St. Vladimir’s Seminary Reacts to Amsterdam Conference, Bishops Remain Silent

Source: American Orthodox Institute

August 30, 2017

  

The meeting in Amsterdam organized by Public Orthodoxy several months ago to discuss Orthodoxy and sexuality raised serious questions, some of which have been answered. Thankfully, several attendees withdrew their support of the conference once the questions were raised. Also contributing to their withdrawal was the publication of an article on the Public Orthodoxy Blog by Peter J. (Giacomo) SanFilippo that argued that a renowned theologian of the Russian Orthodox Church was a sodomite (read the refutation here). The conference was poorly conceived and should have never been held.

One troubling question raised was that some of the attendees cited their affiliation with St. Vladimir’s Seminary (SVS), presumably to give the conference a patina of authority it clearly did not have. This fact was not lost on SVS leadership, including the President and the Board of Trustees. Does the seminary want to be associated with a group that by all appearances considers the moral tradition up for grabs, subject to the cultural deconstruction of the kind we see in the SanFilippo essay? Clearly not it turns out.

Several weeks ago St. Vladimir’s Seminary leadership, evidently troubled by the promiscuous use of the seminary’s name and reputation, reaffirmed its fidelity to the Orthodox tradition. They wrote:

At their meeting on July 24, 2017, the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of St. Vladimir’s Seminary affirmed that the Seminary, in its teaching of theology on the issues of marriage and human sexuality, is guided by the document titled, “Synodal Affirmations on Marriage, Family, Sexuality, and the Sanctity of Life,” originally issued by the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) in 1992.

...Read the rest at American Orthodox Institute.

Comments
Editor9/1/2017 10:06 pm
George Demacopoulos: This article links to the original, and as you see, only the first few paragraphs are reproduced here as a lead-in. Our site takes no responsibility for articles in Media Review, and their appearance on our page does not constitute an editorial endorsement. However, we respect the author's requests for removal.
George Demacopoulos9/1/2017 8:00 pm
You need to revise this essay ASAP (as did the author on his own page). Neither Public Orthodoxy, nor Fordham University had anything to do with the Amsterdam conference. To suggest otherwise reveals just how little the author and this site know about it.

Moreover, the SVS statement has absolutely nothing to do with the Amsterdam conference. It was developed over months and intended to law the legal groundwork to prevent future lawsuits given the legalization of gay marriage. The entire essay is predicated on a series of false assumptions.
Anthony9/1/2017 7:30 am
With all due respect, I think their most holy graces don't have very much time on their hands to worry about issues such as the one described in this article. They have far more pressing issues to deal with such as anti white supremacism anti racism, showing their liberal credentials whilst failing to condemn violent left wing agitators funded by the likes of soros. After all, this very website posted no less than three articles by self righteous western Orthodox leaders dealing with the Charlottesville incident. So how are their most holinesses expected to find the time to deal with the less important issues of sexuality, even if peoples' souls are in danger from this type of confusion. C'mon.

I would suggest that pravoslavie komrades post Fr Philip LeMasters article clarifying his views, even though he was an attendee:

https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/easternchristianinsights/2017/07/31/eucharistic-context-pastoral-response-contemporary-challenges-marriage-family-sexuality/
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