Whew! Western Rite Revisited

I'm back from the Apostles' Fast. My abstention from blogging during the Church's fasts extends to an abstention from reading blogs as well. I cherished my time away from controversy, and maybe I'll be wiser this time around.

Och has been hitting the Antiochian issues pretty hard, and I'm not very well-informed about those issues. I don't like commenting on things about which I know little, generally speaking, and therefore I commented sizably about Antioch's Western Rite project. Maybe I don't know anything about that one, either, but I couldn't refrain from a minor swipe at Antioch's "we take all kinds of folks" adventurousness.

I'm more confident in the ROCOR's nurturing of a WR that doesn't contradict the mind of the Church than the Antiochians. Let's not kid ourselves. Antioch is willing to set all kinds of precedents that other jurisdictions would rather avoid. The absorption of the Campus Crusade for Christ evangelicals is another example of Antioch's daring.

My own misgivings about the WR pertain to the liturgy, not to the Orthodox theological propositions to which WRiters adhere. Orthodox theology is experiential, and the formal propositions come afterward. My concern is whether the WR experience contradicts Orthodoxy, and, in my mind, while that doubt persists, the ROCOR serves as a more reliable mother hen than Antioch.

Now, some half-clever lad may trot out the old canard that the WR existed during the first millennium and that the WR's Orthodoxy is established merely by that prior existence. There are all sorts of problems with a liturgy that has evolved and matured within a heretical context, irrespective of a "spotless" origin within a Patriarchate that showed clear tendencies toward heterodox divergence. Certainly, the Eastern Patriarchates were rife with heresies at times, but, at the end of the day, the East overcame those heresies, and didn't abandon the Faith. The West folded.

Please excuse my lack of empathy regarding the WR as an entry point for converts. At the risk of agreeing too much with Och, let me say that I am sick and tired of attempts to market the Church to enquirers who are squeamish about worshipping in an Orthodox manner and within an integrated Orthodox context. No one disputes that Orthodoxy is acted out in a noncontradictory manner in the Eastern liturgy. So why do we have to change anything for anyone? We need to make sure that the WR is safe for human consumption before we pander to adolescent whiners who take their Christ with a grain of salt.

Do you really think I'm being too harsh? Okay, let's take a look at Met. Jonah's outright overture to continuing Anglicans. He didn't say anything that Moscow hasn't been saying for a century or two, and he was correct in at least extending his hand. With a few exceptions, however, he may as well have been talking to himself. For all of their bluster about adding "reason" to Rome's duopoly of Scripture and tradition, those Anglican dudes can't even bring themselves to take the small baby step of excising the Romish filioque from their creed. They've become comfortable in their ossified heterodoxy, and this theological sloth is the context from which enquirers emigrate to jump into an ill-advised WR. I'd be very comfortable with turning over the WR project in its entirety to ROCOR's careful supervision.

Good Pick From Naxos

I like buying Naxos CDs because they're inexpensive. Unfortunately, they're often cheap. Today, I had the pleasure of listening to the Novospassky Monastery Choir's Russian Divine Liturgy (in Slavonic). The CD was inexpensive, but not cheap.

It Needed To Be Said

I commented on the Wall Street Journal's blog, Mean Street. The poster posited that Hank Paulson should be declared a national hero owing to his creation of the TARP program. I agreed:


Clearly, TARP was needed to prevent an imminent systemic banking collapse, and Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke are the heros. You’re right on the mark about these particular saviors. Systemic risk means that we end up living in caves.

TALF is the proximate driver of reliquification, but it couldn’t have happened without TARP.

As an Austro-Libertarian, I hate government involvement in anything, since government is inherently anti-consumer, but TARP was needed to patch things together during the unwinding of Greenspan’s debt orgy.


Yes, Paulson is a hero, but Bernanke joins him in that particular Hall of Fame. Bernanke lent the TARP program the intellectual weight that it needed to get folks like me to endorse the plan. Paulson isn't a dummy, but his understandable incentive to defecate on Goldman's competitors would have colored my view of the TARP program had he been its sole sponsor.

