The Orthodox Church has always prayed and is still praying for unity. We say in St. Basil’s liturgy: “Put out the schisms of Churches”. When the conflict appeared between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Roman Patriarchate in 1054, the Patriarch Michael of Constantinople wrote to the Antiochian Patriarch Peter III about his conflict with the Latins to complain about some of their traditions, and the Antiochian Patriarch replied: “Let the conflict stay inside the Church”; i.e. do not accelerate the schism with Rome so that we could still discuss the issue as brothers.
Then, centuries passed and we tried to gain the unity back in the Ferrara-Florence council in 1438 but the attempts failed until the Ecumenical Patriarch sent a letter in 1920 asking in it to solve the problems. The result was the establishment of the “World Council of Churches” and in this Region the “Middle East Council of Churches”. These councils aim for rapprochement and collaboration to try to reach the unity that only God could give through his gratification.
Fifty years ago, a movement that calls for the prayer for unity appeared and a week was dedicated for this matter and it was called the “Week of Praying for Unity”; this week lies between 18 and 25 January of every year and in it we meet to raise our prayers and ask for this unity: What might appear as a big difficulty to the mind could be reduced by the prayers of the pious.
However, unity means the removal of the barriers at the level of the doctrine. I mentioned the level of the doctrine because other liturgical traditions could stay free if they didn’t contradict faith. The Latin way of worship stays as it is and the Byzantine also stays the same. Today, theologians don’t seem to raise old issues such as the form of baptism (i.e. through sprinkling water or through dipping the baptized person in water) or the form of Holy Communion (the usage of leavened or unleavened bread). There is an agreement that regional traditions are not barriers.
The real difference, as all teams agree, is concerning our notion for the Church. Is it a communion of faith and sacraments put into a structure in which all Churches are equal? And in which every Church has an independence that gives it openness through love so that Churches wouldn’t become molten with each other in a pyramidal form, i.e. so that we wouldn’t have an executive head that gives orders to all believers and bishops on the basis of a divine delegation? This is a summary of the Orthodox view which states that the bishop of Rome is a premier among equal brothers; he heads the meeting of the patriarchs and might play a coordinative role and be the symbol of universal unity among us, however he is not a “universal bishop”. This expression that isn’t accepted by lots of Latin theologians is used constantly by the current pope. He blesses the patriarchs and the bishops. Every follower for the current situation would sense that the Western Church – regardless of admitting the presence of the local (regional) Church and giving the local bishop importance and speaking about a community of bishops –lives a kind of contradiction between the local and the global Church. They couldn’t build a structure in which the local church could go along with the global church. How can the Churches of France, Germany or the United State be local yet not able to elect their bishops? This means that they admit some sides of local independency and don’t admit others.
These issues should be solved by meeting each other. The highest official meeting between the two Churches will be held in Baltimore (in the United States) in the coming July. I assume that it will start solving this issue.
We will still have the remaining mentalities and feelings and what people were raised according to. Theologians could agree on most issues but people might not line with them. However, we live on the hope of “a blowing of a storming wind” that would be for us a Pentecost that makes us renewed human beings.
Translated by Mark Najjar
Original Text: “الصلاة من أجل الوحدة” –Raiati 03- 16.01.2000
