Library › Eastern Patriarchs › Letters concerning the Establishment of the Holy Synod (1723)
Letters concerning the Establishment of the Holy Synod (1723)
Eastern Patriarchs, tr. King, 1865
Epistle of the Most Holy Patriarchs of the Catholic Eastern Church, concerning the…
The most holy and Œcumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, New Rome, Jeremiah:
The most blessed Patriarch of the city of God, Antioch, Athanasius:
The most blessed Patriarch of the holy city Jerusalem, Chrysanthus, and the most sacred high-priests present, that is, Archbishops, Bishops, and the body of all the Christian, Eastern, and Orthodox Clergy, to the most reverend Archbishops and Bishops in Great Britain, and to the most reverend clergy with them, longed for in Christ, (send) brotherly salutations in the Holy Ghost, and (wish you) every good that is from God and which is saving.
Your unanswered letter, in form of a little book, in answer to the answers previously sent by us, we have received, from which having learned your good health and the zeal which you have, and reverence for our Eastern Holy Church of Christ, we rejoiced not a little, accepting as reasonable your reverential gratitude, and the readiness and willingness which you have for the union of the Churches, which union is the support of the faithful, and with which Jesus Christ our Lord and God is well pleased, who also gave to his sacred disciples and apostles, as a proof of their fellowship with him, love to each other, concord and unanimity. We, therefore, according to your request, answer you in brief, and say, that having perused with care the things again written by you, we have understood the meaning of the things written, concerning which we have nothing else to say, except the opinion and sentiment of our Eastern Church, previously made known by us to you; and the same also we say again in answer to all the propositions sent by you to us, that is, that our dogmas, and the opinion of our Eastern Church were formerly examined, and were rightly and piously ordained and commanded by the Holy and Œcumenical Councils, and that it is not permitted to add any other thing to them, or at all to take away from them; and for those, who wish to agree with us in the divine dogmas of the orthodox faith, it is necessary to follow and be subject to the things ordained and commanded by the order delivered by ancient tradition and the tradition of the fathers, and by the Holy and Œcumenical Councils, from the time of the Apostles and of the Inspired Fathers of our Church down to the present time, with simplicity and obedience, and without any other examination or intermeddling. And such answers suffice with regard to the things written by you. But for more full and incontrovertible information, we send to you more at large the exposition of the orthodox faith of our Oriental Church, as contained in that drawn up many years since, with much deliberation, by the so-called Jerusalem Council, in the year of salvation 1672, which was afterward printed in Greek and Latin in Paris, in the year 1675, and it is probable that it may be found there and with you; and from that you may know and understand indubitably the pious and orthodox sentiment of our Eastern Church; and if you consent to, and are satisfied with these things believed by us, you will be altogether one with us, and there will be no difference between us. And as to other customs and orders of the Churches and the right arrangement of the sacred rites and the liturgy, the correction of these will be without trouble and easy, when once the union with God’s help shall be made, since, as is manifest from ecclesiastical historical books, that customs and certain orders have been and are changed in different places and churches; but the unity of the faith, and agreement in sentiment with regard to dogmas remains the same. And may God, the overseer and guardian of all, who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, (1 Timothy 2: 4,) grant that the judgment and decision concerning these may be according to his divine will, for the benefit of the soul and salvation.
The things believed and entertained by the Eastern Orthodox Christians, are the following: