The Lost Horizon: The Pursuit for Christian Unity

By Fr. Michael Azkoul

To repeat, as it has been repeated many times before, Christian unity is possible only when all those who call themselves Christian embrace common doctrine bearing common definitions. Thus far, there has been only one church that has not changed its beliefsthe Eastern Orthodox Church. She should be the apex of unity. That is not the direction in which the ecumenical movement is moving; therefore, unaware of its ecclesial need, the ecumenical movement has lost its horizon.

Father Michael

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543446289

Fr. Michael Azkoul

Fr. Michael Azkoul was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on October 15, 1930. He graduated bachelor of arts in philosophy in 1954 at Calvin College, Bachelor of Divinity in 1959 at St. Vladimir’s Russian Orthodox Seminary, and MA/PhD in ancient and medieval history from 1961 to 1964 at Michigan St. University. His ordination was held at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1960. He was a member of parish at Spring Valley, Illinois, in 1959; at Youngstown, Ohio, in 1964; and at St. Louis, Missouri, from 1970 to 2016. He taught history at Youngstown University in 1964. He also taught at St. Louis, Missouri, from 1970 to 1974 and at Washington University from 1974 to 1976. He wrote more than twenty articles (“Greek Theological Orthodox Review,” “St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly,” “Patristic and Byzantine Review,” “La Lumiere du Thabor,” and “Theological Studies”) and twelve books on religious history (Soloviev and His Successors [1985]; The Influence of Augustine on the Orthodox Church [1991]; Why Christianity [1994]; St. Gregory and the Tradition of the Fathers [1995]; God, Immortality and Freedom of the Will [2000]; Once Delivered to the Saints [2000]; God of Our Fathers, Gods of the West [2009]; God of Creation, God of Redemption; En Arche: Evolution, Genesis and Church Fathers [2010]; The Toll-House: The Ne-Gnosticism of Fr. Serafim Rose [nd]; etc.).

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CONTENTS

Prologue

Chapter I:        Introduction

Chapter II:      The Nature Of Ecumenism

Chapter III:     The Church

Chapter IV:     The Ecclesiology Of Patriarch Bartholomew

Chapter V:       Conclusion

Appendix:       Holy Tradition

Endnotes

Bibliography

PROLOGUE

A scandal to the Jews, folly to the Greeks

I Cor. 1-23

As a traditionalist, I will use the language of Tradition. Let no one be offended by it. I am an Orthodox Christian; therefore, the pages that follow will reveal me not as a fanatic or fundamentalist but as one committed to the Church into which he was baptized. To be sure, I am aware the zeitgeist, the religious mood of contemporary society, is the womb of ecumenism. I suspect the absolute principles of this book will be a scandal and folly to a society that lives by relativism and can find aucun moyen de sotir. I wish Orthodox scholars as well as Patriarch Bartholomew might discover a way of showing that the modern political and cultural situation can be resolved by the restoration of the true religion -— the Orthodox Faith. That seems unlikely, however, because ecumenists reject traditional ecclesial exclusivism. Also, because ecumenist notions of unity contradict the patristic and Biblical definition of it there can be no reconciliation.

Inasmuch as the purpose of the Christian religion is salvation (theosis) and there is only one religion that provides it or to concur with the old adage, All religions may be wrong, only one can be right. Given this as a perspective, we feel no obligation to honor current academic studies in religion; and surely not the popular conception and shape of it. Therefore, any ecumenical dialogue rests upon the ecclesiological beliefs of the antagonists. If there is one Church in possession of the totality of the revealed truth, all dialogue is superfluous. In the words of St Philaret of New York, Monologue not dialogue.

Hence, we make no effort to offend anyone; nor am I playing the dilettante, but rather maintaining that there can only be one undivided Church, as it was and must always be. That Church has produced the only necessary world-view which alone provides the basis for ecumenical unity. I refer to the world-view delivered to us from the pens of the Holy Fathers whose dimensions originate in the wisdom of the Apostles, that is, from Christ Himself. Contrary to the opinion of so many, their teachings are not outdated, neither are they subject to amalgamation. Consequently, it is to them that we must turn if Christian unity is to be achieved.

The traditional Orthodox sees at this moment a religious movement with noble motives but, unfortunately, promoting syncretism, i.e., a poly-heresy or the profanation of every truth revealed to the Christian religion from the beginning. Thus, let it not be said that past is merely prologue; neither let it be said that the quest for unity is produced by love alone. We hold to the conviction that the Church cannot evolve in its dogma or praxis, because it is the Holy Spirit that accounts for saving truth and love of the one Church. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, on God and Father of all, who is above all, through all, and through all, and in you all (Eph. 4: 4-6).

