From the official letter to the 2008 Lambeth Conference from of the Orthodox Archiepiscopate of Cyprus, represented by Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Kition:
'Unfortunately, after the Third Lambeth Conference, which was held in the year 1888, when a particular effort was made for the promotion of the relations between the Orthodox and the Anglican Church, no substantial progress has been made in this area though a most fervent desire for their union exists in both our Churches. The Orthodox Church of Cyprus, encouraged by the progress made at the time went ahead, as is known, in the year 1923 and recognised the validity of Anglican ordainments in the hope that this would be followed by more moves towards unity between our Churches.'
One has to love the archaic, if inaccurate, term, 'ordainments,' obviously meaning Anglican Orders.
The decision to which Metropolitan Chrysostomos refers is this:
The Archbishop of Cyprus wrote to the Patriarch of Constantinople in the name of his Synod on March 20, 1923, as follows: To His All-Holiness the Oecumenical Patriarch Mgr. Meletios we send brotherly greeting in Christ. Your Holiness – Responding readily to the suggestion made in your reverend Holiness' letter of August 8, 1922, that the autocephalous Church of Cyprus under our presidency should give its opinion as to the validity of Anglican Orders we have placed the matter before the Holy Synod in formal session. After full consideration thereof it has reached the following conclusion: It being understood that the Apostolic Succession in the Anglican Church by the Sacrament of Order was not broken at the Consecration of the first Archbishop of this Church, Matthew Parker, and the visible signs being present in Orders among the Anglicans by which the grace of the Holy Spirit is supplied, which enables the ordinand for the functions of his particular order, there is no obstacle to the recognition by the Orthodox Church of the validity of Anglican Ordinations in the same way that the validity of the ordinations of the Roman, Old Catholic, and Armenian Church are recognized by her. Since clerics coming from these Churches into the bosom of the Orthodox Church are received without reordination we express our judgment that this should also hold in the case of Anglicans – excluding intercommunio (sacramental union), by which one might receive the sacraments indiscriminately at the hands of an Anglican, even one holding the Orthodox dogma, until the dogmatic unity of the two Churches, Orthodox and Anglican, is attained.
Submitting this opinion of our Church to Your All-Holiness, we remain, Affectionately, the least of your brethren in Christ, Cyril of Cyprus Archbishopric of Cyprus. March 7/20, 1923
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4 comments:
That was 1923. Where is the language indicating present-day reaffirmation?
What those statements in that period from Orthodox patriarchates meant was if the whole Anglican Communion unprotestantised and joined the Orthodox communion then the clergy would be received in their orders.
But given the disunity of Anglicanism with its conservative and liberal Protestant factions (the first strong in the Third World, the second in the First) obviously this corporate reunion won't happen.
Anglican orders, being outside Orthodoxy, are never considered or treated the same as Orthodox ones.
Convert clergy are ordained absolutely.
Didn't the Russian Church even then view the Anglican orders in the context of what Anglicanism believed?
Even then the Orthodox had concerns about the ambiguity of Anglican formulations. The Orthodox required a clear declaration of Apostolic Catholic faith.
The same position is held by the Catholic Church. There isn't any difference with the Orthodox on this one.
Now with women bishops, any recognition of Anglican orders is of historical interest only.
The Orthodox require a profession of faith before they accept convert clergy from the Roman Church. They do not reordain these men. They recognize the validity of their Roman orders.
Anglican clergy joining the Orthodox are absolutely reordained as Orthodox priests.
It's actually worse than that; the Antiochian Church has a list of churches whose baptisms are assumed to have been performed in the Name of the Trinity. ECUSA is no longer on the list.
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