Greek Archdiocese Parish Spnosors Ecumenical Event on Islam

On May 16th to May 17th, 2014, St. Paul Greek Orthodox Church in Irvine, California will sponsor, in cooperation with the ecumenical organization the Society of St. John Chrysostom (primarily a Uniate body), a conference entitled  “Islam and Christianity: A Christian Perspective”.  The event will be held in the general Phanar ecumenist fashion with Roman Catholics, liberal Lutherans, and a Uniate Society thrown in.  Undoubtedly, in true Ecumenical Patriarchate fashion the event will be another trans-religious event endorsing Islam as a ‘brother religion’ and Muslims as our ‘brothers and sisters’. It has become the general policy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to bless the demonic Islamic fast of Ramadan, to celebrate Ifta dinners, as well as for the Ecumenical Patriarchate to give long speeches lauding Islam and giving gifts of golden Qu’rans, which he describes as the ‘holy book of our brothers and sisters the Muslims‘, for State New Calendar Church bishops to give Qu’rans as gifts.

The Traditional Orthodox position has not been to laud anti-Christian religions; indeed, St. John Damascene’s views are no longer welcome by the Ecumenical Patriarchate anymore. Indeed, Patriarch Bartholomew, while speeking at an inter-religious conferences, say he eschews Islamic and Orthodox theological debate;  while he claims this supposedly is not ‘indifference to faith’ he also states that the old methods employed by Fathers and Saints like John Damascene are indeed no longer welcomed by him, saying, “This has resulted in an increase in apologetic works, works whereby the superiority of one religion’s claim to truth is set over and against the other’s. In cases like these, the discussion highlights oppositions and differences, and does not lead to peaceful mutual understanding, but rather to mere logical argumentation.”

Patriarch Bartholomew and others, who constantly harass and attack True Orthodoxy (even starving to death monks on Mt. Athos and ordering their beating by Greek police) create false dichotomies.  Their attempt at emotionalizing and softening heresies is contrasted by their fierce violence and hatred they show to those few who resist them.