The Orthodox-Anglican Divide | GAFCON

The Orthodox-Anglican Divide
A Commentary on Metropolitan Hilarion’s Address at the Nicean Club at Lambeth Palace 9 September 2010
The Rev. Prof. Stephen Noll


I must confess that I seldom read ecumenical addresses and agreements because they are so encumbered with diplomatic jargon and a spirit of deference that one hardly knows what if anything was said, much less accomplished. They read like the closing statements of the G8 meeting, where whatever may have been said behind closed doors comes out sounding like “everyone has won and all must have prizes.”

Not so with His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, in his address at the Nicean Society banquet held at Lambeth Palace on 9 September, in the presence of Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Metropolitan Hilarion begins his address with a series of thanks. He thanks the Archbishop of Canterbury for the invitation to speak. He mentions Rowan Williams’s “personal contribution to inter-Christian dialogue” and “commitment to keep the Anglican Communion together.” He acknowledges Abp. Williams’s “love of the Russian Orthodox Church, of its saints and great theologians, of its spiritual tradition,” and he offers his prayers and support.

Even in this brief kudos, I detect a note of rebuke, which becomes more noticeable as he goes on. Yes, Rowan Williams has desired to maintain unity within the Anglican Communion, and yes, he loves Russian “confessors,” but his ecumenical sentiment has confused surface unity with true reality and in the process he has bypassed the heart of Orthodoxy – which is, orthodoxy.

Metropolitan Hilarion goes on to laud the aim of the Nicean Club to foster relationships “between the churches of the Anglican Communion and other Christian confessions” (I wonder if his use of “confessions” is a subtle reminder that church identity is based on a common rule of faith). Dwelling on the name “Nicean,” he reflects on the significance of the first ecumenical Council at Nicaea in our contemporary context. He points out that the Council took place amidst a “bitter struggle with heresies and many church schisms” but with one in particular – Arianism – which “undermined the very foundations of Christian doctrine,” and he quotes approvingly Rowan Williams’s scholarly conclusion that Arianism was “an ‘archetypal deviation’, which tends to arise again and again under various names.”

For the rest of the article, see:
The Orthodox-Anglican Divide | GAFCON