tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73042886598650075.post4848827882228727023..comments2024-03-22T11:37:52.668-05:00Comments on Byzantine, Texas: Orthodox, Catholics meet in Chieti to discuss primacyByzantine, TXhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845681957622343484noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73042886598650075.post-62456890896627000262016-09-17T12:45:57.214-05:002016-09-17T12:45:57.214-05:00Thank you for the news item. I was struck by the l...Thank you for the news item. I was struck by the last line, which quotes the Vatican representative, Mgr Palmieri, for it points to an ecclesiological outlook which seems to be increasingly acceptable to many Orthodox ecumenists: "Discussing these themes, he said, means thinking together about ways in which a reconciled Church can better serve the mission of the Church to bring the Gospel to all people." The key phrase here is "thinking together about ways in which a reconciled Church...", by which it seems he means contemplating what the new, post-unity reality would be like. Two aspects of this sentence made me pause: 1) it seems that they are seeking something new, a new view of the Church which previously did not exist and they are seeking to "create" this through reflection and pondering upon it. If that is the methodology they are following, then they are doomed to failure, from an Orthodox perspective, for the simple reason is that the result will not be the Church of Christ, which is a revelational reality and not man's creation, but a given which one enters and cannot be shaped anew. 2) The phrase " a reconciled Church" is striking. What could this mean? Is there now a Church which is at odds with itself? Do we now have a divided Church? Are we in search of a Church which is not now but will or may be reunited/reconciled to itself(??) in the future? . . . Immediately the words of the Apostle Paul come to mind: "Is Christ divided"? Frankly, I can't imagine an Orthodox Christian saying this phrase and thinking in this manner (yet, apparently, there are quite a few, even some at this meeting in Italy, according to the Greek headlines I read which quote Met. JOB, the new co-chair, as speaking of Rome and Orthodoxy as "two lungs" of the Church). . . If the Orthodox reps in Italy share this basic ecclesiological position - of there now existing a "divided Church" (as Patriarch Bartholomew himself said in Jerusalem two years ago) - not only is there no hope for the theological dialogue bearing real fruit, there are grounds to fear a severe undermining of the unity of the Church (the Orthodox Church), or, rather, the loss of many from Her to the new ecclesiological heresy presented here. Fr. Peter Alban Heershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11313115380021389884noreply@blogger.com