Posted on 08/23/2006 5:48:37 PM PDT by sionnsar
ECUSA gets another nail in its "historic" coffin as the Anglican Communion Network picks up some important support:
Dear Brother in Christ,
We have learnt from the mass media that you have decided to refrain from recognizing the Presiding Bishop Elect of the Episcopal Church in the USA, Ms. Cathrine Jefferts-Shori. It follows from the released letter you signed that this step was motivated by your refusal to accept the election of a woman to the post of the head of a Church as a gross violation of the old church Tradition. I would like to assure you that I fully share the stand you have taken.
In due time, the Russian Orthodox Church also took not an easy step by ceasing on December 26, 2003, her contacts with the Episcopal Church in the USA because of the ‘consecration’ of Gene Robinson, an open homosexual, as bishop. Through this act, the sinful way of life strictly condemned by Holy Scriptures has been supported by church leaders - the fact that defies any reasonable explanation.
It is my profound conviction that secular liberal political and philosophical ideas, however we may treat them, cannot and must not adjust the Apostolic Tradition and the understanding of New Testament texts guarded by this Tradition. Any attempt to adjust Christian morality and especially the church order to the political tastes of an external environment is dangerous as it threatens with a loss of Christian identity. There must be no fear in the efforts to keep faithful to Christ. Indeed, the Gospel calls us to take the narrow path that many believed to be impossible even during the earthly life of the Saviour: “When the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished, saying, ‘Who then can be saved?’” The example of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Soviet period is a vivid proof that Christians can stay faithful to Christ even in the hardest conditions. Despite the severe persecution and pressure from the Soviet power, our Church did not compromise with the spirit of this world.
We continue to follow the situation in the Episcopal Church in the USA because we have always cherished good relations with her faithful. Dialogue between our two Churches was established over one hundred years ago, St. Tikhon the Patriarch of All Russian being one of its initiators. Since that time, our relations have been marked by sincerity, warmth, willingness to cooperate and mutual interest. Now we, regrettably, have been actually deprived of this rich heritage. However, as the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church stressed in its decision to break relations with the Episcopal Church in the USA, we are open to ‘contacts and cooperation with those American Episcopalians who remain faithful to the gospel’s moral teaching’.
In this connection, I would like to inform you that the Russian Orthodox Church supports your act and expresses willingness to restore relations with your diocese. Using this opportunity, I wish you good health, God’s help in your work, peace and prosperity.
With love in the Lord,
Kirill,
Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad,
Chairman Department for External Church Relations
Moscow Patriarchate
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. (One wonders about the Continuing Anglican churches in this regard...)
I guess the battle lines are being drawn.
An Orthodox monk I know has expressed the view that those Continuing Anglican groups that have dropped the filioque are the only Western confessions worth the bother of an ecumenical dialog.
(In fairness, this view was expressed before the election of Pope Benedict--if the Latins have three or four more like him, dialog with them is definitely worthwhile, too.)
Which Diocese received this kind letter?
And, Memory Eternal Arlin. You are missed.
Reunification is not out of the question...?
A couple of them. Poke around my postings this evening. San Joaquin (CA, Bishop John-David Schofield) was one, I was delighted to see!
Bishop Schofield deserves some good news!! I hope this makes him feel better. Help is on the way . . .
What if dialogue leads to dropping the filoque? And where does the dialogue go after that?
Well, that would be a step beyond where St. Tikhon and Bishop Grafton of Fond du Lac got in the early 20th century.
From the Orthodox point of view, 'ecumenical dialogs' are an expression of 'love for heretics' (as I think Fr. Alexander Schmemann put it). Either we are just nice to each other and share views (which is from our POV a very quite form of preaching the Truth of Orthodoxy), or we're trying to determine whether or not their is unity of faith between the Orthodox and the other confession, in which case, union, or at least mutual recognition of orders and sacraments becomes possible. (Intercommunion for us is a natural consequence and sign of complete unity of faith.)
Until the Old Catholics followed the liberal Anglican approach to Holy Orders, there were serious Orthodox-Old Catholic discussions, which looked like they were heading toward union, then fell apart.
In the hypothetical circumstance where the Orthodox became convinced that a particular continuing Anglican group indeed confessed the Orthodox Faith, there might still be disciplinary and liturgical impediments to union: married bishops and the lack of an eclepsis in the BCP's Eucharistic rite come most readily to mind. (The Latin-style objections about 'validity of orders' probably wouldn't come up: whole dioceses of the (Nestorian) Church of the East were received into the Orthodox Church in the 19th century by confession of faith by their bishops.)
I see. Thanks!
The filoque was unilaterally dropped by the ELCA with the publication of the new "Evangelical Lutheran Worship" hymnal. There was never an explicit theological or ecumenical review, just the up/down vote on the hymnal project trusting the Presiding Bishop to do the right thing on all matters theological and liturgical. Talk about a blank check! The ELCA should never have dropped the filogue liturgically without consultation with Rome.
No, Hanson and his ELCA minions did not drop the filioque in "ELW". They just added a footnote to the Creed saying that the filioque was a later addition to the Creed, which is true.
There have been recent official dialogues between the Orthodox (SCOBA) and Lutherans (ELCA) and beteen Orthodox and Roman Catholics over the fililoque. Both dialogue groups recommended dropping the filioque. However, at least in the Lutheran-Orthodox dialogue, the Lutheran consensus was to remove the filioque for ecclesiological, historical, and ecumenical reasons, with no theological changes from the "double procession". Thus the "ELW", perhaps perversely, reflects where the leading edge (i.e., NOT the liberal-protestant trailing edge) of ELCA theology is now on that issue.
However, these dialogues, and especially Hanson's running off to occupied Constinople to see the Ecumenical Patriarch from time to time, have done no good in improving the ELCA's standing with the Orthodox.
For the view of the Antiochian Orthodox Church on the ELCA, see http://www.antiochian.org/Orthodox-Lutheran
The lack of theological agreement on the "double procession" and other issues in those dialogues, and especially the ELCA's "full communion" agreements with liberal protestants and its embrace of the "gay" agenda, give the ELCA just about the same standing in the Orthodox world as "TEC"--precisely zero!!!!
Mark Hanson doesn't need to travel to Constantinople or Moscow to find out where he stands. There are at least two fine Orthodox bishops right in Chicagoland where Hanson lives--Serbian Orthodox Metropolitan Christopher (a participant in the Lutheran-Orthodox dialogues) and OCA Archbishop Job. I'm sure that either one of them would be happy to tell Hanson the truth about where he stands, even if he dosn't want to believe the Antiochian statement that he can read on the open Internet.
A related story commenting on the letter:
http://www.livingchurch.org/publishertlc/viewarticle.asp?ID=2442
The Orthodox call doing these things heresy!!!!
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