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"THE DOGMA OF THE HOLY TRINITY". "The Christian dogma of the Holy Trinity was also misunderstood in Arianism, which diminished the essence of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, as being created in time. Later, the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, was misunderstood as only a divine power, and not equal in essence to the Godhead. This misinterpretation and perversion of the essence of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity were the cause for the summoning of the First Ecumenical Synod in 325, after Emperor Constantine issued an Edict of Tolerance freeing the Christians from persecutions and allowing Christian leaders to convene in assembly. This Synod in Nicaea formulated and declared the orthodox teachings in the first seven articles of the Nicene Creed, to which were added the remaining five articles by the Second Ecumenical Synod in Constantinople in 381. The dogmas in the Nicene Creed were developed by the Fathers of the Church. They taught and determined, according to divine Revelation, the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, and also the procession of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person, from the Source, the Father. Every effort for explanation of the relationship among the three Persons or hypostases in the Holy Trinity by illustration i doomed to fail, for the finite mind of man has not the ability to understand and explain this great mystery of mysteries. Man's mind can only attempt to explain what has been revealed to him, being led by his faith and his knowledge of the revealed truths." "PROCESSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. "In addition to the heresies against the existence and essence of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, another dispute arose much later concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit. This dispute, created by the West, did not involve the essence of the Spirit as being equal to the Father and Son, but only concerning the Spirit's procession. The orthodox statement on the Holy Spirit was formulated in the eighth article of the Nicene Creed: "Who (the Spirit) proceeds from the Father". To this article was added "and from the Son", known as the filioque the phrase, which was a sheer innovation by the West, not found in Scripture nor in Sacred Tradition. The only Biblical passage which refers to the procession of the Holy Spirit is stated by St. John: "When the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me", John 15:26. This passage explicitly reveals the true procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father only, with the Holy Spirit being sent in time by Christ. The Holy Spirit proceeds only from the Father, Who is the only Source of the Spirit as well as the Son. The phrase filioque is an addition to the eighth article of the Creed by the Western Church, and is contrary to the statements of the Fathers, both in synods and as individuals; they rejected every addition or omission of thoughts and words in the Nicene Cred, also known as the "Symbol of Faith". "THE FILIOQUE PHRASE. "The phrase filioque was inserted in the Nicene Creed sporadically, and later c. 589 it became a part of the Creed in the Western Church. The first official rejection of this filioque phrase was made in a synod in Constantinople in 879, at the time of Patriarch Photius. He circulated an encyclical to all ecclesiastical authorities in the East condemning the West for the addition of the filioque and proving it without any foundation. An effort later was made to resolve this dispute concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit. Instead of the phrase "and from the Son", filioque, a proposal was made to read "and through the Son", in the hope that the word "through" would be received favorably by both sides, West and East. The new endeavor failed for two reasons: because it was forbidden for anything to be added to the Creed, and, in substance, the word "through" is no different from the word "from". The preposition DIA, through, in Greek, does not differ in substance from the word EK, from, in Greek, because both words lead to the cause. The former asserts the cause by which something becomes; the latter the cause from which something comes. St. John Damascene called the Holy Spirit "power from the Father and proceeded through the Son", explaining that the Spirit is called Spirit of the Son, and "proceeding not as from Him (the Son) but as through Him (The Son) from the Father; because the only cause is the Father". The Fathers of the Church, including Damascene, expressed themselves distinctly that the Son is not the cause of the Spirit, but the only cause for both is "the Father Who is the one cause of the Son and the Spirit". The dispute concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit remains unsolved up to the present time, although this dispute concerns only the procession of the Spirit and not His essence in the Holy Trinity. This dispute remains one of the obstacles for the union between the Orthodox and Roman Churches. ..." (pages 58-60: A New-Style Catechism on the Eastern Orthodox Faith For Adults. by Rev. George Mastrontonis. St. Louis, MO: The OLOGOS Mission, Copyright 1969.).
