The Pillar That Will Not Be Shaken

Repost from the Jordanville Holy Trinity Monastery and Seminary website.

Bright Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Ecumenists propose that heretics and schismatics who have separated themselves from the Church have somehow remained her members and that the Body has not been divided. However, it is forbidden according to the Holy Fathers to allow those outside the Church to receive the Mysteries. Any decision contrary to this is arbitrary and violates the vow made by clergy to preserve the Mysteries from profanation. Nonetheless Orthodox clergy are communing Monophysites (Coptic Orthodox and others) without previously separating them from their heresy and uniting them to the Church.

Actions and statements throughout the world continue which contradict the decisions  of the Holy Fathers defining the true unity of the Church. The ecumenical prayer performed in Iznik, Turkey on November 28th, 2025 by Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Monophysite and Protestant participants  is confusing for the faithful and mocks the boundaries of the Church set by the Fathers of the Ecumenical Councils. Recently in India, a greeting was sent to Monophysites by an Orthodox Patriarch supporting them by claiming that their heretical church is the same Church our Saviour spoke of when He said the gates of hell would not prevail against it. These and similar gatherings and statements only add to the confusion and scandal of the Faithful. Any attempt to clarify and defend the dogma of the Church is dismissed as “Romantic theology”.

We offer below a thoughtful essay in defense of the Orthodox position as encouragement for those who love the Truth and hunger and thirst for righteousness sake. 

+ Bishop Luke

Monophysite Heresies and Contemporary Apologetics (excerpt)

By NGT

Full article here.

The Church is from heaven while heresy is from the devil as proclaimed during the seventh council of Carthage in 258^[1]. The pernicious nature of heresy is so dangerous that it can be considered the greatest threat to the faithful, and as such, the Church has instituted canons and anathemas to protect them. Few things are as persistent and pernicious as truth mixed with lies, and the persistence of ancient heresies is evident, as the spiritual descendants of the heresiarchs still exist to this day. Setting aside the never-ending hydra of heresy that is Protestantism, of particular interest is the group of heretics historically known as Monophysites who proclaim one incarnate nature of Christ. With the rise of the ecumenist movement, all the historical enemies of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church have combined their powers in what appears to be the heresy to end all heresies: the destruction of the boundaries and all theological differences and the mingling of all confessions into one heretical body where no one agrees on anything except to not upset one another. This larger heresy is drawing in the faithful, and recent movements are attempting to claim that those of the Eastern Orthodox Church (Chalcedonian) are the same as Monophysites (non-Chalcedonians). Because of some similar practices such as having a liturgical form of worship, priesthood, sacraments, and iconography, these two groups that have been at odds for over fifteen hundred years are claimed to be one and the same. The orthodox confessions of the church fathers, the witness of the martyrs, the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils, and the anathemas are ignored all for the sake of a false union with heretics whose Christology, soteriology, anthropology, theology, and metaphysics are all different. . . .

Read the rest here...