The article “The 1872 Council of Constantinople and Phyletism” by Rev. Fr. Stephane Bigham provides helpful background to the Council of 1872. Metropolitan Philip of the Antiochian Archdiocese has often raised this issue in the past, asking “Why is a heresy in 1872 no longer a heresy today?”
I think we would find with a careful study that the Council of 1872 was not very successful in putting down the heresy, and that there were many instances of ethno-phyletism being tolerated on a smaller scale prior to 1922. That means that this heresy may be close to surpassing iconoclasm as the longest running heresy in the history of the Orthodox Church – a dubious honor, to be sure.
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Greetings.. ! Seems annually, the term “Unity” gets paraded about: merely two things here to mention: 1.)Community..none w/out Integrity; none of that without Unity, and none of that without intimacy and none of that with ten centuries of nationalism ( and, ethnocentric thinking..); and, this unfixable because: 2.) A. Demterios announced a few yrs. ago ( to rejoice about !) that he believed Barak Obama was ” the next Alexander the Great !”.. nuts ? over medicated ? >or just terribly un-plugged from reality by any definition.. so what can we poor ignorant Laity do with such leadership..? Converts suffer from the condition of Christianity found upon deeper immersion into the family-ruled assemblies… no one at the top seems even remotely interested in the college -bound kids facing the devil professors… ( seems transcendentalism rules and the Horizonal axis vanishes.. why ? aloha Patrick S. Boulder
“Ethnophyletism” is a heresy recognized only by the Greeks, who seem to think they should rule the world. Well if they’re so against ethno-phyletism, why do they appoint mainly other Greeks, even to Middle Eastern (or Indian, etc.) bishoprics? Could it be because Greek Orthodoxy is a primarily a mafia, and only secondarily a religion? Hmmm, that would go far in explaining the 2008 scandal.
Not that the Russians are any better. (“Saint Putin” indeed.) Funny how Orthodoxy has zero credibility when it comes to ethics.
I’ve been attending Orthodox services for about four years. I have been a convert for two. People don’t realize how off-putting it can be when instead of being welcomed into the church, we are asked “Oh! Are you Greek?”. Every Greek church we go to (we’ve also visited Serbian, Rocor, Antiochian to name a few) we are asked what country we are from or if we’re Greek. When I say no, I’m Mexican, they say “Well, that’s ok. Greek is very close to Mexican, you know.” I have heard Council members state that they’d “…rather give food to a Greek man before any food is given to some homeless person.”
It’s disgusting! The only Orthodox churches nearby are Greek. Is this just a Greek thing? The other churches don’t treat us this way. Why is it so important? Why is being Greek more important than being Orthodox? I’ve gotten to a point to where I can honestly say that I love Orthodoxy, it’s the people I can’t stand.
Try an OCA parish (http://oca.org/parishes) or one of the Antiochian parishes that is particularly good in their missionary vocation – there are many! Focus on the faith, leave the junk to people who want it 🙂 Also, you might be refreshed by this talk by the late Met. Phillip of thrice blessed memory. http://audio.ancientfaith.com/specials/svs/metphilip.mp3
Hear hear! “Small ‘t’ ” tradition is important to a lot of folks as it’s been used for decades to try to keep parishes viable in many jurisdictions. But that sort of thing doesn’t actually have anything at all to do with your salvation, and for many who are in search of Truth and “Large ‘T ‘ ” (Holy Tradition), small “t” stuff actually gets in the way. Probably the people Mona B has encountered are indeed well-meaning, but let’s face it – they live in a bubble, and assume everyone else does too. So that’s why I felt it’s important to chime in and support the advice of “Orthodox Guy” — he’s exactly right. The OCA, and to perhaps an even greater extent, the Antiochians, are the most invested in “making a Church home for people who are searching” to find.
Ethno-phyleistm has been a great problem in the Greek Orthodox churches. I can’t deny it. Even though my mother was Greek, there were occasions in the past when I was rejected when parishioners found out I couldn’t speak Greek. It saddens me to read all of the comments of those who still encounter this attitude from the Orthodox they meet.
Fifteen years ago, when our suburban mission parish was given a priest, and the opportunity to build up a parish, I decided to fight that trend by greeting and making welcome every person who visited our church, and made a commitment to not ask if people were Greek, but to welcome them unconditionally. It was important to encourage everyone about being welcoming to new people. Today, our parish is so large I don’t know everyone. Today, I make the mistake of greeting people and finding out they’ve been coming to church for months, I’ve just never seen them before. Its a nice problem to have. When I apologize, the response is, “this parish is so welcoming.” We should be. We have a pearl of great price to share with the world.
