I recently received some questions, as I periodically do, and I thought I would publish part of my answer. Any personal references have been removed. The note is not meant to be theologically precise, but rather general.
Every Church has its best side and its worst side. And so, for almost every major denomination of Christians I could say some fine things about them and some of what they believe. But, every denomination has a worst side. And, we all too often encounter that worst side. The trouble is that if we encounter the worst side first, or we encounter too much of the worst side, we can end up disliking the entire denomination. The Orthodox have their worst side as well. We, too, have people who are rigid, who are legalistic, who are nominal Christians, etc.
This means that trying to serve God and finding His Church becomes a difficult task. Many simply give up and do a Christian version of “there are many paths to God.” What do I mean? Well, they decide that as long as someone follows the Lord and tries to serve Him and attends a congregation then it will work out. And, frankly, there is some truth in that. Only the strictest among the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox try to insist today that only Roman Catholics or Orthodox can be saved, and those people are in disagreement with the hierarchy of their own Church.
What the Orthodox will say is that all the guarantees made to the Church are made to just that, to the Church, the one that is descended from the Apostles and has remained faithful and united. So we say that the only complete road to salvation is found among the Orthodox, and the guarantees of grace are given to His Church. This does not mean that there is no grace outside the Church. We cannot limit God, and, frankly, He has made it quite clear in both Scripture and human history that He showers His grace as He wills. But, it is to say that our view of salvation is not limited just to the moment that one accepts the Lord. Salvation is an ongoing process, and one that is best accomplished in the Church.
Now that gives you something about the Orthodox and our perspective. The Episcopal Church comes from the Church of England. At the time of the Reformation King Henry VIII and the bishops took the English Church away from Roman control. But, it did not finally develop its general identity until the time of his daughter Queen Elizabeth I. It is a denomination that has a Catholic outside with a Protestant inside. [Yes, I know that some Anglicans would strongly disagree with me.]
The Roman patriarch left the other four patriarchs about 1,000 years ago. Up until then, the Church had grown to be a Pentarchy (five patriarchs working in concert). However, because the Church was one Church for the first 1,000 years, there is much that is in common between us. Nevertheless, there are differences in philosophical approach and theology between the two. Roman Catholicism tends to be much more “legal” in its approach than Orthodoxy. As a result, by the Middle Ages, their view of salvation also became almost purely legal. Thus the argument between Protestants and Catholics was about how legal salvation could be accomplished. The Orthodox would say that this means that both of them have made the same mistake. The primary focus of salvation is not “legal.”
In many of the Christian postings on the Internet, we see a failure to express Christian charity. The opinions are expressed either in anger or with a triumphalistic tone. Too often, we paint a picture of the group to which we belong that is so idealized that were a person to attend one of our congregations, they either would not recognize it or be tremendously disappointed, perhaps even horrified. Then, we turn around and portray the other group in such a way that not even a trained theologian from that group would recognize the description. For instance, one of the favorite recurrent techniques used by some Protestants against Roman Catholics is to persistently quote the most incendiary versions of pre-Vatican Council II documents, sometimes with interpretations that are deliberate distortions of the documents quoted. And, there are Roman Catholic bloggers that return the favor. And, yes, there are some Orthodox who cheerfully join in.
And, here is the problem of not giving a reasonable portrayal of yourself and of other groups, with one caveat. The caveat is that whenever one is posting a short reply, it is inevitable that one has to use some summary and generalization. If one does not give a reasonable portrayal of yourself and others, then the reader will not only doubt you when they finally encounter either your group or one of the groups you portrayed, there is a real and present danger that the reader will not only doubt what you have said about God, but may even doubt God Himself.
And, at that point you have become a stumbling stone and a rock of offense.
That is why Saint Paul calls us to speak the truth in love. “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.” Do you realize that part of your spiritual growth involves learning how to speak the truth in love?
This is the Lutheran view on the question “what is the church”.
ARTICLE VIII
What the Church Is
Note: This article elaborates on Article VII and makes it clear that the Church consists only of believers in Christ, those made holy by His mercy. Hypocrites are not in this sense any part of the Church. One may think of the term church in a broad and narrow sense. The Church, broadly speaking, is all those who assemble around Word and Sacrament. Narrowly speaking, the Church encompasses only believers. There are not two churches, one “visible,” and one “invisible.” Rather, we understand that here on the earth the Church is hidden because faith, or spiritual life, is “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). This hidden Church has public, visible marks, by which it is recognized with absolute certainty: Christ’s Gospel and Sacraments, purely preached and administered. (See also Ap VII and VIII; SA III XII.)
1 Strictly speaking, the Church is the congregation of saints and true believers. However, because many hypocrites and evil persons are mingled within them in this life [Matthew 13:24–30], it is lawful to use Sacraments administered by evil men, according to the saying of Christ, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat” (Matthew 23:2). 2 Both the Sacraments and Word are effective because of Christ’s institution and command, even if they are administered by evil men.
3 Our churches condemn the Donatists, and others like them, who deny that it is lawful to use the ministry of evil men in the Church, and who think that the ministry of evil men is not useful and is ineffective.
Concordia : The Lutheran Confessions. Edited by Paul Timothy McCain. St. Louis, MO : Concordia Publishing House, 2005, S. 34
We would disagree on the definition of the Church. But, we would agree that on Sunday morning in the liturgy there are wheat and tares. And, as Our Lord said, we often cannot tell them apart.
Because the Lutheran and Orthodox definitions of salvation are different, our definitions of the Church are different.
Hi Father, I knew little about Orthodoxy until very recently (I am a ‘cradle Catholic’). I found myself recently looking at an Orthodox website when ‘surfing’ and was fairly horrified by what I read of the owner’s views of my Church. I had always been told that the great schism was an event to be greatly regretted but that our two Churches still had much in common (indeed sufficient in common to make unity a real possibility). I had some affection for Orthodoxy knowing that it was the only non-Catholic body whose sacraments were accepted as valid by my Church. I assumed that the Catholic view was reciprocated and also that the site I had come across was some kind of aberration.
I was soon to be disabused, after looking at numerous Orthodox sites I could only find negative references (some breathtakingly so) to Catholicism until I came to yours where some acceptance that Catholics do not have horns appears to exist. Thanks, Father.