SAINT COLMAN PRAYER BOOK! gmeal@tiscali.co.uk _______________________

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There is a whole world of spiritual treasures to be opened up for you - the writings of the Fathers of the Early Church, the Fathers of the mediaeval Orthodox Church now translated for Orthodox Believers. These concepts are there to be lived day by day - as they only can be within The Church.

________________________

All this costs money(surprising isn't it?)
If you would like to make a donation, pleasecontact us: g.meal@tiscali.co.uk

.........................................................________________________ ...........................................FiF LETTER Despite some misleading statements made recently by a leading FiF member, the Orthodox Western Rite mission in this country is a direct result of the Holy Synod decision that all Western Rite throughout the world should come directly under the control of the Primate. Shortly thereafter His Eminence, Archbishop Hilarion visited the Archbishop of Canterbury and several days later instructed Fr. Michael to set up Western Rite missions here in England. Archbishop Hilarion is a relatively young, highly intelligent man who has always been a personal supporter of Western Rite in the Orthodox Church, he has known Fr. Michael being his immediate superior, for some fifteen years. The Western Rite was officially formally re-introduced into Orthodoxy by the Holy Synod in 1870, specifically for us here in England. Saint Petroc Monastery of which Fr. Michael is the Superior, is officially listed on Orthodox websites and consists of three Priest-monks and several lay monks and postulants who reside in several cells wherever the Monastery is doing active missionary work. It is hoping to start construction of a major monastery complex in the USA (where it is being donated forty-eight acres of land) in January-February of 2011. __________________ Edward the Confessor prophesied: 'The extreme corruption and wickedness of the English nation has provoked the just anger of God. When malice shall have reached the fullness of its measure, God will permit wicked spirits, who will punish and afflict the English people with great severity, by separating the green tree from its parent stem the length of three furlongs. But at last this same tree, through the compassionate mercy of God, and without any national assistance, shall return to its original root, reflourish and bear abundant fruit.'

He related this to Edgitha, Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, and to Harold.

_______ THE PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE

With the utmost respect for his all-holiness the Patriarch of Constantinople, our reverend hierarch is neither the "Pope of the East" nor any kind of universal bishop; nor is the Church of Constantinople a "universal" institution. The Church of the New Rome is a local institution, which having been at the centre of the oikoumene, was titled oikoumenikal, and during Imperial days had a worldwide role to play. Thus the canons of the Holy Ecumenical Synods afford the Great Church a special place of honour ahead of all the other local churches, yet it never ceases to be a local Church, and it differs essentially from none of them. As the fathers teach us, every local Church with its bishop is the fullness of the Church. The patriarchates are organizational institutions, not sacramental offices. With the Roman Empire, Eastern and Western, long behind us, it is difficult to speak of the Patriarch of Constantinople as playing a critical role in the Church. Let us not forget that Constantinople once rose to the place it now holds out of almost nowhere, bypassing the holy city of Alexandria in rank. It is entirely within the bounds of our Orthodox ecclesiology to believe that it can lose its prominence even canonically. Constantinople are not like Rome: Is this historically the role of a bishop? Compare St. Paul, St. Spyridon, St. Nicholas, Sts. Athanasius, Gregory the Theologian, Tikhon of Zadonsk, etc. Were they "world leaders" or shepherds? The Great Church of Constantinople is great in many respects: the sanctity of its patrimony, the role it has played in ecclesial life, and more. Yet it is safe to say that it's flock is relatively small, and its influence in the practical spiritual renewal of places like Russia relatively insignificant. And thus one finds it increasingly easier to say that its primacy is one of honour, insofar as it relates to the day-to-day struggle for salvation that we undertake as Christians, we do not look to power and politics, like the Catholics, with their official statements and their "leaders." We look to spiritual authority and guidance, relying on our pastors for nourishment for our souls and not for ideology. We seek no other voice in the world than that which cries in the wilderness, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." May God grant many years to His All-holiness. May he continue to rightly divide the word of truth for he is a thoroughly Orthodox pastor. I only hope that the world is able to hear the Gospel through the din of so many extraneous endeavours. To Patriarch Bartholomaios, chronia polla.

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WHY I ABANDONED PAPISM

By Fr. Dcn Paul Ballester-Convolier

My conversion to Orthodoxy began one day while I was reordering the Library catalogues of the monastery I belong to. This monastery belonged to the Franciscan order, founded in my country of Spain. While I was classifying different old articles concerning the Holy Inquisition, I happened to come across an article that was truly impressive, dating back to 1647. This article described a decision of the Holy Inquisition that anathematized as heretic any Christian who dared believe, accept or preach to others that he supported the apostolic validity of the Apostle Paul.

