RESOLUTIONS OF THE 27TH PAN-ORTHODOX CONFERENCE OF AUTHORIZED ORTHODOX CHURCHES AND SACRED METROPOLISES ON MATTERS OF HERESIES AND PARA-RELIGION
1. The Conference established that there has been an overwhelming spread of occultism in our time. Occultism is a faith in occult realities, entities and powers that are accessed through occult techniques. This is an ancient and polymorphous system, with an entirely anthropocentric character and demonically motivated, throughout time; it alienates mankind from its true destination - which is its deification (theosis) by Grace – giving it instead the illusion of self-deification.
2. Contemporary Occultism presents itself in the forms of Neo-Satanism, multifarious Sorcery, Spiritualism, Channelling, Esotericism, Kabbalah, Divination (Necromancy, Coffee Readings, Augury, Oneiromancy, cledomancy, Tarot Cards), Astrology, Shamanism, Pseudo-angelology, Angel-therapy, Reiki, Neo-paganism, Arithmosophy, the Deunov movement, UFOlogy and many other forms of Occultism – all belonging to the more general “New Age” current.
3. The existence, the identity and the techniques of Occultism’s basic forms are already recorded in the Holy Bible. In there, one can see a clear distinction between the genuine, Holy Spiritual charismas of the Church and the fraudulent – the demonic ones, which are apparent in Occultism throughout time. Jesus Christ had come into the world in order to destroy the domain and the works of Satan. Prophesied in the Holy Bible is the hope-filled, eschatological event of mankind’s salvation as well as the elimination of all the powers of darkness.
4. Those most vulnerable to the effects of Occultism are our young. The chief reasons that our youngsters are influenced by the various forms of Occultism are: the particular characteristics of the younger age groups, especially of puberty; a deficient Orthodox catechesis; the inadequacy and the crisis evident within the family; education’s erroneous objectives and its de-Christianization; the absence of meaning in the youngsters’ lives and their quest for it in spiritually dangerous areas; the systematic brainwashing through printed material, games and the electronic mass media (television, internet e.a.), as well as the worrying dependence on these. The “Harry Potter” phenomenon is a characteristic case of Occultism’s penetration into the age groups of children and teenagers.
5. The Conference preoccupied itself assiduously with the more serious forms of contemporary Occultism. A widely prevalent form of Occultism is Astrology, which seeks to project itself as a science and which exerts an impressive fascination on the modern-day, secularized person. It isolates him from God’s Providence, it chains him to fatalistic perceptions with their false predictions, thus holding him captive to deceptive “astral powers” which in actual fact are demonic ones. The modern science of Astronomy has clearly separated its stance towards Astrology and has declared it to be a pseudo-science.
6. Neo-paganism is one of the more robust channels of New Age Occultism, which projects and establishes its beliefs on the supposed return to the glory of pre-Christian antiquity.
However, these beliefs are but a few of the modern religious forms of the New Age’s occultist nexus, which have been structured with elements of ancient idolatry.
7. Modern-day, pseudo-angelology has absolutely nothing to do with the ecclesiastic teaching that pertains to the holy Angels. Both in regard to the prerequisites, as well as in regard to its content, it has a definite anti-Christian, syncretistic and occultist content.
It is a combination of exo-Christian, Christian, esoteric, Judaic and Islamic elements, which, in several areas is strongly reminiscent of ancient Gnosticism’s characteristics, and which clearly bear the New Age seal.
8. A characteristic form of Occultism is so-called “channeling” – clearly a New-Age practice, which converts any person involved in it into a “channeler”, who – according to the words of its representatives – becomes “energy-attuned” with spirits, so that he/she is enabled to “channel” messages and instructions from supposed “luminous entities” (angels, teachers, extraterrestrials, and the like). The manner that this technique is implemented makes us certain that it is a dangerous occultist technique, which “opens up” communication channels with unclean spirits. Moreover, in the Orthodox Tradition no such “techniques” exist, for communicating with the Triune God, His Angels and His Saints.
9. For the Orthodox Church, the occult realities and powers that Occultism relates to in all of its forms are clearly demonic, as are their techniques.
The consequences of preoccupation with Occultism are unpredictable and extremely severe, both for the health of the soul and of the spirit of those involved, as well as for their physical health, given that in recent years it is being used in the “therapeutic methods” of the so-called “alternative-energy therapies”, but has also been striving to infiltrate sectors of classical medicine and of mental health. Consequently, whosoever involves himself in any way with such occult realities, powers and techniques is voluntarily excising himself from the Body of the Church and subjugating himself to demonic powers.
10. Similar phenomena are unfortunately being encountered in isolated persons and groups that are active in the space of Orthodoxy, as, for example, are certain so-called “enlightened” women and “visionaries”. They are also encountered in the assorted ranks of schismatic Old Calendarists who are active both in Greece and in other countries, with practices that seriously deviate from the Orthodox Tradition.
Given the above, vigilance and awareness - with all the means available to the Church - should be provided for the faithful populace, as a coordinated attempt to adulterate the Orthodox conscience is fully under way. Besides, as already pointed out, Occultism and the newly appearing heresies are not aiming at luring the faithful out of the Church, but rather at keeping them inside the Church, with a distorted Orthodox conscience.
The Convention has unanimously approved the above mentioned Resolutions and hereby authorizes its Chairman to undersign them.
The Chairman of the Convention:
† Metropolitan Paul of Glyfada, Hellenikon, Voula, Vouliagmeni and Vari.
The Authorized representatives of the Orthodox Churches:
The Ecumenical Patriarchate: Metropolitan Damascenos of Kydonia and Apokoronas
The Patriarchate of Alexandria: Metropolitan Emmanuel of Ptolemais
The Patriarchate of Jerusalem: Archibishop Demetrios of Lydda
The Patriarchate of Russia: Hegumen Feofan Lukianov
The Patriarchate of Serbia: Hieromonk Eusebius Meandzia
The Patriarchate of Rumania: Professor Cyprianos Stretza
The Patriarchate of Bulgaria: Metropolitan Seraphim of Nevrokopion
The Church of Cyprus: Protopresbyter Demetrios Kostopoulos
The Church of Greece: Protopresbyter Kyriakos Tsouros
The Church of Poland: Protopresbyter Andreas Levcak
The Host of the Convention: Metropolitan Dionysios of Corinthos
The Chairman of the Convention:
† Metropolitan Paul of Glyfada, Hellenikon, Voula, Vouliagmeni and Vari.
Translation by A.N.
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