Saturday, July 24, 2010

A Bold Confession

Invited as an Ecumenical Advisory Delegate to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Orthodox Archpriest Siarhei Hardun made a rather bold confession, worthy of a resounding "Amen," regarding the deplorable decision reached by the assembly to approve non-celibate gay clergy (similar to what the ELCA did last summer).  Here are the words of the bold confession of which I speak, which you can hear for yourself by watching the video embedded below:
As Christian morality is as old as Christianity itself, it doesn’t need to be invented now.   And those attempts to invent new morality look to me like attempts to make a new religion, a sort of modern paganism.   When people say that they are led and guided by the Holy Spirit to do it, I wonder if it is the same Holy Spirit that inspired the Bible, if it is the same Holy Spirit that inspires the Holy Orthodox church not to change anything in Christian doctrine and moral standards.   But if it is the same Spirit, I wonder, if perhaps, there are different spirits acting in different denominations and inspiring them to develop in different direction to create different theologies and different morals.  My desire is that all Christians should contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints as saint Jude calls us to do, and my advice as is, as ecumenical delegate, my advice is the following, do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, yes the words of saint Paul.  Anyway, I thank you for kindness, love, hospitality and, of course, for your attention.
 

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