Alexandria, December 25, 2020
Patriarch Theodoros embraces Evstrary Zorya, a "bishop" of the schismatic Ukrainian church. Photo: spzh.news
Patriarch Theodoros of Alexandria’s 2020 Nativity Epistle places a heavy emphasis on the reality of the Church, stemming from the Incarnation of Christ, and the Church’s role in our life. In it, he calls for all to adhere to a “correct ecclesiology,” which he warns is being threatened by “foreign motives.”
“Christ is born! This year and at every moment in the Church,” the Patriarch writes. The official English translation of his epistle is available on raskolam.net.
Throughout history, many have “attempted, relying on their own logic, their own self-justification, their own worldly power, to separate our Lord from the Church,” he writes. “Many profess to love Christ, but they do not believe in the Church! They believe in God, but the Church is redundant. They like Christmas, but they are saddened when it’s time passes.”
The Patriarch’s words most obviously apply to those Christian groups, usually low-Church Protestants, that have no real doctrine or understanding of the Church, that speak only of a personal relationship with Christ, but they also come against the background of the ongoing Ukrainian Church crisis and its underpinning question of Orthodox ecclesiology. The issue has caused divisions within and between Local Orthodox Churches.
Hundreds of Alexandrian clergy have expressed their dissatisfaction with Pat. Theodoros’ decision to follow Patriarch Bartholomew’s model of ecclesiology (with the Patriarch of Constantinople as the “first without equals,” having the authority to act universally in the Church) and recognize the Ukrainian schismatics, and have appealed to be accepted by the Moscow Patriarchate.
“Christ without the Church is worthless for the faithful. It is through the Church that I believe! It is through the Church that I worship! It is through the Church that I know and tread the real purpose of my existence! To Christ’s Church, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, the Holy Fathers handed the Ark of the New Testament and the legacy of Grace,” the Patriarch correctly writes.
“Hence the Church only saves and is never saved by us,” he continues. “It sanctifies but is not sanctified. It only teaches and has no need of teaching from anything finite.” Again, the Patriarch’s words are true enough, though against the background of the present Church divisions, they can be read as being directed to those clergy who disagree with his decision to recognize the OCU—a decision which he believes is faithful to true Orthodox ecclesiology.
During a recent trip to Kenya, the Patriarch specifically called upon the clergy to remain loyal to the Patriarchate of Alexandria. Note that, according to Archbishop Leonid of Vladikavkaz and Alan, the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Church’s Department for External Church Relations, the Russian Church is actually trying to restrain the African clergy in their desire to join the Russian Church, as it is not interested in transgressing another Local Church’s territory.
And the Patriarch’s epistle becomes more pointed: “The infinite Church, as the Body of Christ, has the bounds of the sacred regulations of every local Church, within which the eternal and infinite Christ is diligently guarded.”
These words are easily read as addressed to the Moscow Patriarchate, whom the Patriarch fears will receive his African clergy. Ironically, Pat. Theodoros supports Pat. Bartholomew in his transgression of the bounds of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is an autonomous body within the Russian Orthodox Church.
“Correct ecclesiology is the safe refuge and the warm cradle within an ecclesiastical world, which is moving swiftly towards the desanctification of our history due to foreign motives,” the Patriarch continues.
Hierarchs in the Greek and Cypriot Churches who have resisted their hierarchs’ recognition of the schismatics have been accused of being Russian agents, of not loving the Greek people and Hellenism. Georgian hierarchs who uphold Orthodox ecclesiology have also been pressured by being slandered as having pro-Russian sentiments.
On the other hand, it is known that Local Churches are under pressure from Constantinople, the Ukrainian government, and the U.S. government to recognize the schismatic OCU. Pat. Theodoros, in particular, faced pressure from the Greek Foreign Ministry.
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