England, Anglican Church continue submission to Islam, openly denying Jesus Christ in Royal Cathedral

A Koran reading in Westminster Abbey follows other recent incidents of Islam being proclaimed in Anglican cathedrals as the multifaceted apostasy of England and the COE continues to metastasize, like a spiritual cancer.  

How many of the congregants took their faith in Jesus Christ seriously enough to get up and walk out of this blasphemous invasion of a Christian gathering by a hostile, antichrist spirit? I suspect the number is zero.

Protestant and Catholic England is doomed. Orthodox England is small, but holds out hope for faithful Christians.

Regarding this latest abomination, Bishop Gavin Ashenden, who resigned as Queen’s Chaplain after objecting to the reading of the Koran in Glasgow Cathedral in 2017, warns of the spiritual force of these blasphemies: 

“Reading the Koran in cathedrals... validates Islam’s teaching that is predicated on the claim that the resurrection was a fraud and Jesus lied to his followers and the world.”  

"By welcoming an uncritical reading of the Koran, Westminster Abbey asserts the legitimacy of Mohammad and in so doing repudiates Jesus. One has to wonder what their claim to be a Christian cathedral rests on at that point?" 

— Bishop Gavin Ashenden 

Koran read at Westminster Abbey as Royal Cathedral bows to Islam
September 16, 2019,Jules Gomes, Rebel Priest:

Britain’s royal cathedral—the nation’s coronation church since 1066—and the final resting place of 17 monarchs approved a Koranic reading from its lectern at a memorial service last Tuesday.

Husein Kavazović, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina, read from Koran 16: 90-97 at a Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Paddy Ashdown—a British politician and former diplomat who served as leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Ashdown, who died on 22 December 2018, became a passionate advocate for the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the wars that led to the break-up of Yugoslavia.

The Koranic reading was in Bosnian and preceded biblical readings from Isaiah 52: 7-12 and Paul’s second epistle to Timothy 4:1-7.

Expressing his consternation, Islamic jurist Yasser Hussein who spoke to Rebel Priest media, said that such an act could imply that the deceased may have secretly converted to Islam.

Father Seraphim Rose on Islam - Revisiting a Key Post on this Blog

This early article, posted just eighteen months after the launch of the Facing Islam Blog in April 2011, holds up as a critically important document, reminding us of what one of the Orthodox Church's most significant figures and writers had to say about the false religion of Islam, and what more he might have said had his life not ended at so young an age (48) in 1982.

I had linked to this article in my recent posting of a new Russian documentary on the Life and Teachings of Father Seraphim, but this article stirred me so deeply as I re-read it, that I decided to re-post it as a reminder and encouragement to us all.

I have added a couple of insertions in brackets [...], and have improved the formatting for one paragraph, which benefits from being converted to a bulleted list. Otherwise, this is the original post, unaltered.


Fr Seraphim Rose on Islam

(Originally posted September 2, 2012.)

Today (September 2, 2012) marks the thirtieth anniversary of the repose of Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) of Platina. While many articles have been written to mark this significant anniversary (see here and here) it seemed appropriate for this blog to look at what Fr Seraphim had to say about Islam.

Actually, Father Seraphim wrote very little on the subject of Islam. His book, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, treats Islam along with Judaism in the chapter on The Monotheistic Religions. Fr. Seraphim is clear in his position that the "god" of Islam is not the True God, and in citing the essay by Fr. Basile Stakkas, implicitly refutes Islam's doctrine of tawhid (the oneness of Allah), in large measure by explicitly refuting its claim to be an Abrahamic faith. Abraham worshipped the One God in Trinity, as is clear from the Old Testament account (And the LORD appeared unto him at the Oaks of Mamre... Three men were standing by him, and he bowed himself toward the ground... Gen. 18:1-2), as is seen in the icon called The Hospitality of Abraham, the quintessential depiction of the Holy Trinity in the Old Testament.

In my correspondence with two of Fr Seraphim's spiritual children, we have wrestled with the question of "why" Fr Seraphim did not write more about Islam, and why he did not expend more energy and ink refuting Islam's theological jihad against Orthodox Christianity. After all, Fr Seraphim is certainly something of a prophetic figure in modern Orthodoxy; how could he not see the ascendency of Islam?

