THE ISOLATION OF ORTHODOXY By Bishop Brian Kennedy, O.S.B. To be Orthodox in this age means to walk the road less traveled and walk it alone as did our Lord Jesus Christ before us. "FOR ALL HAVE SINNED AND DO NEED THE GLORY OF GOD" (Romans 3:23- Douay-Rheims Version) That perfect sharing in God's glory, which escapes man today, will be ours in the eschatological future. (Romans 8:18, 21 and 30). Sin brings isolation from God and from the full communion with the Saints. Those who struggle for true Orthodoxy are isolated from others within the Church and from those outside the Church because they are a voice for the faith once delivered to the Saints which is counter cultural to the world and to those within the Church who feel the Church should conform to the world and the changing times. Those who struggle for true Orthodoxy claim the world must conform to the Church, not the Church conform to the world. In this age of Ecumenism, the mantra is "WE SEEK THE UNITY OF ALL CHRISTIANS". Holy Orthodoxy responds, all Christians are already united by one Faith, Order and Worship. Oneness is a mark of the Church, not something to be attained at a future date but something that marks the true Church established by Christ upon the Apostles. Those who do not have a sharing in this "oneness" do not have a sharing in the Church Catholic. Those who do not have the oneness of Faith, Order and Worship of the Church are not part of the Church and so are not Christians. The word Christ means anointed one and the term Christian means those who share in this anointing. This anointing is ours because of the shared Faith, Order and Worship that is ours by the action of the Holy Spirit. Some have the name Orthodox and others have the name Catholic without actually being part of the Church because they have rejected the true Christ for a Christ of their own invention. The modernist Orthodox Catholics and Roman Catholics have redefined Christian love into something that allows for error without correction. This new form of Christian "love" allows attacks on the Body of Christ by heretics, Schismatic and others to go unchallenged and unanswered. To defend the church in definite terms is now a vice, not a virtue. Those who defend the ancient teachings of the church are now said to be "unloving". Those who speak out and say the eternal truths of the faith are unchanging and to deny the faith, order and worship of the church means a person is outside the church is now cut off from the rest of the larger church because he is said to be too rigid, fundamentalist, traditionalist or provincial. When a pedophile is in parish work, any who force him out of parish work by warning the community and the larger church about the very real risk factor for our children is ostracized by even his own fellow clergy because it reflects poorly on the clerics who disregarded the danger and disregarded the teachings of the larger church. People have a tendency to disassociate themselves from any who raise their voice to correct a dangerous situation, correct a moral wrong or defend the church from all that could harm her. This is part of the heresy of Ecumenism and indifference which has a strangle hold on the larger church today.  A parish Priest who raises his voice will more often than not be silenced by his Bishop. A Bishop who speaks out against error will soon be cut off from his brother Bishops.  We saw this when the Bishops and Priests were divided over the issue of abortionist politicians receiving the Holy Eucharist. Hurting the feelings of another is now seen as a greater evil than child molestation; a greater evil than heresy and Schism; a greater evil than apostasy.  If a Bishop or Priest allows a pedophile in parish work, he SHOULD have his feelings hurt.  It is better he have hurt feelings than a child be the innocent victim of a pervert.  Today, many people will defend truth only if there is no consequence or negative impact on them or something they want to achieve. The truth of the church, the safety of children, the faith of people is not so important as to warrant a   confrontation.  Confrontation is to be avoided at all cost by most in the church today because they want to be seen as being "loving", "sensitive" and "Ecumenical". In their attempts to be loving, they deny the divine love that brought our salvation.  In their attempts to be sensitive, they disregard the needs of the people who depend on the church to be the "pillar of truth". In their haste to be Ecumenical, they deny the very eternal and unchanging truths they claim to serve. One religion is NOT as good as another. All religions are NOT a differing path to the same God and the same Heaven. THERE IS NO SALVATION OUTSIDE THE CHURCH. The heresy of Ecumenism has a strangle hold on the church today and is resulting in even more errors which flow from the putrid font of indifference and error. Being in union with a Patriarch or being part of a respectable "parish church" or Jurisdiction does not mean a Priest is Orthodox and Catholic. One only need to look at the many times in history when the larger church was in error to know that God raises up men to cry out from the wilderness of error with the truth.  