[w4HPpbSW]

This last weekend, I was privileged to attend the ordination of a young man I have known for some time to the Holy Priesthood. I was filled with prayer, emotion and joy at this event. The presiding Bishop addressed the congregation a number of times with very inspirational directives to the congregation throughout the service and it was impossible not to conclude that He was indeed our Sheppard. Some of his directives were a little vague to me, but at the reception after the service two events were very troubling to me, and I would like to know what you think. The Bishop blessed the food with a prayer that I know very well, as I learned it as a small child at my family's table; Bless us Oh Lord and these thy gifts which we are about to receive, from thy bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen. This is the meal blessing used by Roman Catholics everywhere.

The second thing that bothered me was a very descriptive analogy used by the bishop to describe the Body of Christ, the True Christian Church. He used the analogy of a tree to describe the church. He went on to describe Orthodoxy as the root of the tree which nourishes the branches and the leaves, which he explained were all of the other protestant churches and denominations. He said that it was better to be the root and not a branch but that we were of the the same tree. This analogy was used to support his apparent ecumenical view.

I am all for loving the heterodox and praying for them, but I have fought too hard as a convert to Orthodoxy in order to realize and be changed by the true faith of our fathers to jump right back into the same boat. Do you think I am being too sensitive and critical? The real issue for me is that the bishop is responsible for teaching and overseeing the doctrinal views of the church. What am I supposed to learn from this?

INXC,
Seraphim