By
Archbishop Lazar Puhalo
Bishop Varlaam Novakshonoff

From the Canadian Orthodox Missionary
December 1997

HIS EMINENCE, ARCHBISHOP LAZAR PUHALO
ARCHBISHOP OF NEW OSTROG,
SENIOR HIERARCH IN NORTH AMERICA,
THE PATRIARCHATE OF KIEV AND ALL RUS’-UKRAINE.

POSITION PAPER NR. 7

ON TYPES AND ICONS

We are approaching the end of this twentieth century of the grace and ekonomy of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ. In this era, which can only be called “post-Christian.” we see the Holy Church embattled, being assaulted from without and betrayed from within. In these spiritually trying days, it seems that even the Holy Mountain Athos is poised to succumb to the “spirit of this age.”

We, as hierarchs of the Church of Christ, in the sacred Archdiocese of New Ostrog, who suffer along with our faithful in this time of confusion and profound apostasy, are compelled by our pastoral obligation to offer this confession as a type and sign of our unity with our flock and the whole body of the Church of Christ, and of our desire to serve them.

This text is brief and is not inclusive of every aspect of the faith. Nor it is an attempt to even outline the mystery of theology, which is a mystery of the heart that can be experienced by those who have been purified and illumined. This experience does not come by words alone, but only by following a healing path in the Church, step by step, and according to the will of the Holy Spirit.

Our sole intention is to express ourselves in truth concerning those aberrations found in the Orthodox world that have led leaders of world Orthodoxy to betray the faith and obscure the path to salvation, for many among the Orthodox of our time.

Even in this present era of the saga of mankind, we are able to understand the history of the Church and our dogmatic tradition through the incomparable treasure of our heritage from the multitude of holy fathers and illumined theologians. They, in a common spirit, in their universal agreement, have offered in wisdom and inspiration valid types and images as signs to the path that leads to the knowledge of the revelation of God. Thus, they have set boundaries to protect us from falling away from that salvation.

Through this inheritance, we are able to see in a manner more clearly than ever, how the mystery of iniquity has worked among Christians through the ages. It has worked to destroy this path, undermining and obscuring the iconic types we have inherited. Thus, a perverted image of God has been created, which leads people away from their Creator and destroys their relationship with His works.

Part of this grid of false types and false understanding of the revealed mystery is the tradition, initially formed in the West, and referred to by historians and philosophers as ”Scholasticism.” Scholasticism is an iconoclastic way to understand dogma and salvation in Christ. The truth is framed and summed up in a systematic wording and the Christian preaching of the revealed salvation is thus entrapped in a legalistic and static paradigm, based on human pride. This iconoclastic theology does not offer references to our true God; it does not lead to Him, but circulates back to itself, unable to reach out to eternity. It offers a perverted and false image of God, according to the prideful and impoverished understanding of a profoundly fallen human logic.

We confess that God and His works are not to be understood by such a fallen way. We remind our faithful that God spoke to Israel offering iconic types and imagery that led the holy nation to a spiritual understanding of the awesome mysteries and did not permit them to identify their expectation with earthly and limited expressions. In the same way, our holy fathers offered an apophatic theology carefully setting signs to establish a boundary for us on the true path, but never delimiting the mystery in a frame of words that would diminish the Will of God and His revelation to the likeness of a legal document. We confess that no theology is according to the Orthodox Faith if it is not based on those valid types, which we have received in our Sacred Tradition. In the Holy Seventh Ecumenical Council, the holy fathers c1early dogmatized that valid icons are the equivalent of true theology.

No theology can be valid and sound unless it is based first of all on the icon that God offers in the first pages of the book of Genesis: God created man according to His likeness, one nature revealed in many persons, as the one divine nature is revealed in three distinct hypostases; He created man to live in the likeness of His own life.

We reject the process and the method by which scholasticism reasons and thinks to understand the mysteries of God, in all the forms that various scholastics have adopted and continue to adopt to this day. We recognize that this way of false thinking has heavily influenced our Orthodox world and has introduced certain changes in Orthodox thought and life, in the last centuries, thus deforming the revelation of God. We have the obligation to warn the faithful that they should be wary and resist all such errors that they may encounter in their everyday life in the church. We advise that all such errors should be corrected, little by little, and we strongly oppose every act that would institutionalize scholastic or western errors in Orthodox teaching.

A number of distinct traditions, coming from western errors, could be named in this epistle, but we will mention only a few, so that they may be given proper attention by the faithful.

1

We often recognize Gnostic aspects of thought in the teaching of certain teachers in Orthodoxy. Dualism of body and soul as distinct natures in man, is one often encountered. This is an example of ancient pagan thought that was also nurtured by the scholastics. It reduces the mystery of man to a simplistic and anti-Christian understanding that is not supported by our holy fathers. The unity of the common human nature, which is revealed in each particular hypostasis, is central in a valid comprehension of the mystery of salvation and of the role that man plays in it.

