wfn.org | WCC FEATURE: Seeking Christian unity in an Orthodox setting

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World Council of Churches - Feature

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For immediate release - 12/10/2009 15:08:44

SEEKING CHRISTIAN UNITY IN AN ORTHODOX SETTING

>by Juan Michel (*)

>Photos available, see below

"The search for Christian unity is very costly, as well as slow
and painful," says Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima, of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. "And yet there is hope
for the quest of church unity by God's grace."

Gennadios, a vice-moderator of the Central Committee of the
World Council of Churches (WCC), speaks from a long experience
within the ecumenical movement, which he began to serve as a
young steward at the WCC assembly in Uppsala in 1968.

A key person in the organization of the 7-13 October meeting of
the WCC Plenary Commission on Faith and Order at the Orthodox
Academy of Crete, Gennadios was happy with the deliberations
taking place in this Orthodox setting.

"Crete has a long tradition of hosting great ecumenical events.
Due to the open-minded spirit of the Ecumenical Patriarchate,
there is a favourable atmosphere here", says Gennadios. For
historical reasons, Crete belongs to the ecclesial jurisdiction
of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (today's
Istanbul, Turkey).

For Gennadios, the "charisma" of the Faith and Order Commission
is its ability to deal with difficult issues and a great variety
of theological viewpoints. That has been achieved thanks to an
attitude of cooperation in a spirit "of friendship and mutual
understanding".

The Faith and Order Commission is regarded as the widest
Christian theological forum in the world owing to the number of
ecclesial traditions involved, the regions represented and the
fact that its members are official representatives of their
churches. It is made up of WCC member churches and others,
including the Roman Catholic Church.

Not only are almost 80 percent of the current members new to the
commission, but there is also a generational shift. "There are
new faces; the older generation is gradually giving wayto younger
people", says Gennadios. The average age of the 120 members is
48, and around 50 of them come from the global South.

>Seeking unity from an Orthodox perspective

"There has been very rich participation by the Orthodox from the
beginning", says Gennadios, who has been a Faith and Order staff
member, as well as vice-moderator and moderator of the
commission. "Important personalities, pioneers of the ecumenical
movement in the Orthodox world, have been members."

Among the Orthodox contributions to ecumenical theological
dialogue, Gennadios mentions the concept of "conciliarity", which
refers to the relation in communion and unity in the faith
between individual churches, the theology of the Holy Spirit, and
an emphasis on the communion of the Holy Trinity. 

That is despite the particular difficulty that the Orthodox
church has when engaged in ecumenical dialogue, since "its
thought forms and 'terms of reference' are different from those
of the West". Given that the ecumenical movement works mainly
with western patterns of thought, "Orthodox participants were,
from the very beginning, forced to express their positions and
points of view within a theological framework alien to […] the
Orthodox Tradition."

Gennadios acknowledges that there is a certain "stagnation" in
the present day ecumenical movement, leading sometimes to a
"sense of frustration" regarding the lack of achievements in
terms of church unity. However, he states, "we do have to bear in
mind for how many centuries we have been divided!"

There have been real progresses. The 1982 Faith and Order text
Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (BEM), "was indeed a revolution
for the ecumenical movement and for the churches," he says. "It
has been the most translated ecumenical text ever, and is still
used today, although to a lesser degree."

In the Orthodox world the BEM text has been, alongside other
results from Faith and Order work, a tool often used in bilateral
talks with confessions such as Catholics, Lutherans and
Anglicans, and even between the two Orthodox families (the
eastern and the oriental).

For Gennadios, the "crucial question" in current theological
debate is "without doubt, ecclesiology", or, in other words, our
understanding of the "One Church" and its nature. 

Dialogue on their different ecclesiologies has enabled the
churches in recent decades to reach a better understanding of one
another and of themselves. Today what is needed is a renewal able
"to promote an ecclesiology of more convergence".

According to Metropolitan Gennadios, for the Orthodox the aim is
"not a naïve rapprochement, but unity in Christ". They hope for
"a situation where in their ecclesiological space and insight of
their church boundaries might be possible to recognize the
others' ecclesial tradition". 

Gennadios says there is need for a "spacing ecclesiology" – an
enlarged understanding of the "One Church of Christ". Today,
churches "are called to a new ecumenical 'ecclesial space of
togetherness'in view of celebrating one day together at the
Lord's Table." Within such a space churches would be drawn
together on the condition that they all are "called to be the One
Church". 

"The unity of the Church will be achieved only if we, with
repentance, humility and discernment, return to our common
sources of the undivided church." The hope of achieving that is
based on our belief that "in spite of this divided world, God's
promise stands."

"We are all the people of God," Gennadios says. "And despite our
being divided God's grace reaches out to all God's children." 

>[870 words]

(*) Juan Michelis WCC media relations officer.

Full text of the address by Metropolitan Prof. Dr Gennadios of
Sassima on "Called to be the One Church":
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7224

>More on the Faith and Order meeting:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/crete2009

Photo gallery (high resolution pictures available free of
charge):
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/photo-galleries/faith-and-order-crete-2009.html

Opinions expressed in WCC Features do not necessarily reflect
WCC policy. This material may be reprinted freely, providing
credit is given to the author. 

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363 media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
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