The divisiveness of Christian unity

Jbedia,
If you re-read my post, you'll note that I discuss the Catholic perspective on women priests. Societal perspectives on women may have been the reason the Anglican and other faiths not in communion with the successor of Peter have ordained women priests, but to say Jesus, Peter, Paul, the apostles and disciples were responding to societal perspectives on women shows a clear misunderstanding of just how radical Jesus' message was (and continues to be). We are called to live by His will, not society's.

cprferry,

On: "there were no priests, so this followed the culture of the ancient world and women's position in it."

This is not accurate.

The lack of priests was NOT the reason that introduced WOMEN to the priestly order in the Anglican Communion as confirmed my the Anglican Communion during VATICAN II. It was the far advancements of WOMEN in social arenas, academia and even government that brought about this administrative change and NOT what was premised.

Thanks for reading.

slovoljubvelista,

What heresies preached by Roman Catholic Pope and his clergy are you referring to?

Please expound.

"there were no priests, so this followed the culture of the ancient world and women's position in it"

Actually, many pagan cultures had priestesses.
Besides, it's not like Jesus, his rock Peter, and evangelist to the gentiles Paul didn't act in ways inconsistent with the prevailing culture. They challenged jews, gentiles and every one to live to a higher order - His will. In the case of women, the apostles had close contact with them and some women were held up as prominent disciples of Christ, but not apostles and priests.

In response both to this article and the others posted on the Anglican reception issue, the Roman Catholic church's offer makes it clear that the church is increasingly a tail that wags a dog. That is, the tail of issues not directly addressed in the Gospels: gender of priests (there were no priests, so this followed the culture of the ancient world and women's position in it); ambiguity about acts that were condemned in Judaism but not yet a "lifestyle" (sodomy was rejected perhaps as cruel form of ritual humiliation of foreigners, see Sodom story)and also birth control, etc.. In our present circumstances, my observation, as a mainstream Episcopalian, of American parishes who have considered secession, is that many of them tend towards being literal in Biblical interpretation and rather evangelical. Will they be accepting, to a person, the Immaculate Conception of Mary and her Queenship? Will they put a Church more definitively between the believer and the Bible, which many Protestants interpret rather personally? I find that hard to believe, but if so, then all one can say is, glad you found a doctrinal home, goodbye and good luck. But- if the Roman church takes in these groups without even asking these questions, without even asking what their doctrinal beliefs are, then clearly this is again a case of pure religious imperialism, when the political tail wags the dog of honest and sincere belief. Doctrine actually seems secondary here, especially belief in a Christ who would have condemned the hypocritical homosexual child abuse of some current Roman clergy; a Christ who might well endorse removing the legalism of prejudice against loving and committed same gender couples or the emergence of women from the bondage of that time. At least now we know that the less important aspects of being a Christian are the most important things to a global institution bent on leading the Christian world back to the attitude of the Pharisees, and not forward to a world of love.

While I agree that Papal Decree is aimed at Orthodox Church, there is a fundamental flaw in the article.

We, Orthodox Christians, are not at all concerned that Unioin with Roman Catholics would jeopardize our Liturgy. History of Uniates of Middle East and Eastern Europe precisely shows what would happen.

What we are concerned about are exactly the dogmatic/doctrinal issues, namely, the heresies preached by Roman Catholic Pope and his clergy, that he shows no signs of willingness to renounce, thus diminishing prospects of union.

Therefore, it would be nice to have the facts straight in future articles.