By Nektarios Dapergolas, Doctor of History
This article was forwarded us to by a contributor in Canada. It is very timely as discussions over the actions of our Orthodox Bishops have been particularly intense in this time of COVID.
From the Apostle Paul to the Cappadocian fathers, and from Saint Athanasios to Fotios the Great, when all our Holy Church Fathers speak of improper obedience, they urge the faithful to defy and disobey those ‘ecclesiastical shepherds’ who are wrong and heretical. This issue is very timely because we live in a particularly dangerous time, a time of great dogmatic and spiritual confusion, a time when some church hierarchs are increasingly compelling the faithful to obey their demands to deviate from the teachings of our Holy Church by adopting various profane aberrations and blasphemous innovations (and here I include all that we have endured these last few months, the arbitrary church lock downs and sterilizations, worshipping with masks, prohibiting the veneration of Holy Icons, packaged church bread, and the heightened fear of illness and death, even at the Holy Chalice). From this point onwards, we shall bear witness to newer, modern saints, who urge the faithful to disobey heresy and erring bishops when there are good reasons to do so.
Let us begin with Saint Nicodemus of Mount Athos, who was perfectly aligned with St. John Chrysostom’s writings several centuries ago when he wrote, “If your elder is mistaken in the affairs of the state and its institutions, do not be curious. If, however, he is wrong in matters of the Faith, leave and abandon him, be he a man or even an angel from heaven.”
Recall also the impressive foresight of the famous Russian Saint John Maximovich (1897 – 1966), Bishop of Shanghai and San Francisco. The Saint’s foresight is an explicit exhortation against blind obedience and all types of delusional fantasies. In his words:
“In the last days, evil and heresy will have spread so widely that the faithful will not be able to find a priest or shepherd to protect them from delusion and guide them to salvation. At that time, the faithful will not receive safe guidance from men; but their guide will be the writings of the Holy Fathers. Especially at this time, every believer will be responsible for the whole fulness of the Church. Brethren, it is time for us all to undertake our responsibility to God and to history. Do not tolerate any more foolishness or misguidance from priests or archpriests. Do not turn a blind eye for you will be co- responsible. The Saints are forewarning you.”
Another great contemporary ecclesiastical figure who cautions us is the late Metropolitan (and great Orthodox protagonist) Augustine Kantiotis. This man was deeply respected by great modern-day saints, such as St. George Karslidis, who referred to him as a “Confessor of Christ,” and St. Paisios, who amidst other eulogies, even named him “the new Chrysostom of the Church.” Hear, then, what this great modern hierarch had to say regarding the holy writings on the subject of obedience:
“The bishop must obey the Gospel. This is why when the Bishop is ordained, he is ordained under the Gospel. As the Fathers say, this means that the people shall obey the Bishop on one condition – that the Bishop obey the Gospel. But when the Bishop does not obey the Gospel and does not do according to the Holy Canons, then the clergy and the people are not obliged to obey the Bishop. In the event of a dilemma because of a contradiction between the Gospel and the bishop’s teaching, ‘we must obey God rather than human beings!’ (Acts 5:29) And then heroic clergymen and monks, even ordinary lay people – in cases where the bishops are silent and the pulpits are silent – then every clergyman and lay person has the right and the obligation to say those things which the Bishops dare not say either because of cowardice, or a worldly spirit, or misapprehension. Whenever the pulpits were silent, simple and humble monks and people, men and women, supported Orthodoxy. Let us not forget that Romania was liberated from Ceausescu with the help of an obscure cleric who lit the fuse of freedom and destroyed Ceausescu’s dictatorship and tyrannical regime. Therefore, each clergyman is not a slave of his hierarch, but is only obligated to obey his Bishop when that Bishop is a contender in the holy struggle.”
