"Complete my Joy by being of the same mind, having the same love" (Philippians 2:2)
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| Complete My Joy... |
After a brief introduction based on the importance in number of the Orthodox church in the world, we went straight away to define Ecumenism. We learnt that Ecumenism is a movement that takes up the scandal, problems and challenges of Christian disunity and seek the restoration of unity. This is not an easy task for the Catholics, the Protestant and the Orthodox have different ecclesiological perspectives. If the Orthodox are for an ecclesiology centred on the local church with an episcopate of apostolic succession, For protestant, what is more important is the spiritual church, in which one gets admittance through baptism and faith in Jesus Christ. The physical church is of this world and is of less importance to them. The Catholic church without prejudice to the local church gives a great emphasis on the unity of the church under one leadership the Bishop of Rome.[1] Ut Unum Sint tells us however that “Ecumenism is the way of the Church” (n.5) and so effort should be made to achieve such a unity.
We then went on to talk about the biblical foundation of the Christian Unity. It seemed very clear that right from the beginning, (Genesis) we were meant to be One. God created all of us at his image. We understood the universality of God’s covenant with Noah. Thought the Mosaic covenant was a particular covenant with Israel, it was filled with the Jews responsibility of bringing other nations to come and worship in Jerusalem the dwelling place of God. The New Testament is more glaring in its call for unity. (See John17 see Paul’s letters for instance Galatians 3:28, Philippians 2:2 etc.). Ecclesial Unity in the New Testament is articulated around two main aspects: Faith and Charity characterised by oneness in fellowship, oneness in the breaking of the bread and oneness in prayer. We also mentioned unity in the Patristic time and unity as understood today in the pilgrim church composed of Saints and sinners. We mentioned the primordial place of the Holy Spirit in Ecumenism.
Looking at the biblical background of the Christian unity, we are tempted to affirm with more certitude that the disunity of Christians is a true scandal. Perspectives are certainly different and unity may be difficult to attain but we must not give up on working towards this unity.
We could try applying Paul’s principle of the Body of Christ to all the churches. Thus we will be looking at the Church as one body with different members (each church being a member) and Christ being the head of that body. In this case, all the members are allowed to perform their work for the good of the entire body.
We believe that with this perspective, there will be little cause for competition, there will be little in saying that this or that church is the best. All have a role to play and must play it well with full conviction so that the body may grow and develop harmoniously. We would like to mention that this does not mean relativism but having Christ as the purpose and the goal of everything.
[1] See the discussion between cardinal Kasper and Cardinal Ratzinger on the order (which one comes first) of the Local and the Universal the universal church. (could be found at this link http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=1250)
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