Akathist
3rd December 2007, 02:18 PM
http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article7071.asp
Here is what I estimate to be 20% of the article as that is the limit that I can post. But the rest of the article has fascinating historical information in it that you might enjoy as well:
The canons ought also to be understood as pastoral guidelines. As such, they should serve as models upon which subsequent ecclesiastical legislation is based whenever possible. The canons of the Fathers, in particular, reflect the pastoral nature of their contents. The Fathers who wrote them did not think that they were writing legislative texts. In most cases, they were either responding to the questions put to them by individuals seeking their counsel, or else expressing their views on matters of grave concern to the Church. Because of their pastoral sensitivity and the high esteem in which they were held, these Fathers greatly influenced both their contemporaries and succeeding generations. As a result, the directives contained in the canons of the Fathers prior to the Sixth Ecumenical Synod were recognized by the second canon of that synod as equal in authority to the synodal canons themselves. In fact, several of the canons of St. Basil, repeated among the canons of the same Sixth Ecumenical Synod were recognized by the second canon of that synod as equal in authority to the synodal canons themselves.
The Fathers whose canons appear in our canonical collections exerted no less an influence upon the development and formation of the canons of other synods. Consequently, the pastoral nature evident in the canons of the Fathers is also easily discernible in the canons of the synods. It is because of this characteristic that the canons have been referred to as "fruits of the Spirit," whose purpose is to assist mankind in its quest for salvation. Certainly such a lofty purpose can only be appreciated when the canons are understood as pastoral guidelines and not as legislative texts. Viewed simply as legislative texts, the canons differ little from laws to be upheld rigidly and absolutely. Recognized, however, as the pastoral guidelines which in fact they are, the canons serve the purpose for which they were intended with compassion and flexibility. It is this latter understanding of the canons which makes comprehensible the exercise of "economy" as practiced in the Orthodox Church today.
I really would like to see TAW be a place where we don't throw canons around like cannon balls. It is one thing to point to the standard and another to post in a way that sounds as if the canons are legal laws that must be obeyed at all costs.
Our Spiritual Father's need to be the ones to direct and guide us. We can give layperson advice to each other but we need to direct back always to Priests.
Here is what I estimate to be 20% of the article as that is the limit that I can post. But the rest of the article has fascinating historical information in it that you might enjoy as well:
The canons ought also to be understood as pastoral guidelines. As such, they should serve as models upon which subsequent ecclesiastical legislation is based whenever possible. The canons of the Fathers, in particular, reflect the pastoral nature of their contents. The Fathers who wrote them did not think that they were writing legislative texts. In most cases, they were either responding to the questions put to them by individuals seeking their counsel, or else expressing their views on matters of grave concern to the Church. Because of their pastoral sensitivity and the high esteem in which they were held, these Fathers greatly influenced both their contemporaries and succeeding generations. As a result, the directives contained in the canons of the Fathers prior to the Sixth Ecumenical Synod were recognized by the second canon of that synod as equal in authority to the synodal canons themselves. In fact, several of the canons of St. Basil, repeated among the canons of the same Sixth Ecumenical Synod were recognized by the second canon of that synod as equal in authority to the synodal canons themselves.
The Fathers whose canons appear in our canonical collections exerted no less an influence upon the development and formation of the canons of other synods. Consequently, the pastoral nature evident in the canons of the Fathers is also easily discernible in the canons of the synods. It is because of this characteristic that the canons have been referred to as "fruits of the Spirit," whose purpose is to assist mankind in its quest for salvation. Certainly such a lofty purpose can only be appreciated when the canons are understood as pastoral guidelines and not as legislative texts. Viewed simply as legislative texts, the canons differ little from laws to be upheld rigidly and absolutely. Recognized, however, as the pastoral guidelines which in fact they are, the canons serve the purpose for which they were intended with compassion and flexibility. It is this latter understanding of the canons which makes comprehensible the exercise of "economy" as practiced in the Orthodox Church today.
I really would like to see TAW be a place where we don't throw canons around like cannon balls. It is one thing to point to the standard and another to post in a way that sounds as if the canons are legal laws that must be obeyed at all costs.
Our Spiritual Father's need to be the ones to direct and guide us. We can give layperson advice to each other but we need to direct back always to Priests.