The Russian Orthodox Church has threatened to withdraw from dialogue with Anglicans because of the ‘liberalism and relativism’ of some Anglican Churches, and the development of women bishops in the Church of England. In a speech at Lambeth Palace a week ago, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk attacked the Anglican Church for what he described as ‘betraying our common witness by departing from traditional Christian values and replacing them by contemporary secular standards’. He urged the Archbishop of Canterbury to resist pressure from liberal Anglicans. His prolonged attack on liberalism in the Anglican Church stunned Dr Williams, onlookers said. He said ‘The abyss that exists today divides not so much the Orthodox from the Catholics or the Catholics from the Protestants as it does the ‘traditionalists’ from the ‘liberals’.

Pray: that fundamental reconciliation between the two churches may be reached to promote the Kingdom. (Mt 5:24)

More: http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=100650