Friday, June 05, 2009

New Orthodox Church in Rome

The Russian Orthodox Church has a new church in Rome. There are some very nice pictures here.

Hat tip: Rorate Caeli & Carlos Antonio Palad

Caution: If you go to the Rorate post on the new church be prepared for the usual snarky anti-Orthodox comments.

11 comments:

VSO said...

Read the Rotate Coeli comments, and coming from them it's a compliment.

Visibilium said...

Thanks for your advertisement. I'm pretty fainthearted, but I wandered over to take a peek anyway. I even posted a nice ecumenical comment.

David Nandell said...

If only we Roman's would take your liturgy as our own.

Sigh.

John (Ad Orientem) said...

Rome would be better off trying to reclaim her own legitimate liturgical heritage. Orthodoxy doesn't want Rome to become Byzantine. We want Rome to become Orthodox.

"Never, never, never let anyone tell you that, in order to be Orthodox, you must also be eastern. The West was Orthodox for a thousand years, and her venerable liturgy is far older than any of her heresies."

-St. John Maximovitch of Shanghai & San Francisco

Anonymous said...

"usual snarky anti-orthodox comments", eh? spare me. as if the orthodox don't dish out heaping spoonfuls of snark.

let's see, how does your church continue to react to our presence in russia? ...

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/journalism/russia/feature_kodi.html

John (Ad Orientem) said...

I very rarely see snide comments about Roman Churches in Russia from fellow Orthodox. The uniate ones are a different story. But the Roman churches we usually just ignore. I wonder how many Roman churches there are in Moscow as opposed to the two(?) Orthodox churches in Rome, one of them being a chapel annex to the Russian embassy.

Personally I think its a non-issue. We don't belong to the same church. and I really don't care what you all do as long as you don't engage in aggressive proselytizing. Which for the most part I believe is rare in either church.

In ICXC
John

Teena H. Blackburn said...

I was a Roman Catholic for many years, and have been Orthodox for six. The issue of "proselytizing" is a weird one for me. There is a young man on the Rorate Caeli site saying Orthodox are not a missionary church. If we are not a missionary church, then we are not behaving as the Church of the Apsotles, who if I remember correctly, actively tried to convert people. There are unethical ways to attempt this process-bribery and the like, We have to reject this. However, I would expect any church that claims to be The Church to charitably but actively try to bring people into the fold, including those we think of as schismatic. This means the Romans will try to convert us and vice versa. Freedom of conscience and religion are very important. A person must be able to seek for the truth and conform themselves to it once they have decided on what the truth is. If Orthodoxy is the Ark of Salvation, then it is unloving to not try to bring all men to Her. I would expect Rome to feel the same. Throw it all out there with confidence and let people decide what they believe!

Anonymous said...

i guess it depends on your definition of "aggressive". if a church doesn't proselytize, then ultimately what's the point of its faith? we're called to draw men to Christ, not look down on the pegans from the towers. on the other hand, too "aggressive" is counter-productive because it often leads to hardening of hearts and minds to whatever preconceived ideas they held before. tweak the delivery, not the message.

both of our churches need to get more aggressive with the secular world; there are many common concerns that needn't involve docternal arguments. then we can turn our knives on each other.

Anonymous said...

by the way, john, for all the time you've spent posting at rorate, i'd say you care a *little* about what we do ;)

John (Ad Orientem) said...

by the way, john, for all the time you've spent posting at rorate, i'd say you care a *little* about what we do ;)

LOL
A fair point. Perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that my interest is largely limited to those points which touch on Orthodoxy. I used to be a Roman though and do not harbor the sharp prejudices of some Orthodox against the RCC.

But neither do I entertain any real hope of restoration of communion. I think your suggestion is a good one. We should cooperate where we can and agree to civilly disagree where matters of doctrine are concerned.

In ICXC
John

Andrea Elizabeth said...

The Church reminds me of Holy Trinity at Jordanville.