Metropolitan Jonah offers terms for reconciliation to the ACNA
The Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in America, His Beatitude Jonah has called upon the Anglican Church of North America to ditch women clergy, Calvinism and the filioque in the name of Christian unity.
This is an “opportunity to return your church to its original catholic heritage” Jonah told delegates attending the ACNA’s 2nd Assembly at the Lifeway Conference Center in Ridgecrest, NC on 8 June 2012.
The ACNA can “overcome generations of schism, a schism forced upon the English church” by Rome if it eliminates the filioque from the Nicene Creed, the Orthodox leader said. The Filioque – the phrase “and from the Son” is a clause found in the Western Christian Church but not in the Eastern Churches.
The Catholic Church began to add the phrase ”from the Son” to the traditional language of the Nicene Creed between the 8th and 11th centuries, eventually formalizing the creed to state the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son”. The Orthodox have long objected to the addition of “and the Son” to the language of the creed and it has been a long standing theological dispute between the Eastern and Western Churches.
In his address, Jonah said the “ecumenical hope is to overcome the schisms of the West.”
“Removing the filioque is not a gesture of ecumenical theology, but a restatement of the orthodox catholic faith,” the Orthodox leader said.
Discussions of the propriety of removing the filioque have been part of the dialogue between the ACNA and the Orthodox Church, members of the ACNA’s theological dialogue commission with the Orthodox tell Anglican Ink. The ACNA’s liturgical commission’s revision of Rite I of the Holy Communion service used in the worship of the Assembly takes note of this issue, placing brackets around the phrase “who proceeds from the Father and the Son”.
However two members of the liturgical commission stated this was a printer’s error, as the brackets should have been only around “and the Son” as there was no question the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father.
In a hard hitting address to the delegates, Jonah cited the common moral vision of the Orthodox and the ACNA and the Protestant confessing churches. While the churches were divided amongst themselves over issues of doctrine and discipline – including the propriety of women clergy – the more pressing split was “between those who hold traditional biblical faith” and show who hold a “secularized faith according to contemporary” mores and “who dismiss the moral teachings of the Scriptures and the Fathers as culturally irrelevant.”
“This realignment is not the protestant/catholic, evangelical-charismatic/mainline divide, it effects all churches,” Jonah said.
“As faithful Anglicans you are no stranger to this,” he said. “It is creating a massive realignment” between the true faith and “those who reject it, criticize it and persecute it.”
“This is a radical shift away from traditional Christianity,” where the “secularists reject the virgin birth, often the resurrection, even the divinity of Christ. They reject that his words as recorded in the scriptures “ and see them as being “irrelevant.”
Bishop Jack Spong declared “that ‘Christianity must either change or die,’ referring to orthodox traditional Christianity. But it is not the orthodox Christianity will die,” Jonah said.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn said that “what the Soviet death camps could not do, western secularism can do more effectively -- whether you call it Soviet atheism or western secularism it is the same enemy. Do not be confused” about the enemy facing all true believers, he charged the delegates.
The Pope has “called for us to stand against this enemy. Without alteration, without change, without revision” we must stand together “against those who would subject their faith to the wisdom of the current age. We must stand together because we cannot stand alone.”
The meetings other ecumenical speakers from the North American Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, confessing Presbyterian groups and the Polish National Catholic Church endorsed the message of taking a common stand against the secularist culture of the West.
The affirmation of the mission and ministry of the ACNA by its ecumenical guests was a source of great excitement for some delegates to the convention. Bishop Keith Ackerman told Anglican Ink he was especially pleased to hear the Polish National Catholic Church was considering returning to a state of intercommunion. In 1978 the PNCC ended its concordat of intercommunion with the Episcopal Church after the General Convention approved the ordination of women clergy.
If the question of women clergy could be resolved to its satisfaction, the PNCC would welcome formal links with the ACNA, the assembly learned.
The text of the address: There is one Body and one Spirit, just as there is one hope in God's call to us: One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God and Father of all.
Over the past three years our churches have conducted a theological dialog, discussing the issues that separate us, issues that are not so much OCA vs. ACNA, but issues that separate Anglicanism from Orthodoxy. This has focused on the issue of the filioque, the addition by the Roman Church to the Nicene Creed, forced on the entire Western Church in the 11th century, and this, disrupting the unity of the confession of the Catholic Faith.
I would remind you that the root and foundation of the Church of England is not "Roman" but rather, the broader Orthodox Catholicism that prevailed until the Roman Church began massive changes in the Second Millennium. The English Church was a local Orthodox Catholic Church in communion with Rome and the rest of the Churches for most of the first millennium. Part of the English, and even continental, Reformation was intended to bring the Church back to its original roots, free from the changes that occurred during the isolation of the Western Church in the Dark Ages and Middle Ages. The Orthodox see the Reformation as having gone awry, and reinforced the very elements that made the Western Churches' theological positions idiosyncratic, thus isolating it even more from Orthodoxy.
My hope is that we can roll this back. You have the opportunity to return your Church to its original heritage, and thus actualize the rich inheritance of English Orthodox Catholicism, in communion with its root tradition. This means the overcoming of generations of schism, a schism which was forced on the English Church, and then a perpetual state of schism for itself and the churches established by it in its colonies and missions. This needs to be healed.
