So in the Anglican Communion one can have women bishops, gay weddings (at least unofficially) and clergy who don’t believe in the creed (I realise these three issues are not necessarily related!) but leaving out the filioque is supposed to impress the Orthodox. Okaaaaay...
... which puts the whole thing in a nutshell.
4 comments:
Thank you so much for visiting me, and more, for leaving a comment. I do miss South Africa. Was there in 2004 on a globilization trip.
We were immersed in the apartheid movement.
Blessings....and come back at your leisure!
Ain't that the truth! I think the Orthodox (I am a former Anglican turned Orthodox) would almost prefer that they kept the filioque if they dropped the other stuff.
I suppose the dropping of the filioque says only that Unitarians don't believe in lots of things.
Some years ago I was at an Anglican synod where they decided to have bishops with overlapping jurisdictions, on the grounds that the Orthodox did in places like the USA.
They decided to drop the filioque as a sop to the Orthodox (but changed their minds when a legal adviser said that if they did so they could lose all their property to another denomination).
And they decided that women could be ordained to the diaconate (but didn't much care what the Orthodox would think of that).
It was very revealing, and one of the things that it revealed was that they did not think doctrine was important, so they could change it at whim. They did not understand, and did not care about the theological implications of keeping or dropping the filioque, though they cared a great deal about the financial and property implications.
In such circumstances, why should the Orthodox be impressed that they were willing to discuss the filioque? It's as useful as a contract signed by a person who does not have the mental capacity to understand it.
And so it continues -- when people object to the introduction of some doctrinal innovation, the intoducers say things like "We feel your hurt", which only makes it worse, because it's a lie, they don't feel anything of the kind, and it shows that they don't care or understand at all.
Wow...is it really as simple as a bunch of one liners that make you feel superior because you believe all the "right stuff" while behaving like a self righteous jerk and judging others? I think Jesus had a few things to say about that. You might want to check that out.
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