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What is required for Orthodox Unity? - Manos Koumbarelis
"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those
who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one,
as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one
in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory,
which You gave Me, I have given them, that they may be one, just as
We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect
in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have
loved them as You have loved Me" [John 17:20-23]. Just before
the betrayal of Judas, our Lord Jesus Christ uses these words to pray
to His Father for His Disciples and for us, the members of His Body,
the Church, who believe in Him through their message. He prays for
all the members of the Church to be in complete and perfect unity.
What is the source and the nature of this unity? It is divine. It
derives from the mystery of the relation of the Persons of the Holy
Trinity. As described in this passage, our unity has four characteristics:
1] We are called to be one in Them as Jesus is in God the Father and
God the Father God is in Jesus. He does not say, "As I am one
with You", but "As I am in You." The depth and perfection
of the unity is such that the persons are not simply separate individuals
with a good relationship, but they are inseparable, the one existing
in the other. Unity is no longer a characteristic of a relationship,
but in its perfection it absorbs relationship. When we are truly united
we cannot understand ourselves without
the other.
2] Through the relationship of believers with Jesus, He gives them
the same glory that was given to Him by His Father. The fact that
all believers are glorified makes themunited among themselves in accordance
with the unity of the Father and the Son. The glory lost by Adam after
his expulsion from Paradise is restored. The true believers have a
foretaste of Paradise. Complete unity is a characteristic of Paradise,
and those who experience it, even temporarily, experience the glory
and the joy of living with God.
3] The unity of the Father and the Son is interwoven with the Love
between Them. So, the unity of believers with Jesus is directly connected
with the boundless Love of God for them. Unity without Love cannot
be imagined.
4] There is no distinction in the quality of unity between God and
His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, between believers and the Trinitarian
God, or amongst the believers themselves. The quality of unity which
the Persons of the Holy Trinity have by nature is fully transmitted
to believers by Grace through their authentic faithfulness to the
message of Salvation. Therefore, no compromise in the perfection of
our unity may be accepted.
Is Unity, which is so accurately described in this Gospel passage,
easily achieved, or is it given as a gift to believers? If their faith
is as fervent and steadfast as that of the saints, the answer is yes.
We know that the saints live in full unity with God and the whole
world around them, irrespective of time and place. But the faith of
the majority of believers is incomplete, which makes their unity incomplete.
That is why Jesus prays so fervently to His Father for this unity
just before entering into His Passion.
To conclude this short study of the teaching of our Lord on unity,
we should pay special ttention when He says that the world will know
and believe that God sent Him by the unity we share with God and with
others.
What distinguishes us from others in the fallen and fragmented world
should be our unity. Sin is a characteristic of this world and the
fruit of sin is division. The world suffers from division, but those
who are not of this world do not share in this division. If we are
not united, we fail to be distinguished from the world. We fail to
testify and witness the Good News of the Resurrection and salvation
to the world. We cannot be called believers and members of the Church,
the Body of Christ. We betray Him like Judas and we become cause for
His name to be blasphemed by the world. So, unity is not a luxury;
rather, it is
an essential part of our Orthodox Christian identity. Without it we
are like those heretics who misguide themselves and many others from
the way to salvation.
This lecture aims to focus on the unity among the members of the different
local Orthodox churches, that is to say the Patriarchates and the
Autocephalous and Autonomous Churches. However, we cannot discuss
unity on this level without considering the structures that are under
it - namely the diocese, the parish and the family.
I will put special emphasis on the family for two reasons. First,
because the other structures, although based on the community, are
lead by clergymen. This may allow some people to draw the false conclusion
that unity is primarily the responsibility of the clergy. But we should
remember that parishes in which the parishioners are fully united
in their families suffer no divisions. No diocese whose parishes are
internally united is divided. And this is the case throughout the
whole Body of the Church, having its basis on our personal spiritual
health.
The other reason is that if we study the causes of divisions within
our families and project them to our local Churches, we will understand
better what we have to correct in order to contribute to the full
restoration of the internal unity of our Church. Let us now briefly
make such an attempt without being explicit.
What may be the causes of disunity between husband and wife? Everything
is rooted in selfishness. But how is this expressed? Often the one
does not make enough effort to understand that the other is brought
up in a different way, possesses different sensitivities, priorities
and convictions, different tastes and habits, different talents and
shortcomings. It is a great mistake to explain the behaviour of another
person according to our own standards. We should always start by respecting
deeply the other person, remembering that he or she is an image of
God, and deciding to make a lifelong effort to understand the other
person before allowing any judgement to pass through our mind. This
is what the leaders and the faithful of the local Orthodox Churches
should always do when they meet brothers from different Orthodox traditions
and experience the diversity of expression of the same faith in different
environments. They should deeply respect the others instead of making
judgements and drawing conclusions about them, and they should try
to learn about the conditions in which they live, to understand them
and ask t hem without any prejudice to explain their behaviour and
actions.
Another cause of divisions among a couple can be the lack of sincere,
deep and stable love for one other. This progressively leads to indifference.
