by Fr. Thomas Hopko –
For this reason, those who publicly affirm and promote homosexual behavior (like those who publicly advocate abortion) cannot be sacramental communicants in the Orthodox Church.
When Church leaders rightly remove persons from sacramental communion, they must understand their action as therapeutic and not punitive.
From Chapter 24 – Same-Sex Attraction and Sacraments in
Christian Faith and Same Sex Attraction: Eastern Orthodox Reflections book by Fr. Thomas Hopko
- In Orthodoxy, communicants in the sacramental mysteries are not only obliged to be steadfast in the Christian faith and perpetually repentant over their failures, they are also obliged to take full responsibility for the Church’s teachings and practices, and to be ready, to defend them unto death.
- For this reason, those who publicly affirm and promote homosexual behavior (like those who publicly advocate abortion) cannot be sacramental communicants in the Orthodox Church.
- Apostolic Scriptures clearly maintain the hope that a person’s exclusion from the Church’s sacramental communion, whatever its reasons and ways of occurring, may ultimately serve that person’s “spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Cor. 5:5).
- When Church leaders rightly remove persons from sacramental communion, they must understand their action as therapeutic and not punitive.
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Available from Amazon: Christian Faith and Same Sex Attraction: Eastern Orthodox Reflections
