SYNODICON OF THE HOLY AND ECUMENICAL SEVENTH COUNCIL FOR ORTHODOXY
We have received from the Church of God, that upon this day we owe yearly thanksgiving to God along with an exposition of the dogmas of piety and the overturning of the impieties of evil.
Snip… Nor did He overlook the voice of those crying to Him: "Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Thy servant which I have endured in my bosom from many nations; wherewith Thine enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith they have reproached the recompense of Thy Christ. " The recompense of Christ is those who have been purchased by His death and who have believed in Him, both by the preaching of the word and by the representation in icons, whereby the redeemed know the great work of His Œconomy both the Cross and all His sufferings and miracles both before the Cross and after it; from which the imitation of His sufferings passes over unto the apostles and thence to the martyrs, and descending from them to the confessors and ascetics.
This reproach wherewith the enemies of the Lord reproached, wherewith they reproached the recompense of His Christ, was remembered by God, Who was besought by His own compassion, and Who yielded to the prayers of His Mother, and moreover His apostles and all His saints who, with Him, were rendered of no account by the insolent defamation of the holy icons, so that even as the saints suffered in the flesh, so might they, as it were, suffer with Him the insults directed against the holy icons God then wrought later that which had been counseled today, and He subsequently brought about that which He had previously performed; previously, because after many years during which the holy icons were spurned and dishonoured, He re-established true piety. But now, for a second time, after a short thirty years of harassment, He has delivered us unworthy ones from adversity, redeeming us from those who afflicted us, and establishing the free proclamation of piety, th e steadfastness of the worship of icons, and this Festival which brings all of us salvation. For in the icons we see the sufferings of our Master for us - the Cross, the grave, Hades slain and pillaged - the contests of the martyrs, the crowns, that very salvation which our First Prize-giver and Contest-master and Crown-bearer wrought in the midst of the earth. This festival we celebrate today; we rejoice together and are glad with prayers and supplicatory processions, and we cry out with psalms and hymns:
What God is as great as our God? Thou art our God, Who alone worketh wonders.
For thou didst put to scorn those who slighted Thy Glory, and didst show forth as cowards and fugitives those who were audacious and impudent against the icons.
But thanksgiving unto God and the Master's trophy of victory against the adversaries is proper here; as for the contests and struggles against the iconoclasts, another discourse written more fully will declare them. Therefore, as a kind of rest after the desert sojourn, on the journey to reach the noetic Jerusalem, and not only in imitation of Moses, but also in obedience to the Divine Command, we considered it right as well as obligatory to inscribe on the hearts of our brethren, as on a pillar constructed of large fitted stones smoothed for the reception of inscriptions, both the blessings which are due to those who keep the law, and also the curses under which transgressors put themselves. Wherefore we say thus:
To them who confess with word, mouth, heart, and mind, and with both writing and icons the incarnate advent of God the Word: Eternal Memory.
(These are in no particular order.)
To them who with words sanctify their lips, and their hearers by means of those words, and who both know and preach that the eyes of the beholders are similarly sanctified, by the venerable icons, and that through them, the mind is lifted to God-knowledge, as well as by the divine temples also, the sacred vessels, and the other precious ornaments: Eternal memory.
To them who persist in the heresy of denying icons, or rather the apostasy of denying Christ, and are not counseled by the Mosaic law to be led to their salvation, nor are they convinced to return to piety by the apostolic teachings, nor are they induced by patristic exhortations and explanations to abandon their deception, nor are they persuaded by the agreement of the Churches of God throughout the whole world, but once for all have joined themselves to the portion of the Jews and Greeks: for those things wherewith the latter directly blaspheme the prototype, the former likewise have not blushed to insult in His icon Him that is depicted therein; therefore, to them who are incorrigibly possessed by this deception, and have their ears covered towards every Divine word and spiritual teaching, as already being putrified members, and having cut themselves off from the common body of the Church: Anathema.
"To those who in words accept the incarnate economy of the Word of God, but who cannot tolerate its representation in icons, and thus in word they pretend to accept, but in fact deny, our salvation, Anathema."
"To Anastasius, Constantine, and Nicetas, who, being unhallowed guides to perdition, were the leaders of heresies during the reign of the Isaurians, Anathema." (These were the "hierarchs during the iconoclast period, who called themselves Orthodox, but were in fact, iconoclasts. It is much like today, where every ecumenist calls himself Orthodox.)
"To those who by the word sanctify their lips and then their hearers by means of the word, and who both know and preach that the eyes of the beholder are likewise sanctified by the venerable icons, and that through them, the mind is lifted to the knowledge of God, even as it is by the divine temple, the sacred vessels, and other holy treasures: Eternal memory."
"To those who understand that the rod and the tablet, the ark and the lamp stand, the table and the censor from aforetime depicted and prefigured the all-holy Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, and that these things prefigured her, not that she became these things - for she was born a maiden and remained a virgin after giving birth to God - therefore, she is represented as a maiden in the icons rather than obscurely depicted by types: Eternal memory."
"To Germanus, Tarasius, Nicephorus, and Methodius, who are truly high priests of God and champions and teachers of Orthodoxy: Eternal memory." (These were holy hierarchs who fought against the iconoclasts.)
