Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Drop the Filioque

During the recent Papal visit in England the Fox News captured a young man holding up an uncommon protest sign demanding the removal of the filioque from the Creed.  While that is normally seen as an "Orthodox/Catholic" issue, it was immediately clear to me from the picture that this young man was not Orthodox. 

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fantastic!

Anonymous said...

This made me laugh out loud, literally. Thanks, Steve. I needed it today. Bad.

Anonymous said...

ha ha ha ha ha!! good observation ;o)

Anonymous said...

Apparently he's Toby Guise, from London. He lists himself on his twitter page as a "(Self) Publicist" :)

Anonymous said...

And he actually commented on a blog post (link on his tobyguise twitter -- sorry, bored this morning):

tobyguise says:
20 September 2010 at 3:56 pm
Thank you Father for posting this. There was a serious intention behind the light-hearted placard: Putting the Filioque up for discussion would create a momentous appeal for Christian unity – summoning the memory of the conciliar age, yet doing so without necessarily sacrificing a point upon which many Catholics are very impassioned. Rolling back the clock to the last Council in 787 would, or should, then place the onus on all denominations to begin looking for ways to reenter commununion with each other (in the broadest terms, perhaps, by the Protestants ceasing to ordain women, the Catholics allowing their clergy to marry, and an Orthodox-style compromise being reached on transubstantiation). I am talking about a Second Conciliar Age. The drive for unity in the early church was rooted in a belief in the imminent return of Christ. And yet the more time that has passed – so, it would seem, the closer it gets – the less fit the church has become to recieve Him. To anyone who even faintly believes in the Second Coming, the calling of a Ecumenical Council is an urgent, urgent issue – and so, I’m afraid, is failing to.

Mimi said...

Giggle.

I did love the photo.

VSO said...

LOL! TOO funny.

bob said...

Now, a penny for every Anglican (including bishops)who would know the filioque if it bit them in the haunch.

Your Intrepid Blogger said...

I don't get the "white pants" thing.

Steve Robinson said...

Intrepid Editor: Gotta be black, brother, black.

Chrys said...

"Gotta be black, brother, black."
True. Too true. (My own wardrobe now has a predominance of black shirts.)
Does this mean that Johnny Cash may have been undercover Orthodox?

Contra matthewmore, this made me laugh out loud metaphorically. Okay, it wasn't in any sense metaphorical, just under my breath, since my environment did not permit it.
The use of the word "literally" to mean its opposite just happens to be one of my increasing number of pet peeves (I am well on the way to full curmudgeon status.) He, of course, used the word "literally" correctly.

Now if I could just convince my children that the word "like" may mean "enjoyment" or "similarity" but is not a universal filler.

harrumph.

As for the mysterious lad, I figured that he must be a Russian emigre. I'm with "bob" on this: the picture was something of a surprise. To use an old saying, I suspect that you could throw a stone in every direction and never hit anyone who knew what the filioque is, let alone protest for it.

Thanks for the laugh, though (even it was necessarily muffled).

Anonymous said...

So funny. Nice commentary :)

rebekah said...

That is hilarious

Sasha said...

Comment from fr. Vasiliy:
"Was it white pants in 19th century Russia? No it wasn't! Right thought, father Intrepid."

;)