The Shepherd, July 2005
NEWS SECTION, 1
JERUSALEM PATRIARCHATE
REPORTS from the Holy Land confirm that the churches and monasteries of the Jerusalem Patriarchate have ceased commemorating Patriarch Irenaios. A Pan-Orthodox Synod held in Constantinople at the end of May also voted to stop recognising his authority.
ROC-MP:ROCA RAPPROCHEMENT
AT THE END OF JUNE, the ROCA Synodal website published four documents, the fruit of the joint work of the Commissions of the Moscow Patriarchate and of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad on the proposed rapprochement between the two jurisdictions. The first of these was on the work of the commissions themselves. Two others, “On the Relationship between the Church and State” and “On the Attitude of the Orthodox Church Towards the Heterodox and Towards Inter-Confessional Organisations,” address Sergianism and Ecumenism (although they were not named as such in the documents) and a correct response to them. The fourth, the “Act of Canonical Communion,” sets forth the proposed canonical status of the present “dioceses, parishes, monasteries, brotherhoods and institutions” of the ROCA after the sought-after restoration of full eucharistic communion.
Naturally responses to these statements have been various. Among clergy of the ROCA, there appears in the first instance to have been a polarisation of opinion. Some see that the series of draft documents evidence the achievement of all we might have hoped for, others see them as a complete capitulation of the ROCA to the Moscow Patriarchate.
Immediate reactions are often hasty and ill-conceived and it remains to be seen whether on reflection, wiser counsels will prevail. One thing which struck the present writer is that the papers do not appear to address matters of principle in any depth, but concern themselves more with the practicalities of a merging of the two jurisdictions. Perhaps there are documents which have not yet been made public which will address the principles more convincingly.
An obviously well-informed outsider, the Secretary General of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, has stated:“I do not think that the rapprochement of the ROCOR, known for its anti-ecumenical position, with the ROC MP, will in no (sic) way influence the ecumenical aspirations of the latter.” Dr Kobia was visiting Moscow for talks with His Holiness Patriarch Aleksii II. He had earlier met the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI and had formed the impression after meeting both church leaders that “both sides (Rome and Moscow) were ready to activate ecumenical dialogue with each other.” “I have heard from the two most prominent spiritual leaders in the world today that they are fully committed to the ecumenical movement and to the cooperation between the Orthodox, the Protestant churches that come from the reformation tradition, the Anglican Church and together also with the Roman Catholic Church so that we can work together toward unity of the Christian church,” he stated. On a more positive note, it is also reported that the WCC is going to cease inter-confessional prayers as a concession to the Orthodox Christians.
CHURCH OF GREECE HOSTS WCC CONFERENCE
ARCHBISHOP CHRISTODOULOS of Athens addressed the XIII Conference on World Mission and Evangelism of the WCC on 10th May this year. The conference was held in Greece and was hosted by the Church of Greece, of which Archbishop Christodoulos is the primate. The Archbishop expressed the view that “a new era in WCC-Orthodox relations is about to be inaugurated.” In a long address he spoke very eloquently of many of the truths of Orthodoxy, yet without seeming to realise for a moment that had they been addressed to Orthodox Christians his words might have been appropriate. Being addressed to people who do not share our beliefs and our church life they were widely misplaced. At the same time, another hierarch of the Church of Greece, Metropolitan Nicolas of Mesogia, issued an encyclical on Thomas Sunday, in which he gave a much more sober appraisal of the conference. He stately clearly that the WCC is a syncretistic organisation, “a religious organisation which struggles for the unity of Christians but with an earthly and worldly perception.” He reminded his flock that the Orthodox Church does not pray together with those outside her fold, that she does not discuss or dialogue concerning the Faith, but “boldly and respectably offers its confession.” He foresaw that the influx of many conference delegates might mean the possibility that liturgical order in the churches of his diocese could be disrupted. He stressed that the clergy should be careful not to offer the Holy Mysteries or antidoron to the heterodox. He warned that his people might meet women claiming to be Christian priests and urged that they not drive anyone away or offend them, but that they “clearly contest their so-called ecclesiastical gifts.” He added: “It is, however, absolutely essential that we be careful that the constancy and solemnity of our witness not be infected; that the peace of our mystical worship not be disturbed; that the avowed truth of our Orthodox faith not be falsified within us. Perhaps these people are better than us as concerns their character. Their faith, however, is dangerously unsound and ailing. It is so ill that we could assert that they believe in a Christ who does not exist. Christ awaits conversion from them as a correction of their dogmatic faith and path. From us, He awaits it as the humble confession of our holy Orthodox Faith and as a consistent and holy life.”
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