Archbishop Leo of Finland: Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches form fullness of Orthodoxy

From: http://web.archive.org/web/20140624122312/http://theorthodoxchurch.info/blog/news/2014/06/archbishop-leo-of-finland-eastern-and-oriental-orthodox-churches-form-fullness-of-orthodoxy/

and

http://web.archive.org/web/20140624122607/http://theorthodoxchurch.info/blog/news/2014/06/historic-meeting-of-patriarchs-of-alexandria-and-archbishop-of-finland-in-helsinki/

In his speech during the reception provided to the Patriarchs of Alexandria on 23rd June 2014, Archbishop Leo of Karelia and All Finland stated that Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches form the fullness of Orthodoxy. He also recalled that late lamented Patriarch Athenagoras, always stressed on the true essence and fullness of Orthodoxy in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches.

Archbishop Leo stressed that the relationship between the Church of Finland and Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate is very deep. There are large numbers of Coptic communities living in different parts of Finland. He recalled meeting with the predecessors of Coptic (Pope Shenouda III) and Alexandrian Patriarchates (Parthenius III & Peter VII).

The Primate of Finnish Church thanked Pope Tawadros II and Pope Theodore II for their historical visit to Finland and blessed presence in the country.

Several Orthodox Prelates, faithful and high level delegations from different organizations attended the events.

Fr John McGuckin On ”The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church”

"I believe, the future of Orthodox theology is neither Sophianism or Neo-Patristic synthesis; neither Neo-Palamism nor ressourciement, not Nouvelle théologieor even ancienne théologie for that matter; not progressivism or conservatism.  The future of Orthodox theology is fidelity to the Gospel lived out in the interim as we approach the eschaton. We have always known this; and accordingly have always known that we were supposed to resist the isms and secessions, scholasticisms, denominations, and all other sorts of factions that mark off a sectarian mentality from the ecclesial spirit. Now there have been endless temptations of the Christian church in recent generations to dissect itself in ever-diminishing circles. The ecumenical movement that once shone so radiantly in the early post-war years when these Orthodox thinkers of Lossky's time were in their prime, excited and energized, is now a squeaking ghost of itself because of that spirit of divisionism that is rife. Conservative Christians can hardly speak to progressives. But when we Orthodox are being specifically conscious about our mode of discourse today, I think we should remember that the church has always used philosophical method very eclectically to exegete the Gospel; applying a purely utilitarian principle. It can never wed itself to any method or school or system except that which Gregory the Theologian calls ' a fisherman's dialectic.' 

Orthodox have sometimes begun to imagine themselves as a denomination alongside other multiple churches in a pluralist world, and to speak of themselves in that way. But Orthodoxy's role is not to be a subaltern in a post-colonial ambit: to appear quaint when we speak to some putative West, as some putative East. On the contrary, we have to hold an important line: the church is not a sect. It contains within its living body, conservatives and progressives, liberal reformists and die-hard traditionalists, not to mention saints and sinners. Within Orthodoxy those who want to 'synthesize' for the future, and those who want to keep everything intact as it was in the past, both have to learn the hard reality that it is only God's eschaton that makes the correct judgement on what is right and what is wrong with the Church. The spotless Bride who contains all that is necessary for salvation in her trousseau, is ever the same (just seen in a different light) as that annoying baggage that is the Church on earth, which is comprised of an awful lot of flawed and compromised individuals trying to do their best to make their pilgrimage to the Kingdom. The Orthodox always attempt to be ever faithful to the evangelical tradition they have received and which they seek to preserve in the canons and the writings of the dogmatic and spiritual fathers, but above all they are called to live it out, live out that is the resurrectional presence of Christ, through his Spirit, in the largely unseen holiness of the ecclesial community."

