Thursday, December 27, 2007

And You Shall Know Them By Their Childish Brawls

Following the Christmas Celebrations, Greek Orthodox priests set up ladders to clean the walls and ceilings of their part of the church, which is built over the site where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born.
But the ladders encroached on space controlled by Armenian priests, according to photographers who said angry words ensued and blows quickly followed.
For a quarter of an hour bearded and robed priests laid into each other with fists, brooms and iron rods while the photographers who had come to take pictures of the annual cleaning ceremony recorded the whole event.


You can read more here.

You can watch the video report here.

Some questions:
-What caused this age-old schism that still surfaces today amongst the two groups?
-Does such schisms allow for such behaviors?
-How should reconciliation be gone about (or is the doctrinal differences so wide as to negate any possibility of reconciliation)?
-Does this tarnish your view of Christianity?
-Do these two sects comprise a belief system that is accepted by the majority of Christian denominations and/or the Catholic Church?
-Does scripture speak to such issues as century's old arguments being left unresolved?

3 comments:

Pastor Klay said...

The Armenians reject Chalcedonian Christianity and are modified Eutychians (Christ was not two natures in one person but one nature with mixture of both human and divine). As such they are not genuine Christians but are damned heretics. I oppose their claim to any "holy site".

This spectacle brings shame to Christ in a volatile part of the world. I wonder, who won?

j razz said...

Ah, but the Armenians would say that they do not agree with Eutyches (they even call him a heretic) and merely rejected the formula provided at the Council of Chalcedon. They would further state that they agree with the doctrine as prescribed by Cyril of Alexandria.

As for who won, I am unsure but with that many years of bitterness behind them I am sure a lot of steam was let off.

j razz

Pastor Klay said...

The Armenians try to distance themselves, but their rejection of Chalcedon is heresy. I do not consider them orthodox Christians.