As mentioned earlier, St. Paisius also advised us what to do when our faith is threatened and persecuted or the Divine is blasphemed; because if we do not speak, we too bear responsibility. Saint Paisios said:
“During these difficult times, each of us must do whatever is humanly possible, and what is not humanly possible should be left to God. In this way, our conscience will be at peace, knowing that we did whatever we could do. If we do not react, our ancestors will rise from the graves. They suffered so much for our homeland, but what are we doing for our country? It is unacceptable for Greece and Orthodoxy, with her traditions, her Saints and heroes, to be fought and persecuted by the Greeks themselves while we do not even speak! This is terrible! I asked someone, ‘why do you not speak? How can so and so do this?’ He replied, ‘what can I say? He is complete filth.’ Well, if he is filthy, why does no one say anything? He should be held accountable! No, they leave him be. Just say, ‘I don’t agree with this. Do things honourably. Do you want to serve only yourself and ruin everything else?’ If Christians do not react or confess their faith, the perpetrators will do worse things; but if we react, the perpetrators will pause to reflect. Unfortunately, today’s Christians are not fighters. The early Christians were strong; they changed the world. In the Byzantine era, when an icon was removed from a church, people reacted. Christ was crucified that we may rise again, and we are indifferent! If the Church does not speak so as not to break with the state, if the Archbishops or Metropolitans do not speak so as to get on well with everyone because they need their help with their institutions, if the Athonite monks do not speak so that their allowances are not cut off, then who will speak?”
So far, we have discussed the folly of unconditional obedience; but there is also another circulating fallacy – that it is sacrilege to criticize the errors and falsehoods of the clergy – something which the Holy Church Fathers also reject. Let us conclude with a few words about another irrational idea – the criticism from Ecumenists towards those who oppose it, that those who resist Ecumenism are creating a schism in the Church. Can anyone seriously dare to assert that a schism (even if we do eventually come to this) is being caused by those who strictly adhere to the Orthodox Tradition and the Holy Canons, and not by those who accompany and co-pray with Cardinals, Protestants, imams, gurus, and so on; or those who serve the Divine Liturgy together with excommunicated and schismatic persons; or who give in to heresies and embrace all manner of un-Orthodox falsehoods and innovative blasphemies? It makes no difference if such erring individuals comprise the majority of Bishops. Who said that truth and Divine Grace have to exist in the majority? Are the false synods in Ecclesiastical History not well known, or what the majority thought at that time? Or has no one noticed that we are living during unprecedented end times, for which it was written that the even the Elect may be deceived? (Matthew 24:24) To put it simply, who is responsible for an upheaval due to shocking or unprecedented events? Is it the one who opposes the scandal, or the one who creates and insists upon the scandal? Criticizing those who oppose Ecumenism as being the schismatic ones, is the most absurd “logic” for it cannot withstand any reasonable criticism.
Similar absurd “logic” is the recent and widely known advice attributed to a Cypriot Metropolitan that it is better to fall into heresy with the church than to be righteous outside of it. Let us be clear that the Church, which is the Body of Christ, cannot err. Errors and heresies are committed by people who then end up alone, outside the church, even if they are patriarchs, bishops or the vast majority of the clergy. The issue here – and it is worth repeating – is not quantitative. The issue is spiritual truth, which can sometimes be expressed by people counted on the fingers of one hand. Let us recall that for decades during the history of the Church, almost all the bishops of the Byzantine Empire had succumbed to the heresy of Monotheletism, but the church was not composed of these; she consisted of St. Maximus the Confessor (and a few others). At the time of the pseudo-synod of Ferrara-Florence, the Church once again consisted of one cleric, St. Mark Evgenikos, who alone resisted the decision of the false council, together with the laity. St. John Chrysostom explicitly states that if only three people keep the right faith intact, these alone will comprise the Church of Christ (Patrologia Graeca 55,158 & 160, 203). Finally, let us also consider the well-known words of the late great Elder Ephraim of Arizona, that in the difficult years ahead, for some time only a few simple priests will keep and preserve Orthodoxy, while the “great ones”, the church officials, will follow the devil. In such cases, who then comprises or will comprise the Church of Christ? Who, then, constituted or will constitute in all these cases the Church of Christ? Is the answer not obvious?
