A Meeting in the "Ecumenism of time"

I often find myself apologizing for my inconsistencies... This is yet again one such instance. It has been nearly a year since I have posted, but I still continue to pray and attempt to engage on these issues on a regular basis. So, this time I'm starting earlier in the summer in the hopes that I shall get into a habit of posting before the fall rolls around and I am more distracted by silly things like school and the like. Over the past year or so, I have had many encounters of dialogue, some where very positive, others not so much. I have tried writing at several different points, but for whatever reason I never ended up finishing =/ But now there has been a recent event that took place this past weekend that I simply cannot let pass without comment...

50 years ago, something truly earth shattering took place. The Roman Pontiff and the Ecumenical Patriarch met for the first time in nearly 500 years. This was a major turning point in the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Communion and paved the way for the beginnings of a long and arduous road of dialogue in Love and Truth. The meeting between Patriarch Athenagoras and Pope Paul VI took place on the Mount of Olives (the very place that Jesus prayed for the unity of His disciples John 17.21) and eventually lead many other significant steps towards respectful dialogue and the healing of the many wounds that have been inflicted over the past millennium of Christian fragmentation.

So, it's been 50 years, and the "Dialogue of Love" started by the two Hierarchs continues, all be it, in fits and starts much of the time. There are still a great many issues that the two Communions don't see eye to eye on and it will likely take a long time to figure things out. The commitment of both sides, however, seems to be stronger than ever at this time despite the multiplicity of opinions on what the true implications of the dialogue will be. Frankly, the Orthodox Church especially has been burned by dialogue and there are many who are understandably wary of any kind of engagement.

The latest development in the life of this dialogue took place this past weekend when Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew met once again in Jerusalem to commemorate the original meeting of January 1964. While the Pope's visit to the Holy Land has been marginally publicised, this commemorative meeting between Pope and Patriarch was the major impetus of both Leaders' visits. While the meeting took on a largely symbolic nature (and at times included other Christian leaders) it did produce a joint statement that expressed continued commitment to dialogue, as well as concern for the persecution of Christians around the world and the continued duty of the safeguarding of human dignity, the family, and the environment. Nothing especially ground breaking, to be sure, but hopefully a step in the right direction.

Since I assume that the large majority of my readers (if any) will likely be neither Catholic nor Orthodox, the question remains, what is this to you? Not a whole lot really... but if you are ecumenically minded as I am, it should excite you and encourage you to pray for unity both in spirit and in truth. There are still many voices that seek to deride any kind of dialogue between Churches (especially when it comes to the Catholic Church) and they do much damage to the body of Christ (I'm sure there will be more on that another week). But for now that's my two cents... =)

Christ.

I must apologize for not posting the last few weeks... I have had a lot on my plate, what with moving half-way across the province and starting school again and all. But it's been a good transition and things are beginning to settle into a routine.

A couple of days before I moved, I had the pleasure of going for coffee with a dear friend who has been "kingdom minded" for just about as long as I can remember. It was not long before this whole topic of Christian unity and the Broken Body cam up... It was a wonderful time of encouragement and confirmation for me. The most interesting thing about the whole encounter was that he had been invited to speak at a conference in Oregon and he was planing to speak on this very topic. I love it when God does things like that!

So, Christ. He is Everything. And all things must point to Him for He is the Centre. Or, at least this is how it should be...  the very word "Christian" at least implies that Christ should be at least a major component of how we identify ourselves. Yet, as humans we have a tendency to forget that. Thus, when God reveals something to us (be it something about Himself, ourselves, or the world around us) we tend to capitalize on it and redefine our entire existence around it. Sometimes we even capitalize on things that are counter productive to our own growth and unity. For example, the idea of faith healing is not in and of itself a bad or evil thing; however, there have been certain groups who have taken this too far and have decided that God will heal them (or even that they can't get sick) and thus modern medicine is superfluous.

The real question is then this: "Does my life point to Christ?" and even more directly, "Does what I believe point to Christ?" This is an important question. If Christ is such a big deal to us, then not only will our lives shown it... so will our theology. In fact, I would go even as far as to say that theology that does not point directly to Christ is not worth having... Following Christ is about being re-made into the Likeness of God and theology that is not centred on Christ is not particularly helpful to this process.

We are therefore called to be living representations of Christ in the world around us: an Icon if you will...an image reflected through a glass darkly, a window for Christ to shine through. This is why it is so important to look for Christ in others. If He is there, you will find Him if He is who you are looking for. If you're looking for bones to pick at and offences to be had, then you will likely miss the Saviour for all that needs saving.