+ Fr John McGuckin

Read the entire lecture @ http://svotssynaxis.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/on-the-mystical-theology-of-the-eastern-church/

Towards Unity

Towards Unity
By Met. Georges Khodr
http://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com/2014/01/met-georges-khodr-on-christian-unity.html

More On Joint Commission

Two Families of Orthodox

http://lacopts.org/orthodoxy/orthodox-life/two-families-of-orthodox/

Realizing Unity

"restored unity will therefore be a test of humility for some and of charity for all"
+ Fr John Meyendorff

+ + +

Chalcedonians and Non Chalcedonians: Realizing Unity

Peter Bouteneff

The modern situation of the dialogue between the two church families, the Chalcedonian or "Eastern" Orthodox and the Non-Chalcedonian or "Oriental" Orthodox churches, is simultaneously encouraging and frustrating. On the one hand, the encounters of the past decades (and particularly the official dialogues since 1985) have produced some striking results which brought many people to raise hopes and expectations for imminent reunion. On the other hand, it seems that there has been little visible change "on the ground," and little recognition or awareness of the dialogues in our local churches. My purpose here is to set out some of the issues which have already received attention (at times, perhaps, insufficient attention), as well as some of the other factors which contribute to slowing the realization of our unity.

Chalcedonians and Non-Chalcedonians: The Last Steps to Unity

"Blessed is the souls that loves her brother, for our brother is our life."

+ St Silouan the Athonite

The late Fr John Meyendorff wrote the article below in 1988 when there was still momentum for the Orthodox Joint Commission.

Such a tragedy that since 1993 there has been growing apathy concerning the hope of the Orthodox Joint Commission (even the simple website www.orthodoxunity.org has been abandoned)...

Je Nai Nan, Lord have mercy on us sinners.

Have mercy on our petty politics, our jurisdictional pride, our spiritual nationalism, our competing for numbers, our lack of compassion.

Je Nai Nan, Lord have mercy on us sinners.

Forgive me, beloved readers, for my presumption. Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.


Chalcedonians and Non-Chalcedonians: The Last Steps to Unity
by Protopresbyter John Meyendorff, St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 33.4 (1989) 319-329.
(Originally published in Orthodox Identity in India. Essays in honor of V. C. Samuel. Edited by M. K. Kuriakose, Bangalore, 1988, pp. 105-117)

Our century has witnessed significant steps towards better understanding and doctrinal unity between Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Eastern Christians. Of course, the basic identity of christological understanding between the churches was affirmed earlier; for instance, by the very well-informed Russian Bishop Porphyry Uspensky, who, during his long travels throughout the Middle East, was in close contact, particularly with the Coptic Church, and wrote about his impressions subsequently.

On Being Received Into Full Communion in the Orthodox Church

A fascinating post concerning the practice of re-Chrismation and re-Baptism:

"The heresy of the self-appointed reanointers"

http://pearlofgp.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-heresy-of-self-appointed.html

If you've recently been reanimated from the ice chamber you stepped into 1500 years ago, please allow me to bring you up to speed on our times; the world is a much smaller place than you remember.

Growing up in one of North America's largest cities, my school yard was a tiny microcosm of the wide diversity that exists in our world. I have many happy memories growing up and playing with my friends, many who like me, came from some exotic land and had their own customs and traditions that were unfamiliar to the rest of us. This wide variety of traditions even extended into the differences between myself and many of my Christian chums. Some of my friends were the theological progeny of so-called 'monophysites,' Athonite 'belly gazers,' numerous 'papists' (I attended a Catholic school), and even one 'Nestorian.' As I grew older, I was taught who was the most orthodox in God's taxonomy of Church order. I fear that other Sunday school children might have also been taught a similar taxonomy, one which put their Church/jurisdiction superior to all the others. What happened? We went from seeing each other as friends, maybe even brothers and sisters, reduced to the caricatures some theologically ill-informed teacher had taught us in a Sunday school classroom. Sadly, many of us have continued to hold on to these caricatures into our adult years, and unfortunately, many of us have also participated in this divisive paradosis (tradition by instruction) by becoming those types of Sunday School teachers ourselves. Beyond what you might believe, Greeks do not have four heads, Copts do not breath fire, and Catholics do not have horns. 

The topic of Ecumenism is too big to tackle, and isn't really the point of this entry. Today's post is intended to present the Canons and instructions from the fathers of both the 'Chalcedonian' and 'non-Chalcedonian' Churches pertaining to the proper procedure on how a Church community ought to receive a parishioner coming from a sister Apostolic Church (ie. Catholic, Byzantine Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox). This is an important topic since many people in our times are beginning to participate and even join other apostolic churches other than the ones they were first baptize and brought up in. This small percentage of people who leave one jurisdiction for another are providing us with a sample test to see how truly ecumenically minded we are, versus how much we might say we are. So how ought they be recieved...?

