“For centuries, the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady was defended by saints, theologians and laymen. However, it took centuries of theological debate to establish a consensus in the Church.”
Lest anyone be confused or misled by the title, Orthodoxy has never dogmatically taught the IC for two reasons. First, The Church in the East has never accepted the Augustinian notion of Original Sin and in fact condemns it as being outside the consensus patrum. Second, The Church in the East sees the potential for a Christological heresy arising out of the innovation of the IC, namely that under the IC, Christ was born of other than a true woman but rather from some sort of goddess and thus not “True God and True Man”.
This is a serious dogmatic difference between the theology Church of Rome and that of the other Patriarchates and most of the autocephallous particular Churches.
2 Christmas seasons ago, I went into an Orthodox Church. It looked so ordinary from the outside and inside, well, I don’t mean to use words like “plush” in regards to a Church but that is a good adjective to use in this case, it was very nice.
This Novena starts TODAY!
BTTT!
We are well into this Novena, but I think this thread needs a bump.