Πέμπτη 14 Μαΐου 2020

RECEPTIVE ECUMENISM: AN ORTHODOX PRELIMINARY APPROACH



by Philip Kariatlis, St Andrew’s Theological College

The first point to be made is that very little – if anything extensive at all – has been written about this fairly recent term from an Orthodox perspective.[1] 
At first glance, it seems a welcome term in so far as it moves beyond the aspirations of ecumenical reception – which simply sought to gauge the extent of acceptance and consent given by different churches to particular agreed texts [eg. BEM] – and calls the different churches towards an openness to learning and receiving from one other in a spirit of shared exploration, the ultimate aim of which can be nothing other than receiving one another as churches.

For the Orthodox Churches – and this would come as no surprise – this stage of our commitment towards mutual accountability [namely, receptive ecumenism] would ultimately be perfected in the ability to share in the same cup of the risen Lord. The words of St Paul in his Corinthian correspondence make the connection between reception and Eucharist [cf. 1Cor 11:23: “For I received from the Lord [παρέλαβον ἀπό τοῦ Κυρίου] what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread”].  Understood in this light, receptive ecumenism comes to be seen in personal and existential terms; namely, the call for churches to discern the very presence of Christ beyond their own canonical ecclesial boundaries. In this sense, receptive ecumenism, which is not a matter of agreement of doctrinal texts, ultimately has to be understood from within the context of mutual ecclesiological recognition.

Beyond the plethora of fundamental ecclesiological questions that this may raise for different churches, it is a method/attitude which is worth exploring and in this quest, two guiding principles could prove helpful:

Theological Pointers
It has to be appreciated that receptive ecumenism belongs to the very being [esse] of the church; if it is accepted that the church’s being is essentially communal – namely sharing or, giving and receiving [cf. Col 2:6: “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him,”][2] – then the idea of reception is inherently a part of this communal process and the churches’ quest for unity. The Orthodox Church would want to highlight that an attitude of receptivity towards other churches first presupposes a vertical receptivity by all in this regard. The church is only to the extent that it receives Christ in the Holy Spirit leading the faithful to the Father which it then endeavors to hand on to the world for its reception. Accordingly, learning, receiving, being mutually accountable and ultimately being enriched by other churches will only prove to be effective if all are firstly seeking to receive from God. It is this theological insight which ought to shed light and inform the different churches’ call to be receptive ecumenically towards other ecclesial communities.

Secondly, since the church is the ‘church of God’ then the vertical understanding of reception highlighted above needs to be witnessed on a horizontal level as well. In the New Testament it is clear that even though the church is one, it also existed concretely and was actualised in different local churches. Even though the historical circumstances were different from those today, it was precisely the idea of mutual inclusion, reciprocity and receptivity in the early church that maintained the integrity of a local church and subsequently safeguarded its unity with other local churches; any sense of self-sufficiency or isolation of any local church would have inevitably also destroyed its true catholicity. This means that the building of relationships where different local churches are open to learning from each other in various areas of church life is of paramount importance – it could even be boldly stated that it is this attitude which makes a church, church.

Practical Application
Based on these two theological pointers, possibilities for receptive ecumenism, from an Orthodox perspective, could focus not simply on what each church can receive from others but also, conversely, what it can give. If receiving and giving were seen as mutually interdependent concepts then receptive ecumenism could mean exploring together a series of themes in a spirit of shared exploration. In other words it goes beyond listing what one church can offer and what it can receive. Rather, the two go together. And so, in this spirit of reciprocity, if, for example, it is accepted that theology in the twenty-first century will focus its attention on a theology of human personhood[3] – an area that underlies some of the most burning questions and debates today – then surely no one could assert that they have exhaustive answers; surely it could be admitted that in its present state Christian anthropology could be further developed to respond adequately to the many challenges posed by society today: such as gender distinction, homosexuality, same-sex marriages etc. This is but one example – others could have been cited. The importance of receptive ecumenism in any question raised is that the churches begin to learn that in order to be effective and truly themselves they need others; namely in order to be truly me, I need to embrace you.


by Philip Kariatlis
St Andrew’s Theological College




[1] I know of a talk given at the Society of Ecumenical Studies at the London day conference on Receptive Ecumenism (3 November 2007) by Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia titled: ‘Receptive Ecumenism – An Orthodox Perspective’. This paper appeared in Louvain Studies 33.1-2(2008): 46-53.
[2] Cf. also 1Cor 15:1; 1Cor 15:3; Gal 1:9; Gal 1:12; Phil 4:9; Col 2:6; 1Thess 2:13; 1Thess 4:1; 2Thess 3:6 and Heb 12:28. 
[3] This was already stated by theologians of the Orthodox Church at the turn of the twentieth century. Cf. Nicholas Berdyaev, The Meaning of the Creative Act, trans. Donald A. Lowrie (London: V. Gollanz, 1955), first published in Russian in 1913. The argument, here, was that the first common Christian millennium dealt with the person of Christ; the following, according to Berdyaev would have to deal with the human person in light of Christ.