Orthodox Church

“ Every orthodox church is founded on mistake and falsehood. Every good orthodox minister asserts what he does not know, and denies what he does know.
What are the Orthodox Clergy Doing for the Good of Mankind? ”

“ What is the stand taken now, let us ask, by those two great branches of the administration of Christ’s Church, that call themselves the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Churches, which have separated, thanks to their inability to agree as to whether the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son or from the Father alone? Is it possible that they have not come yet to an understanding, and, blinded by mutual hatred, are neglecting the loftiness of their mission on earth? ”

“ The Russian government since the time of Alexander I. has sought amid many difficulties to advance the education and enlightenment of the people, and to elevate the orthodox church by securing a more highly cultured clergy, and to increase its influence upon the life of the people ”

“ We have seen how the only national organizations they have under the Turk are the religious bodies. The Orthodox Church is the Roman nation, and every true son of Hellas must belong to that nation. It is their one bond; it has kept alive the sacred fire of Greek patriotism during the centuries of bondage ”

“ It is when we pass from the influence of the Church on the conduct of the individual, to ask what was the value of its ethical teaching in regard to national life, whether it ever set before the nation a lofty national ideal, or whether it ever caused a wave of religious enthusiasm which influenced the nation as a whole, that we find the Orthodox Church during the later centuries of its history greatly lacking. Religion was to guide the conduct of the individual and to save him from eternal punishment. There was little or no conception of it as an aid to national righteousness. ”

“ The Orthodox hate any attempt at proselytizing among their people above measure. In the first place, like Catholics, they hold their communion to be the whole and only true Church. So to be an apostate from it is to them, as to us in our case, an infinitely greater calamity than the loss of members to the Protestant bodies, who all claim to be only a branch of the Church, although, of course, always the best and purest branch. And then, to the Easterns their communion is not only the true Church, it is their nation as well. ”

“ A strong and, I think, an unanswerable case might be made out to show that the religion of the Orthodox Church beneficially influenced the conduct of men and women in their individual capacity and in their relations one with another. ”

“ As a result of the frequent application of this principle the Orthodox Church has shared the fate that never fails to overtake schism and heresy. In consequence of political and ecclesiastical jealousies and antagonism; of excommunications and counter-excommunications by rival bishops; of divisions and subdivisions, the once great and powerful Orthodox Communion now finds itself divided into sixteen independent Churches whose jurisdiction ranges in extent from that of the Independent Church of the monastery of Mount Sinai to that of the once great Empire of Russia. ”

“ The Orthodox Church exalted Christ himself, as an exceptional, dramatic Person, suffering for good; as a divine hero, fighting against all the evil powers of the world. A teaching or a life drama—i.e., Tolstoi or Orthodoxy! The Church thought: there is something greater than Christ's words, that is Christ Himself. His words are extraordinary, it is true, no man spoke as He, but His person and His life were more extraordinary still. Thousands of martyrs died for Him, not for the Sermon on the Mount. ”

“ Of the Orthodox Church it may be truly said that the desolation has no bounds. It has no bounds because already the principle has been established that the church of each state ought to be independent, and that each separate nation also ought to have its distinct and independent church. ”

“ On the other hand the growth of Russian power throughout the nineteenth century, combined with the immense influx of Russian pilgrims to the Holy Places, gave the Orthodox Church a prestige that it had never before possessed. The interest of Protestant nations has also steadily increased. ”

“ From my own observation in many Slav countries, in Bulgaria, in Serbia, as well as in Russia, the Orthodox Church is at present in a more degraded state than any other Christian Church. The hierarchy are ignorant, contemplative monks. The secular priesthood form a miserable caste, almost as uneducated as the peasants whom they are supposed to guide and to enlighten. All through the nineteenth century the intellectuals, with the exception of a few writers of the Slavophile group, have been on the side of the opposition, as I pointed out before. ”

“ The synodical, or federative form, of government is the natural and logical one for churches of the Orthodox communion, as it adapts itself equally well to all political constitutions. In democratic Greece the Church has followed the example given by the Church of autocratic Russia, and its organization there, while differing in detail, is similar in principle. Whatever form among Orthodox Churches the higher, or governing power may have assumed, it has never made any pretence to be of divine origin, but, whether patriarchate or synod, has always been, and been held to be, of human institution ”

“ Scepticism, in modern days, may be rampant, self-asserting, and widespread, but the Church is never assailed; its children may have lost faith in its teachings, it still retains its hold upon their affection and their sympathies.
As in England, the Church in Russia is a national Church; it is also a member of a great Christian communion, which rises above kingdoms and nationalities, and claims universal homage as the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Orthodox Church. ”

“ In Protestant Orthodox churches, if any of those born and brought up in it are Christians, it is, so far as they are concerned, a happy accident.
All this shows something wrong in the common theory of conversion. Every one in a Christian community who desires to be a Christian ought to be able to become one. Christianity is a gospel, because it opens the kingdom of heaven to all. The call of the Church at the beginning was to follow Christ. Any one who was willing to follow Christ was baptized at once, and became a Christian. ”

“ What is their influence upon men? What is done by the churches among us, among the Catholics and the Protestants of all denominations—what is their practical work? and what are the results of their practical work?
The practice of our Russian so-called Orthodox Church is plain to all. It is an enormous fact which there is no possibility of hiding and about which there can be no disputing.
What constitutes the practical work of this Russian Church, this immense, intensely active institution, which consists of a regiment of half a million men and costs the people tens of millions of rubles? ”

