The Finns Again

March 10, 2015 (Source: http://ortodoksi.net)

Met. Ambrosius of the autonomous Finnish Church under the Ecumenical Patriarchate is well-known as a very liberal bishop, even among the other liberal bishops of the very liberal Finnish Church of the liberal Ecumenical Patriarchate.  Recently, Met. Ambrosius, who has been noted as a supported of ‘gay rights’, and ‘inclusion of women in ordination’, etc, invited a Finnish Lutheran female bishop into the altar during an ordination he was performing; he even commanded his deacons to commemorate the Lutheran bishopress.  Complete with an organization such as the “Orthodox Rainbow Society” and their report encouraging ‘discussion’ and ‘re-evaluation’ of traditional dogmas, the recent report and conference held on marriage is not surprising.

The American Greek Archimandrite John Paneleimon Manoussakis stated that “when the rule about priestly celibacy was overruled with the reformation, it was the first step towards the goal, that we are now about to give marital status also to homosexual couples.”

The “Marriage Seminar” was hosted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Diocese of Helsiniki.

Met. Ambrosius has made additional statements encouraging more ecumenism with the Finnish Lutherans and other groups.

The teachings of Met. Ambrosius, the Finnish group under the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as well as the Ecumenical Patriarchate, on these issues of morality as well as their embrace of modernistic and ecumenistic theology is rejected by True Orthodox Christian clergy and laity, who refuse to have any communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate or any group in union with it.

From NFTU. (Some additional links can be found on the source page.)
HT: Dr. Tighe

HUGE CAVEAT: NFTU is a schismatic website and anything posted there needs to be taken with a large dose of salt. Or, to put in Wikipedia language, it is not a reliable source. That said, there is just no denying that the Finnish Church went off the rails some years ago. They represent the closest thing we have to an "Episcopalian" style Orthodoxy. The Russian Church has very chilly relations with them.

Another Scandal in the Finnish Orthodox Church

Helsinki: Orthodox Metropolitan Ambrosius of Helsinki of the Finnish Orthodox Church invited Female Evangelical Lutheran bishop Irja Askola to Altar with him during Clergy ordination at the Sunday Divine Liturgy. This has sparked much controversy. He also ordered the Deacons to pray for the Lutheran woman bishop during litany. This has angered several Orthodox faithful. Archbishop Leo- Primate of the Finnish Orthodox Church has condemned the incident and has asked Metropolitan to clarify the issue before considering any measures against him. Major Finnish newspapers have reported the incident. Archbishop Leo have released an official statement on the controversial incident which is available at the official website of the Finnish Church.

From here.
More links can be found at the referring website.

Anaxios!

Archbishop Leo of Finland: Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches form fullness of Orthodoxy

Helsinki: In his speech during the reception provided to the Patriarchs of Alexandria on 23rd June 2014, Archbishop Leo of Karelia and All Finland stated that Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches form the fullness of Orthodoxy. He also recalled that late lamented Patriarch Athenagoras, always stressed on the true essence and fullness of Orthodoxy in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches.

Archbishop Leo stressed that the relationship between the Church of Finland and Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate is very deep. There are large numbers of Coptic communities living in different parts of Finland. He recalled meeting with the predecessors of Coptic (Pope Shenouda III) and Alexandrian Patriarchates (Parthenius III & Peter VII).

The Primate of Finnish Church thanked Pope Tawadros II and Pope Theodore II for their historical visit to Finland and blessed presence in the country.

Several Orthodox Prelates, faithful and high level delegations from different organizations attended the events.

Source

Finland sends a priest to the European Parliament

I have mentioned in previous posts some disturbing goings on in the Finnish Orthodox Church. (here & here). Now there is an article in the New York Times about a Finnish Orthodox Priest who has been elected to the European Parliament. The Times notes that he has been suspended (though they do not use that term). But they also seem to have gone almost out of their way to avoid any discussion of what his positions are on political matters.

Indeed there is not a single political issue mentioned anywhere. I find it suspicious in the extreme that someone would write an entire article about an Orthodox priest elected as a European MP, taking note that his political affiliation is a left of center party and that the priest has been suspended, while declining to identify his position on any political issues. While much space is taken up with the good Father's opining that there is a long history dating to the days of the Empire of Orthodox clergy being involved in politics, not one sentence is devoted to explaining what his politics are.

Has Father Mitro sought election to public office in order to bear witness to Orthodox Christian moral values and spirituality in an environment that, I don't think would be unfair to characterize as a spiritual desert? Is he a missionary of God's Church to a body that seems to have forsaken God? For some reason my naturally cynical nature is telling me that if such were the case he would...

a) ...never have been elected in the first place.

and

b) If he were somehow elected the press (especially the Times) would either have ignored him or described him as a right wing extremist. I also strongly suspect that most of the other Euro MPs would have gone to great lengths to bar him from being seated in a body that is so notoriously anti-Christian that it has made repeated efforts to force the monks of Mt. Athos to permit women on the Holy Mountain and once refused to seat an elected MP who expressed as a matter of private religious belief that homosexual behavior was a sin.

All that said, I will forbear any judgment pending some clarification of his politics. But in the meantime you may color me highly skeptical.

Something is rotten in Finland (part II)

I have posted on this issue before. It appears that it is an ongoing problem in the Finnish Orthodox Church.

Via InterFax:

Helsinki, May 21, Interfax - The clerics of the Finnish Orthodox Church of the Constantinople Patriarchate are going to participate in the European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups Conference Courage to Follow the Law of Love which opened Tuesday in Järvenpää and Helsinki, Finland.

The participants will begin every day by attending the Orthodox service, and then going to sauna, the social movement Yhteys (Unity) which is fighting for the rights of sexual minorities, reports.

May 22, Helsinki University will host the open church seminar which will address the issues of homosexual relations. According to a published schedule, General Secretary of the Finnish Ecumenical Council Archpriest Heikki Huttunen will present his paper Homosexuality in the Orthodox theology.

In January issue of Aamun Koitto, this well-known priest of the Finnish Orthodox Church addressed at length his viewpoint on homosexual "marriage" as "the reflection of the Divine power and benign sexual source."

The clergy of Constantinople Patriarchate also intends to hold a discussion of the issues of spiritual integration of homosexuals into the Church. The subject matter of one session is entitled as Can a male priest fall in love to another man and live with him?

Source.

Here is a copy of the program.

Something is rotten in Finland

I am not going to belabor this excessively since it has been addressed by Owen the Ochlophobist. However it appears that some really serious problems are cropping up in the small Finnish Orthodox Church. The most serious is what appears to be an openly pro-homosexualist cadre of clergy, some of whom are very close to Archbishop Leo (the primate), that is pushing all kinds of liberal heresy. As Owen's post makes clear, the Russian Church is taking official note of this and does not appear disposed to ignore the efforts of some to create an Orthodox equivalent to the Epsicopal Church.

I hope that the world's other Orthodox churches will send messages of support to the Russian Synod and Patriarch Alexei in this matter while also urging Archbishop Leo to firmly address the very serious problems that appear to be threatening the church given to his care. It would be nice if the Ecumenical Patriarch (who seems always to be looking for reasons to intrude into the canonical territory of other Orthodox churches), would lend his support to this as well. For the canonical Primus Inter Pares this would seem to be the kind of situation that the Fathers had in mind for the exercise of a true Orthodox primacy.

I encourage all to read Owen's post linked above. Also check out the comments there for some links to other related reports.