2

Another such aspect of this Gnosticism is a suspicion expressed by some Orthodox teachers concerning the sacred union of the flesh between man and wife, as practiced in the terms of their sexual relationship. The Church blesses this union in Holy Matrimony, and the tradition of our fathers considers this relationship to be the province of none but those who enter it in faith and true love. We strongly advise against the indiscreet intrusion of many inconsiderate confessors who take control of the sexual life of married couples and introduce an unhealthy guilt into their lives, hindering their spiritual development. We understand that such a deeply rooted suspicion against the sexual relationship stems from a false image of, the world, as if it were divided into pure matter and pure spirit, according to the Gnostic dualistic paradigm mentioned above. The valid types of marriage in our Holy Tradition speak of an overwhelming union, material and natural, where the flesh plays a central role. After all, the Logos became flesh, to reveal His love and eros for mankind, and thus He sanctified our flesh, and the whole universe alike.

3

As many scholars and mindful Orthodox Christians have frequently mentioned, scholastic thought has impressed upon the West a certain understanding of the role of the hierarchy and of the clergy in the Church, according to a degenerate legal scheme that lacks spiritual basis and c1aims a right to an autocratic, dominating authority over the body of Christ. A prime expression of this false teaching is the understanding of the role of the clergy as the representatives of Christ on earth, rather than as the representatives of the body of the faithful before the altar. Unfortunately, this corrupted notion has also influenced many Orthodox, who came to see the role of the priest or of the bishop as that of doorkeeper to the Kingdom of Heaven, a controller of the divine grace, rather than the elder and the president of the Synaxis who can reflect no other light than that permitted by his own holiness and clarity of heart. This understanding of the Church, according to false types, can lead to a wrongful application of the principles of spiritual guidance, offered by elders to those who seek the path to salvation. We advise that our priests and confessors guide their children to a union with God and to true devotion to Him, rather than to blind obedience to themselves. We advise that both clergy and laity apply confession as a healing process and carefully detach themselves from the destructive notion of a legal absolution, as a result of confession. Let them remember that the healing of the heart, that is the remission of sins, requires the common prayer and help of the community, according to the words of the apostle ”Confess to one another and pray for one another, so that ye may be healed” (Js.5:16). And let the lay people not forget their own obligation to serve the community and defend the faith, as members of the royal priesthood.

4

The ignorance of the West concerning the importance of valid types to express the mystery of salvation, has led to an iconographic tradition that simply reduces the depiction of the heavenly types to mere painting. The influence of the West on the Orthodox world in recent centuries has impressed upon many Orthodox faithful and leaders, the use of such false icons which, at best, are poor expressions of the mystery of incarnation, and at the worst, express pure heresies against the doctrines of the holy fathers and against the decisions of the Holy Councils. An example is the depiction of the beginningless Father in human form, as if He became man, with a cross in His nimbus, as if He suffered. We condemn such representations as traditions alien to the Church. Icons should always be in accordance with the Gospel, and they should never insinuate and nurture heretical teachings. We remind our faithful that the Church has clearly decided about the correct use of icons, first in the Holy Seventh Ecumenical Council, but also in other pan-Orthodox and local councils, one of the most important being the Council of 1667 in Moscow.

Speaking of types and icons, it is imperative to note that all visions offered to Israel and described in the Old Testament, prefigured the incarnation of God the Word. In an unspeakable way the mystery of our salvation was already at work in the hearts of our forefathers, who were able to see in their spiritual eyes Jesus Christ in the form of man. Moses wrote about Him, and He was in the visions of all the prophets. The presence of Jesus Christ transcends history and we, Orthodox Christians, should be most willing to emphasize this truth and should not obscure it with errors.

In the same way, we should not forget to honour all liturgical types as indicated in true Tradition. We must be careful to observe a proper order in all divine services. We should not, for example, negate the festive character of the day of the Lord, which is a type of the day of the Resurrection, by performing memorial services (pannikhidas; parastases) on this day and we should similarly observe that Sunday is not a day to kneel during prayer.

In like manner also, we should observe the keeping of the integrity of our liturgical life, in every aspect and we should remember that the liturgical life of the church is not merely mechanical, but is established by revelation and Sacred Tradition to be tuned to the rhythms of the Heavenly Kingdom. Everything that perturbs the harmony and disrupts the integrity of the life of the Church brings about a disagreement in our juncture with the Heavenly Kingdom.

5

False types in theology often lead to false models of living and this results in collective false traditions being inserted into our communities. The final result is an anti-Christian image of the meaning of our life and of the world. Thus, the process of moulding one’s life according to the image of the life of the Holy Trinity is obscured and even obliterated. Then, secular types of living prevail and Christians are little by little identified with the rest of the world. The light is extinguished, the witness of our hope is weakened and our expectation, the expectation of the redemption of the whole universe, according to the apostle, is deformed and neglected. Then, people call themselves Christians but in truth they are no more. The whole orientation of their communities, even of their own personal lives is set according to anti-Christian standards. This is what happened in the historical West, where the wrongful theology adopted in the years before the schism evolved into a clearly anti-Christian culture during the Middle Ages and eventually in the pagan-oriented, humanistic and utilitarian civilization of the Enlightenment, that is still present to this day and defines the goals of our modern society.

