The Shepherd, February 2008
CONSTANTINOPLE AND ROME
AFTER AN APPARENT LULL in the 1990’s, Ecumenism appears to have taken off again within the Orthodox world. The Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomeos I, said in a press release issued on 5th December, 2007: “It is an obligation to reclaim the spiritual, sacramental and doctrinal unity that Europe enjoyed prior to the schism of the East and West.” The release was quoting a letter addressed to a delegation sent by Pope Benedict XVI to Istanbul for the regular exchange of visits between the “two Churches” for the feasts of St. Andrew, and Sts. Peter and Paul. Bartholomeos I recognized that in an age in which there is a rise of “secularism and relativism, or even nihilism, especially in the Western world,” we must derive inspiration from the example of the Apostle Andrew, who knew how to “remain upstanding through the strength of Christ” in spite of “numerous difficulties.” The example of St. Andrew offers an opportunity to “pray together more intently for the restoration of unity within the Christian world” [how?]. He emphasized that the Enlightenment philosophy in the West and the French Revolution meant a true “cultural revolution aimed at replacing the previous Christian tradition of the Western world with a new, non-Christian, concept of man and society.” He said this “gave rise in many ways” to a “militant atheism and totalitarianism which, over the last two centuries, have unfortunately claimed the lives of millions of innocent victims.” He continued: “Today, then, it is our obligation more than ever to reclaim the Christian roots of Europe and the spiritual, sacramental and doctrinal unity that it enjoyed prior to the schism of our two Churches.” He is right to a degree, and no one would suggest that Christian union in Orthodoxy is our heart’s desire, but he does not seem to realise that the “progress” of the West towards a non-Christian concept of man and society stems precisely from Rome’s departure from Orthodoxy. Nor is there a word said here about salvation. The Church is not a world-saving organisation, but a soul-saving organism.
A month later, the Vatican reported that “Benedict XVI will receive in audience Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who will visit Rome to mark the 90th anniversary of the Pontifical Oriental Institute. The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity confirmed the audience is scheduled for Thursday, March 6. The patriarch will visit Rome for the celebrations of the anniversary of the foundation of the Pontifical Oriental Institute, entrusted to the Society of Jesus, and established by Pope Benedict XV in 1917.”
ORTHODOX PATRIARCHS GREET TAIZÉ
HIS ALL-HOLINESS Patriarch Bartholomeos of Constan-tinople sent greetings to an ecumenical youth meeting in Geneva, organized by the Taizé Community. The programme included “moments of prayer, silence, song and testimonies” from the international, ecumenical community of Taizé, founded in 1940 in France by Roger Schutz, who is also known as Brother Roger. The Patriarch recognized, “The place of young people who desire to live the Gospel in contemporary society is not easy. We live at a time when a relativism of values is dominant. Frequently young people are faced with lies, with contempt for human dignity, with injustice and social inequalities, with the harshness of exploitation, with the violence by which one group of people dominates another, one nation dominates another.”
His Holiness Patriarch Aleksii II of Moscow sent a more fulsome message: “Each year, the Taizé Community brings together young Christians of Europe, making them one in prayer and offering different topics for their reflection. For you young people, most of the questions regarding life are both new and urgent. This is inevitable when one is at the beginning of one’s life. When one lacks experience, it is easy to lose one’s way while searching for answers. But you Christians have an enormous advantage. It is in the spring of “living water” (John 7:38), in the enormous wealth that is the heritage of the Church, towards which you can always turn when you are spiritually thirsty. In no way does this take the place of the search for truth which is characteristic of youth and which is expressed in the way the apostle indicates: “Test everything. Hold on to what is good. Keep from evil in all its forms” (1 Thess. 5:21-22). And yet Christian life has a particular value because it provides an orientation to our seeking; it gives it a meaning; it helps us to avoid errors that could be impossible to rectify. The help on which a young Christian can always count does not only come from the experience of previous generations, the advice of those who are older, but it lies in the living bond with God, who “is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb. 13:8) and who is always ready to give a liberating answer to all the most complex and vital questions, even those which could seem to have no solution. My wish is that all your roads, all your searching and all your hopes may be directed towards the source of all good things, towards God. Remember that “whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame (Rom. 10:11).”
Patriarch Aleksii’s message is more considered, although it contains thoughts that could be spiritually dangerous, and yet both leaders of “World Orthodoxy” have failed to show that love of which Bishop Artemije speaks in the piece above. In addressing young people, the vast majority of whom are Roman Catholic or Protestant, in a gathering whose ethos is inimical to the sober way of salvation, both Patriarchs refrain from speaking of the fact that the Spring of Living Water is to be found only in Orthodoxy.
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