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This does not have much to do with the Byzantine Church other than the Catholic Church has a new convert. I had to share this story anyway! From Ewtn:

HIGH-RANKING FRENCH LUTHERAN CONVERTS TO CATHOLICISM
PARIS, (CWNews.com) - A high-ranking Lutheran priest in Paris has announced his conversion to Catholicism, in what may be the first of its kind since the 16th century Reformation.

Michel Viot, 57, was a Lutheran ecclesiastical inspector, an office that would be the equivalent of bishop in other churches. He told the Catholic newspaper, La Croix, that the joint declaration on justification signed by the Catholic and Lutheran churches in 1999 was the linchpin of his conversion. "In order that the world believes, it is necessary that Christians are united," Viot said.

"I believe that I am the first pastor with the rank of bishop to make such a move," he added. Viot said he hopes to become a priest, but must first spend time as a lay minister in a Catholic parish.


Saint Helen Please Pray For Us!
Ray s.

This is wonderful! I hope their are more like him who convert in the future.

Joe Zollars (a former Southern Babtist)

Lutherans have priests??


Then what are actual Lutheran bishops the equivalent of??

He must have been from the "high" branch of the Lutheran church-- sort of like the Episcopalians have High and Low chuch. I was at a funeral in a Lutheran church here in PA last year, and they had a "Requiem Eucharist" which included commemoration of the Blessed Mother and prayers for the deceased person's soul. I guess some of the mainstream protestant churches are returning to "Apostolic roots" and becoming more liturgical.

Dan

>He must have been from the "high" branch of >the Lutheran church-- sort of like the >Episcopalians have High and Low chuch.

I didn't know the Lutherans had high and low branches. I know they've got the Missouri and Wisconsin synods and the Evangelical branches. I guess you could call the Evangelical Lutherans the Low branch and the synods the High branch(es), although I've been to Missouri synod services and they didn't seem very "high" to me at the time. Nothing at all like a Mass, anyway.

Then again, the wacky, wide world Protestantism is not my area of expertise. I'm just rambling.

Oh, and I'm new here, btw. I'm John.

Dear John,

If you witness the Gospel by refering to our Protestant brothers and sisters as "wacky" please do not bother to post here again.

Administrator

I apologize to all my Protestant brothers and sisters out there. I honestly do not know what I was thinking when I posted the message and I am deeply sorry for the insult and for failing to act as a Christian should.

Please accept my apology.


John


SINCERITY IN SPEECH

"Winnow not in every wind,
and start not off in every direction.
Be consistent in your thoughts;
steadfast be your words.
Be swift to hear,
but slow to answer.
If you have the knowledge, answer your
neighbor;
if not, put your hand over your mouth.
Honor and dishonor through talking!
A man's tongue can be his downfall."

(Sirach 5:11-15)

[This message has been edited by dominus tecum (edited 07-23-2001).]

Dear Dominus Tecum,

Actually, I know a Lutheran Pastor in Germany who is as close to us as can be theologically and devotionally.

He invokes as many saints as possible in his celebration of the Lutheran Eucharist each day.

I wrote an Eastern "Akathist" service in honour of one of their holy ones and he has translated it into German for use at his Church!

He daily prays the 63 Hail Mary Rosary of Schrocken where it is still prayed by the entire community.

I also know a Lutheran Benedictine Community that prays their Swedish Lutheran Office daily.

Most of my apologetic works are by Lutherans, including one on the Rosary and Marian Devotion.

As St Clement Hofbauer said, the "Germans became Lutherans because they wanted to live as Christians."

Alex

Dear John,

If you witness the Gospel by refering to our Protestant brothers and sisters as "wacky" please do not bother to post here again.

Administrator

A bit touchy aren't you. I was a Protestant virtually all of my life. It is a bit of an unusual world. If it had not been a little "wacky" I would not have converted.

Dan Lauffer


[This message has been edited by CD Lauffer (edited 07-23-2001).]

Dear Dan,

Perhaps, but it isn't right, I believe, to call one another names of any kind.

There are those who converted to Orthodoxy because they found Eastern Catholicism "wacky" and the like.

Truly pious Christians can be found in more than one Church, nomatter how "wacky" it is.

