Prejudiced Orthodoxes

Although I’m a great lover of classical music, I was a great Queen fan in the 1980s and have always been very fond of Dire Straits. It’s only today, however, that I discovered that Mark Knopfler was their lead player – and what a charming man he is. BBC4 put together a nice tribute (which includes some black and white footage of Glasgow where he spent his first 6 years before moving to Newcastle

Sarah in Romania recounts a couple of sad but typical experiences she has had recently with Orthodox nuns and priests who refused (one very rudely) to allow her to have prayers offered on her behalf.   

As I was leaving the church, a nun was nearby and I asked where the donation box was. She showed me and asked if I had any names I would like to give her for prayer. I said that yes, I did, and she then asked me if I was Orthodox. I told her I was Anglican and her response was that in this case she could not take my names for intercessory prayer. Rather taken aback, I said that I could not, therefore, give a donation, for it was incorrect to accept my money and yet refuse to pray for those who needed it, Orthodox or not. In my own church, anyone is accepted at the altar and although, unless confirmed, they can not take communion, they can be blessed whatever their faith and intercessions are for mankind in general.

I left a comment, saying that I was so glad she had blogged about this. My Romanian partner and I had the same experience in a central Bucharest church a few years back - and it has left a deep scar on me. My father was a (Church of Scotland) Minister who had a "reconciliation" mission for several decades with a German Lutheran church in North Germany and whose practice (rather than words) taught me the meaning of love and forgiveness. People should read Victoria Clark's "Why Angels Fall - a journey through Orthodox Europe from Byzantium to Kosovo" to get a real understanding of the evil most of these priests represent. As I've asid, my young local priest here in the village is of the more tolerant sort - I was allowed to make a financial contribution to the church - and he treated me very kindly when I attended a neighbour's wake.