Cleveland Commonweal Local Community Network

Divorce, Annulment & Communion David Bentley Hart An Orthodox theologian on the controversy sill rocking the Roman Catholic Church   The one thing that tradition cannot tolerate is ambiguity, But alas, history is nothing but ambiguity, and the actual historical record is rarely the traditionalist friend. The Church Fathers tended to treat marriage as little more than a civil institution, a natural fact rather than a sacred vocation. They treated it as a moral discipline rather than a theological topic. They took a pragmatic approach to fre­quent dissolution of marriages and remarriage. They regarded both as sinful in some sense but not the equivalent of apostasy Basil the Great (330-379) apparently first estab­lished a penitential discipline for remarried la­ity: a second marriage after divorce or bereave­ment required one to two years of abstinence from the Eucharist; a third marriage from three to five years. Council in Trullo (692)...

Gathering Topic: DIVORCE, ANNULMENT & COMMUNION An Orthodox Theologian Weighs In David Bentley Hart   Place and Time: the Resurrection Room at St Noel in Willoughby, 7:00pm - 8:30pm. NEW GATHERING FORMAT Opening Conversation :    Come prepared to share briefly your reactions to one item in the September Issue outside the featured article (e.g. comments, columns, short takes, art, screen, books, poetry, pictures, etc.)   The opening conversation is meant to allow all of us (frequent and infrequent attenders) to get to know each other better without spending time in stereotyped introductions. When we do not know others we can work our backgrounds into the opening conversation. We can prioritize articles in the September issue for possible attention in future meetings. Most of us likely do not read most issues from cover to cover. This may help bring to our attention items that we have missed Primary Conversation on the...