It gives no joy...

...to read this thread over at Weedon's blog--especially the comments. The tune sounds familiar.

The Church's purpose

"The Church's purpose is to lead man to deification. When we release the Church from this purpose, we will make it more an ideology, a religious and human organisation. And we know very well that there is a great difference. I would say a chaotic one, between ideology and Church. The former has ideas, while the Church has life, a life which is an overcoming of death."
Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos, "The Mind of the Orthodox Church," p. 45