Moscow and Rome weigh in....

Apparently only the shrinking parts of the Anglican Communion gets it right, and the rest of Catholic/Orthodox Christendom is wrong????

Moscow, 8 July 2008 (Interfax):
The Moscow Patriarchate expressed concern about the Anglican Synod’s decision yesterday to ordain women to the episcopate. “Undoubtedly, this decision is an utterly unhealthy step in the inter-Christian dialogue, as it further alienates the Anglican Communion from the Apostolic tradition”, Fr Igor Vyzhanov, head of the secretariat for Inter-Christian Relations of the MP Department for External Church Relations, stated to an Interfax-Religion correspondent on Tuesday. Fr Igor also said that the Anglican Synod’s decision to ordain women to the episcopate “is a very painful blow to the unity of the Anglican Communion, as it aggravates the division amongst Anglicans. Unfortunately, the decision was predictable because very liberal tendencies prevail in many Christian Churches today, particularly in the Anglican Communion”, he said.
In the late 19th to the early 20th centuries, the Orthodox saw the Anglican Church as “the closest to us amongst the western Christian Churches”, he said. “A very serious dialogue resulted, leading to hopes that good relations between the Orthodox and Anglicans would have good prospects”, Fr Igor said. “If we look at documents of that time, one simply cannot believe that it was the same church then, because, now, regretfully, we see how the Anglican Communion increasingly abandons the traditional understanding of church life”, he said.
In his opinion, the present decision of the Anglican Communion manifests “the tendency of secular European thought to follow everything through to its logical conclusion”. Fr Igor emphasised that church life and the sphere of religious faith “is not the place to apply the rational logic of secular society”. In this connection, he quoted the words of a well-known philosopher that said, “Any thought carried through to its logical conclusion becomes an absurdity”. “We see what absurd results flow from an application of liberal ideas to, for example, Christian moral standards”, Fr Igor said.
He noted that the MP shall attentively follow the developments at the Lambeth Conference, the largest meeting of representatives from all the Anglican churches, which is scheduled to begin on 16 July and run through 3 August. He mentioned that this conference shall discuss, amongst other things, questions of Anglican cooperation in the field of Christian moral theology; in particular, it shall examine the question of homosexuality, both the ordination of openly gay individuals and the blessing of homosexual unions.
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=25357 (in Russian)
--------------------
8 July 08 - RV) The Vatican Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity issued a Statement Tuesday regarding recent events within the Anglican Communion.The Council is headed by Cardinal Walter Kasper. The statement reads: “We have regretfully learned of the Church of England vote to pave the way for the introduction of legislation which will lead to the ordaining of women to the Episcopacy.The Catholic position on the issue was clearly expressed by Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II. Such a decision signifies a breaking away from the apostolic tradition maintained by all of the Churches since the first millennium, and therefore is a further obstacle for the reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Church of England.This decision will have consequences on the future of dialogue, which had up until now born fruit, as Cardinal Kasper had clearly explained when he spoke on June 5 2006 to all of the bishops of the Church of England at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury.The Cardinal has been invited once again to express the Catholic position at the next Lambeth Conference at the end of July”.