It was about a horrible finding that my mind could not comprehend. I immediately thought to calm my soul that perhaps it was due to a typographical error or due to some forgery, which was not so uncommon in the western Church of that time when the articles were written. However, my disturbance and my surprise became greater after researching and confirming that the decision of the Holy Inquisition that was referred to in the article was authentic. In fact already during two earlier occasions, namely in 1327 and 1331, the Popes John 22^nd and Clemens 6^th had condemned and anathematized any one who dared deny that the Apostle Paul during his entire apostolic life, was totally subordinate to the ecclesiastic monarchal authority of the first Pope and king of the Church, namely the Apostle Peter. And a lot later Pope Pius 10^th, in 1907 and Benedict 15^th, in 1920, had repeated the same anathemas and the same condemnations.

I had therefore to dismiss any possibility of it being due to an inadvertent misquoting or forgery. So I was thus confronted with a serious problem of conscience.

Personally it was impossible for me to accept that the Apostle Paul was disposed off under whatever Papal command. The independence of his apostolic work among nations, against that which characterized the apostolic work of Peter among the circumcised, for me was the unshakeable event that shouted from the Holy Bible.

The thing was totally clear to me who he was, as the explaining works of the Fathers on this issue do not leave the slightest doubt. "Paul- writes St Chrysostom- declares his equality with the rest of the apostles and should be compared not only with all the others but with the first one of them, to prove that each one had the same authority". Truly, together all the Fathers agree that "all the rest of the apostles were the same like Peter, namely they were endowed with the same honour and authority". It was impossible for who ever of them, to exercise higher authority from the rest, for the apostolic title that each had was the "highest authority, the peak of authorities". They were all shepherds, while the flock was one. And the flock was shepherded by the apostles in conformity by all".

The matter was therefore crystal clear. Despite this, the Roman teaching was against the situation. This way for the first time in my life, I experienced a frightful dilemma. What could I say? On one side the Bible and the Holy Tradition and on the other side the teaching of the Church? According to the Roman theology it is essential for our salvation to believe that the Church is a pure monarchy, whose monarch is the Pope. This way, the synod of the Vatican, voting together all the earlier convictions, it declared officially that "if any one says ....... that Peter (who is assumed to be the first Pope) was not ordained by Christ as the leader of the Apostles and visible Head of all the Church .......... is under anathema".

I am addressing my confessor.

Within this psychological disturbance I addressed my confessor and naively described the situation. He was one of the most famous priests of the monastery. He heard me with sadness, aware that it involved a very difficult problem. Having thought for a few minutes while looking in vain for an acceptable resolution, he finally told me the following that I confess I did not expect.

The Bible and the Fathers have harmed you, my child. Set it and them aside and confine yourself to following the infallible teachings of the Church and do not let yourself become victim of such thoughts. Never allow creatures of God whoever they may be, to scandalize your faith in God and the Church.

This answer he gave very explicitly, caused my confusion to grow. I always held that especially the Word of God is the only thing that one cannot set aside.

Without allowing me any time to respond, my confessor added: "In exchange, I shall give you a list of prominent authors in whose works your faith will relax and be supported". And asking me if I had something else "more interesting" to ask, he terminated our conversation.

Few days later, my confessor departed from the monastery for a preaching tour of Churches of the monastic order. He left me the list of authors, recommending that I read them. And he asked me to inform him of my progress in this reading by writing him.

Even though his words did not convince me in the least, I collected these books and started to read them as objectively and attentively as possible.

The majority of the books were theological texts and manuals of papal decisions as well as of ecumenical synods. I threw myself to the study with genuine interest, having only the Bible as my guide, "Thy law is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my paths". (Ps 118:105).

As I progressed in my study of those books, I would understand more and more, that I was unaware of the nature of my Church. Having been proselytized in Christianity and baptized as soon as I completed my encyclical studies, I continued with philosophical studies and then as I speak to you I was just at the beginning of the theological studies. It concerned of a science totally new to me. Until then Christianity and the Roman Church was for me an amalgam, something absolutely indivisible. In my monastic life I was only concerned with their exterior view and I was given no reason to examine in depth the bases and reasons of the organic structure of my Church.

The preposterous Teaching about the Pope.

Exactly then, within the bouquet of articles, that wisely my spiritual leader had put together, the true nature of this monarchal system, known as the Roman Church, started to unravel. I suppose a summary of her characteristics would not be superfluous.

First of all, to the Roman Catholics, the Christian Church "is nothing more than an absolute monarchy" whose monarch is the Pope who functions in all her facets as such. On this papist monarchy "all the power and stability of the Church is found" which otherwise "would not have been possible". The same Christianity is supported completely by Papism. And still some more, "Papism is the most significant agent of Christianity", "it is its zenith and its essence".

The monarchic authority of the Pope as supreme leader and the visible head of the Church, cornerstone, Universal Infallible Teacher of the Faith, Representative (Vicar) of God on earth, shepherd of shepherds and Supreme Hierarch, `is totally dynamic and dominant and embraces all the teachings and legal rights that the Church has. "Divine right " is extended on all and individually on each baptized man across the whole world. This dictatorial authority can be exercised at any time, over anything and on any Christian across the world, whether lay or clergy, and in any church of any denomination and language it may be, in consideration of the Pope being the supreme bishop of every ecclesiastical diocese in the world.

