Swiss theologian became an Orthodox
Moscow, August 31, Interfax – A well-known Swiss theologian, hieromonk Gabriel (Bunge) became an Orthodox before the divine service at the church of the “Joy to All the Afflicted” Icon on Bolshaya Ordynka Street in Moscow.
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations cordially greeted Fr. Gabriel who has lived a solitary life in the Swiss mountains for over thirty years, the DECR website reports.
“Your have been a Catholic, but an Orthodox deep in your heart. Today, before the All-Night Vigil, you have become an Orthodox, thus naturally completing a long spiritual way,” Metropolitan Hilarion said.
While congratulating Fr. Gabriel on this move, Metropolitan Hilarion presented him with an icon of the Mother of God called “Joy of All the Afflicted” to which the church in which Fr. Gabriel joined the Orthodox Church is dedicated.
[…] Joy of joys! A Swiss Catholic theologian, Hieromonk Gabriel Bunge, who devoted himself to solitude in order to dedicate himself to Christ, became an Orthodox Christian after participating in an all-night vigil in Moscow, Russia. Read more here from OBL News Blog. […]
For a Swiss theologian to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy — after being Roman Catholic for over 30 years — is indeed a good harbinger for the Eastern Orthodox Church.
These public conversions have the flavor of high-school football games and what do they really prove, and whom do they convince?
And what subject that needs to be convincing in a public forum? Has Orthodoxy degenerated to the point that it is a kind of “Orthodox Idol” popularity contest to see how many people we can crowd into a church, as Americans once delighted to crowd teenagers into phone booths back in the 60s?
We are in danger of losing the gospel that Christ came to preach and that he began after his 40 days in the desert.
In reading Fr Gabriel’s small volume on patristic prayer, the thought kept recurring, why does he not come where such practices and attitudes will be welcomed and fostered? And so he has. Welcome!