Posted by By Michael Heidt
on 6/26/2009, 12:24 am
ACNA'09: Metropolitan Jonah calls for Full Communion With New Anglican
Province
By Michael Heidt
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org
6/24/2009
Speaking on Wednesday morning to the ACNA Assembly, His Beatitude, Jonah,
Metropolitan of All America and Canada and leader of the Orthodox Church in
America (OCA), called for a "full... intercommunion" with the Anglican
Church in North America. "What will it take," he asked, "for a true
ecumenical reconciliation? That is what I am seeking by being with you
today."
This marks the potential resumption of an Orthodox/Anglican dialogue that
began a hundred years ago between two missionary bishops, St. Tikhon of
Moscow and Bishop Grafton of Fond du Lac, only to be broken off in the 1970s
with the ordination of women. Metropolitan Jonah spoke as the successor of
Tikhon, "I come to you as the successor of Tikhon... with the same openness,
the same invitation, the same love and desire to unify Anglicanism and
Orthodoxy."
What would it take for this reconciliation to occur? The Metropolitan was
explicit:.
Full affirmation of the orthodox Faith of the Apostles and Church Fathers,
the seven Ecumenical Councils, the Nicene Creed in its original form
(without the filioque clause inserted at the Council of Toledo, 589 A.D.),
all seven Sacraments and a rejection of 'the heresies of the Reformation."
His Beatitude listed these in a series of 'isms'; Calvinism,
anti-sacramentalism, iconoclasm and Gnosticism. The ordination of women to
the Presbyterate and their consecration as Bishops has to end if
intercommunion is to occur.
These are controversial words, especially given the make up of the Assembly,
which is admittedly divided on key issues such as the ordination of women,
the nature and number of the Sacraments and perhaps the essential character
of the Church itself. Still, the delegates welcomed his candor with
applause, perhaps because His Beatitude was self-evidently "speaking the
truth with love." Less controversially, he called for a true renunciation of
sin and immorality, "We must eliminate any shred of immorality in our
lives," not least because sin "kills and maims the soul," likewise
immorality, which destroys the soul and "demoralizes our culture." Coming
from a faith tradition fully alive to the aggressive threat of militant
Islam, the Metropolitan issued the following warning:; a culture demoralized
by immorality "cannot stand up to the strict asceticism of Islam."
He then spoke to the current blurring of gender identity. Homosexualism not
only "destroys authentic masculinity, it destroys authentic womanhood."
Again, "gay ideology is neither from nurture or nature... we cannot accept
their lifestyle or validate their unions." These are not something healthy,
but "something to be healed". His Beatitude was equally emphatic on
abortion, "Abortion not only rips out the soul of the fetus from the body of
a woman, it rips out her own soul also... We must stand together in an
absolute condemnation of abortion." The Assembly rose in thunderous
acclamation. There should be no doubt whatsoever that ACNA stands for the
life of the unborn child.
The Metropolitan's words on the unity of the Church were equally well
received. We must find, "unity of vision, unity of life, unity of being in
Jesus Christ" in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is to be found in true
orthodoxy, which means, for Jonah at least, not simply "right opinion", but
also "right glory", which is discovered in the worship of God. This gives
the faithful entry into the liturgy of the Angels and Saints as revealed to
Moses, Ezekiel and St. John, being a true participation on earth in the
worship of heaven. The same meeting of heaven and earth is to be found in
the Church; this "is not simply human, it is divine," and to be believed in
as we believe in Jesus Himself - not merely as a man made institution, who
may or may not "like the same prayer Book", but as the organic union of
Christians with Our Savior in the Body of Christ. Again, this met with
spontaneous applause.
The same approval was given to his Beatitude's description of faith and the
necessity of surrendering to Christ.
"Faith... is the knowledge of the heart (that) I have died and my life is
hidden in the heart of God... it is only Jesus that matters."
This means a total self-oblation:
"We have to surrender to God in the depths of our being," and this "is that
spiritual quest... to be transformed by the Spirit." The corollary of this
is radical forgiveness and a giving up of all resentments against those "who
have offended... abused... (and) slandered you... When you forgive like
that, you liken yourself to Jesus Christ."
This, in the end, was at the heart of Metropolitan's message. He called on
ACNA to embrace Christ in His totality - in His Church and Sacraments, in
the Faith and Morals handed down by Jesus Himself to the faithful throughout
the ages, and in that true repentance which is nothing other than complete
surrender of self to the mind and Person of Our Lord. With such a spirit in
place, his vision of unity between loyal Anglicans and Orthodoxy may be
realized. There can be no question that the invitation is on the table, and
the prize is big, nothing less than the recognized integration of the
Anglican Church in North America with historic Catholicism. Will ACNA rise
to the challenge?
Responses:
