[NYer]

[Antoninus]

More good news. God bless my Orthodox brothers and sisters! God bless Benedict XVI!

[trisham]

“We are essentially one Church already, we’re sister Churches — it’s not like relations with the Protestants,” he said.

*************

Oy. :)

[kosta50]

Thanks for posting this NYer. It is important to feel that we are essentially one Church, since both have the same Apostolic authority, valid priesthood, and sacraments. Nothing like that exists between the Protestants and Catholics or the Orthodox.

Metropolitan John [of Pergamon], spoke favorably of a “universal primacy” that the Orthodox Churches could accept as long as it did not undermine the ecclesiological integrity of any local church

This may seem like a novelty to the Catholics, but the Met. is merely echoing what the Greek side never opposed. The Seven Ecumenical Councils attest, implicitly and explicitly, that there is universal primacy in the Pope of Rome. One must not confuse primacy with jurisdiction.

[marshmallow]

Apparently, not all Orthodox are thrilled about the prospect.

Greek Orthodox Monks in Violent Clash

[Kolokotronis]

Orthodox ping. This is very big news.

[kronos77]

This is good news. Yet EP is first among eaqual, so a "deal" must be agreed with all Ortodox Churches, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian etc.
And that must be followed by practical steps, not only words.

Complicated issue is that all other Ortodox Churches are (politicaly) rivals with EP, Russian is first to be rival. So ecumenizm must not lean only on EP.
Ortodox world is not working like Vatican, and EP is just honorary title. All Ortodox Churches must be included.

[irishjuggler]

Well, I hope this works out, but I wish that the Vatican would put this much energy into bringing some of our U.S. bishops back to the Catholic faith.

[The_Reader_David]

This is good news, but as I pointed out in my reaction to the joint communique released by Pope Benedect and Patriarch Bartholemew on the occasion of the Pope's visit to Constantinople, the joint statements coming from meetings in which the Slavic churches are involved always seem weightier and more like real progress toward union, even if they aren't so warm in tone.