People who refuse to recognize all this authority and do not submit blindly, are schismatic, heretic, impious and sacrilegious and their souls are already destined to eternal damnation, for it is essential for our salvation that we believe in the institution of Papism and submit to it and its representatives. This way the Pope incarnates that imaginary Leader, prophesied by Cicero, writing that all must recognize him to be holy.

Always in the Roman teaching, "accepting that the Pope has the right to intervene and judge all spiritual issues of everyone and each Christian separately, that much more does he have the right to do the same in their worldly affairs. He cannot be limited to judging only through spiritual penalties, denying the eternal salvation to those who do not submit to him, but also he has the right to exercise authority over the faithful. For the Church has two knives, symbol of her spiritual and worldly power. The first of these is in the hands of the clergy, the other in the hands of Kings and soldiers, who though they too are under the will and service of the clergy".

The Pope, maintaining that he is the representative of Him whose "kingdom is not of this world", of Him who forbade the Apostles to imitate the kings of the world who "conquer the nations" and nominates himself as a worldly king, thus continuing the imperialism of Rome. At different periods he in fact had become lord over great expanses, he declared bloody wars against other Christian kings, to acquire other land expanses, or even to satisfy his thirst for more wealth and power. He owned a great number of slaves. He played a central role and many times a decisive role in political history. The duty of the Christian lords is to retreat in the face "of the divine right king" surrendering to him their kingdom and their politico-ecclesiastic throne, "that was created to ennoble and anchor all the other thrones of the world". To day the worldly capital of the pope is confined to the Vatican City. It concerns an autonomous nation with diplomatic representations in the governments of both hemispheres, with army, weapons police, jails, currency etc.

And as crown and peak of the almightiness of the Pope, he has one more faithful privilege that even the most ignoble idolaters could not even imagine- the infallible divine right, according to the dogmatic rule of the Vatican Synod that took place on 1870. Since then on "humanity ought to address to him whatever it addresses to the Lord: you have words of eternal life". From now on, there is no need of the Holy Spirit to guide the Church "to all the truth". There is no more need of the Holy Bible nor of the Sacred Tradition for thus there is a god on earth, based on the infallible, the Pope is the only canon of Truth who can even express things contrary to the judgement of all the Church, declare new dogmas, which the faithful ought to accept if they do not wish to be cut off from their salvation. "It depends only on his will and intention to deem whatever he wishes, as sacred and holy within the Church" and the decratalian letters must be deemed, believed and obeyed "as canonical epistles". Since he is an infallible Pope, he must receive blind obedience. Cardinal Bellarmine, who was declared saint by the Roman Church, says this simply: "If the Pope some day imposed sins and forbade virtues, the Church is obliged to believe that these sins are good and these virtues are bad".

The answer of my confessor

Having read all those books, I felt myself as a stranger within my Church, whose organizational composition has no relation to the Church that the Lord built and organized by the Apostles and their disciples and as intended by the Holy Fathers. Under this belief I wrote my first letter to my superior- "I read your books. I shall not contravene the divine warrants so that I may follow the human teachings that have no basis at all in the Holy Bible. Such teachings are a string of foolishness by Papism. From the provisions of the Holy Bible we can understand the nature of the Church and not through human decisions and theories. The truth of faith does not spring but from the Holy Bible and from the Tradition of the whole Church".

The reply came fast- You have not followed my advice- complained my elder- and exposed your soul to the dangerous impact of the Holy Bible, which, like fire burns and blackens when it does not shine. In such situations like yours, the Popes have pronounced that it "is a scandalous error for one to believe that all the Christians could read the Holy Bible", and the theologians assure us that the Holy Bible "is a dark cloud". "For one to believe in the enlightenment and clarity of the Bible is a heterodox dogma" so claim our infallible leaders. "As far as the Tradition, I do not consider it necessary to remind you that we should primarily follow the Pope on matters of faith. The Pope is worth in this case thousands of Augustinians, Jeronymuses, Gregories, Chrysostoms...........".This letter accomplished to strengthen my opinion rather than demolish it. It was impossible for me to place the Holy Bible below the Pope. By attacking the Holy Bible, my Church was losing every worthy belief ahead of me, and was becoming one with the heretics who "being elected by the Bible turn against it". This was the last contact I had with my elder.

The Pope is everything and the Church is nothing

However I did not stop there. I had already started to "skid due to the skid" of my Church. I had taken a road that I was not allowed to stop until I found a positive solution. The drama of those days was that I had estranged myself from Papism, but I did not accost any other ecclesiastical reality. Orthodoxy and Protestantism then were for me vague ideas and I had not reached the time and opportunity to ascertain that they could offer something to soothe my agony. Despite all this I continued to love my Church that made me a Christian and I bore her symbol. I still needed more profound thinking to reach slowly, with trouble and grief to the conclusion that the Church I loved was not part of the papist system.