Besides, isn't there a category of Saints known for their "wackiness" for Christ - the Fools for Christ's sake?

Wackiness can be a Gift of the Spirit, to be sure!

Alex

If wackiness is a gift of the spirit, then is it an insult to call someone wacky?

While I agree that Lutherans are certainly not as, shall I say, interesting as the group I grew up in, one will find a much broader (wide) collection of oddities (wacky) in the range of protestant groups (world) than in the Eastern Churches.

Calling the group I grew up in as "wacky" would be generous, and my brother, who is still an "evangelical," would agree with that one.

That being said, I've met quite a few wacky people on this board. Truth be known, I prefer wacky.

I find it interesting when I talk to Lutherans and Anglicans who talk about "those Protestants."

But on the topic . . .
Our priest here used to be Lutheran, so I have to thank the Lutheran Church, to an extent, for producing our wonderful priest! He related an interesting story about what the Lutheran bishop said when he came and told him he decided to become Catholic and why. He said his bishop's response was, "You know you'll lose your pension."

I hope others will follow this bishop's lead and I hope the divisions between Lutherans and Catholics and Orthodox can be healed, despite our wackiness and possible losses of pensions.

As Christians we should be on our best behavior at all times. This site gets approximately 10,000 unique visitors each week. If just one of them is a Protestant and is turned off by our insults than we have failed to properly present the Gospel. I suspect that if Dan had been heaped with insults of being a wacky heritic upon his first visit to a Byzantine Church he most likely would not have returned. Hospitality is everything.

Dear Cizinec,

St Theophilus of Kyiv was a "Fool for Christ's Sake" and he was considered strange by his contemporaries.

The Metropolitan of Kyiv cut short his morning prayers one day to meet an appointment. He was travelling along in a horse-drawn carriage when he looked up to see Theophilus sitting on a tree reading the Psalms.

He asked Theophilus what he was doing up there. Theophilus replied that he was climbing up that particular tree when he suddenly remembered that he didn't finish his morning prayers. He decided, then and there, to finish them on his way up.

The Metropolitan ordered him to come down so they could pray together as he travelled . . .

There are many, many very holy and committed Protestant Christians.

My former school teacher is a Methodist. He has adopted me as his son (I don't joke) and heir.

My new father is very pious and prays and reads the Scriptures several times each day.

If that is "wacky" then I don't want to be anything else.

Alex

Lutherans have priests?

The Lutheran Church of Sweden, until recently the state religion, is a lot like the Church of England in its polity: its ministers are called, in Swedish, �priests� (pr�ster?), and its bishops (and those of the Church of Finland) claim apostolic succession just like the Anglicans do. (Neither claim is recognized by Rome or the Orthodox.) But in Sweden for years now, Lutheran ministers from other countries that don�t claim apostolic succession have served in Swedish churches so the claim is pretty meaningless in practice. One difference between Swedish and Finnish Lutherans and the Anglicans is long before the Anglo-Catholic movement among the latter, the Swedes and Finns retained many Catholic trappings, including the crucifix and Mass vestments.

AFAIK French Lutherans, like Germans, don�t claim apostolic succession nor use the word �priest� (pr�tre?).

Then what are actual Lutheran bishops the equivalent of??

Anglican bishops. That is, Protestant ministers who claim apostolic succession.

Serge

<A HREF="http://oldworldrus.com">Old World Rus�</A>

Dear Serge,

This reminds me of what happened when Catholic missionaries first set foot in Korea way back when.

To their surprise, they found a "Catholic Church" there!

Apparently, Korean scholars went to China where they uncovered the writings of the Catholic missionaries there.

They fell in love with Catholicism and brought its teachings home with them.

Soon, a "Korean Church" developed with "Bishops" and "Priests."

They had religious images, the Rosary et al., but, of course, no Apostolic Orders.

And they knew their Catechism!

The Catholic missionaries then simply baptized those who already declared themselves Christians and ordained those who already considered themselves to be priests and bishops.

However, in the case of the CHurch of Sweden, they are already so close to the Catholic Church that there will be very little they would have to undergo by way of change if and when unity should come.

And their spiritual life as Christians does indeed engender a dynamic life of Grace among them, which is the Catholic teaching in any event.

Alex