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Dear Father:

I understand your sufferings and the problems that traditional Anglicans have had living under those conditions and under the present state of the Anglican Communion.

I am sorry if some of my comments offended you, I never tried to say that Anglo Catholics were like that because of hypocricy, I just said I found hard to understand why they remain part of an environment which is so hostile to them.
I found hard to get why if they have realized that the C of E holds eroneous possitions, continue to be part of it, without telling them that they are wrong, and leaving.

I am sorry again.

To be perfectly blunt about this, I am both distressed and ashamed that this topic has reared its head during Great Week and the most solemn days of the liturgical life of the church.

For Byzantines, and for our Orthodox brethren as well, these days are incredibly submerged in prayer, in fasting and in reflection on the events of the passion and death of Christ that we live minute by minute in the liturgies. Churchy politics and jurisdicitonal matters can't even hold a candle to what is going on in our souls.

Let it go until the full celebration in the Byzantine community has reached its apogee with full song and resurrectional joy. Although the Romans and Westerns will 'celebrate' the Paschal season in their own way, for "us" and for those of "us" on this board, it is really an incredible "downer" to be assaulted with doctrinal or jurisdictional issues involving our Anglican brothers and sisters, or other such legalistic folderol.

Christ is Risen. He has conquered freakin' DEATH!! He gave life to those in the graves and has promised this new life to all of us who are baptized and who believe. Our holy father, John Chrysostom, in his Easter Sermom, preaches about the earth-shattering reality of the Resurrection of Christ and how we must love everyone, even those who hate us because the Lord's resurrection changes EVERYTHING in human reality.

I cannot expect that the Roman and Latin brethren can even begin to understand what the meatless and dairyless fast, and the daily prayers and almsgiving mean to us Byzantines. And how we go spiritually nuts at the Resurrection when our priest comes forth with the candle and says: Receive the Light. He ISN'T in the tomb, He is risen as He said!!!! And we respond with "Your Resurrection, O Christ our Savior, the Angels in Heaven praise with hymns....." It is earth-shattering, it is life-changing, it is community-creating, it is all-forgiving when the priest comes forth to proclaim: He is not here. Why do you seek among the dead the One who lives in everlasting life. Behold! Here are the linens of burial. Make haste and proclaim to the world that the Lord is Risen......

And we sing, and the bells go crazy, and we carry the cross of immolation while we proclaim Christ's resurrection.

And then we're hit with this Anglican thing. What a freakin' bummer. As the bar-bouncers say: Take it outside.

Christ is Risen!!! INDEED, HE is Risen as He said!

Bless me a sinner, Father Kimel!

The Anglican Church has the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches "beat" in a number of respects.

What has always impressed me about the Anglican missionary approach is how the Anglicans have historically treated the Eastern Churches with such great respect.

They did not try to destroy or else depopulate the local Orthodox Churches of the Middle East via "Uniate" movements and the like.

They brought education and other benefits of Western culture to these peoples while, at the same time, supporting the local Church. For example, they did not take children in their care to their Anglican services, but to the local Oriental Orthodox parish.

I have spoken with Oriental Orthodox priests who remember Anglican missions with great fondness to this day.

The Anglican Saint Henry Martyn, who dedicated his entire life to translating the Armenian services, for example, was buried by the Armenians in full Armenian episcopal dress as one of their own bishops would have been!

Anglo-Catholics who remain in the Anglican Communion struggle to witness to their Catholic and Anglican heritage while opposing modernism that creeps into not only the Anglican Church, but also has crept into sections of the Roman Catholic and even the Orthodox Churches.

Catholic and Orthodox Churches have also been greatly spiritually enriched by the presence of the Anglican Rite in their jurisdictions.

The Anglican tradition is a Particular well-spring of the Holy Spirit that has produced many saints and martyrs.

I apologise for anyone, Father, who may have given the Anglican Church, and yourself, offense.

Kissing your right hand, I again implore your blessing,

your servant,

Alex

Alex, you speak wisdom and charity together.

Axios

Dear Axios,

Coming from you, Big Guy, that truly is a compliment!

A blessed Holy Week and Pascha, Servant of Christ!

Alex