Interview with Metropolitan Tikhon, Primate of Orthodox Church in America, during visit to Russia

"Orthodoxy in the United States attracts very many converts" (Interfax-Religion, November 23, 2016). Son of an atheist father an ordained Anglican priest(ess) mother, Tikhon offers his opinion about the recent presidential campaign in the United States, the ongoing crisis in the Ukraine, and some interesting facts abut Orthodoxy in America.

[Hat tip to J. Likoudis]

Wow!

Fr. Z, "Of scapulars, devotions and Russian jet fighters" (Fr. Z's Blog, November 26, 2015):

Some people are quite disciplined in the matter of wearing a scapular. This comes from Latin scapulae, shoulder blades. Scapulars are garments, usually associated with religious habits, which fall down from the shoulders, mostly over the rest of the habit. Another kind of scapular is small, on strings, which symbolically substitutes for the larger scapular. There are different kinds of scapulars which are spiritual aids in various ways. They generally are a symbol of a relationship through which we derive spiritual protection and aid. Probably the most commonly used scapular is the brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

BTW… once you are “enrolled” and given the brown scapular, if and when your scapular wears out, simply replace it. You don’t have to have the new one blessed.
I am not sure if Eastern Catholics and Orthodox have such things, but a reader alerted me to something which she thought was rather like a Western scapular.


At The Daily Mail there are many photos concerning the destruction of a Russian jet fighter by the Turks. The pilots were killed as they parachuted. Among the photos are the pilots’ effects, including this, which I flipped and cropped:

Fr. Kimel goes East

Teófilo de Jesús (Vivificat, June 14, 2011) writes:

Brethren, according to the blog Titus One Nine, hosted by the Reverend Canon Doctor Kendall Harmon, Fr. Al Kimel, who once was an Episcopal priest, and then was received in the Catholic Church, has again moved and this time to Eastern Orthodoxy. Apparently he was ordained last Pentecost Sunday as a Western Rite priest in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). Father Kimel was a frequent commentator and a guest writer here in Vivificat, and once had his own, highly-regarded blog.

Rev. Harmon writes: "For those of you who may not know, Al is the former rector of Holy Communion, Charleston, S.C. In 1998 it was written about him:

Father Alvin Kimel, Jr. became the 15th rector of the parish in November 1996. He is a scholar and accomplished liturgist. His efforts include an emphasis on improving music to complement the choral Eucharist and to generally raise the beauty of worship. Father Kimel is a superb teacher from the pulpit, in the classroom, and by published worship aid always available in the Church. He is well on his way to a successful ministry and the future of the Church of the Holy Communion looks bright.

"A number of years later, Al wrote about himself:

Al Kimel... was a parish priest in the Episcopal Church for twenty-five years. He has published articles in the Anglican Theological Review, Sewanee Theological Review, Interpretation, Scottish Journal of Theology, Worship, Faith & Philosophy, Pro Ecclesia, and First Things. He has also edited two books: Speaking the Christian God and This is My Name Forever. He began [the blog] Pontifications in March 2004 as a way to reflect on the meaning of the Church and to invite others to share in these reflections. In June 2005 he entered into full communion with the Catholic Church. On 3 December 2006 he was ordained a priest in the Catholic Church. He is currently serving as the lay Catholic chaplain at Kean University in Union, New Jersey."

[Hat tip to Sean Fagan]

Orthodox to discuss papal primacy

Sandro Magister, "'The Pope Is the First Among the Patriarchs.' Just How Remains to Be Seen" (www.chiesa, Jan. 25, 2010): "With Benedict XVI, for the first time in history, the Orthodox have agreed to discuss the primacy of the bishop of Rome, according to the model of the first millennium, when the Church was undivided. Never before seen: the outline of the dialogue.":

ROME, January 25, 2010 – This evening, with vespers in the basilica of Saint Paul's Outside the Walls, Benedict XVI is closing the week of prayer for Christian unity.

