:ohvey: It's best firstly to respond to the trite rhetoric that, somehow, a Bishop is condemning others in an ultramontane fashion. I assess the situation thus...the indictment is of the lawlessness and the structure it has created and not of sinners. It is correct and quite Christian, except to the pc and heterodox, to correct the sinner whilst utterly denying legitimacy to the sin. That is the point +Bishop Gregory is making. His "canonicity"/ecclesial situation is striking to be of such import to some. The underlying idea behind it is that, if he, +Gregory is a sinner in an irregular situation, he has no voice to speak out despite his heirarchical office. Talk about liberal elitism, founded on ad hominem diatribe! Such pseudo-Christian sophistries are unworthy of the Master, but rather akin to the scribes and pharisees! TRULY ULTRA-MONTANE REASONING!!! DONATISM. Again, the weight of a statement is based upon its adherence to the TRUTH, not to the failings of a person.
Returning again to the point: +Bishop Gregory has written this statement out of love and concern for ROCOR, a body to which he devoted most of his life. His canonicity is as legitimate as any other Russian faction. But that should not matter. Simply address the content.
ORTHODOXIA I THANATOS!
Rostislav Mikhailovich Malleev-Pokrovsky
PS The idea of unity I plagiarized. Its author is none other than St. John of San Francisco and its architect, Blessed +Metropolitan Philaret. I doubt seriously that this is of any interest to the current ROCOR. It was rather a thought I feel could be the reaction of us resisters to this ruinous union being put into effect.