Go East, Young Man

My laptop, from which I work on this blog, has … died. Glory to God, I’m glad others are still sending me things! The following is from Fr Josiah Trenham.

In the light of statements that are so regularly being published through the various “Orthodox-Roman Catholic Consultations” both nationally and internationally that seek to downplay the dogmatic differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism here is an informative quote on the filioque heresy from the pen of St. Photios, the Pillar of Orthodoxy:

It has come to our ears that some of those who live in the West, either because they have not been fully satisfied with the Lord’s utterance, or because they have no understanding of the definitions and dogmas of both the Fathers and synods, or because they overlook the precisions therefrom, or because they have minds that are insensible to such matters, not knowing how else one would state it; nevertheless, surreptitiously introduce the teaching (would that they had not) that the Divine and all-Holy Spirit proceeds not only from God, that is, the Father, but also from the Son, and through such an utterance produce extensive harm to those who believe it.

— St. Photios, Patriarch of Constantinople and Pillar of Orthodoxy — Letter to the Metropolitan Of Aquileia, 9th century.