If We Are the Body

No matter what church you go to, you will likely hear a great deal about 1 Corinthians 13. You know, the chapter about love. Unfortunately, due to various constraints (not the least of which is contemporary teaching methods) the context of this passage doesn't really get fleshed out very much. So, here’s a question... what comes directly before 1 Cor. 13? (If you said 1 Cor. 12 you’d be correct, but that’s not exactly what I was going for...) Though they are often separated, the 12th chapter of 1 Cor. deals with “spiritual gifts” and the “one Body with many members.” I must admit that I was quite pleasantly surprised to make these connections and though I do not intend to reflect directly on their proximity I felt it was important to mention.

What I really would like to reflect on this week is this idea of “one Body with many members.” This idea calls to mind (at least for me) many sermons about how each individual person is called to a specific task in the Kingdom of God. In most church contexts where I have heard such messages there is a recurringly prevalent theme: We must work together in order to function as the Body of Christ and my function isn't necessarily the same as yours... However, we are all meant to serve a certain purpose. Of course it’s our job to figure out whether we’re a finger or an eye or an appendix. (this, I suppose, is where spiritual giftings come in to play)

I recently heard a sermon where the speaker exhorted the church he was visiting that they were only functioning at 60% of their capacity. He said that there were people who needed to be encouraged to step out into their designed function as members of the Body of Christ. This got me thinking... What if that church had three fingers among it’s “members” but the other finger and thumb attended the Catholic church down the road and the palm attended the Lutheran church across the river? No matter how hard those three fingers in the first church try to work effectively together, they will never be able to perform as a fully functional hand. In Acts 10.34 St. Peter states that God is no respector of persons. Now I realize that within the Scriptural context, the Apostle is referring to cultural phenomena that ran much deeper than denominational separations, however, I think this concept is still applicable. God cares very little for our human disputes. He deems it fit to use whomever He wills and pays much less attention to which congregation one attends than we do as humans.

What does all this mean? Basically, it means that I need you, and you need me. We cannot function properly as a Body without each other. It is my opinion that God places strategically every person necessary for His Kingdom to function with 100% efficacy in a given location. However, I don’t think He pays very much mind to our grievances towards each other. This is not to say that we should throw our differences out the window and just all pretend we’re happy with the compromise. This is why the unity of the faithful is so important. Christ is building His Church and the Kingdom is being proclaimed on earth, however, the Kingdom is compromised and cannot function in fullness when we cannot see our need for each other. We each have something to offer... and we all are missing out because for some reason we can’t seem to realize that.

A little about me... and why I'm here

The issue of Church unity is a bit of a sticky one. Everyone has his own idea as to what it should or shouldn’t look like. I too have many ideas of how I think things should be (even though it’s ultimately up to Christ and I really have no say in the matter). Being that I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I have my own opinions and biases. However, I do not intend for this blog to necessarily reflect my own convictions as much as to encourage active and constructive engagement between the faithful disciples of Christ. I hope that my words may serve as a challenge to cast aside pride and confrontation and to meet each other in the spirit of Truth and humility.

So, a little bit about myself and how I have been impacted by this issue:

I was raised in a charismatic-evangelical setting (Interestingly enough, by some twist of Providence, the very church I've been attending this summer) Thus, most of my family as well as my friends come from (and continue to be from) various denominationally nondescript evangelical contexts. While in my second year at university, I was introduced to Eastern Orthodoxy and was received into the Orthodox faith a year later. Being that my new-found faith was somewhat of a minority in the larger context of my relationships, I found that many “elephants” began to creep into my life. There are certain topics that just don’t come up in conversations because we have agreed to ignore them. At the same time it is rather funny that though many of my friends knew me before I became Orthodox, few actually remember that I haven’t always been so. I often get fed up with the unspoken differences and wish they weren't there at the corner of my consciousness. I often wonder if some people would be shocked if I told them some of the things I believe... Thus the elephants.

In the spring of this last year, I was very blessed to participate in a class called “Issues in Ecumenical Dialogue” that made me much more aware of the discussion. It was a unique opportunity to really see the process of theological discussion and inter-denominational conversation at work. The class was lead by two Professors, one Catholic and the other Protestant, and encouraged the students to engage with each other on the various topics discussed in class. It was during this class that I truly began to hope and pray for unity in a very physical sense. By the time the semester was finished we were really not anywhere nearer to a tangible unity per se and no one, to the best of my knowledge, converted to another “side,” however, we did come away with tools for engaging each other having been made much more aware of the challenges to such discussion. This class left me with a hope and a renewed desire to see the reunion of Christ's Body into a whole that truly is not divided in any way.

