"Mature" Christianity

The Blue Flower

"Many people leave the Church because the experience is lifeless. However, atheism is not the winner. People are seeking and finding the divine without going anywhere. One route is connecting with the natural world – the forests, the mountains and the sea. Another is discovering the Christian Tradition through Orthodoxy or a Romantic (I mean Romantic and not “romantic” / sentimental) vision of medieval Catholicism à la Novalis. It all has to come from within, from the presence of God and the Sophia within ourselves. . . .

I am not a pastor because I have no parish. I live in a spiritual desert where the near totality of the population would have no interest in attending religious services, and to boot in a private chapel. Were I to leave my little Anglican church and relinquish the priesthood, I could return to Roman Catholicism – but the cycle would turn yet again like when I was in Switzerland. I see absolutely no point in it. The Eternal Church is within and between each of us who has that γνῶσις. Without falling into the temptation of heretical Gnosticism, it is the communion of all those who follow Christ according to their maturity and understanding. . . .

No one possesses truth, still less can he lord it over others like brandishing a weapon. Perhaps it would be useful for some of us to discover other peaceful religions like Hinduism, not to join their communities, but to find what they and we have in common. Cultural shock can bring healing and growth.In my various comments on Facebook, I have emphasised the need for us priests to be subordinate to our bishops. It can happen that we find ourselves under a tyrant whose requirements of obedience are unreasonable. It happens all the time, often in proportion to the size of the bishop’s jurisdiction. The structure of an institutional church can be an icon or analogy of the communion of God’s people, but is not always. How do we judge when we are discouraged from the “private judgement of the Protestants”? Simply by critical thinking and our built-in Bullshit ‘o’ Meter. Archbishop Haverland is my Ordinary, and I have never had any problems from him, nor he from me. I still believe in the place and mission of the Anglican Catholic Church, which I understand as a prolongation of medieval and pre-Tridentine Catholicism – like historical Gallicanism." - Fr. Anthony Chadwick

I'm sure neither Fr. Chadwick nor the PTB in the Anglican Catholic Church much care, but the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia have ruled that Bulgakov's sophiology is a heresy, and Bulgakov's sophiology seems tame compared that that of Chadwick's.