Niceno-Constantinopolitan CreedProtestants and “non-denominational” theists sometimes claim that the Nicene Creed has no basis in Scripture and simply reflects the personal opinions of the Church Fathers who contributed to it. Below we produce the Creed with the corresponding verses that justify each of the various clauses, firmly grounding the exegesis in the Scriptures. Read More →
Saint Cyprian: On the Unity of the Catholic ChurchBelow we reproduce the full text of “On the Unity of the Catholic Church” by Saint Cyprian.
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On Grace & Predestination: The Letter of LucidusMultiple synods were convened at Arles throughout the history of the Church. The Synod of 475 (some scholars date it to 480) is significant to contemporary dialog between the Orthodox and Roman Catholics on one side, and Protestant reformers and offshoots on the other. This Synod further clarified matters on grace and predestination in the wake of the Augustinian-Pelagian controversy. The letter of Lucidus is significant because the priest assents to the doctrines of the Council, attended by thirty Bishops, and this give us a sense of the spirit of the Church at that time. The relevant doctrines include limited atonement, total depravity, double (positive) predestination, and the proper balance of grace and works. Read More →
St. Symeon the New Theologian: On the Fearful Day of the Lord and the Future JudgmentBeloved, there is much for us to say about the judgment, and the interpretation is difficult because it is not about things which are present and visible, but about future and invisible matters. There is therefore great need of prayer, of much effort, of much purity of intellect, both in us who speak and in those who listen, in order for the first to be able and know and speak well and for the others to listen with understanding to what is said. What then is the purpose of this discourse? Its subject is the great and manifest and fearful day of the Lord, and we write it in order to know why it is called and said to be the Day of the Lord. Read More →
Fr. Georges Florovsky: On the Significance of the DesertA short excerpt on the symbology of the “desert” and its usefulness as a tool to sharpen our ascetic senses. Taken from “The Ascetic Ideal and the New Testament: Reflections on the Critique of the Theology of the Reformation.” Read More →
Apostolic CanonsBelow we reproduce the full list of Apostolic Canons as presented by New Advent. Read More →
St. John Maximovitch: The Decline of the Patriarchate of ConstantinopleBelow we present the original pages of a report on the autocephalous Churches written in 1938 by St. John Maximovitch and published in Orthodox Word Magazine, 1972. From the translators’ introduction: “The anti-Orthodox career a11d statements of the late Patriarch Athenagoras of sorry memory have been so striking that they have perhaps tended to obscure the fact that the apostasy of this one man was merely the culmination of a long and thorough process of the departure from the Orthodox Faith of an entire Local Orthodox Church. The promise of the new Patriarch Demetrios to ‘follow upon the footsteps of our great Predecessor… in pursuing Christian unity’ and to institute ‘dialogues’ with Islam and other non-Christian religions, while recognizing ‘the holy blessed Pope of Rome Paul VI, the first among equals within the universal Church of Christ’ (Enthronement Address), only confirms this observation and reveals the depths to which the Church of Constantinople has fallen in our own day.” Read More →
Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future: 1983 vs. 2004Ever since the inception of the Church, those who oppose certain ideas have been known to create outright forgeries, fraudulent interpolations or subtle omissions to various Patristic documents. Why, especially in the modern technological era where such things are quite easy even for a child, would we expect anything differently? We present below two sample pages from the 1983 and 2004 editions of Fr. Seraphim Rose’s “Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future,” where Fr. Rose’s clear sentiments of support for traditional Orthodox groups have been omitted. We also provide a link to a downloadable PDF of the 1979 edition of the book. Read More →
ROCOR Recognition of GOC Ordinations, 1969Below we reprint, in Russian and English, the 1969 correspondence from ROCOR to the True Orthodox Christians of Greece, in which the Synod “recognizes the validity of the episcopal ordinations of your predecessor of blessed memory, the reposed Archbishop Akakios, and the consequent ordinations of your Holy Church.” Read More →
Patriarchal Encyclical of 1920This month marks the 100th anniversary of the infamous Constantinopolitan Encyclical of 1920, interpreted by many as the catalyst of the perilous descent of 20th century Orthodoxy. We reprint the Encyclical in full below. Read More →