“ Our desire springs from the historical right of the Orthodox Macedonian people to be freed from the jurisdiction of foreign Churches - the Bulgarian Exarchate and Constantinople Patriarchate - and be united in its own Orthodox Church, acquiring all the characteristic features of a people who have a right to independent spiritual and cultural life and education.
Your Holiness, please have in mind the specific traits of the Orthodox religion, which the Orthodox people will never renounce; they are: independence as regards faith, the church services and the priests' attire. ”

“ They have set up centres all over the Near East, and no one prevents them from preaching; but every one now knows that to join them is to leave the Orthodox Church. In Russia, where other ideas of liberty prevail, the Bible Society was expelled, and its Bibles forbidden. These Protestants have made an infinitesimal number of converts, who call themselves Εὐαγγελικόι, and the Orthodox feel nearly as bitter towards non-Anglican Protestants (Διαμαρτυρόμενοι) as towards Catholics. [23] ”

“ Let us now turn away our gaze from the Orthodox Church, in which the terrible declaration of Jesus Christ finds only too fully its accomplishment. Another church appears before us. She is not a divided kingdom: on the contrary, if there be one characteristic mark by which she may be at once recognized by [pg 820] all who seek for her, it is the imposing unity of her exterior organization. The pope forms this unity. Let us ask of history what the pope has done for the church. ”

“ When we consider how strong, even to-day, is the opposition of the Orthodox Church to the new style, we can understand how gratifying this special exemption must have been to the Greeks of that period. ”

“ In eastern Europe the Orthodox Church has similarly shrivelled up and ceased to be an intellectual force, but there it has at least retained the affection of the upper class, and is honoured for its fidelity during centuries of Musulman oppression. ”

“ We want the communion of the Christians to whom St. Paul brought the faith at Ephesus and Corinth, the children of the men of Antioch who first were called by the name in which we all glory. And we need, too, the righter balance that would be restored by reunion with the Orthodox. In spite of our loyalty to our own rite, and in spite of our natural pride in being not only Catholics but Latins and members of the greatest Patriarchate, we have to realize that the Latin Church is not, has never been, the whole Body of Christ. ”

“ Nothing can be at present expected from the unorthodox bodies who until lately have been persecuted to such a degree that they have scarcely been able to exist. In external matters the Orthodox Church commands the obedience of the nation to a wonderful degree, but in controlling the deep convictions of the heart she lacks power. ”

“ The teaching of every Church, with its redemption and sacraments, excludes the teaching of Christ; most of all the teaching of the Orthodox Church with its idolatrous observances.
"But the people have always believed of their own accord as they believe now," will be said in answer to this. "The whole history of the Russian people proves it. One cannot deprive the people of their traditions." ”

“ And we can imagine what their own Fathers would say to the Orthodox if they came back. We have seen what Athanasius, Basil, Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, and Theodore of Studium have to say about the primacy of Old Rome. We have heard what the Fathers of Chalcedon cried out, and we have seen the Roman legates preside over other councils. If the great Fathers whom they honour could come back and see the troubles that beset their children now, what could they suggest except that a council should be summoned and that the successor of St. Peter should send his legates to make peace among them? ”

“ It is on such occasions as these—and they are many—that the attitude of the people towards their church may be studied with advantage, and the beholder will realise how strong is the affection of the orthodox for all that pertains to their religion. ”

“ And yet the men who rule the Orthodox Church have no favour for Latins. The latest events show them to be still as hard, arrogant, and bitter as their predecessors who made the schism. In 1894 Pope Leo XIII, in the evening of his long life, looked out across the world from the throne that for so many centuries has stood above all the nations. In his last testament [8] he spoke to us, his own Catholics, and he remembered also the great masses of Christians who have broken away from the old Church. And so he spoke to the Orthodox and Protestants as well. ”

“ Many foreigners, carried away by the reasonableness of this argument, severely condemned the Orthodox Church for continuing to resist the encroachments of the new Government upon its secular privileges—secular in both senses of the word. ”

“ To whom will they refer the latter to authenticate the validity of their mission, to propose objections, or to lodge complaints? If we except Russia, Turkey, the Hellenic kingdom, Roumania, Servia, and some provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the rest of the world is missionary ground for the Orthodox Church, just as much as is China for the Catholic Church. Let us suppose the Russian Church wishing only to undertake the conversion of France. Paris already possesses a Russian temple; it is now the Synod, in concert with the government, which nominates the persons attached to this temple. ”

“ At the union of the Orthodox churches of Lithuania and Poland to the see of Moscow, and as one of the conditions of the treaty with John Sobiesky, in 1685, liberty of conscience and freedom of worship were guaranteal to the adherents of the Greek faith. Diplomatic stipulations, however, proved no bar to the spirit of intolerance, and the Orthodox population of those countries were subjected to fierce and constant persecution on the part of the Catholics and Uniates. ”

“ Both hold to the only two standards of faith required by the orthodox Church—the Bible and the Nicene Creed; nor do they differ at all in their interpretations of Scripture or creed.
These old dissenters therefore have nothing in common with Protestantism. Their origin is in no way comparable with the contemporary rise of various sects in Western Europe. They are Russian of the Russians. ”

“ In the seventeenth century, when the Uniat Church was established, the majority of the White and Little Russians went over to the Roman Church, but in the nineteenth century the Uniats were incorporated into the Eastern Orthodox Church of the Russian Empire. ”

“ The radical distinction between the two is marriage; the monks take vows of celibacy, but the popes must marry before they can have charge of a parish. In the Russian, as generally in Orthodox Churches, the episcopate and all offices of authority are reserved for the unmarried clergy, who are comparatively few in number, while the subordinate and more laborious positions only fall to the lot of the married clergy. ”