The first principle of the Ordinariate is then about Christian unity. St. Basil the Great, the Church’s greatest ecumenist, literally expended his life on the work of building bridges between orthodox brethren who shared a common faith, but who had become separated from one another in a Church badly fragmented by heresy and controversy. He taught that the work of Christian unity requires deliberate and ceaseless effort...St. Basil often talked with yearning about the archaia agape, the ancient love of the apostolic community, so rarely seen in the Church of his day. This love, he taught, is a visible sign that the Holy Spirit is indeed present and active, and it is absolutely essential for the health of the Church.

- Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, Homily on the Occasion of his Formal Institution as Ordinary

Sunday, January 18, 2015

On the primacy of the Pope


St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. " And so the same is of course true for the apostles. In John's Gospel, Jesus bestows the name Peter on Simon during their first meeting. This name is representative of the gift that Peter will be given as leader of the apostolic college, which is further explained later in John's Gospel when Peter is commanded to "feed my sheep" and in Luke's Gospel where Jesus assures Peter that he has prayed for him so that he will be able to strengthen his brethren.

In his article on the Joint International Catholic-Orthodox Theological Commission, meeting in Ravenna, Italy, Msgr. Daniel Hamilton looks at the primacy of Peter and of his successors in the Apostolic See, that same seat of unity which Father Paul of Greymoor felt so key to the unity of the Church.

Read it at the Anglican Embers web site on the Anglican Use Society site: http://www.anglicanuse.org/AE_2_07_Hamilton-Ravenna-Primacy.pdf

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1 comment:

  1. Isobe LtinSeptember 3, 2018 at 9:43 AM

    This name is representative of the gift that Peter will be given as leader of the apostolic college.
    meet and greet at Manchester

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