"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.
and
"I" am no authority at all. "I" decide nothing.
That is an example of what I was trying to say in 2833 when I said "It seems to me that you talk in two different ways".
No, it doesn't make any sense to me at all. You *do* decide when to submit, and yet you don't decide anything at all. If that's not a contradiction, I don't know what is. But, like you said, I don't understand.
-A8