The dynamics of secularization has heavily influenced the Orthodox tradition in the last centuries and Orthodox theology entered a period of Latin captivity where it is largely found to this day. We recognize and appreciate the efforts of those few Orthodox theologians who struggle to put the germ of the patristic understanding into the mind and soul of their brethren. On the other hand, we have the duty to warn the flock that the above process of secularization has already left a highly visible imprint on many aspects of church life in the Orthodox world today. This last century has seen especially great advances in this process and has led to deep changes in the way Orthodox people understand the mystery of the Church and the meaning of Christian life. This new understanding is clearly a negation of our Holy Tradition, of the Apostolic faith, and leads directly into heresy and to a denial of the faith. The movement that works out this dynamic process is referred to as Ecumenism.

We do not intend to describe this process at length, since it is still profoundly active and has already acquired a public character so that it can be followed by anyone who cares to watch. For the needs of this pastoral letter, we simply define the process as one that brings into the heart of the Church the workings of the secular, humanistic society, with the parallel negation of the Orthodox Church as a divine inheritance that has been truly led through the ages by the Holy Spirit. A primary goal of this movement is the so-called ”full union” and “intercommunion” between the “churches,” on an equal basis, according to the heretical “branch theory,” eloquently described and dutifully condemned in the 1983 decision against Ecumenism and those involved, issued by the Russian Church Abroad.

Among the means of realization of this unholy process is the policy of the leaders of “world Orthodoxy,” officially defined in a number of “Pan-Orthodox” meetings or inter- confessional conferences like the one that issued the infamous Balamond Agreement. Other means are several top level, public concelebrations between officials of the highest rank, as well as the policy of the “World Council of Churches,” the meetings of which in Canberra and Vancouver have shown clearly the true goal that lies behind Ecumenism; that is the ultimate formation of a pantheistic syncretism that goes far beyond the union between the Christian denominations, and includes also a conglomeration of faiths and religions, in a new kind of pagan scheme.

All this has caused great pain and sorrow to us, as we struggle to keep ourselves and our flock on the royal path of Christian discretion, in a time of confusion and apostasy.

The type of the Church as the immaculate body of Christ, One, Holy and Catholic in each local manifestation, is obviously and institutionally violated. A new ecclesiology has been introduced officially, that abolishes the adherence to the Holy Tradition as an authentic measure of the true canonicity and continuity of the Church through the ages.

We do not wish to be part of this blasphemous process and for this reason we have remained away from communion with those who have officially embraced Ecumenism. We pray that they repent and return to the Church, from which, by Ecumenism, they have certainly separated themselves. We remind our faithful that light can have no communion with darkness. We ask them to remember that our salvation and illumination is not a matter of individual morality, but one of communion with true light.

6

We have no doubt that our world enters a new era in history. People have gathered great scientific knowledge and many things are seen with new eyes. Our societies are open and have an incredible dynamic for communication and exchange of ideas. It is common sense that people should respect their differences in colour, religion, culture, and must agree that all have an equal right before the law and in making choices in their lives. A sensitivity for environmental matters and a push toward global peace is also evident, We should not be blind and reject these advances, but on the contrary we should be able and ready to embrace them and offer a new meaning to all of them as found in our spiritual tradition. There is a huge dynamic for change in our society and one can only wish that the post- modern era will bring better and more essential fruits than the utilitarian culture that has thus far heavily shaped our modern society.

On the other hand, we cannot help noticing certain trends that discourage optimism. The overwhelming trends towards globalization offers a vision in sharp contrast with the catholicity of the Church as a type of true universality, where different persons and small local bodies are united as members of a whole, in true freedom, in order to communicate in truth. On the contrary, we see a gross misuse of institutions formed out of greed and based on a culture of power and control, to set authoritarian rules in order to share more power and exchange all the more money on a global scale. This spirit is directly reflected in the governing of archdioceses and dioceses and whole jurisdictions in the Orthodox Church in our present era. This phenomenon, along with the trend toward a universal religion mentioned above, reminds us of a new Tower of Babel rather than an effort to realize an Ecumeni according to the image of the Christian Church.

Finally, we ask that this epistle of ours be read with reference to previous declarations and position papers of our- sacred archdiocese.

Brothers and sisters, we conclude our thoughts and advice with the exhortation that the ange1 in the Book of Revelation addressed to the faithful of the Church: “Hold fast to that which you have already until I come” (Rev.2:25).

With blessings and love in Christ,

Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

Bishop Varlaam Novakshonoff

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