And to you Davidlazarus! I must apologize for my delay in responding I wanted to confirm the accuracy of my answers
It is good to hear your Church is no longer continuing to ordain women priestesses as the pagan religions did for their deities.
May I ask if you know if Mrs Worley has renounced this false claim or does she still maintain her position?
I do not know exactly what her stance is at the moment; neither she nor her husband technically are involved with us at all. Like I said they are listed to honor Bishop Worly but they have no official function in the Church. They do not participate in any way.
Another question I would like to ask is from what apostolic line of ascension does your Church claim to have received its anointing?
From our website:
PRIMARY SUCCESSION - THE ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
The primary Succession of this Church stems from the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia and its first Patriarch ... Abuna Basilios. In 1959 Abuna Basilios Consecrated to the Episcopacy at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Abuna Gabre Kristos Mikael; assisted by Abuna Markos, Patriarch of Gojjam, and Bishop Petros, Metropolitan of Gondar.
In 1972, at St. Leonard's Cathedral in brooklyn, New York, Abuna Gabre Kristos Mikael, assisted by Archbishops Francis Ryan and James Edward Burns, Consecrated to the Episcopacy, Abuna Gabre Medhin Kristos Jeremiah, (David W. Worley).
In 2004 Abuna Jeremiah, assisted by Bishop Michael Frost, Consecrated to the Episcopacy the current Metropolitan Primate of The American Orthodox Catholic Church/American Orthodox Church, +Samuel, (Mark A. Pultorak)
This
link provides a brief history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church from which our succession originates. The first Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Abuna Basilios is the same Abuna Basilios mentioned above.
Please do not take offense to this but there is at this time a growing number of gatherings claiming to be apostolic, many of which claim to hold apostolic authority, particularly from the apostle St, Thomas.
No offense taken my friend. As you can see we are not "Thomasites" although I am familiar with some of these groups as we have a "Thomasite" Bishop in the city in which I live.
As examples, The "Spiritis Church" and the "Fellowship of Christ International" both make the same claim and both ordain women. What is of note however is when their line of ascension is examined, a number of Nestorians are listed and even these claims of anointing are dubious to say the least.
I am not suggesting your Church falls into their category as I know nothing at this time of your claim of ascension, so I do ask you not to take my words as an accusation, as they are not intended to be.
I am not aware of a Nestorian influence in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. However although a student I am not a scholar and perhaps there is such an influence. I know that the Ethiopians are not now Nestorian nor are we.
My purpose in asking is simply to clarify this point as your Church website does not offer any names, only the statement that you have received such authority.
Actually our Website only provides information showing our connections to the Ethiopian and the Russian Orthodox Churches did you go to the link I provided?
As for what actually happened in the 60's we are not really sure. We have been involved in communication trying to determine how our body and the Ethiopian Church lost contact with each other and so far all we have learned is that neither we nor the Ethiopians really know, at least not yet. It's been a puzzler.
Recently I was in a similar situation, I had been posting on another forum calling itself "Ourchurch.com" where a member of the "fellowship of Christ International", specifically a woman Bishop, also posted.
Ourchurch.com has a number of different Church bodies which post websites on them do you remember which one particularly?
When I questioned her on the Nestorians in their list of apostolic ascension of authority and could they support their claims, I was threatened by the administration of the forum to remain silent, with the threat of being banned should I mention it again.
This is not a very Christian response on their part. Considering how you have asked your questions here I see no reason to believe you were any less polite and respectful there.
After a short time, another challenged her on her claiming the title of Bishop and again the issue of their apostolic authority arose. When I posted the evidence proving her claims to be false, I was banned and the posts removed. In this case the individual in question was a paying customer of many of the services provided by "Ourchurch.com".
Unfortunately that doesn't surprise me.
I mention this simply to illustrate the need for clarification on such claims, not to suggest any deceit on your part. However as I'm sure you can appreciate, any can make such claims, but not always are they based in truth.
Indeed people can claim many things. This is one of the reasons my first post was worded as it was.
Peace and Love to you
David Lazarus
And to you my friend. Thank you for the challenging questions and for sharing your experiences.
I would like a link to the ourchurch that you were banned from. I assure you I have no intention posting there but would like to take a look. I know a lot of Old Catholics and Thomasites that do endorse female clergy beyond the Diaconate.
Tom
