I did not see this coming.
Metropolitan Neophytos, the renowned anti-ecumenist of World Orthodoxy, praying with a Maronite hierarch in his church. Please don't overdo the reaction because he does admit that he now views this as common prayer and will not do it again.
Well glory be to God, he did realize his error, and he might have sincere repentance... Now time to catch up on all the other things. I wonder who this "walled off elder" he is speaking of was, a non-commemorator more than likely by the terminology used. Maybe Neophytos will end up as the Bishop for that movement of episcopate-less anti-ecumenist non-commemorator movement in Greece and elsewhere, who hold to Cyprianite ecclesiology.
I will say, and this might just be me being suspicious, but he's been praying with heretics for ages and now all the sudden when he got caught on camera, now it's an issue. I can't say if he's truly sorry or if he's only sorry that he got caught. And he still has never addressed why he signed the documents produced at Crete in 2016, or why he will do interfaith marriages. Maybe this will change all of that and he might actually be against Ecumenism now? I always saw him more as one of those types who was only against Ecumenism insofar as praying with "non-Christians"" like Muslims or Jews and not with say, Papists or Protestants.
As our dearest brother Feodor from Louisiana pointed out on the situation was that there seems to be a lack of discernment as he needed to go to an elder to be told that this was indeed common prayer with heretics... Now I'm not claiming to have discernment, because I don't, but that seems rather self-evident, and Bishops are supposed to be familiar with the Canons. Our brother also noted that the Neophytos cultists are actually, ironically, justifying this action and Ecumenism by large by making such statements as "well he's allowed to have friends that are against Ecumenism"...
I don't know how this scenario will unfold but there's a lot of moving parts and variables here that might play out in an interesting fashion, if God wills it.
post scriptum and completely unrelated: I've always been annoyed by the term "walling off" as it was used by Cyprian of Orofos and Fili and he claimed the Studites were simply "walled off" and they still accepted the mysteries of heretics. Other than this factually not being the case, I actually love his book on the Studites, but his whole thing of portraying himself as "moderates" and the Florinites and all other True Orthodox as "zealots" -- to which I would reference Fr. Seraphim Rose on zeal, I wonder who else likes to call all True Orthodox "zealots" hmm...
Main issue is that it implies there's still different ways to deal with heresy and that there's a "correct, loving" way and that people who don't do this are "overzealous and unloving", when historically, the Florinites did nothing different than what the Studites did. But of course the HSiR was full of this "elite ecclesiology" and pseudo-intellectualism and aura that they knew better than everyone else.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."
Well he was doing it for ages and only asked the elder because conservative World Orthodox outside of Cyprus found out from the video, and criticised it. Not what I would call correct but of course I would not want to kick him after he admitted it. I also did not know that it was wrong in the past. (*Why no, I'm not a metropolitan...) You are right, of course, to wonder about his ecclesiology. That is most certainly not what I meant by overreacting, which would be if someone started anger-posting without first watching the video to know that he admits he was wrong. Which is why I mentioned that in the post.
I can let you hear Elder Gabriel in his own words since he sounded like someone I'd heard from before. It's a small world and, indeed, here he is. The disciple of Elder Paisios. Metropolitan Neophytos will not be breaking with officialdom any time soon, I think. But do start with the first link. He says everything that we would quote from the fathers--some really good quotes, I might add--and yet the conservative WO are still in communion with ecumenist heretics.
eish wrote: ↑Fri 26 April 2024 1:03 pmWell he was doing it for ages and only asked the elder because conservative World Orthodox outside of Cyprus found out from the video, and criticised it. Not what I would call correct but of course I would not want to kick him after he admitted it. I also did not know that it was wrong in the past. (*Why no, I'm not a metropolitan...) You are right, of course, to wonder about his ecclesiology. That is most certainly not what I meant by overreacting, which would be if someone started anger-posting without first watching the video to know that he admits he was wrong. Which is why I mentioned that in the post.
I can let you hear Elder Gabriel in his own words since he sounded like someone I'd heard from before. It's a small world and, indeed, here he is. The disciple of Elder Paisios. Metropolitan Neophytos will not be breaking with officialdom any time soon, I think. But do start with the first link. He says everything that we would quote from the fathers--some really good quotes, I might add--and yet the conservative WO are still in communion with ecumenist heretics.
One other thing our dearest brother Nektarios pointed out, Neophytos also tried to say "well it wasn't that bad, the Maronite patriarch wasn't vested", and he also found videos where Neophytos condemned other hierarchs for doing the same exact thing he did, but apparently he didn't realize it was wrong until now? It helps lend credence that he might only be sorry that he got caught. And or he just had a bad case of "rules for thee but not for me"
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."
SavaBeljovic wrote: ↑Fri 26 April 2024 7:34 pmOne other thing our dearest brother Nektarios pointed out, Neophytos also tried to say "well it wasn't that bad, the Maronite patriarch wasn't vested", and he also found videos where Neophytos condemned other hierarchs for doing the same exact thing he did, but apparently he didn't realize it was wrong until now? It helps lend credence that he might only be sorry that he got caught. And or he just had a bad case of "rules for thee but not for me"
That does make it appear to be worse.