[quote author=peterfarrington link=topic=7200.msg99229#msg99229 date=1231768764] It does seem that the fathers of Mount Athos are very resistant to the efforts being made to reconcile the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox communions. Indeed the statements which they have made are very robust, and might even cause offense to Oriental Orthodox.
Yesterday I briefly went through A Memorandum of the Sacred Community of Mount Athos regarding EO-OO dialogue. Main concerns as I can see are ecclesiogical issues (acceptance of Ecumenical Councils). The only refferences to the Christology issue were on usage of phrases: "The one unified theanthropic nature" "natures are distinguished only in thought"
[quote author=peterfarrington link=topic=7200.msg99229#msg99229 date=1231768764] If we put aside any such feelings for the sake of doing God's will, then we can see that the issue appears to be a lack of understanding of our Oriental Orthodox faith. And where such animosity is due to a misunderstanding then we might hope that in God's will and in God's time such a lack of understanding can be resolved. This seems rather widespread among those Eastern Orthodox who are dead set against even talking with our own bishops and fathers. And of course where there is misunderstanding then there is a greater difficulty in having an open-hearted dialogue because these Eastern Orthodox already believe they know exactly what we ourselves believe and teach.
Though I have been in discussion with Eastern Orthodox for over 14 years now, and I found some of my earliest posts online a while ago back in 1994, I think that I have learned that arguments never achieve very much and just cause spiritual indigestion. I would rather discuss these things with those who disagree but are willing to be generous and open-hearted so that we understand each other better even while still disagreeing than hope to convert even one person to my way of thinking by the skill of my arguments.
On the negative side, many of the arguments of those Eastern Orthodox who wish to argue about these things are based on error and ignorance, and on a very limited set of phrases and texts from our tradition, taken out of context, rather than from a properly thorough understanding of our fathers. On the positive side, even the fathers of Mount Athos invited Metropolitan Bishoy to address them in 2004, and he was able to present four papers to the fathers of the Monastery of St Gregory on Mount Athos and received a detailed written reply.
I recently read a paper written by a Russian Orthodox cleric which had been presented to our Holy Synod and was highly critical of St Severus and of our Christology. Yet the paper, clearly written by a committed Christian, was full of errors of fact and understanding, and it was this failure to understand which had driven the Russian priest to write so critically. While division is based on misunderstanding there is always the possibility of coming to a right understanding and discovering agreement and unity, so we should not give up hope that the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ - 'that they may be one' - might be fulfilled even in our own times.
In Christ Jesus
Peter
As far as I know, i can agree with this.
Our unity will be a great work, a great miracle of the God. Therefore we need to pray Our Lord and Saviour JEsus Christ to bless our efforts, to open our eyes to see, to enable our ears to hear eachother, to open our minds to understand each other, and to open our hearts to accept the True.
Am I the only person who thinks the Chalcedon and the split was more a political situation than a theological one? I seriously think it was a one of the biggest mistakes the Churches ever made.
You are correct, it was over semantics, BUT we are still none the less, not in communion with each other yet unfortunately
Romanian Orthodox Church, and Antioch Orthodox Church, are strip undeserved ANATHEMA with the holy Bishop Dioskor. A Chalcedonian complimenting Saint Dioscorus? Not only that, but calling him Holy? :o
Comments
It does seem that the fathers of Mount Athos are very resistant to the efforts being made to reconcile the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox communions. Indeed the statements which they have made are very robust, and might even cause offense to Oriental Orthodox.
Yesterday I briefly went through A Memorandum of the Sacred Community of Mount Athos regarding EO-OO dialogue. Main concerns as I can see are ecclesiogical issues (acceptance of Ecumenical Councils). The only refferences to the Christology issue were on usage of phrases:
"The one unified theanthropic nature"
"natures are distinguished only in thought"
[quote author=peterfarrington link=topic=7200.msg99229#msg99229 date=1231768764]
If we put aside any such feelings for the sake of doing God's will, then we can see that the issue appears to be a lack of understanding of our Oriental Orthodox faith. And where such animosity is due to a misunderstanding then we might hope that in God's will and in God's time such a lack of understanding can be resolved. This seems rather widespread among those Eastern Orthodox who are dead set against even talking with our own bishops and fathers. And of course where there is misunderstanding then there is a greater difficulty in having an open-hearted dialogue because these Eastern Orthodox already believe they know exactly what we ourselves believe and teach.
Though I have been in discussion with Eastern Orthodox for over 14 years now, and I found some of my earliest posts online a while ago back in 1994, I think that I have learned that arguments never achieve very much and just cause spiritual indigestion. I would rather discuss these things with those who disagree but are willing to be generous and open-hearted so that we understand each other better even while still disagreeing than hope to convert even one person to my way of thinking by the skill of my arguments.
On the negative side, many of the arguments of those Eastern Orthodox who wish to argue about these things are based on error and ignorance, and on a very limited set of phrases and texts from our tradition, taken out of context, rather than from a properly thorough understanding of our fathers. On the positive side, even the fathers of Mount Athos invited Metropolitan Bishoy to address them in 2004, and he was able to present four papers to the fathers of the Monastery of St Gregory on Mount Athos and received a detailed written reply.
I recently read a paper written by a Russian Orthodox cleric which had been presented to our Holy Synod and was highly critical of St Severus and of our Christology. Yet the paper, clearly written by a committed Christian, was full of errors of fact and understanding, and it was this failure to understand which had driven the Russian priest to write so critically. While division is based on misunderstanding there is always the possibility of coming to a right understanding and discovering agreement and unity, so we should not give up hope that the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ - 'that they may be one' - might be fulfilled even in our own times.
In Christ Jesus
Peter
As far as I know, i can agree with this.
Our unity will be a great work, a great miracle of the God. Therefore we need to pray Our Lord and Saviour JEsus Christ to bless our efforts, to open our eyes to see, to enable our ears to hear eachother, to open our minds to understand each other, and to open our hearts to accept the True.
[quote author=jydeacon link=topic=7200.msg95466#msg95466 date=1223840778]
[quote author=epchois_nai_nan link=topic=7200.msg95442#msg95442 date=1223794164]
Am I the only person who thinks the Chalcedon and the split was more a political situation than a theological one? I seriously think it was a one of the biggest mistakes the Churches ever made.
You are correct, it was over semantics, BUT we are still none the less, not in communion with each other yet unfortunately
Romanian Orthodox Church, and Antioch Orthodox Church, are strip undeserved ANATHEMA with the holy Bishop Dioskor.
A Chalcedonian complimenting Saint Dioscorus? Not only that, but calling him Holy? :o
Well, cool. 8)