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I've seen EC's confirm that they do retain post-schism Saints (EO and/or OO, depending on the specific Eastern Catholic Church) in their calendar, and are thus still commemorated liturgically. IOW, yes they do. This includes "controversial" ones like St. Gregory Palamas (EO), St. Severus of...

"Dancing," or difference in style, isn't a problem to me. The Ethiopians (and Eritreans I believe) do have a sort of "liturgical dance," and are very different in style from the Byzantine tradition. They are nonetheless Orthodox and not "low-church" or remotely evangelical in worship. By...

It's my understanding that the African Churches in the Anglican Communion are nonetheless very low church, evangelical, and otherwise non-traditional even if theologically and morally conservative. That doesn't help much more than TEC, unless you're referring to other churches.

Your first sentence changed my hypothetical, which loses the intent. Say that Church's Synod was taken over, Soviet Russia style. Those hierarchs excommunicate said Church (which they can do, by their own Synod, without reference to the other Churches - just look at the various excommunications...

I'm afraid the boundaries are not clearly defined if one insists on the Church consisting solely of those visible, intercommuning episcopacies. I'm certain I gave the example before of some autocephalous Church somewhere severing communion with the rest of visible, canonical Orthodoxy. They...

I'd say all that's left to do is pray, as others have said here. Enough people have taken it upon themselves to contact him. Some have probably done good, but most have just affirmed his feelings of being mistreated by the Church and her members, and for good reason. Calling him names and...

They must've seen this thread and decided to say something. ;)

Except "evident harm" ends up being an arbitrarily, or at least inconsistently, defined phrase. "Evident harm" is not self-evident.

An appeal to tradition is a fallacy if it amounts to "this is what's always been done, it must be right" or something like that. It's only fallacious insofar as the assumed premise of "this is how it's been, or used to be" is not necessarily true. OTOH, appealing to the Church or Church...

The Church is often termed "a hospital for sinners" - remember that when you see political bickering or feel disappointment or hurt from the actions of others.

I think your concerns are real and legitimate, but might be primarily directed at American Orthodox. Even then though, there are Orthodox aid organizations (like IOCC) that American Orthodox greatly assist. And as I mentioned earlier in the thread, look at the work the Antiochian Church - often...

I meant "personal" to differentiate between Christian belonging to a church that believes it's OK and one that doesn't. Speaking of human rights, a Christian in a pro-gay church would obviously have to teach that homosexuality is part of the created order, so I was only dealing with Christians...

His February 17th Pastoral Letter, for example. I believe this was his first such letter after his enthronement. Look especially at section 9, Towards a Full Sacramental Unity of the Christians. The whole letter is nice from what I recall. His enthronement speech, found starting on page 6 of the...

This just made me realize something. If a Christian personally disagrees with same-sex marriage, but feels humans have a "right" to it - what do they actually mean? If they mean human right (as in pertaining to our nature), then this can't coherently be the case if it's immoral. IOW, humans...

I realize you have strong feelings on the subject, but it's a bit sensationalist to instantly apply Rus' comments to Orthodoxy itself.

Yes, some of the extreme on this end are the Orthodox equivalent of the "once-saved-always-saved sinner's prayer" of Evangelicals. I'd say we're not a tiny minority, even if we seem like it on the internet. Read some of His Beatitude Partiarch John X's statements, and you'll catch the...

I'm not sure what you mean by a distortion of the Gospel message itself, but I do agree with you that grace is not limited to the visible, canonical, intercommuning Orthodox churches. Now, I'm not sure how far you're willing to go with its limits to say whether I can agree or not. Personally...

The Antiochian and Syriac Churches do plenty of charitable and humanitarian work in Syria. Point is, one can't extrapolate based on a limited experience of Orthodoxy (or any church for that matter, so we can't do it either) to the entire system.

Returning the same dismissive attitude isn't the best way to show him he's mistaken.

Catholicism has embraced liberation theology? Pope Francis, when he was still Cardinal, was an extremely outspoken and influential opponent against liberation theology in Argentina. IIRC he even censured priests that taught it. It is controversial and is by no means, AFAIK, universally accepted...