Synodal Anathema Against Name-Worship (Imiaslavie) Heresy
Updates Now Current on Parishes Page
December 7, 2014Repose of Hieroschemamonk Brendan
May 23, 2015December 18, 2014
In the past few years we here in North and South America have witnessed the beginning of an ongoing campaign to re-introduce a heresy against the Orthodox Faith that was fully condemned a century ago by Synodal decrees in the Synods of the Churches of both Greece and Russia.
Specifically, there have been individuals transversing these areas, some from foreign lands, and others that reside here, that have tried to ignore the condemnation of the Name-worshipping heresy that has been previously universally recognized as condemned by all Synods of the Holy Orthodox Church as a part of the Creed of Faith in Holy Orthodoxy. As these individuals have attempted to mislead many Orthodox Clergy and lay people by misquoting some of the Holy Fathers, or inventing false testimony to favor their heresy, which is based on an esoteric desire to be able to control the actions of our Creator (statements concerning which our Synodal headquarters has previously issued analytical documents exposing the deceptions and misinterpretations that were being attempted); now, having recently been informed by our brother, His Eminence Archbishop Porfyrios, that our sister Synod of Avlona under the omophor of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Angellos, has formally ratified in Synod the condemnation of Name-worshipping, our own Holy Synod, acting in formal session, has sadly felt it necessary to re-issue the following condemnation as an Anathema against these heretics, and to call upon all True-Believing Orthodox Christians to join with us in proclaiming with St. Photios the Great that we venerate the Name of God “not because it is by nature acclaimed as God,” (To Amphilokios, #90) and thus we join together to say:
To all them that teach that the Name of God is Uncreated, or to them that falsely claim that the Name of God is God, whether in His Essence or His Energies, or further claim that His Name is worthy of Divine Worship which should be Given to God alone, blurring the distinction between God and His creation subject to Him, and in contradiction to the teaching of the Church that God creates His Name, specifically, the heretical monk Ilarion, the monk Antony Bulatovich, the monk Gregory Lurie, and their followers and successors,
