The Shepherd, August 2008
THE ARTICLE with which we have chosen to open this issue is perhaps a little “heavier” than our usual fare, but we have included it because it addresses two fundamental matters which affect our Church-life in this country today. There appears to be an alienation of the Orthodox from the roots of their Faith. This is particularly apparent. as might be expected, among those of us who were converts to Orthodoxy. Often people become Orthodox, and even teachers of Orthodoxy by virtue of their ordination, who have little or no understanding of the bases of our Faith. Many years ago, I read a rather caustic review of a book, which did indeed deserve the acid comments, in which the reviewer said something to the effect of “You cannot make a Methodist chapel Orthodox simply by sticking an onion dome on it!” A great deal of wisdom in that! And yet we try to do a similar thing in our lives. Many of us become Orthodox thinking that a change in the style of vestments, the introduction a a smattering of foreign-sounding, ‘mystical’ terms, and throwing oneself uncritically into a culture of a people we do not fully understand, while leaving the bases of one’s understanding Anglican / Methodist / Roman Catholic prepares one adequately to become a spokesman for the Orthodox Church. Another error, and one which was manifested clearly in the recent acceptance of the rapprochement between the Moscow Patriarchate and the then Russian Church Abroad and reactions to it, is to accept “establishment” as the canon of Orthodoxy. Such a rule would have placed a host of saints outside the Church! Father George Florovsky’s work undermines both of these superficial approaches, and invites us to dig deeper. We hope that readers will not be put off by his use of some foreign expressions. They are often given in translation either in the version we have copied (published on the late Bishop Alexander’s website) or by ourselves. We notice also, that either Fr George or, if such were the case, his translator has on occasion used western terms but we suspect that, although this might worry some, it was precisely so that he might reach out and address those people who most need to get to the roots of our Faith and free themselves of a Western understanding, only lightly cosmeticised by a blush of Orthodoxy.
The Catholicity
of the Church
Archpriest George Florovsky
The theanthropic union and the Church
CHRIST conquered the world. This victory consists in His having created His own Church. In the midst of the vanity and poverty, of the weakness and suffering of human history, He laid the foundations of a “new being.” The Church is Christ’s work on earth; it is the image and abode of His blessed Presence in the world. And on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended on the Church, which was then represented by the twelve Apostles and those who were with them. He entered into the world in order to abide with us and act more fully than He had ever acted before; “for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (Jn 7:39). The Holy Spirit descended once and for always. This is a tremendous and unfathomable mystery. He lives and abides ceaselessly in the Church. In the Church we receive the Spirit of adoption (Rom. 8:15). Through reaching towards and accepting the Holy Ghost we become eternally God’s. In the Church our salvation is perfected; the sanctification and transfiguration, the theosis of the human race is accomplished.
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