OrthodoxNet.com | Jun. 9, 2008
Not all participants of the inter-Christian dialogue are ready to pursue partnership and solidarity, Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, Representative of the Russian Orthodox Church to the European Institutions, said.
“The divergence is so deep, that it can be compared to bottomless abysses,” Hilarion said in his interview to the Soyuznoye Veche, the newspaper of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia, commenting his dialogue with a Lutheran bishop.
According to Hilarion, the bishop refused to recognize abortion as a sin in a joint document, whereby he expressed “a more liberal approach to this challenge” as compared to the position of the Moscow Patriarchate.
“If we fail to reach consensus even on such matters which are seemingly obvious to all Christians, what can we do about other challenges?” Bishop Hilarion said.
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Good! Maybe the Moscow Patriarchate and other Orthodox jurisdictions will finally get the point that has been painfully obvious for decades. The umbrella ‘ecumencial’ organizations are worthless for Christians. We need to pick and choose those with whom we work based on shared principals not co-opted identities. Just because someone claims the mantle of Chrisitanity does not mean they are Christian. Many of the MLP’s simply are not really Christian anymore.
Shoot, it is not just such secondary questions as to what constitutes sin (if they even acknowledge sin), it extends to the person of Jesus Christ and the nature of God Himself (if they even acknowledge God anymore).
Apostasy & sacriledge are strong words but in this case they are correct.