Truly, against the monocracy of the Pope, the authority of the Church and of the bishopric body, is not intrinsically subordinate. Because according to the Roman theology "the authority of the Church exists only when it is characterized and harmonized by the Pope. In all other cases it is nullified". This way it is the same thing whether the Pope is with the Church or the Pope is without the Church, in other words, the Pope is everything and the Church is nothing. Very correctly did the bishop Maren write, "It would have been more accurate if the Roman Catholics when they recite the "I believe" would say "And in one Pope" instead of "And in one .......Church".

The importance and function of the bishops in the Roman Church is no more than that of representatives of the papist authority to which the bishops submit like the lay faithful. This regime they try to uphold under the 22^nd chapter of St John's gospel, which according to the Roman interpretation "the Lord entrusts the Apostle Peter, the first Pope, the shepherding of His lambs and of His sheep", namely, He bestows on him the job of the Chief Shepherd with exclusive rights on all the faithful, who are the lambs and all the others, Apostles and Bishops, namely, the sheep.

However, the bishops in the Roman Church, are not even successors to the Apostles, for as it dogmatizes, this Church "the apostolic authority was lacking with the Apostles and was not passed down her successors, the bishops. Only the Papist authority of Peter, namely the Popes. The bishops then, having not inherited any apostolic authority, have no other authority but the one given to them, not directly from God but by the Extreme Pontiff of Rome.

And the Ecumenical synods also have no other value than the one given to them by the Bishop of Rome, "for they cannot be anything else except conferences of Christianity that are called under the authenticity and authority of the Pope". Suffice the Pope to exit the hall of the Synod saying "I am not in there anymore" to stop from that moment on the Ecumenical Synod from having any validity, if it is not authorized and validated by the Pope, who could impose through his authority on the faithful.

The frightful answer of a Jesuit.

I almost gave up on my studies during that period, taking advantage of the hours that my order allowed me to retire to my cell, to think of nothing else but my big problem. For whole months I would study the structure and organization of the early Church, straight from the apostolic and patristic sources. However, all this work could not be done totally in secrecy. It looked obvious that my exterior life was greatly affected by this great concern which had overwhelmed all my interest and sapped all my strength. I never lost an opportunity to enquire from outside the monastery whatever could contribute towards shedding light to my problem. This way I started to discuss the topic with known ecclesiastical acquaintances in relation to the trust I had in their frankness and their heart. This way I would receive continuously impressions and opinions on the topic which were for me always interesting and significant.

I found most of these clerics more fanatical than I expected. Even though they were deeply aware of the absurdity of the teaching on the Pope, being stuck to the idea that "the required submission to the Pope demands a blind consent of our views" and in the other maxim by the founder of Jesuits by which "That we may possess the truth and not fall in fallacy, we owe it to always depend on the basic and immovable axiom that what we see as white in reality it is black, if that is what the hierarchy of the Church tells us". With this fantastic bias a priest of the order of Jesus, entrusted me with the following thought:-

"What you tell me I acknowledge that they are most logical and very clear and true. However, for us Jesuits, apart from the usual three vows, we give a fourth one during the day of our tonsure. This fourth vow is more important than the vow of purity, obedience and poverty. It is the vow that we must totally submit to the Pope. This way, I prefer to go to hell with the Pope than to Paradise with all your truths.

A few centuries ago they would have burnt you in the fires of Holy Inquisition.

According to the opinion of most of them, I was a heretic. Here's what a bishop wrote to me, "A few centuries ago, the ideas you have, would have been enough to bring you to the fires of Holy Inquisition".

However, despite all this I intended to stay in the monastery and give myself to the purely spiritual life, leaving the responsibility to the hierarchy for the deceit and its correction. But could the important things of the soul be safe on a road of super physical life, where the arbitrariness of the Pope could pile up new dogmas and false teachings concerning the pious life of the Church? Moreover, since the purity of teaching was built with falsehoods about the pope, who could reassure me that this stain would not spread into the other parts of the evangelical faith?

It is therefore not strange if the holy men within the Roman Church started to sound the alarm by saying such as: "Who knows if the minor means of salvation that flood us, do not cause us to forget our only Saviour, Jesus...."? "Today our spiritual life appears like a multi-branch and multi-leaf tree, where the souls do no more know where the trunk is, that everything rests on, and where the roots are that feed it".

"With such a manner we have decorated and overloaded our religiocity, so that the face of Him who is the "focus of the issue" is lost inside the decorations" Being therefore convinced that the spiritual life within the bosom of the papist Church will expose me to dangers, I ended up taking the decisive step. I abandoned the monastery and after a little while I declared I did not belong to the Roman Church. Some others seemed prepared until then to follow me, but at the last moment no one proved prepared to sacrifice so radically his position within the Church, with the honour and consideration he enjoyed.

This way I abandoned the Roman Church, whose leader, forgetting that the Kingdom of the Son of God "is not of this world" and that "he who is called to the bishopric is not called to any high position or authority but to the diaconate of all the Church", but imitating him who "wishing in his pride to be like god, he lost the true glory, put on the false one" and "sat in the temple of God as god". Rightly did Bernard De Klaraval write about the Pope: "There is no more horrible poison for you, no sword more dangerous, than the thirst and passion of domination". Coming out of Papism, I followed my voice of conscience that was the voice of God. And this voice was telling me, "Leave her ....... So you may not partake of her sins and that you may not receive of her wounds". How after my departure I fell in the embrace of Orthodoxy, in the light of the absolute and spotless Truth, this I will describe at a later opportunity.

