"I am the door. By me if any man enter in he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture." - John 10:9 At every parish where I have had the pleasure of attending services, there is always a small group of people who find their way all the way up to the church building but don't actually attend services. At one parish it was a group of male gypsies who talked on cellphones or smoked cigarettes. At another it was a few Protestant husbands who, though they never attended services, opened the parish doors for people as they filed in. At yet another parish the men stood in the narthex and chatted until it was time to receive and then got in line. Latin or Greek Catholic, Eastern or Oriental Orthodox I see the same small throng of men standing next to the front door, but not standing, sitting, or kneeling amongst the people. If it were me (and I can only speak for myself here) this option would be an unsavory one. The boredom would be immediate. The anxiety of som...
That makes sense actually. Metropolitan Hilarion is Canadian born, of Ukrainian descent. In fact, Ukrainian was probably his household language as a child. It would make sense that he would want to see his co-nationals come out from isolation.
ReplyDeleteAnd now ROCOR is blamed in Russia for that tragicomedy.
ReplyDeleteThey do not have good press generally.
It is known that Filaret of Kyiv was passed over to be Patriarch of Moscow. He then suddenly "discovered" his Ukrainian identity, so he could become a "Patriarch" after all. Still, one cannot fault Metropolitan Hilarion for wanting to end a soul destroying schism.
ReplyDeleteWell, Met. Hilarion went the same way so that's why he may sympathise Pat. Philaret.
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