Two-and-a-Half Going on Fifteen

Right now, Katherine is in her bedroom listening to CDs on her stereo.

She wanted to turn up the volume in the living room while I was eating breakfast, but I told her that I didn't want to listen to loud music while I was eating. I told her that if she want to listen to loud music, she could go in her room and close the door and listen to music at whatever volume she wanted.

So far she's picked out some Duke Ellington, Stan Getz, Natalie Merchant, and Bob Dylan.

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Ecumenical Conversations between Orthodox and Episcopalians

His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah, the head of the Orthodox Church of America (OCA),* is moving and shaking. He has a zeal for reconciling the divisions among Christians, and his zealous leadership has captured my heart and admiration.

A while back, at a pan Orthodox service, he gave an impassioned sermon on the need for greater unity between Orthodox jurisdictions and for severing old-world administrative ties to create an independent Orthodox presence in America. It is about time!

More recently, he reopened conversations with Episcopalians. Speaking to the inaugural assembly of the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), Metropolitan Jonah addressed what would need to happen to bring unity between the two groups, saying "I am seeking an ecumenical restoration by being here today. [. . .] our arms are wide open."

At the same time, he did not make light of the difference between the groups and listed several things that the Anglican church would have to change in order to achieve true, full sacramental unity:

He gave an historical account of how the Episcopalians forced the dialogue to end by their actions and listed off (in "truth in love" and in a way "sure to offend some of you") about those things that they would have to do to if they wished to share the chalice. Most of you can guess what he listed: removal of the filioque, a rejection of Calvinism, no female ordinations, no gay marriage, and an extensive scholastic discussion about what unites and divides the two groups. In October at Nashotah House the OCA and the ACNA will meet to begin this dialogue. It is being billed as a picking up where the talks broke down and as such Metropolitan Jonah presented an icon of St. Tikhon to Archbishop-elect Duncan.

Read the full account given by an eye witness of the event here.

Anglicans would not have to adopt a Byzantine rite or abandon the Common Book of Prayer in order to achieve full communion with Orthodoxy. The Western Rite Orthodox parish I attend is a testimony to this aspect of Orthodox ecumenism. In the pan Orthodox sermon mentioned above, Metropolitan Jonah supported the Western Rite liturgical life saying "It doesn't matter if we are Eastern Rite or Western Rite, doesn't matter what the language in the service is...we are one indigenous Church." (Interestingly, Metropolitan Jonah is himself a former Anglican.)

Let's all pray fervently for unity within and between the major Christian traditions, east and west!


*A note regarding Orthodox organization: OCA is an autocephalus jurisdiction of Eastern Orthodox Christianity which originated out of the Russian Orthodox Church. Because of the Orthodox diaspora, there are other Orthodox jurisdictions within America as well, most of them still administratively under a patriarch in the old world. While we are an administrative muddle, we all share a common theology and are united communally. For more on the history of the Orthodox Church, see my previous post on this topic.

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About Untitled #78

As every toddler does, Katherine has her idiosyncrasies about various objects and activities. Some toddlers must shut all the doors. Others must arrange their stuffed animals just so.

Katherine must always have a coaster under her cup, even when she goes outside. This is why she carries a coaster in her purse. This is why in the picture in the post below she placed a coaster on the ground and then put her water bottle on it.

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