There are some who say that ecumenism has entered a phase of retreat and chill. But as soon as one that looks to the East, the facts say the opposite. Relations with the Orthodox Churches have never been so promising as they have since Joseph Ratzinger has been pope....

Read more ...

A Catholic headed toward Orthodoxy thinks twice

Jay Dyer, "My Retraction of Eastern Orthodoxy" (Nicene Truth, June 25, 2008), is a long discussion by a Catholic who decided not to follow the path of Rod Dreher into Eastern Orthodoxy. Here he tells us why. Substantively.

[Hat tip to Fr. Al Kimel]

Russian Orthodox Bishop: Hell only temporary

Dan Valenti, "World Mercy Congress 'Catches Fire'. Is hell the weigh station to heaven?" (Examiner.com, April 5, 2008):

ROME, April 5, 2008 /PRNewswire/.

In a stunning ecumenical moment at the Catholic Church's first-ever World Congress on Divine Mercy, Russian Orthodox Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, bishop of Vienna and Austria, told a rapt audience of 8,000 that God's love places no limit on his mercy toward humanity, even to the point of imposing a temporal limit on hell.

[Hat tip to S.F.]

Troubles in Orthodoxy

Things have apparently been building to a crisis until, finally, the faculty of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in New York have issued this statement on March 31, 2008. There is also this report by Orthodox Christians for Accountability, though it isn't too illuminating. If anyone is able and cares to fill us in on the details of the "Alaskan situation," we should be grateful.

[Hat tip to S.F.]

Moscow Reacts

Metropolitan Kirill comments on the Vatican's controversial document on ecclesiology, offering a rather favorable Russian Orthodox reaction to the Holy See's document on the Church, published July 10. Kirill basically states that the Vatican's "honest" position furthers dialogue ("Moscow Reacts," Inside the Vatican Newsflash, July 11, 2007):

"For an honest theological dialogue to happen, one should have a clear view of the position of the other side," because "it helps understand how different we are," he said. Basically, the Vatican's current document has nothing new and is in "full conformity with the doctrine of the Catholic Church," Metropolitan Kirill said.

Now there's a clear-headed response that bodes well for genuine ecumenical dialogue and better mutual understanding!

[Hat tip to S.F.]

Anti-Western Orthodoxy, again

Even while objecting to Rod Dreher's defection for Eastern Orthodoxy, which we discussed as a question under a larger consideration of the question of "Apostasy (αποστασία)" (Musings, December 16, 2006), one might sympathize with his complaints about how troubling and confusing things seem to be aboard the Barque of St. Peter at times. Perhaps you recall his laundry list of complaints -- sex scandal, poor catechesis, infighting, ambiguity, etc., etc.

Yet, having said that, when not being in communion with the Bishop of Rome becomes the sine qua non of one's identity as an Orthodox Christian, one may begin to question what master he serves. We examined the phenomenon of "Anti-Western Orthodoxy" back in Musings, January 26, 2005. And I've just received notice of an article entitled "Mount Athos Objects to Ecumenical Openness" by George Weigel recounting how dismayed the Athonite monks were with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the way he treated his Roman guest, Pope Benedict XVI, in Constantinople last December.

Why? Because, the monks complained, "the Pope was received as though he were the canonical bishop of Rome." There were other complaints, but that was the first listed in a statement released last December 30 by the Assembly of Representatives and Superiors of the twenty monasteries: Why was Bartholomew treating Benedict as though the latter were, in fact, the bishop of Rome?

If we can't agree on that much, we may have a little problem.

"St Gregory Palamas: orthodoxor or innovator?"

Al Kimel, over at Pontifications, has posted a fascinating excerpt from "Theosis and Gregory Palamas: Continuity or Doctrinal Change?" (St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 50:4 [2006]) by Norman Russell. See "St Gregory Palamas: orthodoxor or innovator?" (Pontifications, March 28, 2007).