I'll provide you with the answer right here, and I'll copy the primary source proofs below -

No priest from the Catholic, Byzantine, or Oriental church is to receive a parishioner coming from another apostolic church through chrismation, let alone baptism; such individuals are to be received through a confession of faith.

Being critical of ourselves

"It should be noted that Holy Tradition is a dynamic thing that is critical of its past voices. It is not a blind assertion that all those who came before us are always correct (it is “giving our ancestors a vote” vs. a “tyranny of the dead”). Allow me to conclude with a quote by Jaroslav Pelikan, “Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. And, I suppose I should add, it is traditionalism that gives tradition such a bad name” (The Vindication of Tradition: The 1983 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, p. 65)."

Source: http://odayfam.com/a-response-to-constructive-theology-as-a-theology-of-need/

Neoplatonic myth

Jurisdictionalism (as Christians in North America and the Lands of Immigration have experienced), Orthodox 'denominationalism', spiritual nationalism and ethnic ghettos are all distortions and misrepresentations of Orthodox lived theology. If we cannot see ourselves and Christ in our Orthodox brothers and sisters, and if we continue to embrace either a sort of jurisdictional pride [thinking we're the only pure Orthodox] or practice in a way that is foreign to Orthodox ethos [becoming unrecognizable as Orthodox to other Orthodox], we make the hope of Orthodox unity increasingly difficult.

On the Faith of the Orthodox Church

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ToRa1Usyag

The Faith of our Orthodox Church is Upright
by Fr Dawood Laamy (during a Q&A session)
(Translated from Arabic by Andrew Bakhit)

Q: Why do we always feel that the Orthodox are closed-minded?

Mission and Salvation in Orthodoxy

"Perhaps no single doctrine is more classically expressive of the Orthodox faith than the doctrine of the Divine exchange (divinization or theosis)." + Fr Stephen Freeman

Theosis is salvation in the Orthodox Church (all Orthodox Churches share this teaching. It has been preserved and continues to be witnessed through Patristic Teaching, the Liturgical ethos and the Lives of the Saints).

A Church that doesn't encounter, teach or embrace deification in her lived theology and witness of her saints, cannot in essence be understood as Orthodox.

At the risk of appealing to moralism, one can say that an Orthodox Church cannot remain Orthodox while rejecting deification, because deification is the process of salvation in the Orthodox understanding and a mystery of participation in the Divine Life of Christ by the Love and Power of the Holy Spirit.

A local Church or Orthodox rite that rejects the Orthodox witness of deification will soon begin to appeal to reductionism and misplaced presuppositions to dialogue with the world. She will begin to forget her priestly calling, the offering of all things back to God for the life of the World. She will acquire the language of secularism and feed into the secular machine because she will have forgotten the grammar that the world so desperately needs but has suppressed.

She will look incessantly for contemporary messages of relevance in order to fulfill the very experience her worship and her traditions record, actualize and are evidence of: the divine life of Christ, the life in communion with the Living God.

This has even more significance for a Church that proclaims the evangelical light of the Cross and Resurrection.

Suppress the theology of Theosis and mission becomes a triumphalist colonial outpost, a nationalist endeavor, a marketing strategy, or a means of "getting as many people to a place." Remove or obscure the theology of Theosis and a Church's missionary activity will either be shaped by suffocating rigorism, 'world-changing' handouts, theoretical faith, or sugar-coated sentimentality. Remove the theology of Theosis and she will no longer be an Orthodox mission but will lapse into a missiology of utility and crusade, a reduction of life to ideological certainties instead of a maximalist encounter of apophatic Holiness that manifests and lives in the Light of the Kingdom.


Of the centrality of theosis and of theosis in Orthodox missiology, His Eminence Metropolitan Geevarghese Mar Osthathiose (Indian Orthodox Rite) writes:

“Salvation is more than liberation of humanity or humanization, but divinization of the humanity and the cosmos. Finite salvation of the created is not infinite liberation, that is the infinite divinization as humanity is not created for one another alone, but for the Creator as well.

