An Anglo-Orthodox Vision for Growth

 

Orthodox Worship in the Liturgy of St. Tikhon

By Bp. Joseph Boyd (Ancient  Church of the West) 

This was the purpose statement that I wrote in 2014-15, as we heard God's calling to establish a church for foreign passport holders in a restricted country. A simple outline morphed into a clear direction, resulting in the establishment of a new and exciting Vicariate in the Orthodox Church. These points are still the goal of our ecclesial community, even online, and will continue to be how we build our faith and worship in the Missionary Diocese of East and Southeast Asia.

Over the next few years, as we plant more Orthodox communities in the English Rite, we can never forget the simplicity, friendliness and openness of our calling. It is easy to allow the canonical and continuity concerns, both essential parts of our history and our ongoing communion with other local churches, to overwhelm the evangelical aspect of our process of converting ourselves and others to Christ. 

Orthodoxy is the wonderful "wall of protection" that we draw around the Christian mysteries, obedient to the consensus of every generation of Christians in the true, Apostolic Gospel, but these walls are not walls of division or exclusion, and we should be careful to maintain our "first love," do the "first works," and not get distracted by a constant game of "us vs. them" and one-upmanship that typifies the online culture of Orthodox converts. This culture misses the mark, which is love for God and one another, and as St. Paul so clearly says, "let love be your aim." (I Corinthians 14:1)

Let us continue on in the simple vision that God gave us for building communities around the Light of His Holiness, the Beauty of Orthodoxy, and communities of true and lively fellowship in the power of the Holy Spirit!

The Banner from our January 2021 Clericus