We will also note these men are always rejected by the church until after the error can no longer be defended. Virtually all the Patriarchs subscribed to the heresy of Arianism, Monothelitism, phylitism, etc for an extended period of time. The Roman Papacy has been in schism from the larger church for well over a thousand years.  Today, the heresy of Ecumenism comes from Rome to the Orthodox with "love".  This heresy has a strangle hold on the larger church just as the other heresies did in the past. FEAR NOT !!God has again raised up Priests and Bishops who will be that voice for truth crying in the desert. These men also will be rejected by the larger church, they will be shunned by their fellow Priests and Bishops who want to appear "loving" and want acceptance from the unbelievers.  St. Athanasius is a classic case in point. St. Athanasius is the Patron Saint of the Church in Resistance because he was that voice who cried out against heresy and error and was rejected by the larger church. The church established by Christ is always rejected by the world because it does not have a shared vision with the world.  Those today who call themselves Orthodox or Catholic seek to be accepted by the world which means they reject the truth of the Gospel in order to be "loving" in the eyes of the world. CHRIST TOLD US TO EXPECT CONFRONTATION AND EVEN TO EMBRACE CONFRONTATION FOR THE SAKE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND THE SALVATION OF SOULS. Christ said, "But for these my enemies, who would not have me reign over them, bring them here and kill them before me." (Luke 19:27) Christ said, "No man cometh to the Father, but by me." (John 14:6) The modernist and Ecumenist  say if you are Hindu or Buddhist or Jews just be good Hindu, Buddhist or Jews and you will be saved and go to heaven. For these Modernist and Ecumenist who deny the Word of God, I pray that they may be blessed by the God in whose honor they will burn. The Word of God says, "Who is a liar but he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist who denieth the Father and the Son.  Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. He that confesseth the Son, hath the Father also." (1 John 2; 22-23) For the Modernist and Ecumenist who make a mockery of the Word of God by teaching universal salvation, I pray, may they be blest by the God in whose honor they will burn. IF YOU THINK CHRISTIAN "LOVE" MEANS LETTING EVIL PROSPER, LETTING WRONG DOING GO UNCHALLENGED AND SURRENDERING IN SILENCE WHEN THERE ARE ATTACKS ON THE CHURCH, THE TRUTH AND THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH, CONSIDER WHAT THE WORD OF GOD TELLS US: Christ said, "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Matt:10:34) Christ said, "Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division." (Luke 12:51) "And He said to them, "But now, let him who has a purse take it along, likewise also a bag and let him who has no sword sell his robe and buy one." (Luke 22:36) Christ said, "For I came to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter in law against her mother in law. and a man's enemies will be the members of his household." (Matt:10: 35,36) If you are a member of the clergy and speak the truth without wavering and challenge the sin in the world and in the church; if you embrace the challenge presented by those who attack the church, her clergy and the truth of Christ, you can expect to be silenced by your Bishop, or marginalized by your brother Bishops.  Your "enemies" will be those of your own household, namely the household of the church. You will die of frostbite because nobody will want anything to do with you. Nobody will stand with you, nobody will want to stand up and be counted and nobody will want to enter into anything that is unpleasant or may cost them some convenience or opportunity. Nobody will stand with you ---except Jesus Christ. I think that is enough.  God and you make a majority. If you live in a Monastery expect the other Monks to avoid you like you had a disease and try and disassociate themselves from you.  Don't let it bother you because they disassociate themselves from Christ at the same time. They have invented a Christ who is Ecumenical, but this is not the real Christ. They invented a Christ who avoids confrontation, but this is not the real Christ.   Christ is indeed the Prince of Peace, but peace must be based on truth.  Peace, in the Gospels, means more than just not fighting. Gospel peace brings a sense of healing based on the Holy Spirit and a wholeness based on truth. "In the Church God has placed apostles, prophets, teachers and every other working of the Spirit, of whom none of those are sharers who do not conform to the Church, but who defraud themselves of life by an evil mind and even worse way of acting. Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace." (Against Heresies 3:24:1 [A.D. 189] St. Irene’s Those who do not know the truth yet seek God with a pure heart will avoid hell but will never know anything more than a natural state of happiness on the other side. If we who have the truth do not teach them, or if we validate their errors by acceptance and silence we shall suffer for our sin. Clergy who will not stand up and support truth and the REAL Christ; those Priests and Bishops who shrink from confrontation will hear Christ say, "Be gone, I never knew you".