Posted on 11/16/2009 11:46:13 AM PST by GonzoII
Archbishop Hilarion Alfeyev, the Russian Orthodox Church’s top official for relations with other churches, has been busy this past week putting his revived church’s stamp on the world Christian scene. Over the weekend, he urged Catholics and Orthodox to join forces to defend their traditional version of Christianity. His comments, made during a visit to Paris to inaugurate his Church’s first seminary outside of Russia, come only days after positive remarks he made last week about how the Vatican and Moscow were slowly moving towards a meeting between Moscow’s Patriarch Kirill and Pope Benedict. Also last week, Hilarion indicated the Russian Orthodox might end their ecumenical dialogue with Lutherans after Germany’s Protestants elected a divorced woman, Bishop Margot Kässmann, as the new head of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). After all this, he planned to take off for a visit to China.
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I would love to see the Catholic Church reunited with the Orthodox Church. They are natural allies.
Yes, they should be reunited. This is no time for splintered factions. We should stand together and fight.
There's really no pressing reason to merge them ~
Both have historically stood together against the faux relgion of peace. I think the Pope and Russians get it. Hopefully Putin does too. I think the election of a Muslim has been a warning to Christians.
Under normal circumstances there would be no sense of urgency to heal the schism which divides the Western and Eastern Churches. However, in this time of crisis, with the secular Left on the march as well as the forces of radical Islam threatening to obliterate Western Civilization, I do think bible believing Christians need to unite in order to fight off our common enemies which seek our destruction.
Can't be all that good an idea to take a bunch of Orthodox only recently released from the grip of Communism and tie them in with a bunch of Roman clerics who'd like to try Communism themselves.
I think you'd have to clean out the Leftwingtards before even thinking about such a thing.
hes not a muslin hes a united churches of christ christian who can say the shehada in fluent arabic and loves the sound of the call to prayer and who has never twittered because his thumbs are too clumsy
I hope that becomes more apparent in the times ahead.
Recent restrictions on non-Orthodox missionary activity in Russia (mainly against Catholics) suggest an old bugbear of the Soviet era: the Church as an arm of the State.
Is this still the case or is there genuine outreach by Moscow to Rome?
The only problem is an Orthodox contingent outside of Russia who wallow in their historical victimization and think last year was 1054. Their contribution to the advancement of religion and spiritual life has been minimal for the last 1600 years and they operate in complete self delusion concerning their past greatness. So yes, let us work for some unification of these Russian Orthodox types and perhaps God can perform a miracle and even change the stone hearts of those drowning in a morass of their sinful pride . v
Unification would be wonderful. Such a blessing if that can be pulled off.
So, what if the deal offered is that the Pope gets the tallest hat but he has to set up shop in Moscow?
The Russians know all to well the horrors of Socialism—they may balance out the idealists who read the books and are charmed by the simplistic vision of Marx. Now, we must unite in Christ if we are to survive these terrible times.
What if the deal is the restoration of the patriarchs of Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem?
There are precedences, patriarchy of Lisbon. Patriarchy of Venice.
The most important would be the restoration of all 5, which would likely be a response to any integration with the Orthodox.
Problem with the US, is that the country isn’t majority Catholic. The US is still really a ‘mission field’ for the Catholic church. If they did one in NA, it would be in Mexico. There are churches in Mexico far older than the entire USA.
Besides, they've had Patriarchs in countries that were NOT majority Catholic and still do.
I'd suggest that church tradition covers that objection quite well.
Couple things here.
The Eastern Patriarchs are all of a different lineage than the so-called Patriarchs of the West. They are ancient, and with the exception of Constantinople and Jerusalem date to the earliest days of the church. Jerusalem and Constantinople were elevated after the formation of the Byzantine church, and the adoption of Christianity by Constantine.
All of these lineages are still around today in some shape or form in the east, in the syrian and coptic churches. It would be essential in any union with the Orthodox to establish unified patriarchies in the east. These would have real authority in the church, similar to that of the Pope. They, in a sense would not be appointed by the Pope, but would maintain their old lineages once restored.
WRT to the patriarchies of the west, they are subsidiary to Rome, and would remain so. They would be appointed by the Pope, and while there is nothing stopping the Pope from creating additional ‘Patriarchies’, they would all be merely symbolic.
All of them were created in Roman Catholic majority countries. There is zero precedent for a Roman Catholic minority countrie receiving a patriarchate. I can see one for Latin America, but there are good reasons to keep them under Rome.
WRT to financial support, there are only 60 million Catholics in the USA, and over a billion globally. There are more in France alone.
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