Friday, May 31, 2013

'Forward in Faith' from the Eastern Orthodox to Anglicans


A fascinating presentation given to the Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen on 25th May 2013 in Fredericksburg, Virginia by Father Anthony Bondi, Pastoral Vicar for the Western Rite of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia:
Some interesting quotes:


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'.

I can say with certainty that the introduction of the female episcopate excludes even a theoretical possibility for the Orthodox to recognize the apostolic continuity of the Anglican hierarchy. We are also extremely concerned and disappointed by other processes that are manifesting themselves in churches of the Anglican Communion.

'Tradition is the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church - the life giving to every member of the Body of Christ the ability to hear, accept and know the Truth in its inherent shining, not in the natural light of human reason'.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Orthodox communities discussed seriously the recognition of Anglican priesthood based on its recognized apostolic continuity.

And to the Continuing Churches: ...So the first suggestion is that you need to hold the same faith and practice....

But the creation of Anglican Rite Dioceses or groupings by the Eastern Orthodox Churches has been characterised by some commentators a Western Rite uniatism. Is it? Traditional Anglicans would be compelled to say that such a movement is not the restoration of the full sacramental communion between equal and duly-constituted sister Churches for which Traditional Anglicans have long prayed and worked, L'Eglise Anglicane Unie non Absorbee, 'united not absorbed,' but is rather precisely that which orthodox Anglicanism cannot accept on theological, historical and moral grounds - absorption. 


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