By Protopresbyter Peter Heers
Today, December 7th, we celebrate the memory of our Father Among the
Saints Ambrose of Milan. The Life of the Saint, written by his close
disciple Paulinus, relays important information on the state of the
Church at the time and the way in which the Saint was elected bishop
which is quite relevant to our contemporary situation and very
instructive for us vis-a-vis how the Fathers of the Church dealt with
heresy.
I will state them plainly and then comment again on them below, in the midst of excerpts from the Life of the Saint:
1.
50 years AFTER the First Oecumenical Council, which condemned Arianism,
it is clear that there were Arians and Orthodox within the same Church
communion.
2.
The battle against Arianism raged for many decades WITHIN the Church,
so much so that we see Arians succeeding Orthodox hierarchs and vice
versa.
3.
Elections of bishops were conducted within a local church, even within
each parish, by BOTH Arians and Orthodox parishioners, meaning that they
were in communion and attending the same parishes, communing of the
same Chalice. (This is also apparent in the Life of St. Meletios of
Antioch.)
