Mt 26:26 ‘While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, “Take, eat, this is my body.”’
Mk 14:22 ‘While they were eating, he took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take it. This is my body.”’
Lk 22:19 ‘Then he took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you.…
There has been a steady migration of prominent evangelicals – or, least, those with an evangelical background – into the fold of Eastern orthodoxy.
These include, here in the UK, Kallistos Ware, Michael Harper, and, in the US, Peter Gillquist, Hank Hanegraff and Mark Galli.
Evangelicals Now reports on Hope Church Halifax, which was affiliated to the FIEC and has now become St Hilda’s Orthodox Church.
One of its leaders, Deacon Caedmon Clark (formerly known as Doug Clark) has explained why they made the move:
A short, repeated, prayer which takes the form of ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner’, or some reduced version of this (such as ‘Lord Jesus have mercy on me’).
It is based on the plea of the two blind men in Mt 20:30–31 and the tax collector’s prayer in Lk 18:13.
Its usage by the Eastern branch of the church dates back to the 4th or 5th century.
It has also been used in Roman Catholic devotion (often in the form of ‘Lord, make haste to help me.…
John 15:26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.”
A long doctrinal debate about the ‘procession of the Holy Spirit’ has centred on this expression. The idea of the Holy .Spirit’s ‘procession’ from the Father was understood in ontological terms. To the basic formula the Western church added the ‘filioque’ (‘and the Son’) clause, and this was a point of division between the Eastern and Western branches of the church. …
While worship (latreia) belongs to God alone, Mary is reverenced and honoured as ‘the most exalted among God’s creatures’.
To give Mary her full title: ‘Our All-Holy, immaculate, most blessed and glorified Lady, Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary.’
Theotokos (‘Mother of God’, ‘God-bearer’) was assigned to Mary by the Council of Ephesus in 431. She is venerated because of her relation to Christ. It is precisely on account of the Son that we honour the Mother. …
The Orthodox doctrine of the Eucharist differs somewhat from the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Mass, and even more from the Protestant doctrine of the Lord’s Supper/Eucharist/Holy Communion.
The Orthodox Study Bible outlines three interpretations of Christ’s Eucharistic words as they have been understood by the church down the ages:
(a) ‘For the first thousand years of Christian history, when the Church was visibly one and undivided, the holy gifts of the Body and Blood of Christ were received as just that: His Body and Blood.…
In the Eastern churches the sacrament of chrismation (Gr. chrismatis, ‘anointing’) is associated with that of baptism. It involves anointing with oil by the bishop or priest.
Timothy Ware (The Orthodox Church) says that chrismation is equivalent to Confirmation in the Western churches. Unlike Confirmation, however, it usually takes place immediately after Baptism:
Heb 13:10-11 We have an altar that those who serve in the tabernacle have no right to eat from. For the bodies of those animals whose blood the high priest brings into the sanctuary as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp.
The main contours of the author’s argument are clear enough: the readers are not to get ‘carried away’ by ‘strange teachings’, such as those involving ritual meals. We are nourished spiritually by God’s grace, not by the foods we eat or abstain from. …
Everyone agrees that the worship of God’s people in Old Testament times was liturgical in nature.
As the Orthodox Study Bible indicates:
I found a thoughtful evangelical appraisal of Eastern Orthodoxy in a rather unexpected source: Answers in Genesis. Abating Trent Hyatt’s advocacy of a more literal interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis than I can cope with, the discussion was, as far as I could tell, fair and courteous.
What follows is loosely based on that article.
1. Authority. The Orthodox regard the Bible as the inspired Word of God. Like the Roman Catholics, they recognise a more extensive canon compared with Protestants.…
