One might ask why our Church should have concerned itself at all with this matter [of women's 'ordination']? By the early 90s the Protestant world had already ordained many women pastors and even women bishops. But the unique point here was that the Anglican Community had long sought rapprochement with the Orthodox Church. Many Orthodox Christians recognized the existence of apostolic continuity in Anglicanism. From the 19th century, Anglican members of the Association of Eastern Churches sought 'mutual recognition' with the Orthodox Church and its members believed that 'both Churches preserved the apostolic continuity and true faith in the Saviour and should accept each other in the full communion of prayers and sacraments'.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, Orthodox communities discussed seriously the recognition of Anglican priesthood based on its recognized apostolic continuity...
Remember that the Orthodox Church provisionally recognised the validity of Anglican Orders beginning with the Patriarch of Constantinople in 1922. That recognition should hold for those Anglican Churches which have maintained the Apostolic Tradition.
3 comments:
OOPS! Wrong Metropolitan Hilarian. This is Metropolitan Hilarion of ROCOR (still Moscow Patriarchate). The correct Metropolitan Hilarion is younger and slimmer.
It's hard when 1) Orthodox bishops, because they're technically monks, go only by first names and 2) there's more than one of the same rank with the same name. The Met. Hilarion who told the Anglicans what for is Hilarion (Alfeyev) in charge of the Russian Orthodox Church's external relations, a young rising star in that hierarchy. The one pictured right now is Hilarion (Kapral), the first hierarch of its Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia branch, a New York City-based exile church that returned to the ROC a few years ago.
I am sorry to see only a snipet of the speech by the Metropolitan, which was a criticism of the Anglican Church for their ecumencial, i.e., modernizations and innovations of late. These are endangering any further developments in the dialogue between the Anglicanism and Orthodoxy. So, here for the record what he said: (If anyone is truly interested in what he had to say!)
http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=13242
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