Ἐκκλησιολογικά

The Confession of Faith of the Genuine Orthodox Christian

Part One

1. I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible. 

And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all Ages. Light of Light, True God of True God, begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father, through Whom all things were made.
Who for us men and for our salvation came down from the Heavens and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became Man.
And was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, He suffered and was buried.
And on the third day He arose, according to the Scriptures.
And ascended into the Heavens, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father.
And He shall come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, Whose Kingdom shall have no end.
And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father, Who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified; Who spake through the Prophets.
In One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the remission of sins.
I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come.

2. In addition to this, I embrace and accept the Holy Seven Œcumenical Synods, convened for the purpose of safeguarding the Orthodox dogmas of the Church, and the local Synods that they endorsed and confirmed.


3. I espouse all of the definitions of the right Faith set forth by the Holy Fathers, under the guidance of the illuminating Grace of the All-Holy Spirit, as well as the Sacred Canons, which those blessed men handed down to the Church for the governance of the Holy Church of Christ and the good ordering of morals, composing them in accordance with the Apostolic Traditions and the intent of the Divine teaching of the Gospels.


4. All that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of the Orthodox professes and teaches, this do I, too, profess and believe, adding nothing, subtracting nothing, changing nothing, either of the dogmas or the traditions, but abiding by these and accepting them with fear of God and in good conscience; all that She condemns as heterodox teaching and repudiates, this do I, too, condemn and repudiate forever.


5. I offer ready obedience in ecclesiastical matters to the Holy Synod, as the highest authority of the Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece, which constitutes the continuation of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church in Greece, and to the canonical Bishops and Presbyters under Her, and which is in communion of Faith and of the Mysteries with the local Genuine Orthodox Churches everywhere.


6. I believe and confess that the Orthodox Faith is not “of men,” but derives from the revelation of Jesus Christ, preached by the Holy Apostles, confirmed by the Holy Œcumenical Synods, handed down by the most wise Œcumenical Teachers, and authenticated by the blood of the Holy Martyrs.


7. I accept, along with the decisions of the Holy Seven Œcumenical Synods, those of the First-Second Synod of 861; in addition to these, I unwaveringly espouse the decisions of the Holy Synod convened by St. Photios in Constantinople, in 879-880, as well as the Synodal Tome of the Synod of Blachernae in Constantinople, in 1351, at the time of St. Gregory Palamas and the Holy Patriarch Kallistos I, in the firm belief that these Synods possess Œcumenical and Catholic validity and authority in the Orthodox Church.


8. Moreover, I give assent and credence to the decisions of the Holy Pan-Orthodox Synods convened in 1583, 1587, and 1593, which abhorred and condemned the introduction into the Orthodox Church of the so-called Gregorian (New) Calendar promulgated by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582.


9. In furtherance thereof, I accept and acknowledge as Œcumenical and Catholic documents of the Orthodox Faith both the Patriarchal Tome of 1756 concerning Baptism of the heterodox and the Synodal Encyclical of 1848 of the Most Holy Patriarchs of the East, as well as the Synodal Decree of 1872, which condemned phyletism, and also the Synodal Encyclical Epistle of 1895, which constitutes the final Genuine Orthodox Ecclesiological Proclamation of the Patriarchate of Constantinople prior to its entrance into Ecumenist Apostasy.

 

Part Two

1. I regard ecumenism as a syncretistic pan-heresy, and participation in the so-called ecumenical movement, which was inaugurated at the beginning of the twentieth century, as a denial of the genuine Catholicity and uniqueness of the Orthodox Church, firmly believing that one who agrees with and participates in any heresy whatsoever is lapsed in the Truth of the Faith and the Unity of the Church, and is, as a result, out of communion with Genuine Orthodoxy, since “those who do not belong to the Truth do not belong to the Church of Christ either” (St. Gregory Palamas), as being deprived of Her sanctifying and deifying Grace.


2. Likewise, I reject and in no way accept the 1920 Proclamation of the Patriarchate of Constantinople “To the Churches of Christ Everywhere,” on the ground that it contains a complete plan for implementing the heresy of ecumenism in practice and that it anticipates the calendar reform prepared by the so-called Pan-Orthodox Congress of 1923 and put into effect in Greece in 1924, thereby violating the decisions of the three Pan-Orthodox Synods of the sixteenth century.


3. In consequence of the foregoing, I also regard those Orthodox who took part in the foundation of the World Council of Churches in 1948 and who since then have been active and functioning members thereof, thus cultivating inter-Christian and interfaith ecumenism, as lapsed in the Faith.


4. I reject and in no way endorse the so-called Pan-Orthodox Consultations (1961 to the present), which facilitated the reprehensible, invalid, and meaningless “Lifting of the Anathemas Between the Eastern and the tern Church” in 1965, which, moreover, introduced also the lifting in practice of non-communion in prayer and the mysteries between Ecumenists of many different stripes, and which have since then been paving the way, from an ecumenist perspective, for the convocation of the so-called Great Pan-Orthodox Synod, with a view to the complete acceptance, ratification, and dogmatization of the syncretistic heresy of ecumenism.


5. Finally, I accept the Synodal Decisions of the local Genuine Orthodox Churches, which condemned syncretistic ecumenism: that is, those of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (1983), of the [Genuine Orthodox] Church of Greece (1998), and of [the Genuine Orthodox Church of] Romania, at the same time deeming those who have co-signed ecumenist declarations, and also those who in any way commune with them—clergy and laity—or who accept, or tolerate, or are indifferent to, the outlook of their Ecumenist Shepherds, as being fallen, with them, from the Genuine Orthodox Church.

(Approved by the Inter-Orthodox Consultation of May 13/26, 2016)