The Church is One in Christ

 

The Unity Of The Church

The Church Is Forever United With Christ

 

The Church Fathers saw Orthodoxy as a Way of Life rather than a religion. Although the Church has many of the same attributes as religion, this does not mean she is herself a religious institution. Rather, she is a Hospital for the Soul, wherein we can receive the healing that makes it possible to commune with our Creator. It is within this hospital, the Church, that we are made holy (whole), making this communion possible. The Eucharist, which is the chief vehicle by which we can receive the grace that opens the doors for communion with God, brings about spiritual transformation, and is the chief sign of our unity in Christ.

 

Although there is uniformity in doctrine and practice within the Orthodox Church, the unity within the Church does in no way exclude those who are outside the Church, for all are God's children, and the doors of the Church are open wide, even to those who are blind to this truth. The Church does not judge those who remain outside her walls, but loves them, and prays for them. She is not an exclusive institution, but rather the living embodiment of Christ. Her claim to divine origin, and absolute truth, in no way suggests a denial of the basic dignity of all humanity as being the children of God.

 

The Church's claim to divine origin is nowhere more clearly seen than her celebration of the Eucharist, for this is the moment when heaven comes down to earth, and her faithful are united one to another, in the Christ Who gives Himself so freely and completely. In this way the Eucharist is the vehicle to unity in Christ, and a sign of a unity that transforms time and space. Yet without unity of faith, where each believer has received as their own, the teachings of the Church in all her integrity and authenticity, communion would simply be a common participation in a symbolic act, rather than the participation in the Divine. Our reception of the very Body and Blood of Christ, is that point in eternity that brings about transformation and holiness.

 

These teachings are in direct opposition to the theories and philosophies of today, for they would deny the existence of Absolute Truth. The Church's strict adherence to the beliefs, teachings, and practices, that have been handed down from Apostolic times, are the basis for our unity, for we have bound ourselves to the unchanging Apostolic Church, and forever united ourselves to Christ.

 

With love in Christ,

Abbot Tryphon
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An "avatar" commenting on my video "Unknowingly herding your friends and family to evil, IS Evil" wrote:

MONI-ANN
Question :

So do catholics also herd others to evil, by insisting that the catholic church is the one and only, knowing and fully accepting the fact that vatican is evil, yet insisting on staying on and inviting new people in?"
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I suspected it was a baited question, most likely by a person given to some form of "evangelicalism or reformed theology" whose anti-catholicism is deeper than present Roman Catholic political errors.

In answering her, I will be answering a lot of people who from a base of their own religious ignorance and error, use the Vatican as the poster-child for Christian apostasy, failing to recognize the apostasies (multiple) of their own traditions.

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Moni-Ann, I rarely know the person who is asking a question on these forums with avatars instead of identities. So first, I will ask you a question or two. (1) Is it better to be a protestant than a catholic? (2) Which is better, losing faith in the reality of Jesus Christ or holding that faith as a Catholic? (3) Will Christians who love Jesus who are Catholic go to hell? (4) What religion are you?
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So far there is a sucking silence when before she has been quite talkative making comments on many subjects.

So, let me offer wisdom from Metropolitan Jonah and Archpriest Josiah Trenham.

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“When I was still a layman I met my spiritual father, Abbot (now Bishop) Pankratiy of Valaam… we were both reading St Silouan the Athonite, by St Sophrony.  We were discussing the passage where a young hot shot missionary archimandrite was telling the fathers about how he was preaching Orthodoxy in some remote land, probably a Catholic country.  He was telling them that everything they had been told was heresy, a lie, and that they needed to convert and become Orthodox, or they were certainly going to fry in hell.  

He went on and on about how he gave it to them.  St Silouan spoke up, and said, “Father, I think there is something you missed.  Do they believe in Jesus Christ?  He said, yes.  Do they believe in the Trinity?  Yes, he grudgingly replied, but in a heretical way.  Do they believe the Bible?  Yes.  Do they honor the Saints and the Virgin Mother? Yes.  Do they believe in the sacraments?  So St Silouan said to him, If you tell them everything that they have believed is a lie, they will know that you are the liar, because they know these things are true.  Instead of telling them it is all wrong, you must say to them, The basics of what you have been taught are true.  But there is more!  There is far more, and of great depth.”

I would submit to you that this is the way we need to do missionary work: with love and respect.  That does not mean that we have to affirm things that are wrong.  But it does mean that if that love and respect does not come from our hearts, we will not connect with people to lead them to God. The doctrine and history is secondary.  What we must manifest is the love of God.  If you used “truths” to bash people over the head and destroy their faith, all that comes out is your own ego, your own self-centeredness and arrogance.  They are indeed right to reject us when we do that.”
- Metropolitan Jonah Paffhausen. 2022.

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Of course, today, the system of the Vatican has become so misdirected by the Anglo-Judeo Luciferians, promoting radical Ecumenism and Universalism, and making pacts with Globalist organizations whose goals are Luciferian and anti-christ. These organization press for the Cultural Marxist LGBTQ agenda, the destruction of male and female roles in the church, depopulation, and other Luciferian goals, strategies, and tactics that the clarity of Christ's message and reality is far more clouded than when Saint Silouan the Athonite was speaking a century ago and even very different when Met. Jonah's spiritual mentor was speaking a few decades ago. Still, his core message is correct.

Archpriest Josiah Trenham, in his book "Rock and Sand: An Orthodox Appraisal of the Protestant Reformers and Their Teachings," stated that he passed out to his "catechumen" (those converting to the faith) a form entitled "Affirmations and Renunciations." The page has two columns, the left side titled "Orthodox Beliefs" and the right side titled Heresies/Errors. And these columns are filled with, first, the Orthodox beliefs held by the religious organizations and congregations from which they are converting. Also listed are their recognized errors. He said of this exercise that it "guides the person in the process of conversion to a deep appreciation of the good of their previous confession. Whether a convert approaches the Orthodox Church from Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, or Buddhism, there are precious truths which have been bequeathed to the convert from his previous tradition. These truths should be loved, and those who communicated these truths to the catechumen should be sincerely thanked and appreciated."

There is such a humble statement written by the prominent church layman, Alexei Khomiakov, nearly two centuries ago. He wrote:

Inasmuch as the earthly and visible Church is not the fullness and completeness of the whole Church which the Lord has appointed to appear at the final judgment of all creation, she acts and knows only within her own limits; and (according to the words of Paul the Apostle, to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 5. 12) does not judge the rest of mankind, and only looks upon those as excluded, that is to say, not belonging to her, who exclude themselves. The rest of mankind, whether alien from the Church, or united to her by ties which God has not willed to reveal to her, she leaves to the judgment of the great day.

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As I said in my first video in the series "What is the Church/The Church is One" I NEVER criticize the simple faith of the Christian believer only the arrogant false teachers who attack the church and her teaching and set up their own ego as superior to the Apostles, Saints and Holy Fathers who have populated Christ's Body all these centuries.  To those teachers who function in the spirit of the anti-christ, I say, "Cursed be" - which is the meaning of anathema. Anathema is not a powerless petulant statement. Two years ago I anathematized the Georgia Guide Stones, with the words, "I curse you, you prideful monument, in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen." And this summer the stones that were boasted to be so permanent they would survive nuclear conflagration and the holocaust of a fireball meteor from the sky and nuclear winter, were destroyed by some unknown energy source.  It wasn't stone that was cursed but the dark spirit who raised them and protected them.