Russian Church Supports Conservative Episcopalians

The Russian news service Interfax has an article reporting that the Russian Orthodox Church has sent a letter expressing strong support for the conservative bishops of the Episcopal Church (TEC) in their stand against the newly elected presiding bishop Catherine Jefferts-Shori. She is widely seen as an ultra liberal and a theological revisionist. My own reading of some of her statements and some of the public prayers she has uttered suggest that she is not far removed from Unitarianism. The letter expresses a willingness to restore contacts with those Episcopalians who “remain faithful to the gospel’s moral teachings.” The Russian Church severed all ties (purely of an ecumenical nature since the Orthodox do not hold communion with non-Orthodox) in 2003 following the consecration of V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire. Robinson is a divorced man openly living in a homosexual relationship. Just what all this portends is something we will have to wait and see. But it might prove interesting to watch. Perhaps there might be some effort to bring some of these disaffected conservatives back into Orthodoxy. The Antiochian Archdiocese has an active Western Rite Vicarate. Let us pray!

Big hat tip to Fr. Huneycutt over at Orthodixie.