In preparation for my talk next week in Patra (entitled "From the Second Vatican Council to the Pan Orthodox Council") I read the memorandum the great Saint Justin wrote in 1977 on the planned Council (see below). For all who wish to be filled with sobriety and watchfulness, this is a must read today!

The prophetic and immortal words of the great confessor and theologian of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Saint Justin, are as timely as when they were written 40 years ago (even if historical circumstances have changed).

Here is how he ends his appeal to the Serbian Orthodox Holy Synod:

~ "Let our Serbian Church abstain from participating in the preparations for the "ecumenical council," indeed from participating in the council itself. For should this council, God forbid, actually come to pass, only one kind of result can be expected from it: schisms, heresies and the loss of many souls. Considering the question from the point of view of the apostolic and patristic and historical experience of the Church, such a council, instead of healing, will but open up new wounds in the body of the Church and inflict upon her new problems and new misfortunes." ~

Little has changed, and in many ways matters have worsened, since the Saint wrote these lines. The delusion of the the new ecclesiology has gained many converts and the hierarchy of the Local Churches have gained many who lack the vigilance and sobriety of the great theologian. (I speak from my experience in Greece over the past 18 years and my time as an Orthodox Christian in America (7 years).)

Truly, at no time in recent history has the Church been more in danger of the bitter fruits of schism and heresy than today. Many will brush off these warnings today, just as many did when St. Justin issued them, however, they will do so to their own and the Church's detriment.

Oh, most wise and enlightened Saint Justin, pray to God for us!

(Asking your prayers, too, brethren, that God would enlighten me to speak the truth to the faithful in Patra next week.)

http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/stjustin_council.aspx