Well, then I don't see how you are any different than Protestants, who mostly don't even pretend to submit anymore. If I am the one deciding whether what the 'authority' is saying is 'authoritative', then *I* am my own authority. The 'authority' is only token, not actual.
But still, I don't believe you. :-) You are not as Protestant as you make yourself out to be, even if you talk about authority just as Luther did.
-A8
"If I am the one deciding whether what the 'authority' is saying is 'authoritative', then *I* am my own authority. The 'authority' is only token, not actual."
Like I said, A, you don't understand and there's really no reason why you should. Orthodoxy is not something you can read about and understand. It has to be lived, day in and day out. "I" am no authority at all. "I" decide nothing. We Orthodox all together know what is Orthodox; TRD and I are, individually, nothing. We live as a liturgical people within a liturgical community and it is that community which is ultimately what is infallible and against which the gates of hell will not prevail.
You see or read from my words is Protestantism (while admittedly knowing better) but what is really there is The Church in its most ancient form.