Fr. Greg,

Perhaps not too optimistic, but hopeful. Certainly you are correct that there are a variety of issues that need exploration, but I think the PNCC is much closer than most think. My understanding is that previous discussions broke down, not over any of the issues commonly cited, but rather due to the PNCC’s continued membership in the Union of Utrecht. Orthodoxy saw where they were headed. Thankfully we are free of that.

Where we are close is a common understanding of the term Catholic. That plus complete agreement on all the items mentioned in Met. Jonah’s speech (proper understanding of orders, view of the Theotokos, marriage, the role of the Bishop of Rome, no filioque) would seem to make us a better match out of the gate. When you scratch the surface you will find that our theology is far more Orthodox on a host of issues which is evidenced by the fact that we ascribe fully to the Orthodox-Old Catholic Agreed Statements.

On the Word of God issue, I do not think that Orthodoxy has exactly and formally enumerated sacraments the way the West has. The West’s understanding of sacraments (who performs marriage, how is the bread and wine changed, exact counts – which are a more recent invention) spring from a sort of legalism that requires exact explanation for everything.

The OCIC writes as follows:

Contemporary Orthodox catechisms and textbooks all affirm that the church recognizes seven mysteria, or “sacraments”: Baptism, chrismation, Communion, holy orders, penance, anointing of the sick (the “extreme unction” of the medieval West), and marriage. Neither the liturgical book called Euchologion (prayer book), which contains the texts of the sacraments, nor the patristic tradition, however, formally limits the number of sacraments; they do not distinguish clearly between the “sacraments” and such acts as the blessing of water on Epiphany day or the burial service or the service for the tonsuring of a monk that in the West are called sacramentalia. In fact, no council recognized by the Orthodox Church ever defined the number of sacraments; it is only through the “Orthodox confessions” of the 17th century directed against the Reformation that the number seven has been generally accepted. The underlying sacramental theology of the Orthodox Church is based, however, on the notion that the ecclesiastical community is the unique mysterion, of which the various sacraments or sacramentalia are the normal expressions.