ACNA'09: Metropolitan Jonah calls for Full Communion With New Anglican Province

By Michael Heidt
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org
6/24/2009

http://tinyurl.com/lj8bya


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?

END

posted:
Nick Berezniak