Q: God is One


Yes, God is One and the Church of God is one, and that is why we say in the Symbol of Faith [that we believe] "in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church". This is the Orthodox Church, there do not exist many Churches.


Q: Isn't it egotistic, to regard that it is "only us"?


It is not egotistic. When, for example, you say that "Italians aren't Greek" - which is a truth - you do not offend the other. By saying to the other that it doesn't matter that you are Catholic and that we all belong to the same Church, I am playing with him [or mocking him] since all of the Holy Fathers teach that the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ is one.

Q: Why is that one Church ours, and not the Papist one?


Because the Orthodox Church preserves the faith of the Apostles and the experience of the prophets unshakeable up until our own days. The Papists, unfortunately, from the time when they were cut off from the Church added many heretic dogmas to their [confession of] faith, changed the Symbol of Faith [the Nicene Creed] and above all elevated the Pope to the level of being the eminent and unique representative of God on earth. They claim that the Pope is infallible, and that whoever has no communion with the Pope has no communion with God. They teach these things officially, from within their Synods.

When you add things to the Symbol of Faith that the Holy Fathers did not write, and many other false teachings, this is heresy. This is the reality of things.

Q: How does the Orthodox Church encounter/deal with heretics?

With much love. We love the Pope, we love the papists just as we love every person; we do not despise them, we do not reject them as persons, but we do not accept [their] heresy, we do not accept the false teachings, we do not accept [their] delusions. It is because we love them that we must tell them the truth.

Q: Of course each one has his own truth...

That is why the dialogue takes place - to prove on the basis of historical sources which Church has preserved the apostolic faith and the apostolic experience of the Saints.

>>>To be continued