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Orthodoxy
(Continued)
As a result of this breach and estrangement, the Orthodox
world has not experienced the Western crises which resulted in
the Protestant Reformation and in the Roman Catholic
Counter-Reformation. The Orthodox world had its own crises in
the East, as it had to deal with the Reformation and
Counter-Reformation, its isolation under Islamic rule, the
fall of Christian Constantinople to the Muslims (1453), the
rise of nationalisms, etc. But these crises did not affect the
essential faith of the church. Hence, the Orthodox preserved
the very strong sense of an unbroken continuity with the faith
of the apostles as interpreted and witnessed to by the seven
great ecumenical councils and the fathers of the church.
Undeniably, the theology taught in Orthodox schools,
particularly in the "Byzantine" or Eastern Orthodox world,
came under Western influences, both medieval scholastic and
Protestant. However, beyond vestiges of these influences that
still survive here and there, Orthodoxy has rediscovered its
own proper identity through patristic (able patriarchs)
revivals. These revivals have helped to reveal the common
theological spirit of the Eastern and the Oriental Orthodox,
the authentic Orthodox theology which refuses the
systematizing tendencies of various filtrations.
The vast majority of Orthodox churches are engaged in the
ecumenical movement. With the exception of one or two
communities (such as the Russian Church in Exile or the Greek
Old-Calendarists), they are all member churches of the WCC.
Thus, in spite of all its historical sins, Orthodoxy has a
vocation in the striving towards the recovery of unity among
Christians. This vocation is a very special one, since the
Orthodox firmly believe that "the Orthodox church is the
church of Christ on earth", as Fr Sergius Bulgakov wrote. This
conviction, paradoxical as it may sound, can serve the
ecumenical search for unity, but of course on certain
conditions. Bulgakov expresses the first condition in the very
next sentence: "The church of Christ is not an institution but
a new life with Christ and in Christ, moved by the Holy
Spirit." In other words, the Orthodox community can truly
serve Christian unity in so far as they witness to true
Orthodoxy and remember that when Orthodoxy is true to itself,
it confesses that it does not know the limits of the church of
Christ: the Spirit "blows where it wills" (John 3:8). Also,
the Orthodox serve Christian unity whenever they remember that
one of the essential duties in being an Orthodox consists in
one's permanent conversion to Orthodoxy.
The Above Extracts are largely from the WCC Web Site...Not
Altered Much to maintain Uniformity and respect. Remember this
site purports to provide all inforation in an Organized and
Central Place and not in parallel to any Christian Site.
Click here to READ about Orthodox
Ecclesiology in Detail
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