bogoliubtsy wrote:Daniel,
You should send letters to the various Jurisdictions asking if they accept the Branch Theory. Also, see the OCA's Q&A section of their webpage where they provide their answer to this question..
In some of my discusions with the OCA on their practice of receiving converts they all but said they recognize heterodox baptims as valid and salvific. Granted, they did not explicitly say this, but this is the impression I got from their responces. I do know that the Ukrainian Met. Constantine (UOC of USA under Bart), sees Methodist baptism as effectial for salvation.
As far as not needing a council to decide this matter. Perhaps you are right. It seems obvious to you and I that the type of harmful ecumenism that is going on should be stopped. But at the same time, was it not obvious to many that Donatism, Nestorianism, etc. were also immense heresies? Yet, they had to be refuted through councils and the consensus of the Church.
But Donatism and Nestorianism, and any other heresy for that matter, are heretical and false from their very inception. They were/are not semi-heretical before a council and then fully so afterwards (I know that's not what you are saying). I have always been taught that councils sorta state the obvious. That they formulated nothing new, but only expressed what the Church has always beleived.