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Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us
Browsing All Posts filed under »The division of East and West«
Reforming the Papacy – a Few Considerations
In Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, amen. Suscipe, Sancte Pater. Some say that the Ecumenical Struggle (‘Movement’) has reached an impasse. Much consensus has been made on many issues, but without an ecclesiastical organ with enough authority to bring everyone together to assent to these consensi, division will continue. More Christians may be […]
Is the Papacy a Constitutive Element of the Church?
January 14, 2013
In Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, amen. Suscipe, Sancte Pater. This is the question that arises from the ecclesiastical affirmations of Vatican II’s Unitatis Redintegratio and the subsequent post-conciliar magisterial teachings. This is because, on the one hand, when referring to the Protestant ‘ecclesiastical communities,’ the CDF interprets Unitatis Redintegratio as saying that […]
Vivificat! weighs in beautifully on Orthodox-Catholic Unity
September 5, 2012
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I am so incredibly pleased by the balance and objectivity of my Catholic brother over at his blog Vivificat! So I want to repost it here. He is beginning a series on “The Similarities between the East and the West.” It begins thusly: Similarity #1: Both the Eastern Orthodox and […]
Sanctity: the Whole Basis for and Telos of Christian Unity (and all of Christian life, especially dogma)
May 28, 2012
In Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, amen. Suscipe, Sancte Pater. Wondrous is God in his Saints, the God of Israel. The purpose of the Church is to worship God. In order to worship Him truly, we must become Saints—to subject our whole being to Him in worship. When Christians do this, there is […]
The Procession of the Holy Spirit – Approaching with the right Spirit
May 21, 2012
In Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, amen. Suscipe, Sancte Pater. In our class ‘Survey of the Eastern Tradition’ in a program devoted to Ecumenical studies, it is inevitable that the wearying question of the Filioque would need to be addressed. I dreaded this, not because of its divisive nature per se, but especially […]
Not By the Hair of My Chinny Chin Chin
May 13, 2012
In Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, amen. Christian Doctrine, Multi-Culturalism, and Beards A very brief introduction From the earliest times the Church was diverse. At the day of Pentecost, not one language was spoken by the Holy Spirit, but all languages. Therefore the basic Trinitarian principle was revealed with the coming of the […]
Eastern Orthodox Caricatures of Western Orthodoxy
May 7, 2012
Since at least the time of Vladimir Lossky it has become something of a fixed idea of modern Orthodox theology that Western theology has traditionally forgotten the biblical truth that the unity of the Trinity flows from the paternal arche and come to believe instead that what constitutes the unity of God is an impersonal […]
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware: straight talk from an Englishman goes a long way towards mutual understanding
February 28, 2012
In 1904, Ecumenical Patriarch Joachim III the Magnificent was writing letters to his Orthodox brother bishops. He was seeking to bring the Orthodox churches together in order to engage the Western churches in ecumenical endeavors. In his encyclical of that year, he wrote: Lest we be charged with indifference for our [non-Orthodox] brethren who are […]
The Prodigal Family Part Three: the elder son
February 12, 2012
Please read the introduction. The Orthodox Church and Ecumenism In its address to the emperor in 681, the Sixth Ecumenical Council assembled at Constantinople declared that it was assembled and promulgated according to a customary cooperation between Emperor and Pope. It cited the work of Emperor St. Constantine and Pope St. Sylvester in calling Nicaea […]
The Prodigal Family: one possible way of understanding Christian division
February 12, 2012
A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted […]
February 4, 2013
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