East meets West, Orthodoxy meets Likoudis

James Likoudis, an Eastern Orthodox convert to Catholicism, has been hard at work. For many years a close associate of Catholics United for the Faith, he has been involved in a variety of undertakings. In 1981 he co-authored with Kenneth D. Whitehead a response to Lefebvrist criticisms of the Second Vatican Council and the reformed liturgy, which has been updated by Emmaus Road Publishing last year, The Pope, the Council, and the Mass, Revised Edition (3rd ed., 2006). He has also gone solo with a critical review of Christopher A. Ferrara and Thomas A. Woods' The Great Facade: Vatican II and the Regime of Novelty in the Roman Catholic Church (2002).

Whatever one may think of Likoudis' work in such undertakings, his forté clearly lies in his apologetical work vis-à-vis his own religious and theological background of Eastern Orthodoxy. I remember over a decade ago first encountering his apologia in summary form in his personal testimony concerning his conversion to Catholicism in an essay entitled "To Be Truly Orthodox Is to Be in Communion with Peter's See" in an anthology entitled Spiritual Journeys Toward the Fullness of Faith, edited by Robert Baram (1987). The essay struck me concise, cogent and compelling. I also remember finding chapters I thought important in his book, Ending the Byzantine Greek Schism: Containing: the l4th c. Apologia of Demetrios Kydones for Unity With Rome & the 'Contra errores Graecorum' of St. Thomas Aquinas (1992).

That, however, is only the beginning of Likoudis' work on the question of Eastern Orthodoxy. The divine primacy of the bishop of Rome and modern Eastern Orthodoxy: Reply to a former Catholic (1999) provides what is probably the most thoroughgoing examination in English of the major objections made by Eastern dissidents to Catholic doctrines. In the words of Robert Fastiggi, "With a serene confidence gained by years of research, [Likoudis] calmly shows how most of the objections leveled by the Orthodox against the Catholic Faith are based on historical distortions, theological stereotypes, and suppression of counterevidence."

Likoudis' latest work, Eastern Orthodoxy and the See of Peter: A Journey Towards Full Communion (2006), provides probably the most comprehensive analysis of Eastern Orthodoxy from a Catholic perspective available in English. Beginning with three autobiographical chapters, Likoudis proceeds, in ten more chapters and two appendices, to furnish the reader with ample material for a profound appreciation of the gift of the papacy. These chapters treat not only the well-rehearsed areas of disagreement, but bring into focus areas of difference on the doctrines of original sin, Immaculate Conception, contraception, etc. Due in no small part to his own background and conversion from Orthodoxy to Catholicism, there is probably no other English writer who has so exhaustively explored Catholic-Orthodox issues. This last book of the Likoudis trilogy is the fruit of more than fifty years of reflection and way well represent the culmination of his work in this venue. Likoudis' work is testimony to how the Holy Spirit has guided and continues to guide the See of St. Peter.

Of related interest:

• Reviews The Divine Primacy of the Bishop of Rome and Modern Eastern Orthodoxy [Scroll to bottom of linked page.]
  
  
• Reviews of Eastern Orthodoxy and the See of Peter [Scroll to bottom of linked page.]
  
  
• Fr. Ray Ryland's review of Eastern Orthodoxy and the See of Peter (Crisis magazine, Dec. 2006)

  Excerpt: Likoudis calls our attention to a seldom-mentioned fact and sees in it “great hope” for the reconciliation of the separated Eastern Churches with the Catholic Church. The fact is this: No Eastern Orthodox rejection or questioning of Catholic doctrine, not even by their rejection of papal supremacy, is “binding in conscience on all Eastern Orthodox . . . .” Why? Because not a single Eastern Orthodox variation from Catholic teaching has ever been taught by what they claim as their final authority, an ecumenical council. For this reviewer, the implication is clear: The entire Eastern Orthodox apologetic—insofar as it deviates from Catholic teaching—on its own terms is necessarily and purely private opinion.

• Vladamir Soloviev, The Russian Church and the Papacy, ed. Fr. Ray Ryland (2002) [Hailed as a tour de force in apologetics, this is a powerful defense of the papacy by a Russian theologian with an encyclopedic knowledge of world and Church history.]