Daily Archives: September 30, 2015

On ‘The Orthodox Church’ by Timothy Ware

Early editions of this book were excellent at meeting the intellectual needs of its target audience – the Non-Orthodox world, especially of 1960s and 1970s Anglicans. Criticisms launched at it, that it was scholastic, academic, old-fashioned and not aimed at ordinary people, are therefore quite unfair. It was never meant for us, for it was written by an Anglican scholar from Oxford. Similarly invalid are criticisms that it does not cater for Orthodox and that it looks at the Church from the outside – it was after all written from outside in, not inside out. Later editions, expressing the viewpoints of the US-run Patriarchate of Constantinople in the 80s and 90s of the last century, cannot be expected either to reflect the mystical understanding of those on the inside of Church life, that is, of those in the arena. They express rather the spirit of ‘middle of the road’ compromise between this world and the Church.

Today the book urgently needs reformatting, a rewriting away from Anglican scholasticism and the worldly concerns which the Patriarchate of Constantinople was bogged down in during the end of the last century. This is necessary in order to take account of the dramatic changes in the Russian Orthodox Church, 75% of the whole Church, since 2000. These changes have moreover had an irresistible effect on the other 25% of the Church, however reluctant secular-minded liberals are to accept the reality of today’s Orthodox Church. It is time for them to abandon the secularist modernism of the last half of the last century, in which they appear to be stuck and nostalgically look back to. They need to look forward to the dramatic spiritual developments and welcome restorations which the 21st century is already bringing us.

A Warning from Minsk

On 28 September, President Lukashenko of Belarus, strangely enough better known for his atheism than his Orthodox Christianity, spoke at the United Nations in New York. Addressing himself to Western leaders, he issued a stark warning in the following words:

‘You the guilty could have said that you had made a mistake and you must stop right there. But no, once again you went even further. You started in Tunisia and ended in Libya. The scenario was the same. You crucified President Khadafy, you destroyed a state. Did things get better in Libya afterwards? No. And does Libya even exist now as a unitary state? No. Gentlemen, was that not enough for you? No. You pounced in Syria. Why? Why are you killing people? Why are you overthrowing the acting President? How did he displease you? Worse still, through the slaughter in that country you are wiping out the last traces of civilization from yourselves. Tell the international community what you want and what your aims are. Now, at the tribune of the UN General Assembly’.

Speaking of the humanitarian disaster the Western world has now created in the Ukraine, he added:

‘Let us take another step towards worldwide conflict and perhaps to a new world war, in the very heart of the advanced, civilized world. Surely, in this new millennium, we have understood just how fragile peace and human civilization are? I am not saying this in order to go over the events are already well-known to us, but in order to bring the powers that be in this world to think. Understood. Today there is no force that can stop you. But all who have religious faith, and many of them publicly, are praying for all those heads of state who are committing blasphemies. The Lord sees everything. And He is just. And what if He is angered and punishes the guilty? You and your peoples who are innocently suffering because of your adventures?’