Russian Orthodox tell Archbishop of Canterbury: ordain women bishops and you can forget about unity
Damian Thompson – 27/3/13
There’s a quaint Anglican concept of the universal Church known as the “branch theory”. This claims that there are three main branches to apostolic Christianity: Roman, Orthodox and Anglican. It’s much favoured by Church of England clerics who aren’t very keen on “Romans”, as they call Catholics, and convey their anti-Papist sentiment in pro-Orthodox code, forever banging on about the riches of Byzantine spirituality, the mystical power of icons, etc. Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London, is an example of this breed.
What these pro-Orthodox Anglicans don’t stress is that ordaining women priests was just as great an obstacle to unity with Constantinople and Moscow and it was to unity with Rome. And women bishops? Metropolitan Hilarion, head of ecumenical relations for the Moscow Patriarchate, delivered a pretty blunt message to the new Archbishop of Canterbury last weekend (H/T Gillibrand):
The introduction of the institution of female bishops will lead to the elimination of even a theoretical possibility of the Moscow patriarchate recognising the church hierarchy of the Anglican church, the communications service of the Department of External Church Relations reported on Saturday.
Even a theoretical possibility, note. This is exactly the same message coming from Rome (please don’t kid yourself that a change of Pope will make any difference). Of course, Hilarion’s warning won’t stop the C of E eventually ordaining women bishops, but let’s be clear about the consequences: the Orthodox Churches, following the lead of Moscow, will finally conclude that the Church of England is a protestant denomination with High liturgical trappings but outside the apostolic succession. Cue creaking of timber as the branch theory falls apart.
Ah, Damian Thompson with his customary charm. The Branch Theory is not some crude theory of the Church as a whole, but merely of the distribution of apostolic orders. It is not ‘quaint’ – in fact, it is very real. Even his precious Roman pope subscribes to it in recognizing the Eastern Orthodox Holy Orders as ‘valid’ (but ‘illicit’). Anglicans merely state that their orders, too, are valid, and this is clearly true of the male-line Anglican orders (since even at the height of the Reformation, continental clergy not ordained by a bishop in apostolic succession could not be received as priests in the Church of England).
Further, there are a great many Anglicans, if not the rather disappointing Church of England hierarchy, who note well that women priests and bishops cannot be reconciled with Christian unity. In any case, the classical Anglican view would hold that the General Synod of the Church of England simply did not and does not have the authority to rule, on its own, on such a question. Its having done so was a violation of its own principles as a body. Members of the Anglican Continuum have been wise to maintain Anglicanism, rather than pretending to keep it and joining an Ordinariate in which they must submit to the totality of Rome’s doctrinal demands.
I have to wonder about the Christian spirit of Thompson’s commentary. Its absence seems to go quite well with his apparent theological and ecclesiological illiteracy.
Most senior Anglicans in England will remember how Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev behaved in the Diocese of Sourozh when he was there as a newly-consecrated Bishop in 2002. It was so unacceptable and divisive that Metropolitan Anthony had to have him dismissed by the Holy Synod in Moscow and moved to another post within four months of his arrival. Hilarion then continued to work in the background, doing the bidding of his ecclesiastical and political masters, to destroy the Diocese of Sourozh. The Church of England knows this – it did not send even a suffragan bishop to the 50th Anniversary “celebrations” of the Diocese of Sourozh last autumn.
I doubt if the Church of England, other than perhaps Bishop Chartres, will pay any attention to what threats and bluster emerges from Hilarion’s mouth.
Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev speaks the truth. If the C of E ordians women bishops, it is over.
Any Orthodox prelate would say the same thing. Long live Metropolitan Hilarion!
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