Spitting in Rome’s Eye: A Reflection on How Orthodoxy’s Sinfulness Prevents Reunion | Red River Orthodox

The view from an Orthodox priest:

In my previous post, I mentioned some of the internal problems besetting the Orthodox Church, causing dysfunction (which I termed “implosion”).  I noted how it affects the Great Commission and how our relationship with Rome is part of that larger picture (for a unified front between these truly-mega-churches would give strength in spreading the Gospel).  I noted how Moscow currently rejects the Ecumenical Patriarch’s (legitimate) claim to primacy, in wanting to convoke a pan-Orthodox council and in engaging in serious dialogue with Rome.  It doesn’t take a very long search for someone to see that many Orthodox Christians agree with Moscow, calling Rome heretical and, furthermore, expressing not a little invective (or at least heated rhetoric) when taking that stance.
An important factor in this is that the kind of careful historical and theological analysis (not to mention humility) that occurs within official Orthodox-Catholic dialogues is not seeping into the Orthodox groundwater.  Many Orthodox prefer to dismiss Catholicism and Protestantism as two sides of the same coin, as though Orthodoxy is completely separate from them.  If it weren’t for the fact that such an attitude is based on ignorance, it would be audacious in the extreme.  Take, for example the North American Catholic-Orthodox dialogue.  They haven’t skirted the issues that need to be addressed and yet they have produced helpful starting points, free from anti-Westernism (based, ironically, on rather Western models):

 Read the article on the substance and method of dialogue - what is constructive and what fails to be, yet serves other purposes - here:
Spitting in Rome’s Eye: A Reflection on How Orthodoxy’s Sinfulness Prevents Reunion | Red River Orthodox