Russian Orthodox wants joint traditional front with Catholics

Reuters Blogs ^ | November 16th, 2009 | Posted by: Tom Heneghan

[muawiyah]

I do believe the Catholic claim is that Jesus created a position for St. Peter, and at the time his country, the Roman Empire, was far from majority Catholic.

[BenKenobi]

True. Which is why the first three, Antioch, Alexandria and Rome are all grandfathered.

[muawiyah]

What happened to Jerusalem? Just because the Romans came in and killed all the people is no reason to give up on the bureaucratic office! (/s)

[BenKenobi]

Jerusalem had the destruction of the temple happen. The entire heirarchy of the original church was killed.

It was restored as a Gentile ministry afterwards, which eventually became the Patriarchy after Constintine restored the area, and rebuilt all the pilgrimage sites. It’s a rather interesting story. It wasn’t until about a hundred years after Constantine that the Bishop attempted to turn it into a patriarchy, and in the ecumenical council, they finally recognised both Constantinople and Jerusalem.

The big difference between Constantinople and Jerusalem, from Antioch, Alexandria and Rome, is that the latter three all have intact heirarchies. Only Rome is of any significance today.

[bronx2]

Absent theological problems, there are political questions which must be addressed in the unification process. Accommodation must be made for Christian sites in the Holy Land. Some Orthodox groups, note-ably the Greeks , have behaved very badly over the past centuries. This problem must be settled. The Greek orthodox must be made to see the realities of the day. No longer can they claim any power or influence. They must be relegated to a subservient role among Christians. It is time that the Christian world address the self delusion of the Greeks and make them acknowledge that ISTANBUL is the name of the city not the self delusional Constantinople that clouds their sense of reality. The Orthodox world must insure the Greek Church understands the realities of the day and stops living in the past. Until this occurs, unification will not reach fruition.