Secondly, as my departure from Papism became more broadly known within the ecclesiastical circles and was receiving more enthusiastic response in the Spanish and French protestant circles, so was my position becoming more precarious.

In the correspondence I received, the threatening and anonymous abusive letters were plentiful. They would accuse me that I was creating an anti-papist wave around me and I was leading by my example into "apostasy" Roman Catholic clerics "who were dogmatically sick" and who had publicly expressed a sympathetic feeling for my case.

This fact forced me to leave Barcelona, and settle in Madrid where I was put up - without my seeking - by Anglicans and through them I came in contact with the Ecumenical Council of Churches.

Not even there did I manage to remain inconspicuous. After every sermon at different Anglican Churches, a steadily increasing number of listeners sought to know me and to confidently discuss with me some ecclesiological topics.

Without therefore wishing it, a steadily increasing circle of people started forming around me, with most being anti-papists. This situation was exposing me to the authorities, because in the confidential meetings I had agreed to attend, some Roman Catholic clerics started to appear, who were generally known "for their lacking and weakening faith, regarding the primacy and infallibility of the Highest Hierarch of Rome".

The fanatical vindictiveness that some papists bore against my person, I saw it fully expressed and hit its zenith the day I replied publicly to a detailed ecclesiological dissertation, which they had sent to me as an ultimate step to remove me from the "trap of heresy" that I had fallen in. That work of apologetic character had the expressive title: "The Pope vicar of our Lord on earth" and the slogan that the arguments in the book ended up with, was the following: "Due to the infallibility of the Pope, the Roman Catholics are today the only Christians who could be certain for what they believe".

In the columns of a Portuguese book review, I replied: "The reality is that due to this infallibility you are the only Christians who cannot be certain about what they will demand that you believe tomorrow". My article ended with the following sentence: "Soon on the road you walk, you will name the Lord, vicar of the Pope in heaven".

Soon after I published in Buenos Aires my three volume study, I put an end to the skirmishes with the papists. In that study I had collected all the clauses in the patristic literature of the first four centuries, which directly or indirectly refer to the "primacy clauses" (Matt 16 :18-19; John21: 15-17; Luke 22: 31-32). I proved that the teachings about the Pope were absolutely foreign and contrary to the interpretation given by the Fathers on the issue. And the interpretation of the Fathers is exactly the rule on which we understand the Holy Bible.

During that period, even though from unrelated situations, for the first time I came in contact with Orthodoxy. Before I continue to recount the events, I owe it to confess here that my ideas about Orthodoxy had suffered an important development from the beginning of my spiritual odyssey. Certain discussions I had on ecclesiological topics with a group of Orthodox Polish, who passed through my country and the information I received from the Ecumenical Council regarding the existence and life in Orthodox circles in the West, had caused me a real interest. Furthermore, I started to get different Russian and Greek books and magazines from London and Berlin, as well as some of the prized books that were provided by Archimandrite Benedict Katsenavakis in Napoli, Italy. Thus my interest in Orthodoxy would continue to grow.

Slowly, slowly in this way I started losing my inner biases against the Orthodox Church. These biases present Orthodoxy as schismatic, without spiritual life, drained group of small churches that do not have the characteristics of the true Church of Christ. And the schism that had cut her off, "had the devil for father and the pride of the Patriarch Photios for mother".

So when I started to correspond with a respected member of the Orthodox hierarchy in the West- whose name I do not believe I am permitted to publish due to my personal criterion that was based on those original informations, I was thus totally free from every bias against Orthodoxy and I could spiritually gaze objectively. I soon realized and even with a pleasant surprise that my negative stance I had against Papism was conforming completely to the ecclesiological teaching of Orthodoxy. The respectable hierarch agreed to this coincidence in his letters but refrained from expressing himself more broadly because he was aware that I lived in a protestant surrounding.

The Orthodox in the West are not at all susceptible to proselytism. Only when our correspondence continued enough, the Orthodox bishop showed me to read the superb book by Sergei Boulgakov, "Orthodoxy" and the not less in depth dissertation, under the same title by metropolitan Seraphim. In the mean time I had also written specifically to the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

In those books I found myself. There was not even a single paragraph that did not meet completely the agreement of my conscience. So much in these works as in others, that they would send to me with encouraging letters -now even from Greece- I clearly saw how the Orthodox teaching is profound and purely evangelical and that the Orthodox are the only Christians who believe like the Christians of the catacombs and of the Fathers of the Church of the golden age, the only ones who can repeat with holy boasting the patristic saying, "We believe in whatever we received from the Apostles".

That period I wrote two books, one with the title "The concept of Church according to the Western Fathers" and the other with the title "Your God, our God and God". These books were to be published in South America, but I did not proceed with their release, so that I may not give an easy and dangerous hold to the protestant propaganda.