The aim of salvation is not restitution of the unfallen state and Adam and Eve, but elevation to the status and fulness of the Second Adam, which is called Christification or Trinitification.

The first Adam fell when tempted, but the Second Adam did not fall. Therefore our aim is not just humanization, but theosis. It is for this theosis that the Incarnation took place as "good news of a great joy which will come to all the people" (Lk 2:10)...

Ulltimately all the differences and separations between human beings will be dissolved in a mutual sharing of beingness (perichoresis) where 'thine and 'mine' are different in the case of property, purpose or will, but different only in different personal and group identities with full openness to penetrate each other...

The aim of mission can't be anything less than the deification, unification and reconciliation of all churches and the whole world into the unity of the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ. It is not humanization or socialization but divinization, which is social transformation in the model of Holy Trinity, which may be called Trinification. The aim of mission is not only Theosis but along with it the establishment of the Kingdom of God.” 

+ Metropolitan Geevarghese Mar Osthathiose . “Sharing God and a Sharing World” (India: ISPCK & CSS, 1995), 150-152.

A Shared Ethos

"I first read St Ephrem, St Severus, and VC Samuel at a Byzantine seminary. In addition, I never understood why we put the cross in the baptismal font during Denaha until I saw what the Byzantines do in their tradition. (and no, I’m not going to share, to find out everyone will have to do the ghastly act of researching another Orthodox experience)

Our exposure to other Orthodox traditions is not a threat, it’s a blessing and helps us understand ourselves better. In seminary I got to learn about Russian, Antiochene, Greek, Ethiopian, and even Armenian traditions. It was an amazing experience. We will not lose our Malankara ethos (whatever you define that as) by opening ourselves to experience the way the Holy Spirit has worked through a people and a culture different than ours. If anything, the Byzantines have learned from us too. Several Byzantine students studied Syriac with us at the Armenian seminary.

Something I’ve noticed is that when a priest or bishop from India studies from a Catholic or Protestant school, it is to their credit. When someone from America studies at an Orthodox institution, it is our handicap. Why?"

+ Fr. Mat Alexander, http://www.orthodoxherald.com/2011/01/22/byzantine-orthodox-ethos-a-threat-to-our-liturgical-theology-fr-mat-alexander/

Father Mat's article raises a wonderful point: that we Orthodox are not made up of Orthodox "denominations" and that in seeing Christ and ourselves in each other we have much to learn and grow together.

The Orthodox Divine Liturgy of St Basil (in the Coptic Rite)

The Coptic Liturgy

(of Saint Basil)

---

The Coptic Liturgy according to Saint Basil is maide available on Copt-Net Archives through St Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in Seattle, Washington, USA.

SOURCE: http://www.coptic.net/prayers/stbasilliturgy.html

Barriers to Unity Part 2: Nationalism and Thinking in Terms of "Diaspora"

"Christ, in his humble condescension, is hidden throughout all mankind" 

+ Metropolitan Georges (Khodre)

"If the passing millennium was an era of religious-nationalistic hostility, could we possibly hope that the next one will be a time for nationalities to come to a respectful appreciation for each other? What an incredible witness it would be if Orthodox nationalities would assert the Gospel-based, charitable and prudent attitudes towards other members of the human race!"

+ Fr. Alexander Garklavs

Culture and ethnicity, diversity of the different Orthodox cultures can be a very positive thing, but what is often dangerous is the walled in mentality, of "them vs. us" that has created Jurisdictionalism and Orthodox "Denominationalism" in North America. Culture and Ethnicity has also been recapitulated by the Cross and Resurrection, and as such has the potential for restoration instead of the fallenness which creates the idol of nationalism.

Orthodox Interchurch Dialogue (Critical Look at Challenges)

If you've five hours this weekend (especially if you are Coptic Orthodox) I highly recommend listening to the following talk:

Orthodox Interchurch Dialogue (Critical Look at Challenges)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDv_VsNxQjM

Barriers to Unity Part 1: Antipaty and Ennui

One of the telling things that Fr Kenneth points out in his book "Common heritage, divided communion: the declines and advances of inter-Orthodox relations from Chalcedon to Chambesy" is related to implenting joint commission on a lay level and some of the barriers to doing so:

"There are, at the same time, Orthodox faithful and clergy who not only consider the “other side” as heretical and even know much of the history of the “Chalcedonian schism” but (in varying degrees) deny outright the progress made in inter-Orthodox dialogue. As a consequence, they sometimes openly brand faithful from outside their own communion as schismatics or heretics in an archaic, “medieval” fashion."

