I am sure the blogger means well, but he so badly misunderstands the Orthodox Church, Russian or otherwise, that it is really just bizarre. wow.
Makes me wonder if other Anglicans see the Orthodox Church in this way? If so, the best thing that can come out of any dialogue is just basic education.
The DNA of Anglicanism predisposes toward Roman Catholicism, even though the classical Anglican view of the Eucharist is closer to the Orthodox view.
Anglican-Orthodox dialogue reached its peak in 1920s-early 1930s. Once modernism put Anglicanism on a slippery slope to heresy, there was nothing more to talk about.
This is yet another reason why we need to hurry and get the jurisdictional issues ironed out. Until we do, the complicated history and apparent contradictions of having multiple Bishops serve the same areas all act as a stumbling block and point of confusion for outsiders - as well as being a weak point that can be exploited by Satan, other 'flavors' of Christianity, or a combination of the two!
John, to add to your comment about the 39 Articles, I'd say that Anglicans need to be careful about viewing the Articles' content as dogmatic, rather than historical.
First, Bp. Pike made them look like fools when he called for a heresy trial. The Anglican response to Pike's challenge was the lame assertion that heresy was an outdated conception. The dogmatic content in the Articles, if any, apparently wasn't worth defending.
Second, my familiarity with, and affection for, Anglicanism comes from several Oxford Movement acquaintances, who had no problem in cherry-picking the more Catholic Articles and leaving the Calvinist Articles for the low churchers.
The difficult problem with Anglicans' converting to Orthodoxy isn't dogma, but tradition. Do you think that Anglo-Caths really have an issue with getting rid of Calvinism, female ordination, and the filioque? More likely, they'd want to keep their familiar Solemn Masses, hymns, and roods.
Alice is right. The big dialog was at its modest zenith 80 years ago, and with almost enough Anglicans to count on both hands. Now you'd have to throw in a foot as well, but the Orthodox are more naive than before. Somehow we tend to think that Anglicans really WANT to be Orthodox when most of them just want to be left alone. If perchance the WANT what the Church has they'll find it and embrace it. Gang by gang doesn't work as well as one by one, though. Despite having some big names on those dialogs over the decades they have come to zilch for actual "relations" between groups of Christians.
uh. what you said.
ReplyDeleteI am sure the blogger means well, but he so badly misunderstands the Orthodox Church, Russian or otherwise, that it is really just bizarre. wow.
Makes me wonder if other Anglicans see the Orthodox Church in this way? If so, the best thing that can come out of any dialogue is just basic education.
The DNA of Anglicanism predisposes toward Roman Catholicism, even though the classical Anglican view of the Eucharist is closer to the Orthodox view.
ReplyDeleteAnglican-Orthodox dialogue reached its peak in 1920s-early 1930s. Once modernism put Anglicanism on a slippery slope to heresy, there was nothing more to talk about.
This is yet another reason why we need to hurry and get the jurisdictional issues ironed out. Until we do, the complicated history and apparent contradictions of having multiple Bishops serve the same areas all act as a stumbling block and point of confusion for outsiders - as well as being a weak point that can be exploited by Satan, other 'flavors' of Christianity, or a combination of the two!
ReplyDeleteJohn, to add to your comment about the 39 Articles, I'd say that Anglicans need to be careful about viewing the Articles' content as dogmatic, rather than historical.
ReplyDeleteFirst, Bp. Pike made them look like fools when he called for a heresy trial. The Anglican response to Pike's challenge was the lame assertion that heresy was an outdated conception. The dogmatic content in the Articles, if any, apparently wasn't worth defending.
Second, my familiarity with, and affection for, Anglicanism comes from several Oxford Movement acquaintances, who had no problem in cherry-picking the more Catholic Articles and leaving the Calvinist Articles for the low churchers.
The difficult problem with Anglicans' converting to Orthodoxy isn't dogma, but tradition. Do you think that Anglo-Caths really have an issue with getting rid of Calvinism, female ordination, and the filioque? More likely, they'd want to keep their familiar Solemn Masses, hymns, and roods.
Alice is right. The big dialog was at its modest zenith 80 years ago, and with almost enough Anglicans to count on both hands. Now you'd have to throw in a foot as well, but the Orthodox are more naive than before. Somehow we tend to think that Anglicans really WANT to be Orthodox when most of them just want to be left alone. If perchance the WANT what the Church has they'll find it and embrace it. Gang by gang doesn't work as well as one by one, though.
ReplyDeleteDespite having some big names on those dialogs over the decades they have come to zilch for actual "relations" between groups of Christians.