From the Orthodox side they advised me to let go my simply negative position against Papism, in which I was dirtied and to shape my personal "I believe" from which they could judge how far I was from the Anglican Church as well as the Orthodox.

It was a hard task that I summarized with the following sentences: "I believe in everything that are included in the Canonic books of the Old and New Testament, according to the interpretation of the ecclesiastical Tradition, namely the Ecumenical Synods that were truly ecumenical and to the unanimous teaching of the Holy Fathers that are acknowledged catholically as such".

From then on I began to understand that the sympathy of the Protestants towards me was cooling down, except of the Anglicans who were governed by some meaningful support. And it is only now that the Orthodox interest, despite being late, as always, started to manifest itself and to attract me to Orthodoxy as one "possibly Catechumen".

The undertakings of a polish university professor, whom I knew, cemented my conviction that Orthodoxy is supported by the meaningful truths of Christianity. I understood that every Christian of the other confessions, is required to sacrifice some significant part of the faith to arrive at the complete dogmatic purity and only an Orthodox Christian is not so required. For only he lives and remains in the substance of Christianity and the revealed and unaltered truth.

So, I did no more feel myself alone against the almighty Roman Catholicism and the coolness that the Protestants displayed against me. There were in the East and scattered around the world, 280 million Christians who belonged to the Orthodox Church and with whom I felt in communion of faith.

The accusation of the theological mummification of Orthodoxy had for me no value, because I had now understood that this fixed and stable perseverance of the Orthodox teaching of truth, was not a spiritual solidified rock, but an everlasting flow, like the current of the waterfall that seems to remain always the same yet the waters always change.

Slowly, slowly the Orthodox started to consider me as one of their own. "That we speak to this Spaniard about Orthodoxy- wrote a famous Archimandrite - is not proselytism". They and I perceived that I was already berthed in the port of Orthodoxy, that I was finally breathing freely in the bosom of the Mother Church. In this period I was finally Orthodox without realizing it, and like the disciples that walked towards Emmaus close to the Divine Teacher, I had covered a stretch close to Orthodoxy without conclusively recognizing the Truth but at the end.

When I was assured of this reality, I wrote a long dissertation on my case, to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and to the Archbishop of Athens through the Apostolic Diaconate of the Church of Greece. And having no more to do with Spain - where today there does not exist an Orthodox community - I left my country and went to France where I asked to become a member of the Orthodox Church, having earlier let some more time for the fruit of my change to ripen. During this period I further deepened my knowledge of Orthodoxy and strengthened my relationship with her hierarchy. When I became fully confident of myself, I took the decisive step and officially became received in the true Church of Christ as her member. I wished to realize this great event in Greece, the recognized country of Orthodoxy, where I came to study theology. The blessed Archbishop of Athens received me patristically. His love and interest were beyond my expectations. I should say the same for the then chancellor of the Sacred Archbishopric and presently bishop Dionysus of Rogon who showed me patristic love. It is needless to add that in such an atmosphere of love and warmth, the Holy Synod did not take long to decide my canonical acceptance in the bosom of the Orthodox Church. During that all night sacred ceremony I was honoured with the name of the Apostle of Nations and following that, I became received as a monk in the Holy Penteli Monastery. Soon after, I was made a Deacon by the Holy Bishop of Rogon.

Since then I live within the love, sympathy and understanding of the Greek Church and all her members. I ask from all, their prayers and their spiritual support that I may always stand worthy of the Grace that was given me by the Lord.

Fr. Dcn Paul was subsequently Ordained Priest and Consecrated Bishop in the Orthodox Church.

From the "Theodromia" magazine, Issue 1, January -March 2006

____________________________________

A letter from an ex-Roman Catholic Priest to another on why he left Rome for Orthodoxy.

Dear Bill,

Even though you never asked it directly, I feel from your words that you do not yet understand why I left the Roman Church to become Orthodox.

You were even a member of one of the least latinized Byzantine parishes, you seem to say, why, then?…

I guess I owe you an explanation, since, a long time ago, when we were both members of the Latin church, we shared the same feelings. These same feelings brought both of us to a Byzantine rite parish, and then myself to Orthodoxy. You could not have forgotten the criticisms that we moved to the Romans: the continual insertion of new traditions in place of the old ones, Scholasticism, the legalistic approach to spiritual life, the dogma of papal infallibility. At the same time we both reckoned the legitimacy and correctness of the Orthodox Church. A Uniate parish seemed the optimal solution. I remember what I was saying in that period:

I think like an Orthodox, I believe like an Orthodox, therefore I am Orthodox.

Entering officially into the Orthodox Church seemed to me just a useless formality. I even thought that remaining in communion with the Roman Church might be a positive fact, in view of the goal of a possible reunification of the Churches.

