LEAD STORY The truth in love


Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk,Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations addresses the Annual Nicean Club Dinner (Lambeth Palace, 9 September 2010)


A


We should proclaim Christian morality and teach it openly not only in our churches, but also in public spaces


including secular schools,


universities and in the


arena of the mass media


t the time of the Council of Nicaea, the Church was united in East and West. But at the present time, there is a multitude


of communities each of which claims to be a church even though approaches to doctrinal, ecclesiological and ethical issues among them oſten differ radically. Nowadays it is increasingly difficult to seak


of ‘Christianity’ as a unified scale of spiritual and moral values, universally adopted by all Christians. It is more appropriate, rather, to seak of ‘Christianities’, that is, different versions of Christianity espoused by diverse communities. All current versions of Christianity can be


very conditionally divided into two major groups – traditional and liberal. Te abyss that exists today divides not so much the Orthodox from the Catholics or the Catholics from the Protestants as it does the ‘traditionalists’ from the ‘liberals’. Some Christian leaders, for example, tell us that marriage between a man and a woman is no longer the only way of building a Christian family: there are other models and the Church should become appropriately ‘inclusive’ to recognize alternative behavioural standards and give them official blessing. Some try to persuade us that human life is no longer an absolute value; that it can be terminated in a mother’s womb or that one can terminate one’s life at will. Christian ‘traditionalists’ are being asked to reconsider their views under the slogan of keeping abreast with modernity. Regretably, it has to be admited that the


Orthodox Church and many in the Anglican Church have today found themselves on the opposite sides of the abyss that divides traditional Christians from Christians of liberal trend. Certainly, inside the Anglican Community there remain many “traditionalists”, esecially in the South and the East, but the liberal trend is also quite noticeable, esecially in the West and in the North. Protests against liberalism continue to be heard among Anglicans, as at the 2nd All African Bishops’ Conference held in late August. Te Conference’s final document stated in particular, ‘We affirm the Biblical standard of the family as having marriage between a man and a woman as its foundation. One of the purposes of marriage is procreation of children


4 ■ newdirections ■ October 2010


some of whom grow to become the leaders of tomorrow’. Among the vivid indications of disagreement


within the Anglican Community (I am reluctant to say ‘schism’) is the fact that almost 200 Anglican bishops refused to atend the 2008 Lambeth Conference. I was there as an observer from the Russian Orthodox Church and could see various manifestations of deep and painful differences among the Anglicans.


T


oday the Orthodox-Anglican Dialogue itself has come under threat. It is esecially


lamentable because this dialogue has had a long and rich history, beginning with the numerous talks at various levels held between Orthodox and Anglicans from the 17th century. Te first difficulties in relation to the Church of England emerged in 1992 when its General Synod agreed to ordain women to the priesthood. Te Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church came out with an official statement expressing regret and concern over this decision as contradicting the tradition of the Early Church. One might ask why our Church should have


concerned itself at all with this mater? By the early 90s the Protestant world had already ordained many women pastors and even women bishops. But the unique point here was that the Anglican Community had long sought rapprochement with the Orthodox Church. Many Orthodox Christians recognized the existence of apostolic continuity in Anglicanism. From the 19th century, Anglican members of the Association of Eastern Churches sought ‘mutual recognition’ with the Orthodox Church and its members believed that ‘both Churches preserved the apostolic continuity and true faith in the Saviour and should accept each other in the full communion of prayers and sacraments’. Much has changed since. Te introduction of


the female priesthood in the Church of England was followed by discussions on the female episcopate. In response to the positive decision made by the Church of England’s General Synod on this issue, the Department for External Church Relations published a new statement saying


that this decision ‘has considerably complicated dialogue with the Anglicans for


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