In closing I need to clarify that I tried to outline with the most simplest explanation the viewpoint of the modern stance of those actors who embrace the so called “new patristics”, and how they are ridiculed by the writings of our Saints, in matters such as what is true obedience, the criticizing of the hierarchs, and what is the right way of the clergy and laity to react against the nuances of misguided Bishops. My aim was to simply provide some light to the way that modern Bishops think and act in this turbulent epoch, so while they pretend to talk about Christ and Orthodoxy, in fact it brings to our mind the warning of Saint Paul “I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.” (Acts 20:29-31) A reaction against the wrong path and unorthodox teachings is an essential duty of every Christian. And our defiance against the nuances is an obvious duty, not only as the Holy Canons allow but rather impose, along with the Holy Fathers of our Church.
Right now, the bishops are making decisions that materially affect our practice of the Faith. They are justifying these decisions on the basis of our health, our safety, and our fear. In such a situation, not getting feedback from the laity is grossly negligent. How do the bishops know that we are afraid, if they never ask us or even our priests? Please sign the petition today to prayerfully ask the Orthodox Bishops to end COVID restrictions and to endorse voluntary, informed consent for any vaccines for COVID.
For more information, please visit our page dedicated to articles concerning our current Church situation in the United States and Canada as background to why this petition is so important.
I agree with Bishop and Saint of Shanghai of San Francisco. The Saint’s foresight is an explicit exhortation against blind obedience and all types of delusional fantasies. In his words:
“In the last days, evil and heresy will have spread so widely that the faithful will not be able to find a priest or shepherd to protect them from delusion and guide them to salvation. At that time, the faithful will not receive safe guidance from men; but their guide will be the writings of the Holy Fathers. Especially at this time, every believer will be responsible for the whole fulness of the Church. Brethren, it is time for us all to undertake our responsibility to God and to history. Do not tolerate any more foolishness or misguidance from priests or archpriests. Do not turn a blind eye for you will be co- responsible. The Saints are forewarning you.”
☦️☦️☦️
The holy elders have forewarned us, as prophesied, we cannot turn a blind eye. We cannot keep silent, and we cannot be responsible for sitting with our hands crossed, while our ecclesiastic beliefs are being adulterated each passing day. We are being weakened or lessened in purity, by the addition of foreign ideologies (ecumenism) and inferior practices (diluting our holy sacraments), as well as an attrition of our own personal convictions. The ‘enforcement’ of lethal vaccinations against our will, in order to be able to enter our church freely unmasked, to participate in a service, is an example of a system of apartheid, or be able to maintain employment if you work in NYC (no support from AB Elpi). I am a victim of such mandates, and know first hand, now that I am forcibly unemployed; the fish smells from the head!
The road to hell is paved with skulls of bishops! ☠️
Could you please document the source of the quote from St. John of Shanghai?
[…] istoria ortodoxă, găsim un fenomen interesant. Adesea, minoritatea a fost cea care a înțeles mai bine. În timpul controversei legate de Arie, arianismul era […]
[…] The Error of Blind Obedience to Bishops – According to the Saints of the Orthodox Church […]
I can appreciate the spirit in which this article was written, and I don’t actually disagree with the main thesis. It is 100% true that, if a particular bishop happens to teach or command something contrary to the Gospel, we have an obligation NOT to listen to them. It is also 100% correct that we should speak up against hierarchs who are teaching things that contradict an *explicit* teaching of Scripture, as it has been expounded by the Holy Synods, Fathers, Liturgy, etc. However, at the same time, we have to be mindful of what our Fathers have taught about the importance of the Church’s hierarchy as it pertains to Her indefectibility. In other words, while we definitely should be ready to criticize and correct hierarchs that are legitimately contradicting a matter of the faith, we also need to be mindful of the fact that it is impossible for the entire hierarchy (i.e. all Patriarchates) to fall into abject heresy, for they are the foundation of the Church. Thus teaches St. Theodore the Studite:
“I witness now before God and men, they have torn themselves away from the Body of Christ, from the Surpreme See, in which Christ placed the keys of the Faith, against which the gates of hell (I mean the mouth of heretics) have not prevailed, and **never will until the Consummation**, according to the promise of Him Who cannot lie. Let the blessed and Apostolic Paschal [Pope St. Paschal I, the only Orthodox Patriarch at the time] rejoice therefore, for he has fulfilled the work of Peter.”
