The schism of Athos

The schism of Athos

There is currently an internal rift in the monastic community of Athos that impedes its normal functioning and jeopardizes its smooth transition in the new world that is unfolding around us, In this forum we will attempt to identify the sources of danger, present the facts objectively and discuss the impact they have on the survival of the Holy mountain. We eagerly solicit participation.

In a nutshell, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, to whose jurisdiction Athos belongs, and the Greek Orthodox Church of America, have been waging a war against Orthodoxy as defined by ecclesiastical books and the monastic community of Athos. Briefly, the motive for this war appears to be US governments who at the advice of social scientists consider religious groups sources of local conflict and impediments to democracy. These advisors have been educated in the social and political science and are notoriously uneducated as regards science. Consequently they ignore human behavioral laws that have emerged from biological sciences.

It should be noted that the Ecumenical Patriarchate is vulnerable to US Government wishes because of its precarious physical location which is Turkish Istanbul.

The present article would have been deficient were we to omit mentioning the Patriarch's unusually close connections to Jewish religious and academic institutions, and his support of political decisions of Israeli Government. In this regard, the Ecumenical Patriarch is unique among Eastern Orthodox Patriarchs.

The disastrous results of operations on local groups, religious or not, we have seen globally. Mount Athos is another instance of local intervention. Against the will and faith of Athonite monks, they have been demolishing all that Athos has stood for over the last one-thousand years. With the exception of four monasteries that have connections with the west, all monasteries (16) and the majority of monks living in smaller units and individual dwelling have been resisting for decades now, despite the fact that many of them have been persecuted, prosecuted, physically punished and expelled from the Holy mountain. All of this in the name of, ironically, religious tolerance.