Bishop Irenei of London: How He Proved the Moscow Patriarchate is Heterodox
…Bishop Irenei of London, a qualified academic with both graduate and doctoral degrees in Patristics, rightly defines Ecumenism as a twentieth-century Protestant innovation—one that claims “the Church” consists not only of the one true Church but also of a conglomerate of so-called Christian denominations. However, what is concerning is that, precisely because Bishop Irenei is so knowledgeable and well-qualified in this very subject matter, his video raises serious questions.
What is most concerning in the video is that, throughout his talk, Bishop Irenei carefully avoids describing Ecumenism for what it truly is: a heresy. He states that “the institution that we see, this concrete reality of this hierarchical faith, this is the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, and things which differ from this are, by virtue of that difference, departing from the Church” [2]. Yet he stops short of explicitly calling Ecumenism a heresy or labeling those who promote and practice it as heretics. Instead, he says, “this is not to say that the people who subscribe to this are evil or bad,” but describes Ecumenism as something “completely contradictory to Orthodox teaching,” adding that it “needs to be held up, annually, as something beyond which Christians are not able to go—in that area, beyond which Christians are not able to go,” referring here to the Anathemas of the Sunday of Orthodoxy.
