K, any take on this?
“Calvinism, anti-sacramentalism”
There will be trouble with these as the parishes I represent that are coming out are modified Calvinists and there is a question as to the number and efficiency of the sacraments. That holds true with a number of parishes that are part of the Anglican Church in North America.
This needs to get in line after Jurisdictional unity.
“K, any take on this?”
I’m a bit surprised it was Met. Jonah who spoke to the Anglicans. If this new group is actually interested pursuing thee discussions, they would do better to be speaking with +Demetrios and +Philip. Beyond that, I think the Orthodox Church is open to anyone who wishes to embrace Orthodoxy.
As I have said to you, s, it has been my experience that Episopalians take to Orthodoxy much easier and quicker than people from other particular churches or ecclesial groups. There is a remnant of a very ancient Anglo Orthodox mindset there which flowers in an Orthodox setting, though to the extent that this group is made up of bd’s (good to see you bd!) clients, I don’t see a wholesale acceptance of Eastern Christian theology which of course is the sine qua non of any unity.
The experience of Orthodoxy with the reception of large groups here in America has been mixed. When thousands of Carpatho Russians came into Orthodoxy in the late 19th century, that worked out fine. The reception of a large group which styled itself as “Evangelical Orthodox” in 1987 has been, at best, a mixed blessing. The Carpatho Russians were all but Orthodox anyway; the Evangelical group is still very, very Western in its mindset and tends to preach a Western, even Protestant sort of atonement theology which while probably not heretical, is foreign to Orthodoxy. I’d say the conservative Episcopalians fall somewhere in between, but much nearer the Carpatho Russians than the Evangelicals.
I trust that Met. Jonah isn’t anticipating an expansion of “Western Rite Orthodoxy”. That won’t fly among even the Antiochians. Otherwise, I think the OCA metropolitan has set out the usual requirements for becoming Orthodox and this new group may well want to consider it.