Sunday, May 15, 2016

Panorthodox Synod : OUTLINES

Sharing for thought: Panorthodox Synod : OUTLINES OF AN ECUMENICAL ECCLESIOLOGY

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Dan Everiss

<oregdan@hotmail.com>
Sun, May 15, 2016 at 3:43 PM


From: info@saintedwardbrotherhood.org
Subject: Panorthodox Synod : OUTLINES OF AN ECUMENICAL ECCLESIOLOGY
Date: Sun, 15 May 2016 20:47:53 +0100
To:



Begin forwarded message:

From: Bishop Chrysostomos 
Subject: Re: Panorthodox Synod : OUTLINES OF AN ECUMENICAL ECCLESIOLOGY
Date: 14 May 2016 22:27:49 GMT+01:00
To: Archimandrite Glykerios 
Dear Father Glykerios:

Χριστὸς Ἀνέστη! Εὐλογεῖτε.

This is loosey-goosey ecclesiology. It can eventually lead to questions about the nature of Christ Himself. Since He is the Church—i.e., the Church is the very Body of Christ and the pillar of Truth—can we say that He contains within Himself the fullness of His Humanity and Divinity, but that “other Christs” may have “elements of the One, True Christ within them?” If such a Christological formula would cause consternation, why should we accept an equally perverse ecclesiology?

I may sound facetious, but the kind of thought presented below is incredibly theologically pernicious and simplistic.

Understate the unity and oneness of the Church and it stands to reason that you will eventually begin to pervert the Unity and Oneness of Christ, Whose Body the Church is, and quite literally. And if we do not believe in such a literal ecclesiology, then what will become of our Mysteriological theology and the Eucharistic tradition of the Church, since we believe that Christ is literally and truly present in the Eucharist. As one “domino" falls…. [Pun tragically intended.]

Is it to this that the Oecumenical Patriarchate has lowered itself?

Of course, being a fundamentalistic half-wit who eschews the lofty message of “ecumenispeak” (read: “babble”), I am sure that such simple issues as the ones that I raise will invite laughter. Imagine what our Internet Orthodox circles would have to say in their “beer”-reviewed wisdom. I am daily reminded, as I see developments in “modernist” Orthodoxy, of the Jester’s Folly, which dresses itself in Satan’s Sagacity. To affirm that God reaches man outside Orthodoxy is a matter of speculative ecclesiology. To impugn the uniqueness of Orthodoxy in this speculation, whatever the language used and however sincere the intention, is to defile the Church.

Father Georges Florovsky once told me that we should draw clear distinctions between a theology of facts and a theology of mere belief, just as we should not mistake theological speculation as anything more than a way to clarify dogma. Once we understand and then experience dogma, as he said, we must be ready to set aside our speculation. Dogma is self-evident, just as Patristic Truth is self-confirming. To dogmatize ecclesiological speculation into six principles foreign to Orthodox ecclesiology is alienate oneself from an experiential and Patristic ecclesiology.

Least Among Monks, † BC

———

On May 14, 2016, at 12:26 PM, Father Glykerios  wrote:

Exactly the same paper could have been written by the theologians of Vatican II
Now one question: in what exactly consists the fullness that the ORTHODOX Church has, and the other churches have not (yet?)

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