As an RC we are not permitted to receive communion from EO, but exceptions have been made such as Italian priests receiving communion from EP Bartholomew. And I agree that we should be obedient to the current laws, both RC and EO.
There are such regulations even within Orthodox Churches? It would be terrible if someone accidentally went to the other Communion thinking they’re the same…
Are you joking?
He’s talking about the Oriental Orthodox vs. the Eastern Orthodox, not among the various Oriental Orthodox, or the various Eastern Orthodox. Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox are two different communions of churches. The Oriental Orthodox are non-Chalcedonian, the Eastern Orthodox are Chalcedonian.
Definitely.You are absolutely correct. We have to know exactly where and how we disagree. Then I think we need to go back and study the biblical sources for our beliefs looking not just to see how we are right, but looking to see with an open mind anything we may have missed. With this kind of openness on both sides, maybe there are other components of the issue that shed new light. Maybe there are deeper levels of understanding. Maybe we find that our disagreements are not as fundamental as we always thought. I am not speaking of anything in particular. We both believe that the scriptures hold the truth, therefore, we should be able to both find the same truth. But we have to stop taking at each other, and stop taking past each other. Do you agree?
That wouldn’t happen, though. For instance, the Tewahedo (Ethiopians/Eritreans) that I mentioned had to enter into an agreement with their own (OO) bishop and the EO counterpart bishop before they could commune at the local OCA and Bulgarian churches back home, since Tewahedo are not by confession Chalcedonians. It is a pastoral response to the reality of the situation (there is a healthy OO population, but no OO church around, only EO churches). You couldn’t sort of just “accidentally” wander into communion with the EO. I’m not going to try it, but I would guess if I went to the local OCA back there and tried to get communion without some sort of preexisting agreement like the Tewahedo have, Fr. Lawrence would ask me who I am and who my bishop is, and the minute I answered “Bishop Youssef of the Southern United States Diocese”, I would be respectfully told to sit down, as I cannot commune with them. The same would happen to EO or other Chalcedonians attempting to receive communion in our church in Albuquerque (though that is even less likely to happen, as there are many Chalcedonian churches there, but we are the only game in town for the non-Chalcedonians, so why would Chalcedonians even try? There’s no need, and anyway our priests have said in no uncertain terms that they will not commune Chalcedonians under any circumstances, nor let any of their flock commune with them, even though it has happened in the past with Copts communing at the local Greek Orthodox Church back in the early 1980s, before there was a Coptic Orthodox Church here; that was with, you guessed it, an agreement that included both the Coptic bishop and the Greek bishop, and once there was a Coptic community established here with its own priest, the agreement was void, since it was no longer necessary).
Are you seriously saying that a pagan back in the 200’s A.D., deep in the heart of Africa/South America/Asia or wherever Christianity had not yet penetrated, who has had no chance to hear of Jesus, but who follows the urgings of his conscience and does what is right–are you saying this person cannot be saved and is condemned to eternal hellfire, because of the accident of the place or date of his birth?? Are we telling God who He can or cannot save? I would say that is His choice, not ours.
The Catholic Church teaches that that man can be saved