Petar Gramatikov

The bishops of the East were provoked by the term "one in essence" (omousios) defined in Nicaea, as many of them saw in it a revival of the heresy of Sabelius. It is most probable that many of those who took part in the Council of the Eastern Party in Philippopolis had previously participated in the Council of the Sanctification in Antioch in 341, and in Sozomen we find several familiar names: Not only Eusebius took part in this council, who after Paul's expulsion was transferred from Nicomedia to Constantinople, but also .... Theodore of Heraclius (formerly called Perintus) .... and many others ruling the Metropolitan Churches or no less important. "

The Eastern bishops, supporters of the semi-Arian party, most of whom were members of the Council of Philippopolis in 343 with the subsequent supreme ecclesiastical forums, express precisely the pre-Nicene conservatism hostile to the term "omousios," an innovation included in the Creed. the Ecumenical Council. This is one of the main reasons and explanations for the high intensity of church councils in the IV century due to the many anti-Trinitarian heresies and false teachings, in particular the teachings of Arius and his derivatives. Heresies seem to be multiplying, which in turn multiplies the convening of pro and contra fairs, each of them.

The church sees a lack of abstinence in remarriage. This defect also affects the person with whom you marry. That is why this rule protects the shepherd from such a reflection and does not allow those who are married to a widow or who have left (divorced) to be accepted in the sacred hierarchy. There was a similar law in the Old Testament church - Judith 16: 22-23: "She was longed for, but the man did not know her until the end of her days, from the day her husband Manasseh died.

As a God-man organism, the Church of Christ evolved according to the historical epoch of codification of individual rules, which right has always belonged to the conciliar conscience of the episcopal college on dogmatic or administrative problems and the adoption of new models in canonical practice.

Careful exegesis may seek to see whether the apostle, with the precept of monogamy, forbids any other kind of marriage or only certain kinds of existing marital practices. In addition to monogamy, the following 6 types of attitudes towards marriage are possible: 1) virginity; 2) celibacy after the first divorce; 3) widowhood after the death of the first wife; 4) simultaneous digamy or polygamy, ie. marriage to two or more women at the same time; 5) digamy or polygamy not in its own sense, ie. concubinage, violation of the purity of married life; 6) consistent digamy or polygamy, ie. marriage after the loss of one or more wives, regardless of the cause of the divorce (death, divorce).

Breastfed with the pure Orthodox faith, Wulfila bishop of the Goths (student of Ep. Sophilus Gothic, participant in the First Ecumenical Council) accepted the personal invitation of Emperor Theodosius

Christians are obliged to convey the message of God's salvation in Jesus Christ to every person and to every nation. They testify in the context of their neighbors, who live according to other religious beliefs and ideological views. True witness follows Christ in respecting and acknowledging the uniqueness and freedom of others. We must admit that as Christians we have often looked for the worst in others and given a negative assessment of their religions. May we, as Christians, learn to witness to our neighbors in a spirit of humility and joy.

The author of this text himself St. Archbishop John (Maximovich) of Shanghai Miracle Worker (+1966) was canonized a saint on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Orthodoxy in America in 1994 and his memory is celebrated on July 2 in all Orthodox Sisters-Churches. The text we offer here is from his report to the Council of Bishops in 1950.

Cappadocia has been a Christian territory for sixteen centuries. In this land one finds that dreamy intimacy of the Byzantine church, the supernatural atmosphere which the Fathers of the Orthodox Church, like Gregory of Nazianzus, wished to see realized in the sanctuary. St. Gregory bequeathed us 244 letters / epistles (Greek Patrology, volume 37), which, like most of his verses, we date to the period of his withdrawal from Arians between 383 and 389. But the two epistles to Presbyterian Cledonius (CI and CII) were written in 382 and were directed against the heresy of the Apollinarians (cf. J. Mossey, Gregoire de Nazianze, - Dictionaire d ”Histoire et de Geographie Ecclesiastique, Fascicule 126, 1987, col. 17-18). A deliberate local church council was convened against Apollinarianism in Rome in 382, ​​in which he took an active part and blah. Jerome. Together with letter CCII (202), they compiled the three "Theological Messages" of the saint, which were thoroughly studied by P. Gallay of the Institute of Scientific-Critical Publishing "Christian Sources" in Paris.

In human society, freedom does not consist in the ability to do whatever you like, it would be an extreme disorder in the State, which would turn into oppression. But it consists in the possibility, thanks to civil laws, to live according to the precepts of eternal law. For those who rule, freedom is not to be able to command indiscriminately and on their whims. This would be criminal for the Church and very harmful for the State. The power of human laws must be such that it is seen as an application of the eternal law, and nothing is decreed that is not contained in the divine law, which is the source of all law - ecclesiastical or state. Very wise bl. Augustine wrote: "I believe that you see well that that civil law has nothing just and lawful that men have not drawn from this eternal law" (On Free Will, Book I, Chapter IV, No. 15).