Hello everyone. Having read through a few topics, I notice that there's been an ongoing discussion (unresolved, I guess) about at what point do we conclude grace has departed and therefore we should separate from our bishops if we are certain they have thus fallen.
Well, I sure am not the one to turn to for an answer to that one. I have read quite a few of the members' thoughts on the question, and St. Mark of Ephesus has been cited a few times as a good model to follow. My question to everyone is, which points of St Mark's actions are we to follow suit? I think we could take his example two very different ways. It seems (I am ignorant of the history myself of this saint and my knowledge is sketchy) that he did remain in communion with his brother bishops who had signed the council of Florence union after they repented even though they had never (to my sketchy knowledge) been reconsecrated (sorry if that is the wrong term, but I am kind of an ignorant Orthodox) as should have been done if this joint union and confession with Rome would have made them graceless. On the other hand, I have heard that he instructed his disciples to forbid any Orthodox clergy who were still Latin sympathisers at the time of his death to just attend his funeral! If that is true, I think it unlikely that he would have considered them to be in a state of Grace if he would not allow them to pray for his repose at his funeral! I am confused about St Mark and the question of grace and union/confession/joint prayers with heterodox.
Well, anyways, a second question for me in this is--taking a one-sided view of St Mark, how can anyone say that ROCOR (L) is graceless at this point (even if they have prayed with clergy of MP) when no official union has even been agreed to -- signed and sealed as it were? This is a much more tentative situation than what St Mark was dealing with, isn't it? Again, I ask this in light of St Mark's life and his relations with the Bishops who had signed.
Please let me know if my information is wrong about him recognising brother bishops and clergy without reconsecration (right term?) after they had recanted their union with Rome.