James,
Sorry for not responding sooner, but this is a very busy week.
You mentioned some of the changes the Antiochians have instituted, such as the beardless priests, and I would sure hate to leave you thinking this was some small matter of little consequence. As with many unheard of innovations, it is hard to find where the fathers have spoken on the matter, often they did not because it was never an issue. But a few words are in order and since I don’t have the time to address all of the innovations, we will stick with the “beardless priests”, or, the appearance of their priests.
I once had a most unusual nightmare, seriously, that I bumped into my priest at the grocery store and he was wearing regular clothes, he was shaven and his hair was trimmed. He was smiling at me as one would when you meet someone. There was not much else to the dream except a terrible feeling during and after I woke up; it weighed very heavily on my heart. For a few days I reflected on why such a thing would weigh so heavily on me and then it dawned on me: the scene of him not being a priest was the same as if he had died (spiritually), as if he had turned his back on the Church and was overcome with the influence of the world. He was conquered spiritually and destroyed.
The priests of Christ’s Church are a living icon of Him; visually, and as much as their strength can sustain, spiritually. But Christ did not have untrimmed hair because He was after some kind of fashion, it was because He was not concerned with worldly comfort and appearance. In other words, the inner spirituality of the King who road a donkey was born out in appearance as a consequence of what was inside.
The Royal Priesthood of Christ, the living icons of Christ therefore strive to emulate this spiritual perfection, and direct all of Christ’s sheep to do the same. This spiritual direction is a training of all the senses. What then when they see the priest, the icon of Christ, become concerned with the world, and they start to shave and trim their hair, dress in a way more acceptable to the kingdoms of the world. This is the direction of spiritual death where it is not long before you see them with their hair slicked back in regular clothes on the golf course, as I know of with a GOA priest.
Now I do not want to overshadow the essence of your question with this, but my conscience troubled me that you might be led to think these “small” things were unimportant. They are important, especially when they all add up to a dry spiritlessness that effects you, and drags you down, perhaps without you even being aware.
Now, to answer your question, where is the “evidence” that the Antiochians have acted to cast themselves out of the Church? As I said, as one example, and perhaps the most fitting since the Antiochians are the leaders in this area, they have declared a communion with the Monophysites. I’m sure you are aware that the Monophysites were cut-off officially by the 4th Ecumenical Synod, so any communion with them brings the same anathemas on ones own head.
To see the evidence click here:
http://www.geocities.com/mfignatius/oth ... ine04.html
or here...
http://ecclesiagoc.org/index.cfm?ID=46
Really James, anyone who loves Christ and His Church will run from the Antiochians and all those in communion with them. This one issue is monumental, and there are others.
