He makes such a terrific point about unity when he approaches the idea of the unity of churches in this world and the people who are obsessed with the idea
"...the chief and most frightening danger poisoning contemporary church consciousness is the substitution of unity from below for unity from above."
"Only from God is there life, the law of which, however much life is perverted by sin, remains the law of unity."
"The substitution, the vistory of the prince of this world, however, lies in that fact that he has torn this unity away from God, its source, content, and goal, and thus has made unity an end-in-itself or, in the language of faith, an idol. Unity, which is from God, has ceased to be unity with God and in God, who alone fulfils it as genuine unity and genuine life. Unity becomes its own content, its own "god"."
"We are speaking of the inner orientation of church consciousness, of that treasure, of which the gospels say that there where the heart is, man's treasure is also, and which comprises the inner nerve, the inner inspiration of church life."
I think this is what I was trying to say in one recent email to you. I just pulled some quotes which I thought were well-written to make the point. Unity without God is a worthless endeavor, or perhaps I should say the unity driven by man, and I think this is what drives some of us to abhor the idea, even though we rarely have had the ability to put the words to it that Fr. Schmemann has in such abundance.