Well, Bill, I was wrong. l believed I knew the Orthodox Faith, but it was just a smattering, and quite shallow for that. Otherwise I would not have failed to know the intrinsic contradiction between feeling Orthodox and not being reckoned as such by the very same Church whose faith I stated I was sharing. Only a non-Orthodox may conceive an absurdity like being Orthodox outside of Orthodoxy. Individual salvation does not only concern the single person, as many Westerners believe, but it must be seen in the wider frame of the whole Church Communion.

Each Orthodox Christian is like a leaf: how could he receive the life-giving sap if he is not connected to the vine? (John 15:5)

Orthodoxy is a way of life, not a rite. The beauty of the rite derives from the inner reality of the Orthodox Faith, and not from a search for forms. The Divine Liturgy is not a more picturesque way of saying Mass: it comes forth from, and strengthens, a theological reality that becomes void and inconsistent if excised from Orthodoxy.

When the spirit of the Orthodox Faith is present, even the most miserable service, done in a shack, with two paper icons placed on a couple of chairs to serve as the iconostasis, and a bunch of faithful out of tune as the choir, is incomparably higher than the services in my former Uniate parish, in the midst of magnificent 12th century Byzantine mosaics, and a well-instructed choir (when there was one).The almost paranoid observance of the ritual forms is the useless attempt to make up for the lack of a true Orthodox ethos. I was deluding myself when I believed I was able to be an Orthodox in the Roman communion.

It was a delusion because it is impossible.

The continual interference of Rome in the ecclesiatical life reminds you in due course who is in command. To pretend to ignore this is self-delusion. I tried to avoid the problem, feigning to be deaf and dumb, and repeating to myself that I belonged to the ideal “undivided Church”. My position was quite sinful. First of all, because the undivided Church still exists: it is the Church that never broke with Her past, and that is always identical to Herself: in other words, the Orthodox Church.

Then, because that feeling of being a member of the Undivided Church, which I considered so Christian and irenical, was instead a grave sin of pride. I was practically putting myself above Patriarchs and Popes. I believed I was one of the few who really understood the Truth, beyond old and sterile polemics.

I felt I had the right to ask the Eucharist both from the Romans and the Orthodox, and I felt unfairly treated when the latter denied it to me. I have a great debt of gratitude towards a priest who, in that time, refused to give me Communion. Instead of softly speaking of canonical impediments, as if the matter were a merely bureaucratic problem, he said me bare-facedly:

If it is true that you consider yourself an Orthodox, why is it that you keep belonging to heresy?

I was deeply shocked by those words, and for a long time I did not return to that Church. But he was right. I had understood what Saints, Fathers, Bishops and Priests had not understood for centuries.

According to me, the schism between East and West was a tragic misunderstanding based merely on political problems and the ponderings of the theologians. And in doing so I indirectly accused many holy people of calculation, superficiality and bigotry. And I was mistaking all of this for Christian charity…

No, Bill, it is impossible to be both Roman Catholic and Orthodox at the same time.

The rite is not all that important. After all, the Latins were Western Rite Orthodox for many centuries. I agree with you that, after the separation, the Romans and the Orthodox have still much in common, but this is not enough to consider both of them part of the same Church. Beyond the well-known doctrinal differences, there is the approach to the Supernatural, the same life of the Church that makes impossible to live the two religious realities at the same time.

We state in the Creed:

“and (I believe) in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church”.

Until a unity of faith comes, they will be two churches.

The theory (also affirmed by John Paul II) that the Romans and the Orthodox are still the same one Church (despite the schism, and in a mysterious way) sounds well, but it doesn’t hold. It is based only on beautiful words. The differences of faith, on the other hand, do exist, and they are not a mere word-play.

Yes, I know that theological dialogue has been started, and it is even possible (everything is possible to the Lord) that eventually the unity will be reached. But beware! Many good Romans believe that the differences might be resolved by means of a clever statement that, owing to its genericness may sound acceptable by both parties. Having reached an agreement on this statement, both would interpret it according to their understanding, in fact keeping their opinions. Worse still, some propose a unity in diversity, without a formal commitment of faith from any part, but under the universal co-ordination of the Pope of Rome.

Well, all of this is impossible. The Fathers taught us that the the agreement on common faith must be univocal and unequivocal.

Orthodoxy follows the spirit of the Law, rather than the letter. And since it is impossible for the Orthodox Church to introduce new doctrines, it falls on the Romans to abandon a millennium of innovations, and unreservedly return to the faith of the Catholic and Apostolic Church.

This is the only possible platform for an agreement.

History has shown the fallacy of otherwise based unions. And now let me ask you a trivial question: Bill, is the Pope infallible (on his own and not by virtue of Church consensus, as specified in the 1870 dogma) or not? He may not be fallible and infallible at the same time, as it would happen if the two churches were still part of the same Church. One of the two must be wrong.

But Vatican II allowed a great freedom of opinions…

you may answer. Yet this is a sophism. The true Church may not fall in error. If you believe that your Church has erred, or that She is actually erring, you deny that She is the true Church.

I embrace you with unchanged friendship and love in Christ.

