Eastern Orthodox Lose Two Evangelical Bridges

Resignation of Metropolitan Jonah follows death of Peter Gillquist

Metropolitan Jonah, by most accounts the highest-ranking, evangelical-friendly archpriest in North America's Eastern Orthodox Church, resigned under duress in July.

His removal has observers less concerned about his leadership shortcomings, which allegedly led to his removal, than about the widening gap between conservatives and the Orthodox Church.

"His efforts were the most explicit attempt by any Orthodox hierarch to join with evangelicals and other conservatives in a common social agenda," North Park University professor Brad Nassif said of Jonah's nearly four-year tenure as primate. Read more

Weston Gentry's characterization of Metropolitan Jonah and Peter Gillquist as "evangelical bridges" is highly questionable at best. Jonah, when addressing the ACNA Provincial Assembly on two occasions, urged the Anglican Church in North America to reject biblical and Reformation doctrine and to adopt Eastern Orthodox teaching in its place, in other words, to disown its historic Anglican heritage. This doctrine found in the classic Anglican formularies of the Thirty-Nine Articles, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer,  the two Books of Homilies, and Alexander Nowell's Catechism is not only the basis of historic Anglicanism but also of traditional Anglican evangelicalism. Urging the rejection of such doctrine is hardly building bridges with evangelicals! Gillquist and those who accompanied him into the Orthodox Church of America abandoned evangelicalism for Eastern Orthodoxy. Eastern Orthodoxy in general is not interested in bridging any gaps with evangelicalism. Protestants, both evangelical and non-evangelical, are regarded as heretics.