Posted on 06/25/2005 10:19:00 PM PDT by familyop
In a meeting between the World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow on 23rd June, the ecumenical relationship between the two parties has been renewed.
Currently, the WCC delegation is on a 7-day visit from 18th to 24th June in Moscow led by the WCC General Secretary Rev Dr Samuel Kobia. This is Kobia’s first official visit to the largest WCC member church - the Russian Orthodox Church.
Kobia's presence coincides with the visit of Cardinal Kasper, head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, marking a very special moment for the ecumenical movement of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Archbishop Nifon of Targoviste of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Dr Mary Tanner of the Church of England, Dr Robert Welsh of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, USA and WCC deputy General Secretary Mr Georges Lemopoulos are accompanying Kobia.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexis II, has expressed gratitude for actions of "authentic Christian solidarity" by ecumenical organisations during the Soviet period, and affirmed the commitment of his church to fully participate in the WCC.
He said membership in the WCC had helped the Church endure a period of isolation and persecution during the communist period.
New developments in some churches nowadays were said to be obstacles facing Christian unity, according to the patriarch. "We see growing divergences in the teaching and practice of church life. But we should continue the road of collaboration which we have together followed for decades."
Kobia agreed with the patriarch’s statement, saying that "a new institutional culture is emerging. Radical changes had been introduced in more than one area of the Council's life and witness, as well as at the level of its institutional and organisational expressions."
He promised that the Special Commission on Orthodox participation in the WCC founded in 1988 would lead the churches to go forward with "new understanding of the necessity and the possibility of praying together and responding together to our common calling."
On the other hand, Metropolitan Kyrill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church's foreign relations department, who has just met the Vatican envoy on Wednesday, questioned whether the ecumenical movement had achieved tangible progress towards Church unity in the light of the "growing gap" in the Churches' theological and ethical teaching today.
Kyrill and Kobia celebrated the recent development of the ecumenical relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church with the Roman Catholic Church. Both of them are optimistic to the renewed ecumenical perspectives. Kyrill affirmed, "We can open a new page in the history of the ecumenical movement."
The growth of religious extremism and violence in the world, are the common concerns of the Russian Orthodox Church and the WCC. The patriarch expressed the Russian Church's desire to collaborate with WCC work, notably in the areas of peacemaking, inter-religious dialogue, and the protection of the creation.
The WCC delegation has visited several spiritual, social and educational centres, including the Moscow Theological Academy, the St. Tikhon's Orthodox University, and the social work of the St Dimitri Sisterhood.
The Churches' social and educational work was banned or heavily restricted during the communist era in Russia, however, through these visits, the WCC delegation were able to witness the revival of these institutions. Particular emphasis was given to the experiences of theological education as a way of transmitting moral values in society.
Apart from the visit to the Russian Orthodox Church, the WCC delegation met on 21st June with representatives of other Christian churches, organisations and movements in Moscow, including members of the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Pentecostal and Armenian churches.
WCC General Secretary Kobia presented an overview of the WCC's main priorities and issues facing Churches and the ecumenical movement. The discussion covered concerns for religious freedom and tolerance in Russia, developments in world Christianity, and the renewed focus on spirituality in ecumenical life.
Pinging...
The WCC is way left and does work to affect political policies, BTW.
...more, from one of the Russian government-owned publications.
Russian Orthodox Church looks for allies from Vatican to New York
15:04
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050623/40748966.html
MOSCOW, June 23. (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Orthodox Church has recently shown its ability to come to terms with difficult partners, such as the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the Catholics, as well as being able to maintain contacts with the most powerful international union of denominations, the World Council of Churches (WCC).
Today's issue of Gazeta, a popular daily, reported that this week four conciliatory documents had been published on how the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia understood problems. This coincided with a Moscow visit made by Cardinal Walter Casper, the chief negotiator between the ROC and the Vatican, and a delegation of the WCC. Yesterday Metropolitan Kirill, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate's external relations department, met him to discuss the problem of Catholic activity in Ukraine and Russia.
An obstacle to reconciliation between the two Russian churches after a split of 80 years remained the attitudes to Metropolitan Sergy's declaration of 1927 that recognized the Bolsheviks and the ROC's participation in ecumenical international organizations. The adopted documents say that the Church's rejection of the declaration is a fait accompli and this "opens the way to full fraternal communication."
As to the ROC's ecumenical contacts, Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, the Patriarchate's secretary for inter-Orthodox relations, says that the Church has defined "the borders and spheres of justified and desirable cooperation with Christians of other denominations."
Experts believe this diplomacy reflects the struggle between two groups in the Church determining internal church policy. "Metropolitan Kirill remains responsible for the Catholic and Protestant areas of the ROC's policy, as well as for relations with other canonic churches," said Maksim Shevchenko, the director of the Center for Strategic Studies of Modern Religion and Policy. "In this respect, peace with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia is a PR move, whereas the steps of the external relations department comprise the real policy. An alliance with the ROCOR will lead to the inclusion in the episcopate of opponents of Catholics and ecumenists fighting for power in the interests of a small group. Meanwhile Metropolitan Kirill works in the interests of the Church and Russia."
As opposed to the close Soviet-era relationship the ROC had with the WCC?
(VERY IMPORTANT) Here is what Metropolitan Vitaly of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) said about the Communist credentials of the current ROC "Patriarch" Alexis II:
And now, when we hear reports on the world wide web of the Internet to the effect that the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and the Moscow Patriarchate are two parts of one Church, and that it is none other than the Moscow Patriarchate that is the "Mother Church" of all Orthodox Russia - I consider it my duty to make a reply to this crude error, bordering on heresy.
If the Church is Christ Himself, then how is it possible to imagine Christ Our Lord with the traitor Metropolitan Sergius next to Him, or Christ next to Drozdov* (Alexis II)? If the Serbian holy man, Justin Popovitch, could say and write that the last two Serbian patriarchs were unlawfully elected to this highest level of the hierarchy by the communist party, then we can have no hesitation in saying that the last four patriarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate have been chosen by the communist state * * , which has suddenly declared itself to be a democracy. This senior administration of the Moscow Patriarchate is simply a government institution, devoid of Divine grace, and those who comprise it are no more than government officials in cassocks. There are "clever" people who will tell you that this entire letter is just the Metropolitan's own personal opinion. But here I will reply that I have been compelled to write this letter by endless protests from throughout our great Russian Diaspora. So this letter of mine is the voice of our Holy Russia outside the borders of Russia, and I have simply expressed it for all to hear. God grant that those who do not agree with this letter will not let their differences of opinion become transformed into a more profound disunity of soul; this would be the real tragedy.
Let us always thank the Lord that we are in the Holy Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which throughout the 80 years of its existence has trodden the straight, royal path of God, without ever turning aside and losing its way.
+ Metropolitan Vitaly
Great Lent 1998
* Drozdov - the KGB code name for Alexis Riediger, formerly Metropolitan of Leningrad, who subsequently became the present patriarch.
** Canon 3 of the 7th Ecumenical Council at Nicaea
Every appointment of a bishop, or of a presbyter, or of a deacon made by civil rulers shall remain void in accordance with the Canon (Apostolic Canon)
30) which says "If any bishop comes into possession of a church by employing secular rulers, let him be deposed from office, and let him be excommunicated, together with all those who communicate with him."
Link:
http://www.monasterypress.com/contempory.html
Just a PING, keeping my comments to myself on this one.
Thanks for the ping.
Fascinating....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.