According to St. Theodore, heresy will never prevail against ALL of the Apostolic Sees (in this case he only applies it to Rome, since Rome was the only Orthodox Apostolic See at the time). In the event that some or most Sees fall into heresy, the true faith will always preserved in at least one of them. In the words of Albert G. Bondach, commenting on Ep. 28.128–134; 418.38–47 of St. Theodore:
“Singling out the five primatial patriarchal sees, St. Theodore conceded that the primates occupying them and their flocks could divert from Orthodoxy but believed that by God’s providence the right faith was always preserved in one of the Churches. If any one of the patriarchs diverted from the true faith, St. Theodore said, he should ‘accept a correction’ from another patriarch and reunite with the body of the Church. Thus, reflecting on ‘the five patriarchs’, St. Theodore spoke of them as primarily the mouthpieces of the faith of the Churches they headed.”
Whenever our Fathers spoke about the preservation of the true faith, they almost always spoke of this in the context of the hierarchy being the sign of the Church’s indefectibility, not so much holy monastics and laity as this article implies. If the hierarchy of the Church were to disappear (i.e. all of them were to fall into heresy), this would make Christ a liar when He said “the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church.” While the laity certainly constitute an important *part* of the Church’s indefectibility, the concept cannot be reduced to this. Hence, St. Cyprian of Carthage comments on Matthew 16:18:
“The Church is founded upon the bishops, and every act of the Church is controlled by these same rulers. Since this, then, is founded on the divine law, I marvel that some, with daring temerity, have chosen to write to me as if they wrote in the name of the Church; when the Church is established in the bishop and the clergy, and all who stand fast in the faith… Therefore you must know that the bishop is in the church and the church is in the bishop and that if somebody is not with the bishop, he is not in the church.”
The Church is primarily founded upon the bishops, not the laity. Thus, if the Church were to truly be reduced to three people who were not clergy (St. Chrysostom was being hyperbolic, I suspect), this would mean the Church would cease to exist. All of that to say, if you’re going to be really hammering home how we don’t always have to listen to bishops, it is JUST as important, if not more important, to understand that union with the bishops, and particularily the Orthodox Patriarchal Sees, is absolutely necessary for being in the Church.
It’s for this reason that I find your historical examples of the hierarchy’s “failure” a bit curious. You mention how, during the heresy of Monotheletism, “[the Church] consisted of St. Maximus the Confessor (and a few others).” Your footnote there, “and a few others,” is very important because, who were those others? It was the entire Patriarchate of Rome, i.e. the Apostolic See! St. Maximus was great friends with Pope St. Martin, and they even held a Synod together to condemn Monotheletism (+649 Lateran), because St. Maximus understood that in order to be holding the correct faith, he must do so in union with the Orthodox Patriarchal Sees. This is why St. Maximus also spoke of the indefectibility of the Apostolic See, given it was the only Orthodox See at the time:
“For ever since the Incarnate Word of God came down to us, all the churches of Christians everywhere have held that greatest Church there to be their sole base and foundation, since on the one hand, **it is in no way overcome by the gates of Hades, according to the very promise of the Saviour,** but holds the keys of the orthodox confession and faith in him and opens the only true and real religion to those who approach with godliness, and on the other hand, it shuts up and locks every heretical mouth that speaks unrighteousness against the most High.”
Moreover, your citation of the witness of St. Mark of Ephesus is also lacking in historical detail. You write “At the time of the pseudo-synod of Ferrara-Florence, the Church once again consisted of one cleric, St. Mark Evgenikos, who alone resisted the decision of the false council, together with the laity,” perhaps you were just being hyperbolic here, but I don’t see anything in the article to indicate that. Is it really true that St. Mark was the ONLY cleric who resisted the Council of Florence? Nope. The bishops of Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and many other slavic Patriarchates all rejected the Council, some of them even snuck out of their hotels in the middle of the night to escape the city! Moreover, who was St. Mark of Ephesus? He was the legate of the Apostolic See of Alexandria! Given the Patriarch of Constantiople had died, St. Mark was the most authoritative Orthodox hierarch at Florence, and this is why his rejection of the Council lead Pope Euguene to declare it a failure.
All of that to say: while I generally agree with your main thesis that we should not listen to hierarchs who are preaching and commanding heresy, it is an error to say that the hierarchy is not the foundation upon which the Church is built and sustained, and it is extremely important that we stay in union with the Orthodox Patriarchal Sees, of which there will always be at least one.
