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FROM THE FATHERS “WHERE the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there the Church and every grace. The Spirit, however, is Truth.” Holy Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyons, + 202 A.D. “FROM THIS CHURCH even those who are involved in various errors outside the Church can receive forgiveness of their sins, if, while they are still in this world, they will be converted to this same Church in a correct belief and in contrite and heartfelt humility. Let them hasten, then, while there is yet time, to their legitimate Mother, who diligently sustains and nourishes the sons born in her womb.” Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe, + 527 A.D. “LET US RECEIVE the tradition of the Church in simplicity of heart, without vain questioning, since God created man to be straightforward, but he has entangled himself with an infinity of questions. Let us not allow ourselves to learn a new faith, in opposition to the tradition of the fathers.” Ven. John of Damascus, + 780 A.D. “LET US WORSHIP, according to the Orthodox Faith, the eternal will and power and kingdom of the Trinity, always covering Arius with infamy. Let us honour thee, O Lady, in a proper manner, as the one who gave birth to God, relying on the dogmas of the holy fathers, and leaving aside the vain teachings of Nestorius.” Ven. Theodore the Studite, + 826 A.D. 1 “LIKEWISE on Sunday [the Sunday of Orthodoxy] we all make commemoration of the Orthodox Faith and sing hymns of thanks- giving to God, Who is all-good. But the evil one, who is always envious of goodness, secretly steals up on each of the faithful and invisibly puts on him the chains of slackness and carelessness … therefore I remind you today and make my appeal to your charity, your paternity, that you do not in any way obey him who wills you ill.” Ven. Symeon the New Theologian, + 1022 A.D. “THE CHURCH is holy, although there are sinners within her. Those who sin, but who cleanse themselves with true repentance, do not keep the Church from being holy. But unrepentant sinners are cut off, whether visibly by Church authority, or invisibly by the judgement of God, from the body of the Church. And so in this regard the Church remains holy.” Saint Philaret of Moscow, + 1867 A.D. “WE KNOW and are convinced that falling away from the Church, whether into schism, heresy, or sectarianism, is complete perdition and spiritual death. For us there is no Christianity outside of the Church. If Christ established the Church, and the Church is His Body, then to be cut off from His Body is to die.” New Hieromartyr Hilarion of Verey, + 1929 A.D. “THE CHURCH of Christ is One, Holy, Universal and Apostolic. She is herself a single spiritual body, whose head is Christ, and who has the one Holy Spirit abiding in her. The local parts of the Church are members of a single body of the Universal Church, and they, like branches of a single tree, are nourished by one and the same sap from a single root. She is called holy because she is sanctified by the holy words, deeds, sacrifice and suffering of her founder, Jesus Christ, to which end He came in order to save human beings and lead them to holiness. The Church is called universal because she is not confined by place, not by time, nor by nation nor language. The Church communicates with all humanity. The Orthodox Church is called apostolic because the spirit, teaching and labours of the Apostles of Christ are entirely preserved in her.” Saint Nicolas of Ohrid and Žiča, + 1956 A.D. 2 Ecumenism and the Ecclesiology of Saint Cyprian of Carthage Fr Daniel Degyansky SAINT CYPRIAN of Carthage developed with fearless consistency a doctrine of the complete absence of Grace in every sect which had separated itself from the True Church. His doctrine is one of the basic foundation blocks of Orthodox ecclesiology and it stands in direct opposition to the presup- positions of the ecumenical movement. Moreover, his warnings about the enemies of the Church have traditionally guided Orthodox in their response to those outside Her fold: Not only must we beware of what is open and manifest, but also what deceives by the craft of subtle fraud. And what can be more crafty, or what more subtle, than for this enemy...to devise a new fraud, and under the very title of the Christian name to deceive the incautious.