Russian Orthodox Patriarch praises Pope, criticizes liberal Protestants
If we are to witness the reestablishment of relations between the Orthodox and Roman Catholics in our lifetime, signs such as this are encouraging:
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, praised Pope Benedict and blasted Protestant bodies that have accepted women’s ordination and caved in to the secular culture on homosexuality.
Noting that the Pope is criticized by “liberal theologians and liberal mass media in the West,” Patriarch Kirill said that “on many public and moral issues his approach fully coincides with the approach of the Russian Orthodox Church. This gives us an opportunity to advocate Christian values together with the Catholic Church, in particular at international organizations and on the international arena.”
On the other hand, some Protestant bodies have “let sinful elements of the world enter their internal world and justify these elements, if they are offered by secular society … secular philosophical liberal stock phrases are repeated within Protestant churches and take root in religious thinking.”
For example, “the word of God is distorted to please the secular liberal standard” on homosexuality, the patriarch noted. “It is written in black and white that it is a sin.” (Catholic Culture)
This sort of public agreement between leaders of Christianity reminds me of the charter established by the Manhattan Declaration (which, by the way, is approaching half a million signatures).
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Ultimate Church unity and world peace will come when we UNIFY THE DATES OF EASTER, without compromising belief or structure, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has been asking the Church for more than 2 decades to take this easy first step towards real unity.
“If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.” (Mark 3:24)
“will I, brother, one more season go through the pain I have been going through year after year? or will you give Me rest this time? am I going to drink one more season the Cup of your division? or will you rest My Body and unify, for My sake, the Feast of Easter?
In unifying the date of Easter, you will alleviate My pain, brother, and you will rejoice in Me and I in you; and I will have the sight of many restored;” (Oct 14, 1991 TLIG)
LOVE FOR GOD IS MISSING.
Dialogues, rationalism and intellectualism will not bring about unity. Unity begins not with a signed treaty, but in the heart. All is possible with God and prayer is our contact with Him. Let us pray for the grace to truly repent, for the fruit of repentance is humility and love.
We need to allow the Holy Spirit to invade our minds and hearts so that He is able to direct us towards complete unity and peace. Until we UNIFY THE DATES OF EASTER, we hinder the Holy Spirit’s action to come upon us in full force to give us the next step to take. We must UNIFY THE DATES OF EASTER first.
“I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”
(1 Cor 1:10 RSV)
Let us ask for the grace of the Holy Spirit to UNIFY THE DATES OF EASTER by taking a small step in signing the petition at http://www.onedate.org
Excellent! Patriarch is someone who has the courage to say sin is sin just like our pope.
I suspect, Pius30, that Patriarch Kirill has no more practical control over what happens in some Russian Orthodox churches than most Catholic bishops do. Rules and principles can be established, but in practice their implementation relies on the goodwill of those at the local level to a great degree. It’s simply not possible to police every church.
And the amount of goodwill for doing what they should in some localities is very limited.
G K Thursday – Which is why there are icons of Stalin is some Orthodox churches?
I’ve been saying for some time that the Prop 8 struggle showed taht the old mistrusts and barriers between Protestants and Catholics are breaking down. Looks like the 1,000 rift may heal, at least a bit, along with the 500 year breach in Christian Unity.
The Russian Orthodox Church did acknowledge that more than 20 years ago when the USSR collapsed. Perhaps it didn’t attract a lot of attention from Western mainstream media, but it did occur. Maybe you weren’t aware? Anyway that’s in the past … the liberal corruption of mainstream Protestantism is on-going NOW.
Presumably the Patriarch would accept that “sinful elements” entered the Russian Orthodox Church when it gave its support to the Soviet regime?
Pope Benedict is the true Pope of Christian Unity. Unfortunately many Protestant denominations can no longer be considered Churches but social organizations
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