Gregorio.

http://journeytoorthodoxy.com/#axzz0pBZ40Jee

________________________ SAINT IGNATIUS

Saint Ignatius Theophorus, Bishop of Antioch AD69-107, writing in his Epistle to the Ephesians, shows us the immediate development of the Church to the very lines which it retains today. He tells them in Chapters three and four (probably written around AD 105-6): “For we can have no life apart from Jesus Christ; and as He represents the mind of the Father, so our bishops, even those who are stationed in the remotest parts of the world, represent the mind of Jesus Christ. That is why it is proper for your conduct and your practices to correspond closely with the mind of the bishop. And this indeed, they are doing; your justly respected clergy, who are a credit to God, are attuned to their bishop like the strings of a harp".

Saint Ignatius goes on to describe the well adjusted Church to a symphony of all the members with their bishop, and he commends the Ephesians for their perfectness as a Church.

Then in Chapter ten, he turns to the rest of the world beyond the Christian community. He tells the ordinary Ephesian churchmen that they should pray unceasingly for all the non-Christians - that they should hope for their repentance and that they should find their way to God. He tells them that they should give the non-Christians around them a chance to learn from the Christians - or at all events to learn from the way that the Christians act. He tells them to meet animosity with mildness, high words with humility, abuse with prayers. He tells them however, to stand firm against the errors of the non-Christians, but that if they grow violent, then they should be gentle and not seek to repay the violence. “Let us show by our forbearance, that we are their brothers, and try to imitate the Lord ...... so that in this way none of the devil’s noxious weeds may take root among you, but you may come to rest in Jesus Christ in all sanctity and discipline of body and soul.”

In Chapter fourteen Saint Ignatius says: “Given a thorough-going faith and love for Jesus Christ, there is nothing in all this that will not be obvious to you; for life begins and ends with these two qualities. Faith is the beginning and love is the end; and the union of the two together is God. All that makes for a soul’s perfection follows in their wake, for nobody who professes faith will commit sin and no one who possesses love can feel hatred.”

Bishop Ignatius, there right at the beginning of the Christian era, a disciple of the Apostles, a friend of Saint Polycarp, is describing for us both the Orthodox Church as it is today and the life of a Christian exactly as we would put it today. The Church and her teaching has not altered since the time of Christ. The Church and her way of doing things has not altered. We are that Church of which Saint Ignatius was a bishop. We are Orthodox Christians as were those people of Ephesus to whom he was writing two thousand years ago. We love the same Lord Jesus Christ, we follow the bishop that He appointed for us, and we sanctify ourselves as best we can - as did they.

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.............................................................SAINT POLYCARP Saint Polycarp was Bishop of Smyrna from about AD 110 until AD 155. In his Epistle to the Philippians, Chapter nine, he tells them: “I appeal now to every one of you to hear and obey the call to holiness, and to exercise the same perfect fortitude that you have seen with your own eyes in the Blessed Ignatius, and Rufus, And Zosimus; and not in them alone ....... to say nothing of Paul himself ....... their hearts were not set on this world of ours, but on Him who died for our sakes, and was raised up again for us by God. Stand firm then in these ways taking the Lord for your example. Be fixed and unshaken in your faith, care for each other with a brother’s love and make common cause for the truth.”

Saint Polycarp was writing in an age of persecution and martyrdom, and so he is encouraging his readers in the faith that will carry them right through if necessary to their own martyrdom, as he reminds them they have seen in the martyrs that he names.

Nevertheless, these words are right for us in our day too, for though no one is probably going to drag us off to be killed (although that happens to Christians still today) nevertheless, we in our time and place face a more subtle form of martyrdom. Our opponents in these very civilised times have found interesting ways of testing our faith. Many of them call themselves Christians - but they are not, others are clearly not Christians - they are pagans and atheists. It is not by the frontal assault, but by the relentless pressure of commercialism, the pervasiveness of pleasure, the ease of gratification, the anonymity of the city. All of this enables the lonely martyrdom of the modern Orthodox Christian who fails to live up to his faith - but quietly, on his own, unknown to the Christian community is tested - and often fails.

We all face these perils of the faith - not the obvious and frightening perils that Saint Paul enumerates in II Corinthians 11:23, but the subtle, quiet perils that no one knows about but ourselves.

We face these perils alone - and we defeat them (or are defeated by them) alone, unknown to the Christian community. Our Christian brethren are unable therefore, to support us as they in their day supported Saint Ignatius on his road to martyrdom - but God is our helper, we are not alone if we accept His help.

And yet, the Church has given us now - as it did then - a way of support, it is called confession. Outsiders often recoil at the idea of confessing one’s inner failings to a Priest. But they don’t know what happens. True confession is a review of the sinners week/month - a discussion of all the things that are happening in his life, the times at work when he was annoyed or attacked, the times when he felt he had let himself down, the times when he felt aggrieved that others had let him down. This leads quite naturally to the discussion of remedies and healing. This is the support that the modern Christian - alone in the city as he so often is - needs and can get from the right sort of Orthodox spiritual guide-confessor - they can care for each other with a brother’s love and make common cause for the truth.