Bishop Irenei of London: How He Proved the Moscow Patriarchate is Heterodox
- Subdeacon Nektarios, M.A.
- 18 hours ago
- 13 min read
Subdeacon Nektarios, M.A.
In a recent video published by Patristic Nectar Publications on their official YouTube channel, Bishop Irenei (Steenberg), the ROCOR-MP Bishop of London, gave a talk in a sixteen-minute video, “The Orthodox View of Ecumenism,” in which he gives a complete definition of what Ecumenism is. In the first ten minutes of the video, he goes into great academic detail defining the meaning of “ecumenical” in its strictest Orthodox sense, which, of course, has nothing to do with the most common understanding of Ecumenism today, in our times of post-patristic apostasy, where all of world Orthodoxy—including his very own Moscow Patriarchate—has adopted this pan-heresy.
In the remainder of the video, roughly six minutes, he goes into detail about the most common understanding of Ecumenism in its heretical sense, and states the following:
Ecumenism now is almost universally taken to relate to a phenomenon of the late 20th century, and really of the last century or two, which is fundamentally a Protestant understanding of ecclesiology. And to simplify this down to maybe its most bare-boned elements, this understanding is that the Church, in her singularity, in her unity, is something abstract, something that cannot be identified wholly or exclusively with any vision or version of the Church that one sees on earth. All of these might be part of “the Church,” which is a kind of umbrella that embraces all of these variations considering themselves to be Christian. But no single one of those can make that claim; rather, it is in the communion of the whole, of the whole household (that is how the term is used here), it is in that great communion of the whole in its diversity that “the Church” is disclosed.
Now, I hope that it goes without saying to Orthodox Christians that this is fundamentally incompatible with an understanding of the Church that we have received from the apostles and from those very councils called Ecumenical that we mentioned before. This is not to say that the people who subscribe to this are evil or bad. It is to say, however, that this is not a vision of the Church that any Orthodox person can embrace. When we confess, as we do in the creed—the product of these ecumenical councils—when we confess one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, this is not for us an abstracted idea that encompasses a large body of man-made institutions; this is a direct reference to the institution fashioned by the God-man, Jesus Christ, His Church, His body, which exists today as it has since He founded it amongst His apostles, by election and selection of those whom He ordains to be His apostles, their successors who are set apart to be His priest, His deacons, and all the other ranks of ministry within the Church.
This 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. We can see in them, of course, degrees of adherence to the gospel of Christ, to the commands of Christ, but the only way to become completely adherent to those commands of the Savior is to follow that which He instituted, and any departure from that is to a degree, to that degree, to depart from His teaching. So, for Orthodox people this understanding of ecumenism, that there are many different Christian faiths, which taken as a whole are “the Church,” this is not only incompatible, not only different, but is in fact wrong.
And indeed, on the surface of the triumph of Orthodoxy in hierarchical settings, that is to say, in a cathedral where a ruling bishop presides and serves the full rite of Orthodoxy, in the anathemas, the Church Abroad (ROCOR-MP) has added for some decades now an anathema against Ecumenism. That is to say, it is so completely contradictory to Orthodox teaching 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. But in the Anathema against Ecumenism, it specifically says that we are anathematizing those who believe that from the amalgamation of these many different churches, calling themselves Christian, there is something else, “the Church,” that is created; against this… anathema.
So I hope this answers the concern that many people have, which is why ecumenism, which on the one hand, seems a very friendly and kind way to interact with other Christian peoples, to dialogue, to speak, etc., all of that, of course, Orthodoxy has nothing against; not only that, there is an imperative by Christ Himself to speak in love to our brothers and sisters and to show them the truth. For us, ecumenical dialogue always means exactly and exclusively that: to speak about the truth of the one Church of Christ to others, to show them this light that we have so unworthily received. And yet when ecumenism is seen, as it so often is, as an enterprise beholding the Church as the creation of a mixture of what are fundamentally human interpretations of Christ’s gospel, this is something that we cannot, do not, and we will not accept [1].
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.
The question we must ask is: why does Bishop Irenei fill the entire video with ambiguous phraseology instead of being forthright in declaring that the Ecumenism he discusses is a heresy, and that those who practice, preach, or promulgate it are, in fact, heretics?
A critical analysis of the video suggests that the Moscow Patriarchate is the underlying cause. Bishop Irenei, as a member of the ROCOR-MP, ultimately falls under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, which is openly proud of its ecumenical activity.
The real issue we must focus on is not so much what Bishop Irenei says in his video—since even he acknowledges, albeit tacitly, that Ecumenism is heretical, likely avoiding the explicit term due to political repercussions from his own Patriarch—but rather this: if those who practice heretical Ecumenism thereby confess that the Church is, in fact, a conglomerate of churches in some form, then how exactly does Bishop Irenei remain in communion with a clearly heretical Patriarchate? By his own definition, they are “departing from the Church.”
To demonstrate that the Moscow Patriarchate has indeed departed from the Church based on the criteria Bishop Irenei laid out, we can examine historical facts, documents, and events that substantiate this truth. This leaves us with the question: if this is the case, why do Bishop Irenei and his entire synod continue to maintain their false union with this heretical body, thereby subjecting themselves to the synodal anathema of 1983?
In 1983, under the presidency of Saint Philaret of New York, the entire synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) adopted an anathema against Ecumenism—an anathema under which the majority of ROCOR effectively fell in 2007, when they united with the Moscow Patriarchate during the infamous false union signed by Patriarch Alexy II and Metropolitan Laurus. This anathema, which was never retracted (as if an anathema of heresy can ever be retracted), reads as follows:
Those who attack the Church of Christ by teaching that Christ’s Church is divided into so-called “branches” which differ in doctrine and way of life, or that the Church does not exist visibly, but will be formed in the future when all “branches” or sects or denominations, and even religions will be united into one body; and who do not distinguish the priesthood and mysteries of the Church from those of the heretics, but say that the baptism and eucharist of heretics is effectual for salvation; therefore, to those who knowingly have communion with these aforementioned heretics or who advocate, disseminate, or defend their new heresy of Ecumenism under the pretext of brotherly love or the supposed unification of separated Christians, Anathema! [3]
The Moscow Patriarchate, and now the ROCOR-MP itself, completely falls under the very anathema put forth by the Synod in 1983. Since 1961, the Moscow Patriarchate has been a member of the heretical World Council of Churches (WCC), an organization that, in its Constitution and Rules, states that all members must profess certain ecclesiological tenets in order to be admitted into the WCC—meaning that the Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate has officially adopted a heretical and foreign ecclesiology.
In the Constitution and Rules of the WCC, amended in Karlsruhe, Germany, in September 2022, the document states that the primary purpose of the fellowship of churches in the World Council of Churches is “to call one another to visible unity in one faith and in one Eucharistic fellowship, expressed in worship and common life in Christ, through witness and service to the world, and to advance towards that unity in order that the world may believe” [4]. Notably, a delegation from the Moscow Patriarchate, led by Metropolitan Antony of Volokolamsk of the Department for External Church Relations, was present at the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Karlsruhe [5].
