The work of the “32nd Pan-Orthodox Conference of Authorized Orthodox Churches and Sacred Metropolises on matters of Heresies and Para-religion” began yesterday, October 22.
The theme of the Conference will be “Aspects of the mystery of iniquity. Αnti-Trinitarian – Occult – Neopagan beliefs about God.”
In his message, the Archbishop of Athens and all Greece emphasized, among other things, that “anti-Trinitarian – occult and neo-pagan beliefs about God constitute a deadly spiritual and existential danger, as any acceptance of an anti-Christian or heretic stand on God contributes to the exit of our errant fellow human from the ecclesiastical body. ”
The President of the Synodal Committee on heresies, Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus and the Metropolitans Seraphim of Kythera and Antikythera, Damaskinos of Kydonia and Apokoronas (Ecumenical Patriarchate), Emmanouel of Ptolemais (Patriarchate of Alexandria), Dimitrios of Lydda (Patriarchate of Jerusalem), Seraphim of Nevrokop (Patriarchate of Bulgaria), and Bishop Stephanos of Stratonikia, attended the inaugural ceremony.
Also representatives of the Orthodox Churches of Serbia and Cyprus.
The first presentation at the conference was that of Metropolitan Damaskinos of Kydonia and Apokoronas, who emphasized that: “The basic teachings of the New Age perceptions of God are: a) There is no personal God but impersonal living energy of the universe, b) Completion depends solely on realizing the divine nature of man himself. Thus, the place of faith is taken by knowledge (self-knowledge), and actually occult knowledge; it is replaced by meditation, yoga, in a successive cycle of reincarnations that only cause pain and sorrow.”
The proceedings of the Conference continue today, October 23, 2019.
