by Fr. Juvenaly Repass –
In his Foreword to The Wheel magazine Met. Kallistos Ware doesn’t just say “let’s learn more about this problem,” he questions whether Church teaching is right. He asks whether it is right for us (the Church) to impose on persons of same-sex orientation, the “heavy burden” of not being able to marry. The very clear implication is that they should be able to marry (in Church)!
Or perhaps he means that they should be able to have some sort of church blessing other than marriage – but in the Orthodox Church, marriage is the only context in which sexual union is blessed; apart from marriage, it is deemed sinful, and how can what is sinful be blessed?
It is shameful that a hierarch would hold these views, and worse still (if that’s possible) that a hierarch would mislead others by disseminating these opinions. Met. Kallistos has stepped over a line, and he should be disciplined.
I’m not at all surprised that he has written these things: his opinions were clear in a talk he gave to the assembled students and faculty of Saint Tikhon’s Seminary some years ago, in which he stated that he would not counsel persons who were in a committed same-sex relationship, to separate. What could be a clearer departure from Church teaching, discipline, and ethics, than that?
Met. Kallistos also errs by saying that it is we (the Church) who impose that “heavy burden.” It is not – it is the law of God, and Him laid down that law. It is the divine order established for humankind by our Creator who made us. It is neither right nor possible for us to change what God has established.
In addition, this “heavy burden” is no different from the struggle that we all wage against our passions – little by little, it becomes a “light yoke” with the help of Christ. For he said, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
This is what the Metropolitan is failing to teach – a failure that is an abrogation of his sacred duty as bishop to teach true and saving doctrine. He is instead saying that it is better for a priest to counsel people to accept and even be “committed” to what is contrary to divine law, and is a passion and a sin – as preferable to continuing to wage the struggle against that passion and sin.
So much for the false narrative that Orthodoxnet misrepresented what Met. Kallistos intended with his un-Orthodox writing. So much for the condemnations that the original title exaggerated the meaning of what he wrote in that Foreword.
What Met. Kallistos insinuates under the guise of questioning and posing hypotheticals goes way beyond just endorsing homosexual marriage. He’s shamefully calling on the Orthodox Church to question her practice and even consider blessing committed same-sex relationships. This is heresy pure and simple.
Father Juvenaly is right. How can the Church possibly bless such abominations? He points out that “in the Orthodox Church, marriage is the only context in which sexual union is blessed; apart from marriage, it is deemed sinful, and how can what is sinful be blessed?”
To be honest, the original title warning the Orthodox should have been:
Met. Kallistos Ware Suggests Homosexual “Marriage” Should be Blessed by the Church
Look, M. Kallistos is a retired Oxford academic who spends a lot of time in ecumenical discussions with Anglicans. He is de facto an Anglican in Orthodox robes. He even sounds like an old-fashioned lordly Anglican bishop.
So what he is telling you is the position of the Anglican Church, not the Orthodox.
When His Eminence states that it is unfair that homosexuals are not allowed to be married, he appears to have bought into the current mindset in the world which purports that people will simply die if they don’t have sex. Sex, having sex, being a sexually active being, has become the most important thing in the world, surpassing even what we were created for – to have union with God. Metropolitan Ware appears to have bought into this thinking, as have so many other clergy.
To look at the human race, to observe the things we do, we say, and we watch, one must come to the conclusion that we are almost completely out of control. With the exception of a small number of people in the world (percentage wise), everything is about sex. Women have no modesty anymore, which is most annoying to those of us men who wish to control our thoughts as young girls walk about with barely a covering during the summer. Men are obsessed with being sexually active, and when Hugh Hefner died, great numbers of men joked about his life and made sly innuendo about how he was “quite a guy,” (meaning they wish they had his life.)
Now, to suggest that life can be lived joyously without having yards of sex each week, that we can control ourselves, and that we could even, if God so calls us, live lives of celibacy *gasp* – is to invite scorn and to be regarded as someone whose crackers are not all on the plate. Yet this is the offer that Christ makes to all who would find life – that true life and true joy are not found in giving in to our passions, but rather in giving in (total surrender) to Him. Being affected by sin, our lives are a battle to overcome the demands of these passions and redirect them to Christ. Metropolitan Kallistos seems to have forgotten this.
This is really tragic.
What he proposes is serious heresy, not just to the Eastern Orthodox. He should be deposed.
Is it any surprise when the IOCS that he founded in Cambridge teaches Darwinian evolution?
Once again the West gets is all wrong. I hope there can be some people within the western Orthodoxy to protect the teachings. Fr. Kalistos disappointed me and feel betrayed as an Eastern Orthodox; for a minute I thought we could have dialogue withe the West. Know I understand why many in the Eastern Orthodox church close the door. I do not blame them. Mr Kalistos take Mr. Thermos and create your own club we do not need to talk any more
The law of God is immutable. The Lord said:
Heavens and earth shall pass before a iota is dropped from the Law.