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rcjames -> RE: The New Testament Church and Apostolic Succession (9/20/2005 1:23:54 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: unworthyseraphim
Dear Ayani,
Charismatic succession is one of those terms that have the potential to irritate and alienate those who you don't include within it.
Orthodoxy believes that the life of the Church is the life of the Spirit. Her Tradition as much as it is a coninuity of what is passed down it is also lived in and experienced and understood and finds new expression in new contexts (without changing its old content) for itself age to age by the Spirit. In Revelation I believe it says, the Spirit of Prophecy is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Charismatic succession is the fullness of the transmission of this Prophetic Spirit within the Church.
It is the presence of this Spirit that will cause the laity to withstand erring hierarchs, or give a lone hierarch the grace to stand when it seems the rest of their peer have abandoned their senses or their responsibilities and have seriously compromised themselves in some way. It is this Spirit that gives us starets/geronti in unbroken succession age to age, and it is from this Spirit that the Saints arise and are made known within the Church.
When we read in the NT of the kind of grace know to the apostles and thier intimate disciples we are seeing the living expression of this Charismata. It is in this Charismata that apostolic succession is a living gift of the Spirit and not a simple historical continutity of succession. As time progressed it became evident that not all who followed in the apostolic line were men who were of the same spiritual caliber as those before them. Some turned out to be little more than place holders they were of such low caliber. But for all their lack of apparant grace they did not preach heresy and so maintained the tranmission of the episcopacy. But the episcopacy is but one operation of this Spirit (pastors and teachers). It has expression in the Body as well (thus Orthodoxy does not recognize a magisterium among her heirarchs such as Rome does). And it is in body that the full expression of this grace has been most apparent. Orthodox have a very ancient tradition called Starets (Russian) or geronti (Greek). It means "elder", and is a term reserved for those who are spiritual fathers or mothers of a certain great and generally hidden grace. They are generally known only to themselves and to their disciples for most of their lives. Some of their disciples carry on and bear the fullness of this grace after them. Afterwards their disciples will publish the writings of their elders, collect their wise sayings and recount their lives, which are quite often filled with many wonders(it is a rich and wonderful literature filled with nuggets of jaw dropping wisdom). It is the continuity of the master and disciple system that goes back to Christ, and very probably long before him to those institutions known as schools of the prophets. Some of these become clergy, some do not, but both stand within the fullness of expression of the Spirit of Prophecy. It is because of this in Orthodoxy confession is not limited to the sphere of priests and bishops. Those who are staretz/geronti or who are blessed to serve as spiritual parents may hear confessions as well. But one may only expect "infallible" counsel from the staretz.
These men and women are the bone core...the very marrow of Orthodoxy, the font from which the Church is refreshed and renewed age to age, and a great many of her saints are drawn from their ranks. And when I speak of wonders and prophesies concerning these men and women, I do not speak loosely or in terms to be compared with the so called wonders and prophesies of the current charismatic movement , so called. When these speak that this or that thing will come to pass, it does. They pass the OT test of the prophets, their words do not fall to the ground. When they speak of being a light for Christ, they do not just speak metaphorically, they speak as ones literally transfirgured like Christ at Mt. Tabor, or like St. Stephen before his accusers. Orthodox spiritual writings contain hundreds and thousands of accounts of the wonders done in and through them, healings, divine guidance, heavenly reproofs, miracles, and prophesy. For example, the Holy Fool Abel told Czar-Paul what would be fall him and all of Russia for many years to come. Czar Paul wrote a letter to his royal descendant telling all of what the Holy Fool Abel had told him. He sealed it in a small golden coffer and left instructions that 100 years hence it was to be given to the Czar. That letter was delivered to Czar Nicholas II in 1908. It is said that he wept unconsolably for two days. It told of his coming martyrdom, the martyrdom of all his family, and the great troubles that would befall Russia and the Church there for many years to come. It was that letter which gave Czar Nicholas the courage to remain and suffer with his people rather than flee with the White Russian Army when he had the chance. But such things were known to a number of other elders like St. Seraphim of Sarov who reposed in 1833. He too foretold the troubles coming upon Russia including the murder of the Czar and his family. It is said when asked about what would come after that St. Seraphim could not speak but would only weep. Every major innovation of science has been foretold by these Holy men and women for hundreds of years...everything from submarines to aircraft to cell phones to satellites to TVs to unisex fashions. The rise of the Arab was known in the time of St. Constantine though then it was still 400 years away. Indeed the whole span of time from the rise to the fall of Arab power was foretold in his time (If I remember correctly it will begin to crubble in the mid to late 2030s). Well I digress
My point is it is the charismatic succession that ulitmately matter for the life of the Church age to age, it is that apostolic grace active in the whole Body from the day of Pentecost forwards. If you read certain Orthodox discussions of various communions or certain persons in schism you will note the term "without grace". To say someone or some communion is without grace means they stand outside the Charismatic dimension of the grace of the Church. But that said, it is not as cut and dried as all that for conversely, wherever the Spirit is there is grace.
This really is one of those areas hard to discuss intelligibly beyond a very shallow surface. The best way to discuss it is to show it. So to that end I recommend to you two books, one the Life of St. Seraphim of Sarov by Fr. Lazarus Moore, and the other, A Night on the the Holy Mountain by Heirotheos Valachthos (hope I spelled that right).
Unworthyseraphim,
I pray that you do not think me brash, but I consider that to be man's rules and man's traditions trying to control God's plan for salvation. What a shame.
Thanks
RC
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