Church And State

From an interview with Serbian Bp. Irinej:

The separation of Church and state – like in the present day European Union, Europe, and democratic world at large – does not entail, as they think or as they claim to think, the banishment of the Church from society, or Her greater or lesser marginalization, but rather the recognition of separate authorities (“autonomous ingérence”) along with the internal independence of the Church and of the modern laic state. It further means the need for mutual cooperation in all areas of mutual significance and for the general good.

Western Rite? Right?

I've liked Andrea Elizabeth's blog for a long while, and I'll reprint a comment I made on her site in response to her Western Orthodox post:

I chose my particular blogging moniker almost three years ago owing to my appreciation for the budding phenomenon of Western Rite Orthodoxy. Since that time, I’ve grown dubious about whether a Western Rite makes sense.

The Western Rite question is not so different a question as whether certain Westerners are appropriately venerated as Orthodox Saints. Orthodoxy is a cultural phenomenon. The Mind of the Church is our culture. The catechumenate is the period during which the catechumen acquires the Mind of the Church–not simply facts and dates and ethnic mannerisms–from the instructors. In fact, the quality and extent of one’s conversion is properly measured by how completely one has acquired that Mind.

The fact that Westerners are accepted as converts–and potential saints–demonstrates to me that the possibility of Western Saints isn’t inherently foreign to Orthodoxy.

Let’s circle back to the Western Rite. Have Western Riters converted to Orthodoxy, or are they simply dressing up their old habituations with Orthodox colors?

American Autocephaly?

Only if Constantinople says so.

I paid another visit to Orrologion's excellent blog, which posted the Greek view of the Diaspora.

Doubting Thomas? I Doubt It

Do you get tired of seeing the hackneyed discussions of Doubting Thomas around St. Thomas Sunday? I do.

Let's look at the facts. St. Thomas didn't witness Christ's return when the others did. When the others told St. Thomas about the resurrection, his attitude was "Prove It". Would the others have believed in Christ's resurrection if Christ hadn't visited them and hadn't shown them the nail holes in his hands? I doubt it.

Let's look at the Gospel. Jesus said that he performed miracles so that folks would believe. Would anyone have believed that Jesus was the Christ if he hadn't performed such miracles, especially the raising of Lazarus? I doubt it.

The Orthodox Church, in her unnatural wisdom, refers to St. Thomas as Believing Thomas. Jesus encouraged belief by presenting evidence and engaging in rational arguments.

Certainly, believing solely by faith is blessed, but I suspect that St. Thomas didn't doubt God's miracles, including the Resurrection, more than anyone else. Why he's singled out as a doubter is something I don't understand. Maybe someone will explain it to me.

Meanwhile, I like this sermon about Believing Thomas.

The Antipascha

From the sealed tomb, You shone forth, O Life!

Through closed doors You came to Your Disciples, O Christ God.

Renew in us, through them, an upright spirit,

by the greatness of Your mercy, O Resurrection of all!

Troparion, Tone 7

Thomas touched Your life-giving side with an eager hand, O Christ God,

when You came to Your Apostles through closed doors.

He cried out with all: “You are my Lord and my God!”

Kontakion, Tone 8

Inculturation

I just posted this comment over at Gabriel's:

"Orthodox inculturation in America will take place only over many centuries owing to the tension between old-country Orthodox who hate American values and less-traditional Orthodox who think that old-country values are out of touch.

"The only solution to this impasse right now is co-existing in a bunch of separate jurisdictions until we're able to pay sufficiently close attention to what God wants.

"How long did the Church take to become decently inculturated with the Greeks? Many centuries and ecumenical councils.

"That's the Orthodox way."

Excuse me, but I posted another comment along the same line, but with less political correctness.

"If Orthodoxy cannot inculturate a "Protestant" culture, then Orthodoxy has no claim to being Christ's Church.

"Frankly, I have no interest in social engineering a solution. I like the spinster-like squabbling. If my priest weren't cranky, I'd feel like an antiseptic pape/prot."

Fast-Free Weeks Have Just Become Superfluous

No faster should be without this product.

Maybe someone should find a way to deep-fry this stuff.