Lamenting the sad divisions within Christianity as a whole, we gladly invite orthodox Christians who are not members of the ACCA to receive Holy Communion with us; that is, all validly baptized (understood as being with water "In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" and done with the intention of "doing what the Church does") and repentant persons who accept the Christian Faith as stated in the
Nicene Creed and who are commited to following Messiah Jesus as Lord, God, and Savior are invited and encouraged to share the most sacred and lifegiving Body and Blood of Messiah Jesus with us in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. In other words, we practice a form of what is sometimes called "open Communion." Concerning other matters, we take a pastoral approach to divorce and remarriage; while we strongly discourage divorce, we do permit the remarriage of divorced persons. All levels of our clergy are permitted to marry and we ordain qualified women to all orders of the ministerial priesthood, including those of deacon, presbyter, and bishop. However, these questions notwithstanding,
OUR APPROACH TO SEXUAL AND OTHER ETHICAL ISSUES IS ESSENTIALLY TRADITIONAL:
That said, it must be understood that "traditional" cannot necessarily be equated with what is usually understood today as "conservative," especially in regard to economic matters. For example, in addressing questions of economic justice, St. John Chrysostom and many of the other Fathers have far more in common with Karl Marx than with contemporary free-market ideologues, who, unfortunately, are all too often merely secular Social Darwinists wrapping their notions in pseudo-Christian rhetoric. Here we proclaim an often-repeated slogan from the Christian East: "Christian social teaching IS the doctrine of the Most Blessed Trinity" and that, to paraphrase Greek Bishop John Zizioulas, "There is no Being apart from Communion."
