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One other point that surfaced in Oct. 5 discussions was the intrinsic link between the Eucharist and social justice. Patriarch Grégoire III Laham of the Greek- Melkhite rite quoted Eastern fathers of the church to make the point.

“St. John Chrysostom, in his 50th Homily on St. Matthew, says, ‘The mystery of the Eucharist is the mystery of the brother, and judgment will be on the way we link together the mystery of Christ present in the Holy Eucharist and the sacrament present in the brothers,’ “ Laham said.

“In the fourth century, Narsaï the Syrian also tells us, ‘Holiness without your brother man is not holiness, for you cannot enter the Kingdom alone.’ “

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Two points stand out here for me as an Orthodox Christian. First, this rather out of the blue commentary on the environment. This is very patristic. The Fathers taught that all of creation was created for theosis, not just us. Man in his pre-Fall state had the potential both for his own theosis, but also, through his own holiness, to consecrate the physical world. By bringing sin into the world, not only did man distort his own nature, but also that of the physical world around him and the natural disaters we see around us are more often than not the result of the weight of sin on creation. Creation was in fact given to us by God and we are to have dominion over it, but it is given to us in the nature of God's stewards over God's creation.

Second is the point on brotherhood, the Eucharistic community. The Eastern Fathers always taught that we, as a general rule (true asetical hermits being the exception and they are very rare)are saved within and as part of the Eucharistic community. To an Orthodox Christian or an Eastern Rite Christian in Communion with Rome, this seems self evident. To the Latin Rite Christian, especially of the more conservative stripe, this seems foreign. Those of us "of an age" remember the "old ladies mumbling ther beads" during the Liturgy. They were there but they weren't part of the Liturgy, the work of the people. Just as we move towards theosis within and as a part of a Eucharistic community, we also do so as a Liturgical people.