I pray for the Anglican Church

Fr. Deacon Gregory Uhrin, Salisbury



For the Monitor

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July 27, 2008 - 12:00 am




The July 21 article about Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion stated that they are the second largest group of Christians in the world "behind Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians." I hope this was not implying that Orthodox and Catholics are one. The Catholic Church broke away from the Orthodox Church in 1054 over papal authority and the insertion of the Filioque clause into the Nicene Creed by the western church.


Orthodox Christians have had good relations with the Anglicans, especially the Episcopal Church. When many of our ancestors from Eastern Europe first immigrated to the United States, the Episcopalians were in the forefront of providing worship space while our relatives built their own Orthodox communities. I have a soft spot in my heart for the Anglican Church and pray that they overcome their divisions.



We Orthodox Christians pray for and are assured by Christ of the reunification of His Holy Church before the "end times." But reunification will not come as a result of continually running away from Holy Tradition as we are seeing in the Catholic, Anglican and other fragmented Protestant Churches today and since 1054.


It is, as we Orthodox pray in every liturgy, "the unity of faith (in Christ) and the gift of the Holy Spirit" that will ultimately draw all of us together. Without the Love of God as expressed by the Holy Trinity as our model we Christians will continue to disintegrate into further and further schism.


Fr. Deacon GREGORY UHRIN


Salisbury



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