A Shape of Pentecostal/Orthodox Theology
The issue of Liturgy entitled “Pentecostalism and Historic Churches,” guest-edited by Matthew Sigler, a professor of worship and historical theology at Seattle Pacific University and Seminary, offers a number of essays from scholars dealing with what he calls the “crosspollination between Pentecostal/Charismatic streams and what might be called ‘mainline’ or ‘historic’ denominations.”
Here is an excerpt from an essay by Emilio Alvarez of the Institute for Paleo-Orthodox Christian Studies in Rochester, New York. He describes the marriage of Pentecostal worship exuberance with Orthodox practice using the Book of Common Prayer. –– Melinda Quivik
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While most classical Pentecostals will never grant the Virgin Mary—or for that matter any saint—an intercessory role, members of the [Union of Charismatic Orthodox Churches] UCOC appreciate the language of veneration as something different than worship. They also appreciate the effect of intercessions made between the church triumphant and the church militant. However, the UCOC does not hold to the teaching of “Immaculate Conception” as taught by Roman Catholics which is tied to an Augustinian teaching of ancestral sin even though they do believe that Mary was kept from personal sin. The UCOC members are also quite comfortable with the use of icons, siding with John of Damascus’s defense of them in the iconoclasm controversy at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787: “When he who is bodiless and without form, immeasurable in the boundlessness of his own nature, existing in the form of God, empties himself and takes the form of a servant in substance and in stature and is found in a body of flesh, then you may draw his image and show it to anyone willing to gaze upon it.”
In the final report of 1972–1976 dialogue while Catholics and Pentecostals agreed that “the church is always subject to sacred Scriptures,” they disagreed regarding the role of tradition in interpretation of scripture. Catholics believe in an authoritative living tradition handed down through the centuries, “experienced by the whole church, guided by church leaders, operative in all aspects of Christian life. This tradition is not a source of revelation separate from Scripture, but Scripture responded to and actualized in the living tradition of the church.” Pentecostals maintained only one authority (scripture), not two, and that, “Scripture can only be discerned through the Holy Spirit.”
The UCOC agrees with the Roman Catholic position on the role of the living tradition of the church, pointing mainly to the life, spirituality, and worship of the church in the power and under the guidance of the Spirit before an official canon of Scripture was developed. In the case of conflicting interpretations of biblical texts, the Catholic Church looks to the living tradition under the guidance of the Holy Spirit as well as an authentic source for guidance. The living tradition is inclusive of patristic writings as providing “genuine and vital testimonies to the faithfulness of God,” even though the value each tradition ascribes to these writings differs. While for Catholics this living tradition includes the “teaching office of the church” (magisterium), the UCOC expresses the living tradition of the church through the Vincentian Canon as a historical communitarian approach toward interpreting Scripture.
To the inevitable question regarding papal infallibility, the UCOC considers its own perspectives on the role of the Charismatic and prophetic within its spirituality. While the UCOC does not accepting the actual premise of papal infallibility, it nevertheless questions whether to some extent the notion can be seen through a prophetic lens that mirrors what occurs in a Pentecostal service when a known prophetic person speaks in the Spirit. If, when the pope speaks ex cathedra he does so prophetically under the power of the Spirit as the first among equals, it might resemble what occurs within most of our Pentecostal services when a prophet gets up to speak and all hear the word of the Lord?
The rest of this essay is available in the full digital and print editions of Liturgy. All of the essays in Liturgy 37, no. 3 are available by personal subscription and through many libraries.
Emilio Alvarez is the President of the Institute for Paleo-Orthodox Christian Studies and the Archbishop of the Union of Charismatic Orthodox Churches.
Emilio Alvarez, “The Union of Charismatic Orthodox Churches,” Liturgy 37, no. 3 (2022): 28–35