Breaking the Silence on Sexuality within the Orthodox Church

Quotes

Evil Is Powerless

Friends may have seen me post this beloved quote elsewhere, but it seems to me to apply to our business here–and to so many other things currently going on. I think we could also say that truth is powerless against falsehood. I take great hope from this.

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An excerpt from An autobiography of Jasmin Roy

An excerpt from An autobiography of Jasmin Roy, Les Éditions des Intouchables, Montreal 2010, in French.

Jasmin Roy eventually found a fulfilling career in the performing arts, after a horrible youth in which he endured years of bullying and the tacit participation of adults and educators. They exacerbated his persecution through their own ignorance and silence, or even by joining in the laughter of oppressor youth, and finally in their trivialization of his youthful burdens. He writes of the slow and faithful friendships and long therapy which lifted him from near suicidal anxiety and self-deprecation. This brief excerpt makes a poignant appeal against ignorance which breeds oppression, and underlines the complexity of human relations and personality that cannot be reduced to sexual orientation alone.

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Bishop Cassian Bezobrazov: Traditional and Free

We are perfectly aware that theological research ought to be on the one hand completely free and on the other hand rooted in Tradition.  We do not close our eyes to the fact that our encounter with the West has considerably enriched us.  Before the First World War we were well acquainted with German, particularly Protestant, scientific biblical literature.  During the course of our work in Paris, the treasures of French, English and American theological thought—not only Protestant but also Roman Catholic—have been open to us.  For it is in the confrontation of opinions that one is able to discover the Truth.  Facing new problems, enriched by new knowledge we are led to formulate responses which our forefathers had not the least idea, nor we ourselves had not wars and revolutions changed the face of the world and had not our points of view been overthrown.

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Fr Schmemann on Homosexuality

I’m posting this problematic bit from Fr. Alexander’s Journals, as I think it contains some interesting points, and serves as a convenient place to examine the issue of discernment of the mind of Christ (and who gets to..). I’ll come back and add my own comments later (I’m actually off to the Liturgy now), but please chime in, all. 

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Fr. Alexis Vinogradov on “issues” and “persons”

The idea I mentioned of individual uniqueness could be construed by rubricists of every ilk as the slippery slope to situational ethics, the mantra of pre-Woodstock ditching of all societal norms. However, I still maintain, as the central discovery of my priesthood, that we are moment to moment “sent” on an unprecedented discovery of a unique creation of God, that has never before been imagined, and will never be repeated. To that creature, I must find a unique response, willed by God. I won’t find answers in a book, though the books may guide me. Like a good physician, I now have to bring to bear everything in my arsenal and make a once-in-a-lifetime decision. This act is a cross, which in my falleness I seek to avoid; I recuse myself from life by appeal to the dead letter of secure laws.

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