Archpastoral Condemnation of the Ecumenist Meeting at Assisi

Archpastoral Condemnation of the Ecumenist Meeting at Assisi:

The Demonic Spirit of Apostasy in Service of Antichrist’s Global Religion

From October 25 to 27, 2026, a new inter-religious ecumenical gathering called 'Armed and Disarming Peace' was held in the Italian city of Assisi, organized by the papist progressive community 'Sant' Egidio.' Under the guise of false philanthropy and hypocritical prayers for world peace, this anti-christian assembly brought together 384 religious representatives from 53 countries across 24 thematic forums. At the same venue, participating in joint ritual activities, were papist cardinals, Orthodox bishops, Protestant pastors and bishopesses, Jewish rabbis, Muslim muftis, as well as open pagan idol worshippers — Buddhist monks, Shinto priests, Hindu gurus, and representatives of other denominations and religions. The occasion for this ecumenical gathering was a jubilee — the 40th anniversary of the first such syncretistic inter-religious assembly in Assisi, which was launched in 1986 by Pope John Paul II.

As a bishop of the Serbian True Orthodox Church, standing before the Orthodox people, I raise my voice and pronounce the strongest condemnation of this godless gathering. What the organizers and the world media call the 'Spirit of Assisi,' we call by its true name: it is the demonic spirit of Assisi, the spirit of lies and deception that promotes syncretism as the common religion of the last times. Interfaith ecumenism is the heresy of the Antichrist.  Those Orthodox hierarchs who participate in this ultimate apostasy are not bishops for us, but anti-bishops of the Antichrist's anti-church of the last times.

The roots of this demonic spirit go back to 1986, when the first joint prayer of representatives of almost all world religions was held in Assisi.

Four decades later, the pattern has remained exactly the same, but the spiritual blindness of today's 'Orthodox' ecumenists has become even more terrible. Though so much time has passed  since ecumenism — especially in this inter-religious form — was timely condemned by both Father Justin of Ćelije, who even called it a 'pan-heresy' (1974), and by the historical Anathema of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia led by Saint Philaret of New York the Confessor in 1983, this apostasy continues unabated. There is no longer any excuse or point in waiting in vain for the 'Orthodox' ecumenists to supposedly change their minds and renounce this ultimate pan-heresy. The latest event in Assisi only confirms the very sad reality: the ecumenist churches have irrevocably fallen away and long ago have become an organic part — not of the Church of Christ — but precisely of the anti-Christ's anti-church.

With deep pastoral sorrow, I point out that in this year's assembly of the ungodly, high ranking representatives of the fallen official ‘Orthodoxy’ also officially and actively participated. The Ecumenical Patriarchate delegation was led by Patriarch Bartholomew I himself, the leader of the new world order among Orthodox Christians. The Moscow Patriarchate was represented by Metropolitan Anthony (Sevryuk), head of the Church diplomacy of the MP, showing that their conflicts with Phanar are just a performance for the gullible, while united in apostasy they all together bow their knees before the Antichrist. I am especially pained, as a Serbian hierarch, by the ongoing pastoral stumbling of the Belgrade Patriarchate, which this time in Assisi was represented by Bishop Hilarion of Novi Beograd, the patriarch Porfirije’s vicar bishop. The presence of the patriarch’s personal vicar clearly shows that this apostasy is not the excess of an individual, but the official will of the very top of the Belgrade Patriarchate.

The height of lawlessness and mockery of the priestly office took place in the Lower Basilica of the Papist saint Francis of Assisi, where a joint ecumenical prayer of Christian delegations was held. This prayer for peace was led by a woman — Sarah Mullally, Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Anglican Church. From the perspective of the Holy Canons, the appearance of a woman in priestly service is an act of the gravest sacrilege, but this  did not bother the representative of the Belgrade Patriarchate, Bishop Hilarion. He participated in the prayer immediately after the archbishop, while the ecumenical choir echoed the singing of 'Kyrie eleison,' merging the Orthodox hierarchs, Latin heresiarchs, and Protestant female priests into one terrifying spiritual corruption.

The gathering in Assisi ended on October 27 with a joint syncretistic ritual of lighting a candelabrum for peace, where Bishop Hilarion personally brought a torch and lit the ritual fire alongside heretics, pagans, sectarians, and idol worshippers. On top of all that, Pope Leo XIV gave his blessing via a video screen from the Vatican, symbolizing both the virtual and actual unity of this globalist Antichrist pseudo-church.

This kind of religious syncretism directly blasphemes the Holy Spirit, denies the Nicene-Constantinopolitan profession of faith in the One Church, and openly tramples on the Holy Canons — including the 10th, 45th, and 64th Apostolic Rules, as well as the 33rd rule of the Council of Laodicea, which strictly, under the threat of excommunication, forbid any prayerful fellowship and co-celebration with heretics and non-believers.

True peace is not a product of ecumenical compromises, nor can it be begged from God by lighting candles with idolaters. True peace is a gift of the Holy Spirit that flows from the Church through steadfast adherence to the Truth. The participation of Constantinople, Moscow, and Belgrade in this project is the ultimate proof of their soteriological downfall.

The Serbian True Orthodox Church, as the only legitimate and canonical heir of the Serbian Orthodox Church after the Belgrade Patriarchate fell into Sergianism and the heresy of ecumenism, remains on the narrow and confessional path of the Holy Fathers. I call on all Orthodox believers who are still in communion with the ecumenist hierarchy of the Belgrade Patriarchate to open their spiritual eyes, break communion with the ecumenist-Sergian false bishops, and return to the embrace of True Orthodoxy. There is no communion of Christ with Belial of the New World Order of Antichrist!

+Akakije

Bishop of Utešiteljevo

Serbian True Orthodox Church