Wednesday, June 22, 2016

An important event for Christendom


Yesterday, Nick—who blogs at Nick's Catholic Blog—brought to my attention an ongoing event (June 18-27, 2016) that is sure to have both current, and future, ramifications for Christ's visible Church:


There are "six items on the agenda of the Council" (link):

1. The mission of the Orthodox Church in the contemporary world;
2. The Orthodox diaspora;
3. Autonomy and the manner of its proclamation;
4. The sacrament of marriage and its impediments;
5. The importance of fasting and its observance today;
6. The relationship of the Orthodox Church with the rest of the Christian world.

Of particular interest to me is #6 on the agenda. Directly related to this issue, is the following informative post at Eclectic Orthodoxy:


Anyway, I thought others might share my interest in this ongoing event.


Grace and peace,

David

4 comments:

Jamie Donald said...

From what I understand, there is a lot of dissention revolving around this event. The Russian Orthodox Church - the largest in Orthodoxy - is not attending. Its patriarch is going so far as to refer to this meeting as a prelude to the actual council which will be held at a future (as of yet unannounced date). These comments come in spite of that same patriarch as having previously approved of the agenda and having previously committed to attending the council.

With the number of Orthodox Churches not attending, it is difficult to determine whether or not this meeting will result in what is expected to be a binding council on all of Orthodoxy.

I do not have a link at the moment to provide for more data. I'm going off of memory at this point. Thus, as memories can be fragile things, I may be inadvertently misrepresenting things. But I believe I have the gist of the situation correct.

David Waltz said...

Hi Jamie,

So good to hear from you again. Thanks much for the information on the Russian Orthodox Church. A Google search yielded a number of sites commenting on Council, with some mentioning the ROCs withdrawal. The following are a couple I liked: FIRST; SECOND.

Sure seems to me that the absence of the ROC will ultimately prevent the Council from carrying much weight.


Grace and peace,

David

Unknown said...

David, I wanted to see what you would say to this because no one else will deal with what I'm saying on the sabbaths and feasts:

Traditional Christian Theology says the Lord's Supper replaces the Levitical Feasts, but the Levitical Feasts were ordained with specific time parameters (Lev. 23) while there are hardly any for the Lord's Supper. Moreover, to maintain that the Levitical Feasts have all been fulfilled commits one to a Full Preterist Eschatology for the Harvest feasts and the Feast of Trumpets are shadows of the final state, the judgment and the Resurrection.
Moreover the apostle Paul not only kept the feasts himself (Acts 18:18-21, 20:16) but also advocates others to keep the feasts:

1 Cor. 5:7 For Messiah our Passover also has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us celebrate
the feast

Col. 2:16 Therefore no one is to [n]act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath [o]day— 17 things which are[estin - present tense not past tense] a mere shadow of what is to come[Not what is in the past]; but the body of Messiah.

Do we find that the Colossians are being condemned for NOT observing feast days and
Sabbaths? Who would be doing that to former pagans? Could it be that they were being
condemned FOR OBSERVING the Kosher Laws and the Sabbaths? Next, what about the
phrase, “things which ARE a mere shadow of what is TO COME”? The are, (estin in the Greek)
is present tense not past tense. It is not saying they were a shadow. It says they are a shadow. The Christian interpretation is that the Sabbaths and Feasts were shadows of something already come, namely Yeshua the Messiah. This is obviously incorrect.

David Waltz said...

Hi Drake,

So good to hear from you again. Your post is quite interesting, but pertains to some issues I have never delved into. I am currently working on a large post pertaining to Augustine and the monarchy of God the Father (and have guests arriving Friday for the extended 4th weekend), which means I will not be able to spend time looking into questions your until next week.

Now, with that said, back in the 80s, a good deal of my study time was devoted to eschatology, which included the positions of post-millennialism and preterism. So, when I do delve into issues you raised, I will have that background in place.


Grace and peace,

David