Orthodoxy as the Basis for Unity

"I am deeply convinced that Orthodoxy; which is the basis of every interaction between us and other Churches, is a unifying factor not a divisive one. I am also convinced that adhering to it is the right way. With love and humility, we strengthen the common factors that bind us all together. There will undoubtedly be differences, not in essentials, and this a source of propitious diversity. This shall be considered a richness to us, and not a deviation of our adherence to Christ.

Therefore, we hope to accomplish all steps towards a full sacramental unity with our brethren in the Eastern non-Chalcedonian Churches, based on what we have agreed upon in Chambesy as a positive result of a long and extensive dialogue. If we realize this, we should be able to show that we have offered a living example of the credibility of our endeavors to achieve unity and to witness to our loyalty to the Lord." 

+ Patriarch John X, Vision for the Antiochian Orthodox Church, February 17, 2013,  http://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com/2013/02/john-xs-vision-for-patriarchate-of.html

May Be One

Fr Stephen mentions that the prayer of our Lord Christ that "we may be one" is particularly Eucharistic and Ecclesial and not ecumenical. (http://glory2godforallthings.com/2013/02/11/america-and-the-perversion-of-christianity/)

At first I wonder if my current concerns are also affected by the American Evangelical ideas of ecumenism. I think that yes there is a sort of fallen ecumenism which is focused on reductions. However I think when we say Oneness in terms of Orthodoxy being Orthodoxy we must keep in mind that this is not a label or an appeal to denominationalism.

The Ethiopian Liturgy: A Bird's Eye View

The Ethiopian Liturgy: A Birds Eye View
by Rev. Dr. Mebratu Kiros Gebru

Fr Mebratu's PhD Dissertation: "Liturgical Cosmology: The Theological and Sacramental Dimensions of Creation in the Ethiopian Liturgy", from St Michael's College, Toronto, 2012

http://youtu.be/wU3RQieF55Q

Transcriber's Note: Fr Mebratu mentions a lot of very very good points, however there are some categories in this particular presentation which appeal to "Western Scholastic Methods" or maybe Roman Catholic Systematic Theology which divides Liturgy into identifiable parts and compartments. Ie. the danger being of course that one kills the frog when one dissects it to study it. 

Father does briefly reference interdependence in the Divine Liturgy but his lecture doesn't emphasize that the Sacrament of Communion cannot be isolated from Sacrament of the Assembly, Sacrament of the Kingdom, Sacrament of Entrance, Sacrament of the Word, Sacrament of Unity, Sacrament of Anaphora, etc. 

The other issue is that Fr Mebratu mentions modern absence of Catechumens which suggests that either the catechumenate is not in use as a missiological apparatus or that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church does not have Catechumens. One would hope that the existence of the rite of Dismissial of Catechumens would encourage the Church (this includes all Orthodox Rites) to have active work in Catechizing those we 'mission' too, and encouraging the use of the Catechumenate as the Traditional method of evangelism and mission instead of appealing to heterodox methodologies and presuppositions. If Orthodox missiology is Liturgical, Trinitarian and focused on Theosis, then the Official use of the office of the Catechumenate is an integral sacramental work of the Church, for the synergistic cooperation of man's union with God. 

Still, this lecture does give a fascinating insight into the Traditions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Glory to the Holy Trinity. 

Transcript:

John X's Vision for the Patriarchate of Antioch

Very inspiring and encouraging how Patriarch John X mentions Liturgy, proper encounter in our missiology, Orthodox Unity, service to family and the poor, and also ecology. May all Orthodox Churches be inspired by the vision that His Holiness Patriarch John X has for the See of Antioch. Je nai nan. Lord Have Mercy on us all.

John X's Vision for the Patriarchate of Antioch

http://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com/2013/02/john-xs-vision-for-patriarchate-of.html

This is the official translation of Patriarch John X's pastoral letter dated February 17, 2013. In it, he puts forward his vision for his patriarchate and for the Church of Antioch.