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The Economist explains, economist.com
THERE are some religious statements about the world which made
history and affected the way people millions of people thought. One was
in Pacem in Terris, a denunciation of war issued in 1963 by a dying Pope John XXIII; an earlier landmark in Catholic teaching was De Rerum Novarum
which in 1891 accepted the right of workers to form unions.
In comparison, the leaders of the world’s 200m Orthodox Christians have rarely, in recent times, managed to speak together and address a clear message to humanity. It is partly in the hope of doing so that bishops of that church will be deliberating in Crete between now and June 26th. What has taken them so long and what do they hope to achieve?
In comparison, the leaders of the world’s 200m Orthodox Christians have rarely, in recent times, managed to speak together and address a clear message to humanity. It is partly in the hope of doing so that bishops of that church will be deliberating in Crete between now and June 26th. What has taken them so long and what do they hope to achieve?
The
Holy and Great Council now in progress reflects 50 years of religious
diplomacy aimed at bringing together, at least briefly, the independent
churches which form global Orthodox Christianity. It has been hard work
because many of these churches are institutionally weak and beholden to
geopolitics; some barely survived communism and others form tiny
minorities in Muslim lands. Some liken the gathering to the last of the
great doctrinal councils in 787; others compare it to more recent
gatherings like one in Jerusalem in 1672. The status of past and present
councils is one of many issues on which the Orthodox have arguments
which baffle outsiders. In any case, it's an important gig. For the
organizer, Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, who is
first “amongst equals” in Orthodoxy, there were
last-minute setbacks: four of the 14 churches that were expected to
attend, including the Patriarchate of Moscow, Orthodoxy’s largest,
ducked out. But the Istanbul-based Patriarch has insisted that the
Council must proceed and that its statements will carry weight.
One
document approved by the Council this week (and endorsed earlier by the
four churches which didn't attend) looks at the world through an
Orthodox Christian lens, using spiritual arguments to denounce
inequality, the arms build-up and the ecological crisis as moral
diseases. Through statements like this, the Council will enable the
Orthodox church to express a “robust theology of global engagement,”
says Elizabeth Prodromou, an American professor who is on the team
advising Patriarch Bartholomew at the Council. Contrary to the church’s
image as exotic and otherworldly, the bishops in Crete will acknowledge
their “responsibility for the transformation of the world in the image
of the divine kingdom,” or in other words for bringing about practical
change.
On a note which some may find startling from a church
known for its strict rules and unchanging ceremonies, the Council
documents will also emphasise freedom as a precondition for real peace
and reconciliation, and the impossibility of imposing beliefs by force.
That sentiment comes naturally to Patriarch Bartholomew who apart from
his global responsibilities presides, precariously, over a tiny local
flock in Muslim Turkey. The only authority he can wield is the moral
kind, and he does have that: his sayings on the environment enjoy
respect around the globe, and they have deeply influenced Pope Francis.
The absence of Moscow and the resurgence of inter-Orthodox squabbles
have disappointed him, but the fact that bishops have gathered from
places like Albania, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Egypt, as well as
Britain, France and the United States, is still a compliment to his
diplomatic skills. Bartholomew carries no big stick, and he lives with
the reality that people, including his fellow Orthodox leaders, are free
to heed him or walk away.
