The second day of the meeting of the Standing Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, chaired by Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens, has ended.
During the meeting, the Standing Holy Synod was informed of the letter of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew regarding the issue of the common course in dealing with the controversial positions over the Holy Communion and expressed its consistency with the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Also, the Synod on the occasion of the establishment during the colonavirus period “of the technique of yoga” as a way to deal with stress,” and in the context of respect for religious freedom guaranteed in our country, but also of the pastoral responsibility of the Church for avoiding creating a climate of religious syncretism, it reminds the Orthodox that “Yoga” is a fundamental chapter in the religion of Hinduism, and is not a “kind of exercise.”
Therefore, the SHS “points out once again that ‘Yoga’ is completely incompatible with our Orthodox Faith and has no place in the lives of Christians.”
The Synod also decided to introduce in a circular to the priests and archpriests of the Church of Greece, to abstain from any event organized by the organizations Rotary and Lions, because they are not only limited to social events, but also extend to religious acts, since they have a typical rite of passage for new members and determine a prayer that is addressed unsectarianly to a god, in the general sense of the word and not according to our Orthodox Faith.
Finally, it informs the Orthodox Clergy about the new proselytizing activity of the neo-Protestant organization “Hellenic Missionary Union”, and points out that “the Orthodox as members of the Church, of the one and only Body of Christ, do not need various neo-heretical movements, nor their various preachers from within or outside Greece, and remain faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it was originally delivered by the holy Evangelists and interpreted by the Holy Fathers of our Church”.