The one makes plans for his or her future independently of the other,
or dreams and considers life without the other, or thinks as if the
other is not a part of himself or herself, but someone quite separate
and distant. In the end, the presence, the existence, the relationship
with the other person becomes burdensome. The less the one loves the
other, the more miserable they become when they are together. These
rules apply equally to the various local Orthodox Churches. The husband
and wife become, according to the teaching of our Church, "one
body" and "one flesh" after the Sacrament of Marriage.
It is insane not to love your own body. Through Baptism, all Orthodox
Christians become members of the same Body, too - members of the Church
that is the Body of Christ. How can a Patriarchate or an Auto-cephalous
Church have its own separate policy about which it does not even inform
the others? How can it make decisions on major issues while ignoring
the effects that such decisions will have in the life of the other
Churches? How can we live happily - and this happens very much on
the parish level - in a closed community, isolated around our spiritual
leader, satisfied in our shelter, and expressing indifference for
our brothers and sisters in Christ who have another spiritual father?
No one said that being a Christian, an Orthodox Chris-tian, would
be a convenient and easy thing. It takes great spiritual effort and
boundless love, lest we betray Jesus everyday in front of the world.
Let us now discuss those things which alienate parents from their
children, regardless of their age.
When children are very young, they cannot make decisions for themselves.
Instead, parents make such decisions on their behalf, judging what
is most beneficial for their children. As children grow, they begin
to develop their own judgements, which are not necessarily identical
to those of their parents. At first, such judgements are not mature
enough upon which one should make decisions. The process by which
parents progressively allow their children to make more and more decisions
for themselves,
until in the end they become totally independent, is not an easy one,
and very often mistakes that can would their relationships are made
on both sides. Parents need to follow carefully the day-to-day growth
and development of their children. Some children mature earlier; others
mature later. On some issues it is safe to permit them more freedom,
while on others less freedom should be given. Parents should not be
unwilling to step aside and allow their children personal autonomy,
nor should they force their children to take on heavy responsibilities
before they are mature enough to handle them. They should always operate
with love and respect for their children who, while being born and
brought up by them, have souls of their own, for which they will soon
be responsible in front of God and in front of society. Often it is
for the good of the children that parents will allow them to make
mistakes, because otherwise they will not grow spiritually. The Father
of the prodigal son knew very well what would happen to his son after
he left home, but he allowed him to go. He respected his freedom and
his age. And he waited with great love for him to repent and find
his own way to correct his mistakes. On the other hand, children should
always respect and love their parents for everything they have offered
them. They hould not push too much for more independence, nor should
they consider that they know everything and that their par ents are
narrow minded and old fashioned.
These rules also apply to the local Orthodox Churches. Some of them
have a longer history than others. Some were enlightened in the faith
by the others, became a part of them, and later were granted autocephaly
or autonomy. In other countries the churches are still not self-governing.
There is no need for a thorough study of the history of our Church
in the last centuries to discover that in most cases this process
was not a smooth one, but one which involved great disputes, debates,
and schisms. Bishops and Holy Synods frequently used words and methods
of which any baptised Orthodox Christian should have been ashamed.
And this history continues today. I will not say more on how our Church
leaders and each one of us should learn from the ever-shifting balance
of dependence and indepenence in the parentchild relationship.Maintaining
mutual respect, discretion, love, maturity, humility, magnanimity,
and the careful, objective longterm study of the problems while avoiding
hasty decisions and pronouncements should always characterise those
who involve themselves in inter-Orthodox Church relations.
The last kind of family relations from which we will take examples
are those among brothers and sisters. Here we can find a wide variety
of potential causes of division. One of them is the birthright, the
primacy. It is true that from an early age children compete for the
love, the care and the attention of their parents. It is here that
the seed of the sin of selfishness is sown and that the ground for
the growth of the temptation of power into a passion is prepared.
Claiming one's own rights is also strongly related to lack of healthy
self-confidence and humility. Brothers and sisters should in fact
have no rights vis-à-vis their parents. The gift of life and the par-ents'
efforts to bring them up are already enough. Everything else is a
prerogative of the parents and may not be claimed. The order of birth
should only be understood as greater responsibility on the part of
the older child and additional cause of respect
and honour - which has to be mutual - on the part of the younger.
But all brethren are equal. Any pride which arises from something
that we did not achieve ourselves does not even have logical grounds.
And any jealousy towards our own brothers is a terrible sin that we
should struggle against, lest it takes root in our heart. Jesus is
the Founder and the Head of the Church. The organisation of our Church
into Patriarchates and Autocephalous Churches aims at better serving
the People of God, rather than dividing the Body of Christ. Dates
of foundation, wealth, size or privileges given by political rulers
are
secular criteria to create ranks among those who are of this world.
The children of God are all equal. They love and respect each other.
And those who ask once again to sit at the right and left hand of
Jesus will always receive the same answer received by the Apostle
John and his brother James: "You do not know what you ask....