Nicholas-
I realize this is a late response to this post, however, I wanted to pass these articles along to you from the eminent Patristic theologian, Fr. Theodoros Zisis.
Doxa to Theo,John D.
Blessed Disobedience or Evil Obedience? Archpriest Theodore ZisisJun 13, 2019
https://russian-faith.com/explaining-orthodoxy/blessed-disobedience-or-evil-obedience-authors-foreword-n3317
– Author’s Foreword
This article is from Author’s Foreword of the excellent booklet — Blessed Disobedience or Evil Obedience? — written by Archpriest Theodore Zisis. The full booklet is available via these links:
• Author’s Foreword
• Chapter 1 – Immediately After Ecumenism Came Homosexuality
• Chapter 2 – Blessed Disobedience or Evil Obedience?
• Chapter 3 – The Holy Scriptures on Obedience
• Chapter 4 – The Holy Fathers on Obedience
• Chapter 5 – Do We Have the Right to Speak?
Some Preliminary Notes on the Influence of
Freemasonry on Early Greek Ecumenism by Monk Seraphim (Zissis)
https://nftu.net/some-preliminary-notes-on-the-influence-of-freemasonry-on-early-greek-ecumenism-by-monk-seraphim-zissis/
August 16, 2017 NFTU NEWS
Source: https://www.geopolitica.ru/en/article/influence-freemasonry-early-greek-ecumenism
Amen. Glory to God! Thank you for writing. Thank you for being a light in the darkness for many of us. Keep writing…we need your encouragement. May God give you strength, wisdom and discernment. May Christ bless you!
This is all very well, and I agree and sympathise with your positions. However, what are we *actually* to do? To what extent will petitioning the bishops *actually* cause them to change?
In the UK, where I live, for example, the bishops are also complicit in numerous impieties: closing churches without so much as a word of protest (even the Anglicans told the government that the sacraments were not “optional”, but not my bishop), multiple communion spoons, disinfecting communion spoons, limiting attendance, forbidding icon veneration — you name it, it was done. Even ROCOR wasn’t the panacaea people made it out to be and authorised questionable things like absolution over the telephone. Very few people I have spoken to agree that these things overstep the line! Most of those who agree with me are actually priests, and they have already made their views known to the bishops, to no avail.
As far as I am aware the only groups that have shown some semblance of faith throughout all this are the Greek Old Calendarists, but they are in schism (at this rate, looking like much less of an issue to be honest, given what these wolves are doing), but I don’t agree that the mainstream Church is completely graceless.
In America people can drive, admittedly a long way, to a church that is open under different levels of restriction. But I feel like where I live we are stuck with this rubbish with very little alternative but to do the reader services at home.
When the celebrities tell you “we are all in this together,” they are lying, of course. But for us Orthodox in the West, we are really are in this together. We are all searching for answers. We primarily started this blog out of frustration because we knew we needed to identify the problems and search for answers. We have finally, we think, gotten people to really think about the issues, many of which you articulated. Solutions are things we are still searching for. I posted a link to your comment on Twitter, and a gent from the UK we interact with posted some thoughts. Here they are:
https://twitter.com/Orthosphere/status/1336654838051069954
Are you on Twitter or Parler? We pray for you, and for all of us. This was a very thoughtful comment. We have coverage in the U.S. and Canada, but please let us know if you ever want to contribute a longer piece about Orthodoxy in the UK. Several of our contributors are currently attending a Western Rite parish to escape the COVID protocols, and the experience has awakened an interest in historic English Orthodoxy.
Thanks for your reply. I’m not on twitter (anymore) because that site did nothing good for me while I was on it.
I’d love to be in touch and maybe write something about our situation in the UK for the interest of our American brethren.
I’m sympathetic to your and Orthosphere’s plans for future Orthodox communities. Much like Jonathan Companik spoke about back in March. Just let me know where to reach you.
You can email me at nicholas@orthodoxreflections.com or you can use the contact form on the menu on the site. Love to hear from you!
Amen. Christ is born !
Glorify him!
Amen.