The ecumenical hope is to overcome the schisms of the West, so that the English and Roman Churches can again take their place within the communion of the One Orthodox Catholic Church. You have an immense role and opportunity within this. Removing the filioque is not simply a nice gesture of ecumenical solidarity; it is, rather, an affirmation of the ancient faith of the Undivided Church.
Realignment
There is another element in this which is of immediate importance, and directly follows on the above. As was written about by Robert Terwilliger, a great Anglican divine of the 20th century, there is a coming realignment within Christianity, one which we can already see the strains of. Whenever schisms happen within the Church, they are generally because certain individuals lead a group out of the Church, being disobedient to the Faith and Doctrine, and refusing to submit to the authority of the hierarchy, which is trying to discipline them and call them to repentance.
What is happening now is somewhat different: a split between those who hold to traditional, biblical faith as interpreted by the Fathers of the Church and the ecumenical councils; and those who espouse a secularized belief, subject to the rationalizations of the scholars according to contemporary philosophy, who dismiss the Fathers and the Councils as no longer relevant, who dismiss the moral teachings of the Scriptures and Fathers as culturally relative. This could be called, by one side, a break between traditional Christianity and post-modern worldly philosophy. Or it might be labeled as the freeing of people from fundamentalist oppression to the light of their own reason.
This is not the protestant/catholic divide; it is not the evangelical-charismatic vs. mainline divide. It cuts across all communities in the West, even affecting the Orthodox and Roman Churches in some degree. As Anglicans, you are no strangers to this: it is the reason you are here, and not in TEC. It is creating a massive realignment within Christianity; those who hold to the traditional Scriptural and patristic Faith and discipline of Orthodox Catholicism; and those who reject it, criticize it, and I will add, as you well know, persecute it. You and the ACNA are part of that realignment.
There is a radical cultural shift away from traditional Christianity, toward something unrecognizable. The "Secularists" (for lack of a better, non-pejorative term) reject the virgin birth of Christ, the resurrection, even His Divinity; that His words are recorded in the Scriptures and that the Scriptures are even relevant to our days; rather they are oppressive and keep humans in darkness. Another Episcopalian bishop, a certain Mr. Spong, wrote that "Christianity must change or die," referring to traditional orthodoxy, espousing the radical secularization of the Episcopal Church and all Christianity. It is my prediction that it is not the Orthodox Churches that will die.
Solzhenitsyn said that "what the Soviet death camps could not do, Western secularism is doing more effectively. In Russia, 20 million died in the last century as martyrs for the Orthodox Faith, and countless millions of others were thrown in the gulag, for standing up against militant secularism. Many perished because they resisted the Renovationists whose schism distorted the Orthodox Faith. Whether you call it Soviet atheism, or Western secularism, it is the same enemy.
Our battle is against secularism. His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, has called for us to stand together against this enemy. This is the realignment: to stand together for the faith once delivered by Christ to the Apostles, and thence to the Bishops, without alteration, without change, without revisions; against those who would submit their faith to the current of the age, the wisdom of this world. We must stand together, and we cannot stand alone. Even the immense Roman Church is buffeted by the militant secularists, who defy authority and criticize that which they know not, and we can see in this country how increasingly fragile their unity is.
Brothers and sisters, we must embrace the Cross of Jesus Christ, the foolishness of the Gospel, the wisdom that is not of this world. We must rejoice in the salvation that God has given us in His Son Jesus Christ, who was crucified for us and rose from the dead. We glory in His Resurrection, and await His Coming Again. We must overcome the divisions that separate us, so that we can stand united in one mind and one heart, confessing that God has come in the flesh to raise us to heaven. We must live according to the moral and ethical commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ enshrined in the Gospel, and reject sin and recognize its corruption. This is the orthodox faith of the Fathers, the Ecumenical Councils and the undivided Church. We will have to accept the scorn and derision of those who are of this world, even those who call themselves brethren, being cast out of their synagogues and ridiculed, sued in civil courts, and count all things as worthless that we have lost for the sake of Christ. This, my friends, is our cross. We have to support one another in bearing it. The closer we come, the greater our mutual support will be, and we will not lose heart, or forget that Christ has already won the victory: He has overcome the world. By accepting to go by way of His Cross, we too will share in His Victory.
Let us listen to the words of St. Paul: 10 I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.
11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren.
12 What I mean is that each one of you says, "I belong to Paul," or "I belong to Apollos," or "I belong to Cephas," or "I belong to Christ."
13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? ...
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."
20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
23 but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17-25, Revised Standard Version)
Beloved, Christ is Risen.
2 comments:
Women priests poses a barrier between Anglicanism and all catholic communions.
The filioque clause poses a barrier between the East and West, a much earlier parting of ways.
Both must be addressed for the Body of Christ to be healed.
Meh. Having spent 13 years in the Orthodox Church before I found my true home in Continuing Anglicanism, I know the mentality well. The Orthodox aren't interested in intercommunion, but conversion. They could care less about Anglicanism.
The Embryo Parson
Post a Comment