What Sort of Culture of Obedience?

The case of Jean Vanier, writes Leon J. Podles, has opened the eyes of France to a secret world of heresy and abuse which the Vatican first encountered in the 1950s. Céline Hoyeau has documented and analyzed this world in "The Betrayal of the Fathers".https://t.co/hplyxG3LUH

— Catholic World Report (@cworldreport) May 17, 2021

Gerondism

If taken literally and not as hyperbole that excludes the fact that the only way to become an orthodox Christian is to be incporated in Christ, then how can this be not wrong? We are first grafted into Christ and His Life, and we learn from others and their experiences. How does this differ from what St. Justin Popovic said: "Christians today can become true Christians only if they're guided on adaily basis by God's saints"? Teachers, guides, mentors are important -- but can these mentors be found outside monastics?

“And there really is only one way to become Orthodox, one way to become a Christian, and that is to become disciples of the contemporary Elders, Saints, and spiritual fathers. To be grafted into their experience, to become one with that.” -@frpeterheers pic.twitter.com/ilJ3svUZRG

— Timothy Honeycutt (@AudioScribeOW) March 26, 2021

Metropolitan Ephymios (Stilios) on Gerondism

OrthoChristian: The Phenomenon of “Gerondism”
Part 1: The components of “gerondism”
Part 2: Theological critique of the phenomenon. The ethics of the spiritual father and his child

Are the problems similar to the cult of personality that surrounds founders of young religious orders and communities in the West?

Faith and Humility

A New Book from Fr. Gabriel Bunge

in English translation that is... Spiritual Fatherhood: Evagrius Ponticus on the Role of the Spiritual Father

Find a Spiritual Father or Mother

Archimandrite Zacharias on Elder Sophrony

"Archimandrite Zacharias, from Holy Monastery of Honourable Forerunner, Essex, England, speaks about his spiritual father Elder Sophrony"

Posted by Orthodox Christian Network on Thursday, January 14, 2016