Dear in Christ _________,
I apologize for the extended delay in my response to your letter. In it you ask several questions motivated by the information you received from my spiritual son Ignatios that the Orthodox hold the practice of freemasonry to be incompatible with the Orthodox faith, and given the self-understanding of the Church, in broader phrasing, incompatible with Christianity.
I would refer you to the 1932 statement of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. There are many statements which have recounted the reasons why an Orthodox Christian (or any “Christian”) can practice freemasonry.
Freemasonry is a secret society that is inherently mystagogical and that engages in ritual and prayer of a sort toward an ultimate end. It even utilizes an altar and books of ritual. That is, it bears the same marks as any other mystagogical religion and is particularly arranged in imitation of (and as we will see with the goal of replacement of) the altars of other sacrificial religions, including Holy Orthodoxy.
Freemasonry is unabashedly syncretistic and obfuscates its ultimate end by so called neutrality between the faiths of its members. Consider these statements:
“Masonry around whose altars the Christian, the Hebrew, the Moslem, the Brahman [Hindu], the followers of Confucius and Zoroaster, can assemble as brethren and unite in prayer…” (Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (Charleston, SC, The Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United Stated, 1906), pg. 226.)
This is pure syncretism. It recognizes other gods apart from the Christian God to be an acceptable object of prayer. It is one of two things – a false Union, as the non-Christians are certainly not united with us in Christ, or more troubling, a belief that there is a union outside of Christ that is acceptable for prayer. No Christian can confess this to be true without at the same time denying the Oneness of God and the unique, salvific work of His Son and the temporal action of the Holy Spirit.
Or as Henry Pirtle wrote more recently, “Masonry makes no profession of Christianity… but looks forward to the time when the labor of our ancient brethren shall be symbolized by the erection of a spiritual temple… in which there shall be but one altar and one worship; one common altar of Masonry on which the Veda, Shastras, Sade, Zend-Avesta, Koran, and Holy Bible shall lie untouched by sacrilegious hands, and at whose shrine the Hindoo, the Persian, the Assyrian, The Chaldean, The Egyptian, the Chinese, The Mohammedan, the Jew, and the Christian may kneel and with one united voice celebrate the praises of the Supreme Architech of the Universe.” This, again is the definition of syncretism.
Further, I would note that the “ritual” and “progress” of the mason toward advancement, acquisition of secret knowledge and personal development is antithetical to Christian belief. As the Church of Greece rightly said “It is not lawful to belong at the same time to Christ and to search for redemption and moral perfection outside Him.” Either our perfection is in and through Christ or it is not. Those who find other sources do not confess the Christian faith.
Now I expect this is not what you wanted to hear, but it is important that it is said, as modernists often will brush over difference in the name of peacefulness, even if the result is the loss of a soul. And this is important because of your specific questions. Let me quote them fully so that I may fairly answer them:
- Is it considered heretical to use the someone’s holy book, other than the Holy Bible, on the Masonic altar during initiation only, if the intention is to honor the candidate’s faith and ensure the solemnity of their oaths?
This question is asked in light of earlier thoughts you conveyed such as “these practices are not intended to suggest that all religions are the same or that they hold equal truth. Rather, they serve a symbolic purpose . . . emphasizing the importance of the candidate’s own faith and ensuring that their obligations are made solemnly and sincerely.”
The oaths and obligations of a Mason are anathema to a Christian. As Christ said “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” And again, “whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” I have spoken with many, many Masons, and almost to a one, they could not conceive of laying aside their Masonic faith to solely follow Christ. Many of them end of seeking instead, only that expression of “Christianity” that permits them to practice their Masonry. Lay that decision process up against the scripture and you will see how such a quest offends what Christ asks of us.
_____, there is literally nothing in this world that should be solemnly sealed, promised or obligated other than our following of Christ. That the masonic system imposes obligations and seals them via “holy” books of other faiths demonstrates again that no Christian can affirm such a practice, as the oath-giver makes promises to his masonic brethren in the names of other gods.
- How can we acknowledge the sincerity of others’ faiths without compromising our own beliefs, especially when engaging in interfaith dialogues?
We can acknowledge that others have sincere beliefs without participating in ritualistic honoring of those beliefs. A Christian understands that while the uncircumscribable God has the power to save who He wilt, there is but one means by which the economy of our salvation has been prepared for us, which is through faith in Jesus Christ and participation in His Body, which is the Church. True Christian love requires us to pray for and seek the conversion of all to Christ for their salvation. It is not love to “honor” the desire of a friend to dangle on the edge of the pit. Would we be loving if we watched someone fall to their end, never even trying to help them? Or, in our silence, would we be complicit in their demise? One does not have to be confrontational or disrespectful to affirm Christianity as the True Faith and the Christian God as the One, True God. If one wishes to engage in interfaith dialogues, I commend to you the New Testament account of Paul preaching to the Aeropogites, where he commends their faith and then proceeds to explain how the God they seek is the Christian God.
- What steps can we take to promote dialogue and understanding between Freemasons and members of the Eastern Orthodox Church, particularly in areas of shared values and ethical principles?
This question is odd because it treats freemasonry as its own religion. Because if it is not, there is nothing to dialogue about. If it is a simple social club, then the Church speaks to its own faithful regarding the impermissibility of masonic practices, and the person outside the Church, mason or not, who wishes to enter into the body of Christ must do so as the Church prescribes. The role of the Orthodox Church in discussions with those not of the faith is to proclaim the faith. Even when other faiths share similar moral beliefs or practices, the business of the Church is the salvation of sinners (i.e. mankind). That does not come by affirming error or false gods. Again, we do not have to be disrespectful or unkind, but we also do not compromise or water down the Truth, which is Christ. Which is why, in love, I affirm to you what Ignatios earlier conveyed, that the Church holds membership in masonic societies to be fundamentally incompatible with Christian belief.
I pray you receive this message in the spirit in which it is offered, which is, on the one hand, to forthrightly and without obfuscation set forth the Orthodox position on the practice of freemasonry, and on the other, for the edification of those who may read it, in that I, and the Church desire the salvation of mankind, the means of which has been given to us, not in the temples of man, but in the Church which Christ left to his disciples and over which he maintains headship.
May God be ever merciful to you and to all of us.
In Christ,
the unworthy Abp. Irineos