To Theodora of pious memory, our pious and ever-memorable queen, who by the divine and angelic Habit was renamed Eugenia, nun, Eternal memory.
"To all that was innovated and enacted, or that in the future shall be enacted, outside of Church tradition and the teaching and instruction of the holy and ever-memorable Fathers, Anathema."
To Arius, the first to fight against, God, and the leader of every heresy: Anathema.
To Peter the Fuller and fool, who said 'Holy Immortal [the Holy Spirit], Who was crucified for us,' Anathema.
To Nestorius, the cursed of God, who said that the Holy Trinity suffered, and to the godless and mindless Valentinus, Anathema.
To them who say that in the last and general resurrection men will be raised up and judged in other bodies and not in those wherewith they passed this present life, inasmuch as these were corrupted and destroyed, and who babble empty and vain things against Christ our God Himself, and His disciples, our teachers, who taught that in the very same body in which men lived, in the same shall they also be judged; furthermore the great Apostle Paul in his discourse concerning the resurrection distinctly and with examples restates the same truth more extensively and refutes as mindless those who think differently; therefore, to them who contravene such dogmas and doctrines: Anathema.
(The following anathema, among others, are against the Monophysites, who preach that there is in Christ one nature and one will.)
To Peter the Paltry, the heretic, who was surnamed Lycopetrus, or 'the Wolf,' to the evil-minded Eutychius and Sabellius, Anathema.
To James Stanstalus the Armenian, to Dioscorus the Patriarch of Alexandria, to the godless Severus, as well as to the like-minded Sergius, Paul and Pyrrus, and to Sergius, the disciple of Lycopetrus, Anathema.
To all the followers of Eutychius, to the Monothelites, the Jacobites and the Artzivurites, and generally to all heretics, Anathema.
(The Protestants fall under the following anathemas, among others.)
To them who do not confess that the Word and Son of God was begotten from the Father without change before the ages, and that in these latter times out of His abundant loving kindness, He became incarnate as a man from the immaculate Theotokos Mary, taking upon Himself for our salvation all that pertains to us save sin, and to them who consequently do not partake of His holy and immortal Mysteries with fear, inasmuch as they consider them as mere bread and common wine rather than the very flesh of the Master and His holy and precious Blood shed for the life of the world; to such men: Anathema.
To them who do not venerate the Cross of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ as the salvation and glory of the whole world and as that which annulled and utterly destroyed the machinations and weapons of the enemy, and thereby redeemed creation from the idols and manifested victory to the world, but hold the Cross to be a tyrannical weapon; to such men: Anathema.
To them who consider the declarations of Divine Scripture against the idols as referring to the venerable icons of Christ our God and His saints: Anathema.
(The Roman Catholics fall under the following, among others.)
To them who at times think and say that the light which shone forth from the Lord at His Divine transfiguration is an apparition, a thing created, and a phantom which appears for an instant and then immediately vanishes, and who at other times think and say that this light is the very essence of God, and thus dementedly cast themselves into entirely contradictory and impossible positions; to such men who, on the one hand, raving with Arius' madness, sever the one Godhead and the one God into created and uncreated, and who, on the other hand, are entangled in the impiety of the Massalians who assert that the Divine essence is visible, and who moreover, do not confess, in accord with the divinely-inspired theologies of the saints and the pious mind of the Church, that the supremely Divine light is neither a created thing, nor the essence of God, but is rather uncreated and natural grace, illumination, and energy which everlastingly and inseparably proceeds from the very essence of God: Anathema.
Again, to those same men who think and say that every natural power and energy of the Tri-hypostatic Godhead is created, and thereby are constrained to believe that the very essence of God is also created, since, according to the saints, created energy evidences a created nature, whereas uncreated energy designates an uncreated nature; to these men who, in consequence, are in danger now of falling into complete atheism, who have affixed the mythology of the Greeks and the worship of creatures to the pure and spotless faith of the Christians and who do not confess, in accord with the divinely-inspired theologies of the saints and the pious mind of the Church, that every natural power and energy of the Trihypostatic Godhead is uncreated: Anathema.
(The following is against Masons and Occultists.)
To the Masons, followers of the occult, spiritualists, wizards, and all who do not believe in the one God, but honor the demons, who do not humbly give their life over to God, but strive to learn the future through sorcery, Anathema.
To those who fall away from the Orthodox Faith, embracing false doctrines to the scandal of our brethren, Anathema.
(We also add to the Synodicon all the anathemas which the Church has pronounced since the Seventh Ecumenical Council.)
To the Sergianists and their teacher Sergius Stragorodsky, who teach that the blasphemous, godless and lawless 'authorities' are authorities given by God, according to the word of the Apostle, and who cut up the body of Christ through this impious teaching: Anathema.
"To those who attack the Church of Christ by teaching that Christ's Church is divided into so-called branches which differ in doctrine and way of life, or that the Church does not exist visibly, but will be formed in the future when all branches or sects or denominations, and even religions will be united into one body; and who do not distinguish the priesthood and mysteries of the Church from those of the heretics, but say that the baptism and eucharist of heretics is effectual for salvation; therefore, to those who knowingly have communion with these aforementioned heretics of who advocate, disseminate, or defend their new heresy of Ecumenism under the pretext of brotherly love or the supposed unification of separated Christians, Anathema."