Whoever wants to be great among you, let him be your servant"
[Matthew 20, 20-28]. We should all remember that Saint Andrew was
the first disciple of Jesus, yet he never
claimed any privilege. Saint Paul was not even among the disciples
of Jesus, yet he became the Apostle of the nations. Any power struggle
among the sister Orthodox Churches is the greatest blasphemy of the
name of our Lord to the world. Those responsible for it, and those
of us who support them by our behaviour and attitude, will answer
for it on the Day of Judgement.
Another potential cause of dispute among brothers and sisters is the
inheritance of the fortune of their parents. As I said before, in
principle they have no right to it, because they did not work for
it; furthermore, nothing on this earth is ours. The legislation for
inheritance, as any legislation, is of this world, and we observe
it because the law is the best way to regulate the differences among
all of us who live in a fallen world. Brethren who love each other
always find easily a fair way to divide the fortune that is given
to them. And they respect the fact that sometimes they do not all
have the same needs and, therefore, they should not all take equal
parts. Competition and disputes between the sister Orthodox Churches
over jurisdictions, usually far away from their See, as if the faithful
are subjects and citizens to be ruled, are unacceptable. People are
not a fortune to be inherited and distributed. Pastoral responsibilities
are given to Bishops and Synods by God in order to serve His People
with humility, not
in order to fight over them.
Brothers and sisters may also experience a crisis in their unity as
a result of diversity. Although they have the same blood and were
brought up according to the same principles, their characters often
develop in very different ways. Their political beliefs, their attitude
towards life, their taste and priorities may vary significantly, and
this may create difficulties in their relationships when they live
together. Hence, before we speak or act we should consider the possibility
that what we say or do may annoy them or tempt them to feel offended
by us. We should also learn to respect diversityas a basic characteristic
of the beauty of God's Creation. These principles are extremely important
for the relations of the local Orthodox Churches. We must study with
respect the traditions of the others and enrich our spirituality from
their wealth. If it is important that we share the same blood with
our biological brothers, it is much more important that we share with
all Orthodox believers the Holy Blood of Christ. In
the name of this Blood we should love them and never offend them or
their local traditions.
There is a false but prevailing opinion in our Church that for every
question there is only one correct answer. This applies only for issues
of dogma. We should not be shocked by the diverse understandings of
our brothers and sisters coming from different traditions. Pluralism
in the Church is a blessing that is not contradictory to unity but,
on the contrary, strengthens unity when it is expressed with humility.
Uniformity and unity are two different things. Uniformity is related
to lack of freedom. But
authentic and long-lasting unity is not only based on the One Truth,
but also on the free expression of the faith of the believers.
Another interesting question I would like to discuss briefly before
I conclude is the significance of the witness we give as Orthodox
Christians to other Christians according to the extent of our unity.
We understand ourselves as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Our unity is based on sharing exactly the same dogmatic faith and
the same ethos in our everyday ecclesiastical life and is nourished
and renewed by our sacramental, and especially Eucharistic, communion.
However, we must admit that we have made, and we continuously make,
serious mistakes that damage the impression we give to the heterodox.
In countries where several jurisdictions coexist, we show such deep
division that people cannot be ieve that these are components of he
One Church of Christ. The impression of fragmentation that we often
give to ecumenical bodies does not allow us to propose our unity as
the nucleus of the unity of all Christians. We insist on the absolute
importance
of not deviating from the dogmatic faith revealed to us by our Lord
and expressed in the Gospel,
the Holy Synods and by the Holy Fa-thers of our Church. If we could
show to other Christians and the whole world that this common faith
alone is able to keep us in full unity amongst ourselves, then others
would pay much greater attention to our faith and many would return
to it. Of course, the problem is not with the faith itself, but with
our faith, which is so weak and incomplete.
To conclude this lecture, I would like to summarise some of the above-mentioned
requirements that would make the unity of the Orthodox more complete
and evident.
1] We must realise the enormousignificance of unity for our spiritual
integrity and for the witness we give to the world. In particular,
we need to realise the theological nature of our unity.
2] We should learn from the other local traditions and try to re-spect,
love, and understand then and refrain from criticising our brothers
who come from them.
3] We should not isolate our-selves and be indifferent towards the
others, in our feeling of self-suffi-ciency. In particular, we should
not make one-sided decisions which ignore the other local Churches.
4] Throughout the process by which local Churches obtain autocephaly
from their Mother Churches, discretion, patience, marity, mutual respect
and humility should always be shown.
5] Competition for worldly power and primacies among sister Orthodox
Churches is foreign to the spirit and the mission of our Church in
the world.
6] Regulation of jurisdictional problems should be made exclusively
with pastoral criteria.
7] Diversity and pluralism in the expression of our common faith should
be welcomed as a gift of God that allows us to reach out to the world
and spread more effectively the Word of God.
8] If our common faith leads the Orthodox to full unity in their lives,
this will serve as a witness and an example to other Christians and
the whole world, to return to the true faith, and to experience life
in Christ.
May God bless us all to experience His unity during this SYNDESMOS
programme here in Russia and to carry back in our hearts and spread
in our homelands the sweet feeling of having true brethren in Christ
all over the world - brethren who are different and unique images
of God, yet who are in us as we are in them.
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