Simply put, perhaps that was not the message or vision granted to him. Fr Seraphim came of age in a vastly different time. Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, Meditation techniques, the New Age movement, Eastern mystical traditions and other occult phenomena were very much in the air, and had been gathering momentum for quite some time, waging a serious assault against Christianity since the late 19th century. Those were some of the signs of his time of the Age of Apostasy into which we were then entering.

By contrast, the Muslim world was highly westernized in the 1950s through 1979 (the year of the Islamic revolution in Iran). The Ottoman Empire had been dismantled after World War I; Kemal Ataturk reestablished Turkey as a modern, secular republic, and abolished the Islamic caliphate in 1924, effectively neutering the pan-Muslim movement for nearly the next eighty years. Although the Muslim Brotherhood was born in the 1920s as a response to the apostasy of secularism, Western culture and mores were widespread throughout Egypt, Lebanon, and the Middle East in general, and the Muslim Brotherhood itself was outlawed. To take but one example, one cannot find a woman wearing a hijab in college class photos from Cairo in the 1950s and 1960s.

As a result, Islam was not especially on Fr Seraphim's radar screen. Or rather, it was eclipsed by the Eastern religious movements.

So then, what might Fr Seraphim have to say about Islam now, as we approach the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11/01 attacks?

Fr Seraphim Rose - Russian Documentary w/English Subtitles

This excellent film has been out for a few years, but only recently was it given English subtitles by the Russian Faith website.

UPDATED 9/11/21: My original attempt to embed the video here failed when it was blocked by YouTube on copyright grounds, so I am simply posting the link to Russian Faith website for you to view it there. 

There is still some worthy info below if you care to scroll down and explore.

My apologies for any inconvenience:

https://russian-faith.com/saints/american-monk-who-inspired-russians-video-documentary-fr-seraphim-rose-n2330

Icon of Hieromonk Seraphim from Mt Athos

September 2 is the anniversary of the Repose of Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim Rose in 1982. Visit our Special Resource Page to learn more about this extraordinary figure in contemporary Orthodoxy.

I return to Father Seraphim Rose on this blog again and again because of his clear warnings against ecumenism and syncretism, against the tendency in our age for even well intentioned Orthodox Christians to compromise the True Faith in Jesus Christ in their confused efforts to appeal to other Christians or even to non-Christians.

Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim is widely venerated as a saint in traditional Orthodox nations such as Russia, Greece, Romania, and Serbia, and is considered by the Monks of Mount Athos as one of their own, as evidenced by photographs and icons of him seen by pilgrims to the monastic republic in northern Greece.

Pilgrims to Orthodox monasteries across North America will likewise notice photographs and the occasional icon of Father Seraphim at numerous monasteries, both men's and women's, under various jurisdictions, and there are a growing number of parishes which openly venerate Father Seraphim. Some, with direct ties to the St Herman of Alaska Monastery in Platina CA, which Father Seraphim co-founded, have secondary relics such as his vestments or other items which they make available for the faithful to venerate.

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Fr. Seraphim Rose on Islam - Fr Seraphim didn't write much about Islam, or did he? A look at Fr Seraphim's teaching on the Monotheistic Religions, and how he might have approached the challenge of Islam.

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This organic and heartfelt growth in the veneration of Hieromonk Seraphim of Platina, by monasteries, parishes and the faithful touched by his life and intercessions, points to his eventual glorification as a saint by the Orthodox Church... if the Lord doesn't return first.

VIDEO: A Legendary American Monk Who Inspired Christians in Russia - Fr. Seraphim Rose

Russian-Faith.com, July 26, 2019:

Russians have long appreciated Fr. Seraphim Rose, the beloved Orthodox monk who started a monastery in northern California. This documentary was produced in Russian, and is available here for the first time with English subtitles.

He was a Protestant in California, an atheist genius at Berkeley, a practicing Buddhist, and finally — a Russian Orthodox Monk in the American wilderness. Fr. Seraphim Rose became a legend in Russia, where many now recognize him as a Saint.

This fascinating film was produced by NEOFIT.TV, a quality production company that creates numerous documentaries about Orthodox Christian saints, apostles, prophets, well known preachers, and Church history. Many excellent films are available on their website.

TRANSCRIPT: