'With their insufficient view of the extent and effect of the fall on human nature and their resulting soteriological deficiencies, I am not at all interested in a rapprochement with the Orthodox (especially after Metropolitan Jonah's characterization of Calvinism as heresy at last year's synod).'
A quote from the website Stand Firm regarding the recent decision of the Anglican Church in North America to eliminate the use of the controverted filioque clause when occasion should arise for the ACNA and Eastern Orthodox to worship together - Metropolitan Jonah rightly and correctly rejected Calvinism as 'a condemned heresy' in his remarks to the ACNA meeting in Bedford, Texas held in 2009.
Traditional Anglo-Catholics, who affirm the orthodox soteriology of the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Fathers of the Church and the Ecumenical Councils in opposition to Calvinist error, would beg His Beatitude, and the Orthodox Church in America, to turn their gaze towards us in the Continuing Church for the purpose of establishing a viable dialogue with those Anglicans who share essential dogmatic agreement with the Eastern Orthodox in this matter and who heartily and genuinely desire rapprochement with the Orthodox Church.
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9 comments:
Metropolitan Jonah also has zero tolerance for the ordination of women to Holy Orders. As long as Bishop Duncan has any say in ACNA, women will be ordained to Holy Orders. Metropolitan Jonah would do well to look to Anglicans in the Continuing Church Movement for his Ecumenical outreach.
The world of the "Continuing Church," it seems to me, carries within it all the primary fault lines of mainstream Anglicanism: some are Calvinists, some are Arminians, some are simple Prayer Book Protestants, some are Catholics of one sort or another, some reckon themselves to be Western Orthodox, whatever that should be.
If this be the case and given already fissiparous nature of the several jurisdictions within the "Continuing Church," is it not an invitation to schisms within schisms to attempt to draw closer to Metropolitan Jonah and the OCA?
Perhaps the Continuum could make the first step by abandoning the philioque as being too patient of error and symptomatic of sectarianism?
(And though I make this suggestion in good faith, I doubt it will ever happen as too many Continuing Anglicans want to adhere to medieval Latin scholasticism (Romanism) or Protestant scholasticism (Calvinism) to set aside the crown doctrine of dialectical 'theology,' which is repugnant to the East and Antiquity both in result and method. In sum, as the Caroline/phil-Orthodox strain of Anglicanism is just as weak in the Continuum as in the Lambeth Communion, Orthodoxy is unlikely to give any Anglican jurisdiction much notice.
Perhaps the young Suffragan Bishop-elect should discuss with Bishop Grundorf the option of sending a formal invitation to the Metropolitan to begin a discussion with the APA.
In response to you chaps… it doesn’t seem as if we should be discussing global and full communion between Anglicanism and the entirety of Eastern Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy itself is not formally linked across geographic regions in some Romish fashion. While they share the same faith more closely than is seen across the breath of Anglicanism, each Church possess some degree of uniqueness as a function of national and cultural demarcations (being an ex-Russian Orthodox myself, we had many traditional differences with our local Greek brethren ) and there is generally no centralization that crosses these national/cultural borders. More practically, what the undertaking might be is creating dialogue between the OCA (which has strong Russian Orthodox roots, but is not in any way formally linked to the Russian Patriarch) and a particular example of a US Continuing Anglican church (e.g., the APA). Let’s see where something like that goes.
Fr. Newman knows well all about Schism! We should probably listen to him when he talks about it! However, he does have a point about the "Continuing Anglican Church". I think he's just jealous though that Anglicans are talking about bypassing the Roman Catholic Church and going straight to the Original Church of the first 1,000 yrs., which was left to the Apostles.
I second Dr Dieter's suggestion. Perhaps Bishop elect Chad is just the right man at just the right time for a mission such as this. I am convinced that there are many who would flock into the APA if this unity with Orthodoxy came about. Many of us want nothing more than to be united to the true church which has never waivered or altered the apostolic faith. Many of us dream of a day when the content of our faith will not be under negotiation.
The plain fact is that the longer we try to preserve Catholic Anglicanism the more it falls apart. Let's face it, we have an insurmountable problem in Anglicanism that the Orthodox do not have, and that is our complimance with historic canonicity. Neither the Anglican communion, ACNA, or any of the the continuing bodies (or even Rome for that matter) can claim total faithful to the historic canons of the undivided church. Consequently, we not only have problems because of it, but we cannot even begin to correct our divisions. That impediment lies at the heart of our current situation. Surely union with the Orthodox would force those Anglicans who return, back into canonical compliace. This would leave us not only united to the true church, but also in a position to flourish under God's eternal blessing of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.
The Antiochian Archdiocese established a Western Rite Vicariate in the 1960s when it received a group of Old Catholics headed by Monsignor Alexander Turner. Since then, the WR Vicariate has grown to over 20 parishes and keeps growing,with many of its parishes made up of former Anglicans.
Filioque - I speak as an Orthodox priest who is trained o believe it o be a heresy - is NOT heresy. As Dr. Peter Gilbert (also an Orthodox) pointed out once on his blog, it is an "Old Nicene" way of affirming that the Holy Spirit is consubstantial with the Father. Surely no Orthodox would wish to deny that he Spirit is of he same substance as the Father? I certainly don't!
Metropolitan Jonah - a true shepherd of souls - is a great man. But on this I believe him to be sincerely mistaken. Calvinism and Women's Ordination to he priesthood may very well be heresies (they are certainly completely at odds with Scripture and Tradition) and to demand their denunciation is only natural.
Fr. Gregory +
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