¹ Saint Cyprian’s warnings about enemies of the Church who call themselves “Christians” in order to destroy the Faith can be applied to many of those who support unity through the contem- porary ecumenical movement. The fact that such application is seldom made gives us evidence of just how far contemporary ecumenism has removed some Orthodox from the criterion of truth that is their Faith. The essence of Saint Cyprian’s reasoning lay “in the conviction that the sacraments are established in the Church.” That is to say, they are effected and can be effected only in the Church, in communion and in communality. Therefore, every violation of communality and unity in itself leads immediately beyond the last barrier into some decisive outside. To Saint Cyprian every schism was a departure out of the Church, out of 3 that sanctified and holy land “where alone rises the baptismal spring, the waters of salvation.”² Saint Cyprian was adamant in his position with regard to the Church’s rejection of the validity of an heretical sacrament: For it is no small and insignificant matter which is conceded to heretics, when their baptism is recognized by us; since thence springs the whole origin of faith and the saving access to the hope of life eternal. And the divine condescension for purifying and quickening the servants of God. For if anyone could be baptized among heretics, certainly he could also obtain remis- sion of sins. If he attained remission of sins, he was also sanctified.³ Saint Cyprian felt that if the True Church recognizes the sacraments of those outside of Her realm, She gives credibility to heretics and schismatics: For if they shall see that it is determined and decreed by our judgement and sentence, that the baptism wherewith they are there baptized is considered just and legitimately in possession of the Church also, and the other gifts of the Church; nor will there be any reason for their coming to us, when, as they have baptism, they seem also to have the rest. But further, when they know that there is no baptism without, and that no remis- sion of sins can be given outside of the Church, they more eagerly and readily hasten to us, and implore the gifts and benefits of the Church, our Mother, assured that they can in no wise attain to the true promise of divine grace unless they first come to the Truth of the Church.⁴ The teaching of Saint Cyprian on the Gracelessness of those outside the True Church is directly related to his teaching on unity and communality: “Therefore, we ought to consider their faith who believe without, whether in respect of the same faith they can obtain by grace, for if we and the heretics have one faith, we may also have one grace.”⁵ Strictly speaking, the theo- logical premises of Saint Cyprian’s teaching have never been rejected. At the same time, neither has the Orthodox Church ever unequivocally applied Saint Cyprian’s conclusions. In fact, the First Canon of Saint Basil, if carefully analysed, suggests 4 that the issue of schism and heresy is more complex, in practical terms, than the theory of Saint Cyprian would suggest. Thus the canonical norms of the Orthodox Church do not state that schismatics are in all circumstances without Grace. Ecumenists have used Saint Basil’s position, at times, to defend their activities (though in the course of deviation from correct Orthodox teaching,it must be noted,many Orthodox ecumenists have come to believe that “schism” and “heresy” are terms with- out meaning, except when they can be used to berate those Orthodox who oppose the ecumenical movement). In fact, however, the ecclesiological teachings of Saint Cyprian comple- ment and stand side by side with those of Saint Basil, since they are unified by the function of “economy,” by which the the- oretical exactness of Saint Cyprian’s teaching is rendered effective in the oikonomia of practical application. Thus, there are those who quite wrongly think that the Church has in some instances acknowledged that the sacra- ments of sectarians, and even of heretics, are valid. They wrongly assume that the Church admits that sacraments can be celebrated outside of the strict canonical limits of the Church - a perilous assumption, indeed. The Church, for example, may under extraordinary circumstances accept adherents from sects, and even from heresies, not by way of Baptism, but rather by Chrismation or even by their simple profession of our Orthodox Faith. But in so doing, She does not recognize, as some theologians incorrectly assert,what is outside Her domain; rather, by “economy,” the Church, being the Pan–Mystery, as Archimandrite Justin expresses it, creates Grace where there was no Grace, filling the empty form of a mystery (sacrament) unknown to Her. At the same time, before the emergence of whole bodies of Christians separated from the historical Orthodox Church, there were times when those who had lapsed in their Faith even for a generation were received back into the Church without being baptized.
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