Today, our parish is large, and it’s demography includes a percentage of Greeks, almost as many Syrians, a smattering of Russians, Romanians, Ethiopians, Indian Orthodox, and Mexicans. Fifty percent of our parish is now made up of American non-ethnic converts, and a small fraction of those are married to cradle Orthodox. Our Liturgy is chanted 90 to 95 percent in English because it is a language everyone knows regardless of their heritage. To be welcoming and inclusive, our priest incorporates key passages in Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Romanian on a randomly rotating basis. One of the most personal moments in our Liturgy is following the Lord’s Prayer in English, the prayer is prayed in turn by person or persons in their native language. For the congregation this action affirms the universality of Orthodox Christianity.
Not all parishes are married to their ethnicity, but those are tend to be the ones that have shrinking congregations. The future of our faith is in those parishes that embrace a missionary attitude; our Orthodox Christianity is the gift of God to all humanity — we should share it and welcome all who ‘come and see’.
Ethnophyletism is a general problem of the orthodox churches around the world, not just a problem in the US. Forgetting the biblical, patristic and spiritual basis of the Orthodox Church is an even worse problem and it has infected all orthodox churches around the world to varying degrees of intensity. What is needed: a spiritual clergy not acting as businessmen but honoring their calling and focusing on the spiritual and pastoral needs of the community. Another problem is the near abandonment of missionary spirit for all people near and far, in fact for the members of each community itself. Re-evangelization is most necessary. Globalization with the mixing of people of different backgrounds in the same place is a great challenge for the Orthodox Church in general.
Read it! Phyletism means only one thing: racism. The OCA mistranslates everything.
ethnophyletism is not unique to the Greek Orthodox Church. I, a convert of eight years who now attends the Greek Seminary in the US and am currently writing a Thesis on this subject, have encountered many things everyone has said about the Greek Church.
One comment here said only the Greeks condemned Ethnophyletism as Heresy in 1872. I must point out that, regarding that comment, the Council of 1872 is generally seen as one of the “Pan-Orthodox” Councils; more than one Church condemned this heresy. I would also like to point out that it is not just the Greek Churches that are ethnic. Here in America, we have a total of nine Orthodox Jurisdictions, “Independent” that being from one another, and each of them are very ethnic in so much as creating their ethnic enclave where they establish their churches. Neither of the nine jurisdictions are innocent of following the path the Bulgarians went in 1872. Furthermore, remember that in 1945, the Ecumenical Patriarchate recognized the Bulgarian Church and was restored in 1953, ending the “schism” that started in 1872. Since then, we have seen how the churches have continued establishing new jurisdictions worldwide as the Bulgarians did.
Across the world, we see the issue of what has happened since 1872. In Asia, we have two Patriarchates vying for claim over ecclesial territory that one claims over the other. In this instance, the Church is supposed to turn to the Canons of the Orthodox Church, with the Canonist of our Great Church informing us of the Canons and their meanings. While the Canons are meant to help guide the Earthly Church, at times, they are the dividing factor of the Church. This is the case for this instance. Each of the See’s of the Orthodox Church believes they have the proper authority to go beyond their ecclesial boundary as outlined and defined by the Canons of the Church. If we go even further, we can find a brand new form of ethnophyletism in one of the world’s biggest Orthodox Countries, Russia. Many of the Church Academics and Clergy members widely dispute this new form, but nonetheless, some have acknowledged that it exists today. This new form is Neo-Sergianism. I will admit I know very little of this “new heresy,” and I am still getting information on it, but I can agree that the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has entered into a new depth of Ethnophyletism.
Unfortunately, there may not be an immediate end to this issue, even here in the US, because the Church has accepted that this is how the Church must operate at this time. The way the Church in America is set up is based on the needs of the diaspora, which feeds into the ethnophyletism heresy. Once the diaspora issue is handled, perhaps the attempt to tackle the problem of ethnophyletism may be possible. However, this will not be done as long as each Orthodox Church worldwide denies that each has been using an ethnophyletism process to establish churches beyond their ecclesial boundaries.
Much more could be said, but as I stated earlier, I am still doing in-depth research with sources across all jurisdictions worldwide, not just one jurisdiction. In addition, as what was said early on, every Orthodox Church worldwide is guilty of falling into this heresy that is plaguing our Great Church.