Most Russian Rosicrucians & “theoretic” masons were true Orthodox Christians well-read in patristic literature. Byzantine & Russian Orthodox spiritual traditions (Dyonisius, Maximus, Simeon, Palamas) define the originality of their masonic views.

"From what Palamas says at the very beginning of the Triads, Barlaam had claimed that there are logoi of creation, grounded in the divine mind, which have corresponding images in the human soul. Palamas took this to mean that knowledge of these images, attained apart from grace, could lead to knowledge of God. Whatever Barlaam meant, it looks as if he was invoking Maximos’ doctrine of the logoi. Palamas seems not to have recognized this and thus lost the possibility of thinking through a more considered view of the relationship between God and his Creation: the possibility had probably already been lost to the Byzantine world by the blanket condemnation of Platonism in the anathemas added to the Synodikon of Orthodoxy in 1082."


The Cambridge Intellectual History of Byzantium, Platonism from Maximos the Confessor to the Palaiologan Period, by Andrew Louth

"Barlaam was prepared to concede that divine illumination could be a source of knowledge about God, for when he sees how the ancient philosophers construct their arguments – we should note, as Palamas did, that for him they are “ancient” rather than “outer” thinkers – he is “unable to accept that these too have not been illuminated by God and so risen above the multitude.” In his response to this passage, Palamas asks incredulously whether Barlaam is claiming that the pagan philosophers had come to participate in the divine light. Taking his cue from St. Gregory of Nazianzos, he quotes Plato back at him: “To know God is difficult, but to speak of him is impossible.” The Church Fathers reveal an incomparably richer experience of God. Through love, the Christian cleaves to God with an erotic intensity, the union of God with the worthy transcending all other kinds of union. The illumination attained by the pagan philosophers, even by Plotinos, was merely demonic. In the Christian version, the light granted to a purified soul is divine and permeates it fully, even irradiating the body."


The Cambridge Intellectual History of Byzantium, The Hesychast Controversy, by Norman Russell

“God gave us in these difficult times the best Patriarch.”

- Paisios, talking about Patriarch Bartholomew

Paisios false prophecy
http://www.hotca.org/orthodoxy/orthodox-awareness/331-the-reading-is-from-the-false-prophecy-of-paisios

"Saint" Paisios The Athonite was a Neo-Donatist.

https://www.orthodoxethos.com/post/the-stance-of-st-paisios-the-athonite-on-the-reception-of-converts-in-the-baptism-of-the-heterodox

"At this “Bridging Voices” conference: “Some fifty scholars gathered from across the globe. They brought a diversity of professional expertise and experience, and represented a range of academic disciplines including theology, philosophy, church history, and canon law, and fields within the natural and social sciences. Orthodox clergy from multiple jurisdictions, LGBTQ+ activists, and clinicians were in attendance. A small number of ecumenical observers from the Church of England and the Catholic Church also took part,” as reported by Jivko Panev.

Among the Orthodox academics and clergy who attended the conference are some familiar names in the Orthodox world: Deacon Brandon Gallaher (event organizer), Prof. George Demacopoulos, Prof. Aristotle Papanikolaou, Father John Behr, Dr Patricia Fann Bouteneff, Prof. Peter Bouteneff, Father Cyril Hovorun, Sister Vassa Larin, Presbytera Mari Iakovou Mars, Prof. Ashley Purpura, and Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia."

https://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2019/10/blasphemy-and-open-rebellion-by-nik-jovcic-sas-the-orthodox-provocateur/