Indeed, there is no development of doctrine -— Cardinal Newman notwithstanding. The Faith has once been delivered to the saints (Jude 3) and we understand this to mean the incontrovertible Faith of the Fathers -— East and West -— hence, the pursuit for unity has a single meaning: the conversion (not the reconciliation) of religions claiming to be Christian to the Orthodox Church. But worse ecumenists have the dream of a superchurch comprehending the non-Christian world. Undoubtedly, such is not the attitude of many who have taken the name Orthodox, perhaps even Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople with his grand secular social ideals and ecological ambitions, his universalist ideals to the prejudice of the Church’s canons, e.g., the restriction of prayer with non-Orthodox. To be sure, there is some truth in his aspirations, but not as he promotes them. He believes that the earth unites us in a unique and extraordinary way. The Green Patriarch hopes to construct, to transfigure the earth by human ingenuity. He ignores Biblical eschatology.

Some think the Patriarch wants a utopia. It is not uncommon for some so-called Orthodox writers to presumptuously ally him with the Saints of the Church (St Nectarius of Pentapolis and the Island of Aegina, C. Strongylis, Brookline, Mass. 2012). Too many ecumenists seem unaware that the fundamental difference between Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism and the Orientals is their world-views. Bartholomew clearly wants a new weltanschauung according to the contemporary secular principles. He does not even seek to form it with the classical Christology. The official beginning of his new world seems to be his Great Council of 2016 held in Crete. He originally intended to hold the Council in the city of Nicea itself, but circumstance prevented it. In any case, very few Orthodox attended. Also, the Patriarch’s christology is a quasi-Nestorianism with along with a practical indifference to the Christian theology distorted by the implications of the filioque clause.

The ecumenists may argue that this is the twenty-first century and the religious ideas advocated by the majority of Europeans and Americans are the religious ideas that must prevail. Therefore, my polemic is not an act of futility and fanaticism which, if it were to prevail, must end in hate and conflict. I fear that a great tribulation will come in any case -— the rise of the Anti-Christ, the loss of the faith, anarchy, persecution, martyrdom, war of nation against nation. On the basis of Scriptural prognosis, I have no reason to believe that the ecumenist will ever find their religious renovatio. They continue to protest that a super-church is central to their ecumenical vision.

The ecumenical literature pays little or no attention to the idea of a future Tribulation, but it does promote a false theology, christology and predictable forms of spirituality, rarely monastic. Furthermore, how can the faith of the Protestant sects, Roman Catholicism, Orientals, and the Orthodox merge if they are diversified in their faiths? How is the diversity of doctrine to become a single system of beliefs? May I repeat the same question that has been asked before: it t doctrines are many, how can they become one? Shall we presume to say that God is the source of all? If so, what must ecumenism do in order to renew the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church? Merge all the doctrines of its members? Is that not incredible? Perhaps, one part of the Church accepts the papacy, another part only the Eucharist and third part predestination? However one looks at ecumenical reverie it must be a superchurch.

Can we believe there is a united Church without one Faith? Clearly, there must be true Faith in order to have one Church. Also, this unity is not merely to hold the same doctrine, there must be a universal definition of the true doctrine, that is, there must be a common understanding of each, e.g., if all the members of WCC confess the Trinity, they must have an identical definition of the Trinity. The unity of the Church depends on the unity of doctrine with the same definitions. There is only one Church which has never mutated in number or understanding of Christian teachings. The unity of the Church must be found in the life and thought of the Orthodox Church, because she alone has always been faithful to the Apostolic Faith. She is the Una Sancta.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Whosoever transgresses and abides

Not in the doctrine of Christ has not

God.

2 John 1:9

The Orthodox opposition to ecumenism is motivated neither by phyletism nor xenophobic fundamentalism. If nothing else she is aware that many years have passed since 19th century philosophy emasculated the West’s Judeo-Christian culture and therefore her religions. Moreover, the world has been in a state of decline by virtue of the regicide of God’s Anointed, His Majesty, Tsar Nicholas II and the royal family, that is, the end of the Christian Roman Empire with the result, as St Cyril of Jerusalem said, the world has fallen into anarchy and apostasy. Scholars have added to the flame by reducing