Since then, I have had many meaningful conversations and have thought a great deal about the “unity of the faithful.” I'm not really sure why I was “lead” to become Orthodox, but sometimes I wonder if there is some higher purpose to all this... it is often very difficult for me to be an Orthodox Christian in a completely Evangelical community, however, the conversation might be better served if we concentrated more on being Christians than on being Orthodox or Evangelical. Then again, even that means something slightly different depending on who you are...

A beginning

This summer, I have had the privilege of attending a small community Church in northern British Columbia, Canada. This past Sunday, they showed a video by Brian Mosley called “What is a Trader?” This short film challenges it’s viewers to refuse to succumb to the pressures of conforming to the standards of the world around us (characterized by what he calls the “me, me, me” mentality of the American Dream) and to Trade it in for following radically after Christ and His Kingdom. Thus, being a “Trader” is defined as someone who “lives out their faith” and is not content to simply talk about it. This means using every resource at ones disposal to confront injustice with the love and message of Christ; bringing hope to the desperate. The video asks it’s viewers the question “what makes your heart break and your fist clench?” Suggesting that maybe these are specific areas with which you can engage personally.

Well, this is where Mr. Mosley’s message backfires... at least for me. You see, while poverty and famine and genocide are utterly horrible and despicable things, (call me what you like) they do not break my heart. What then could break my heart? My heart breaks for you and for me; It breaks because if you were to visit my home parish (not the one I’ve been attending over the summer) you would be unable to take communion unless you are a baptized Orthodox Christian. One might reply that the solution is simple: go to a different church... Except, my heart is broken just as much by the fact that I could not allow myself to take communion with you if I visited your church. My heart breaks each time I cannot fully enter into the songs that are sung at a church simply because I cannot bring myself to sing songs I don’t agree with. My heart breaks to realize that you and I mean completely different things when we use such basic words as “salvation” or “gospel” and it breaks that we avoid talking about our issues or even pretend that they don’t exist. My heart is broken by the constant bickering and abuse we put each other through, by the continual distancing between one’s self and the preverbal “they.” In short, my heart is broken for Christ’s Broken Body... the Church.

I understand if this is a shock to you. Chances are, you were unaware that we as the Body are broken. The fact is, there are approximately 1.2 billion Catholic Christians, between 600-800 million Protestant Christians of various types, and around 230 million Orthodox Christians. Each of these groups by and large have highly differing views on just what Salvation even is. If that’s not brokenness, I don’t know what is. But can anyone really be surprised that the Body of Christ is broken? After all, it is made up of fallen sinful human beings (and we even differ on what exactly that means...) At the same time, I also believe that Christ is building His Church and that the gates of hell have never and shall never prevail against her. These two things must be held in tension, a paradox of sorts. That the Church is victorious yet broken truly is a mystery that I don’t think anyone can truly understand. Christ Himself said that the world would know us as His followers by our love one for another (Jn. 13.35). I really don’t care whether you agree with me that the Body of Christ is broken. I am not really trying to convince you of this brokenness... that is a topic for others to tackle. What I am really getting at is that I’m sick and tired of avoiding even broaching the question. Does our bickering and competition show to the world the love of Christ? Does our Constant disagreement and lack of real communication truly manifest the light of the gospel to the world (regardless of what that means to you).

I must apologize for setting up this “false-dichotomy” between you and me, because that is precisely what I am dead against. So, what is this all about then? It’s about you and me together. I am chiefly concerned with unity, not division. It is this division that causes my heart to break and this is a part of my response to Brian Mosley’s video. I am not suggesting that there is an easy solution to this heartache; if there was a quick fix we’d already know about it. If what I have said resonates with you, I hope that you take this brokenness seriously. This can no longer solely be the province of church leaders and theologians. For any lasting healing to be accomplished, the average person (like you or I) must engage. First and foremost, we must Pray. We must pray that Christ would continue to guide, direct, and build His Church by His Holy Spirit as He has done for the past two millennia. We must pray that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church. We must pray for the unity of the faithful in Faith, Spirit, and Truth.  Second, we must actively look for Christ in one another. We must seek Him in everything, especially in our interactions with others. Finally, we must seek to engage each other by actively listening to what the other has to say. We must leave our “anti-other” polemics behind and strive for understanding rather than proving the other to be wrong. We must be free to ask and answer the question “what do you mean when you say x, y, and z.” We must seek to “get to know” the other and discover that the other really isn’t so different from ourselves. Understanding and listening do not imply passive affirmation, but rather they point to an engaged and critical dialectic that prefers the other and gives place for differences so that we can truly see and know each other as we are rather than simply as threats to be eradicated.

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