Archpriest John Whiteford's Observations on Pan Orthodox Encyclical

Amen, amen and amen. From my old friend Archpriest John Whiteford.

A few observations on the encyclical of the Rump Council of Crete.

There is something seriously out of balance when the text mentions "Fundamentalism" 4 times, and condemns it, without defining what it is, but says not a word about homosexuality, in a day when the definition of marriage and even what it means to be a male or female is under assault around the globe. If also found no time to mention the abortion holocaust that threatens the very survival of many Orthodox nations, whose populations have been in serious decline. It also doesn't condemn modernism, secularism, liberalism, or even atheism, but it does find time to condemn conservatism... cast in the ridiculous caricature of being "incompatible with the advancement of civilization..." I am unaware of any serious form of conservatism that opposes the advancement of civilization.


It is unfortunate that something that might have promoted Orthodox unity will be a dud at best, and quite possibly a source of division going forward.

Archpriest John Whiteford
St. Jonah Orthodox Church
Parish Home Page: http://www.saintjonah.org/

My response:
Fr John, I had just written a paragraph with identical observation. This document is pseudo-orthodox, not just out of balance, it is a Cultural Marxist document, created upon the very foundations of the materialism, against which it makes pretense to caution.
Our Heavenly Father Let us not be caught in the fear of servile religion; keeping Tradition out of ignorance and offering our "correctness" as sign of righteous enlightenment. Let us not be caught in the tyranny of our rational minds, which creates "innovations" upon the faith, which leads us to hold prideful "theologies" that diminish God to the level of our understanding, or worse, which deny Him altogether. Let us not be caught by the tyranny of our emotions, mistaking our soul's phantasy producing powers for the working of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life. Let us not be caught in the mere form of the visible church, but in the LIFE of it, who is Jesus Christ, the Living Word of God, present to all that truly seek Him. Let our keeping of Tradition spring from the warmth of your Love, from a heart that seeks continual repentance, from a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart you will not despise. Amen.