April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
OUR NEIGHBORS' FAITH
A tale of two islands: Cuba and Crete
Background on upcoming Great Council of the Orthodox Churches
This event, half a century before instant media coverage, nonetheless implanted the ideal of ecumenical rapprochement and understanding throughout the Christian world. This movement flourished in succeeding decades, only to be muffled, ironically, with the fall of the Soviet bloc governments. Those Orthodox Churches formerly behind the Iron Curtain no longer needed international attention (in the World Council of Churches, for example) that kept the full weight of state atheism at bay. Sadly, many of these Churches turned inward, some with xenophobic insularity.
Now, in this new millennium, we are worlds away from the '60s. Our attention has been caught by another historic embrace: in Havana, between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.
Their meeting produced a long document of understanding. At face value, it is an edifying proclamation full of hope. The primate of the Orthodox Church in America, Metropolitan Tikhon, wrote in a recent pastoral letter that, "with God's blessing, may [that event] be a milestone in the rediscovery of the shared spiritual tradition of Orthodox and Catholic Christians during the first millennium of Christianity. But it should, above all, be a source of inspiration for each of us in our own journey to remain faithful to Jesus Christ, through a life of prayer, of humility and of love."
The joint document decries the plight of Syrian refugees and the sharp spike in the persecution of Christians by ISIS and other extremist factions. Previously, Patriarch Kirill's approach to the Syrian refugee problem has been equivocal, at best. The patriarch has been an advocate of "Russkii Mir" ("Russian World"), a pan-Slavic proposition that thinly masks the assertion of Russian hegemony in both political and ecclesiastical spheres. Russian president Vladimir Putin's calculated military aggression in Ukraine is still unresolved after generating two million internally-displaced refugees. Putin's involvement in Syria, including his military action on behalf of the Assad regime, has faced little if any challenge from the Russian Church.
With this recent agreement between the two hierarchs, one can only hope it signals some genuine Gospel-based way forward. However, Orthodox scholar Dr. Paul Gavrilyuk offers a more sober assessment: "Patriarch Kirill has a low stake in fostering Orthodox-Catholic relations and a high stake in advancing his geopolitical vision of the Russkii Mir. According to this vision, the Russian Orthodox believers represent an alternative civilization to the godless and decaying west."
He observes that meeting with the head of an estimated 1.25 billion Roman Catholics around the world implies the admission by the patriarch that the west is not uniformly godless, as the ideology of the Russkii Mir proclaims. The Cuba encounter comes on the heels of the proclamation that June 19 will be the opening of the Great and Holy Council of the Orthodox Churches on Crete. In this time of polarity and tension, it is no surprise that its convocation has attendant controversies and political maneuvering.
Orthodoxy suffers from fragmentation: 14 or 15 self-governing or "Autocephalous" Churches with two power centers, Constantinople and Moscow. Constantinople ("new Rome") was an imperial foundation of the fourth century; Moscow began as a grand duchy only in the 14th century and did not become the seat of the Russian patriarch until the end of the 16th century, and only after a contentious rejection of its dependence on the see of Constantinople. Moscow later came to regard itself as the "third Rome" from a mixture of geopolitics and ecclesiastical messianism, foreshadowing today's climate.
Patriarch Bartholomew is (and must be) a citizen of Turkey, where the Syrian refugee crisis is acute. His efforts to convoke a synod of all the Orthodox Churches, like his efforts to further good relations with the Vatican, span decades. He and the recent popes have had regular meetings in Rome and Istanbul.
Organizing a council faced one obstacle after another, demanding perseverance and skill. Orthodoxy has no Vatican, and Bartholomew, while styled Ecumenical Patriarch, remains first-among-equals. No other autocephalous church owes him obedience, so getting all primates to sit around table is like herding cats.
There has been a succession of preparatory meetings. An agenda is agreed upon. Papers have been published. Advisors have weighed in -- and everyone is imploring the Holy Spirit to keep the entire project from jumping the tracks.
Yet serious challenges remain. The latest terrorist attack in Ankara, preceded by Turkey's downing of a Russian fighter plane, led the Russian Church to insisted on a new venue for the council. Hastily, it was moved from Istanbul to Crete. There have also been last-minute compromises on the manner of representation and voting. One primate expressed hope that the 20th century's Second Vatican Council might be an inspiration. Most participants and observers, however, have far more modest expectations.
Probably the last word on this truly byzantine conclave and its possible outcome can be surmised from this year's prestigious Schmemann lecture at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, N.Y., given by theologian and archdeacon to the Ecumenical Patriarch John Chryssavgis: "Our Church can play a major role in the world, but for this to happen, all of the Church's indispensable structures, especially its bishops, especially its councils, must be humbly placed at the service of God, the Gospel and the Body of Christ. Then, centers of primacy will no longer be centralized powers, but sanctuaries of communion. What a refreshing example that would prove for a Church that is called and claims to be in the world, yet not of the world."
(Brother Stavros is a monk at New Skete Monastery in Cambridge, part of the Orthodox Church in America.) [[In-content Ad]]
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