From:
New Evangelization and EcumenismHomiletic & Pastoral Review
September 7, 2013
By Msgr. Daniel S. Hamilton
http://www.hprweb.com/2013/09/new-evangelization-and-ecumenism/Ecumenism is the effort to re-compose unity among divided Christians. The “new” evangelization is the effort of the Catholic Church to reach out in new and effective ways, first to its own immense membership…
Can Other Church Communions Take Part? Can the Orthodox Churches, or the Reformation Churches, and their daughter churches be formally associated with the Roman Catholic Church in this new evangelization effort? This would be, admittedly, a gargantuan task. Disagreement over the nature of ecclesia needs to be addressed: by God’s grace the Catholic Church is one, and the fragmentation of other ecclesial communities needs to be addressed and remedied. Yet, these other Christian Church communions (e.g,. the ancient Oriental communities: Coptic, Jacobite, Ethiopian, Armenian and an even older group, the Assyrian Church of the East) have serious problems of interrelationship. These ancient communities of Christians are, sadly, not one Church; as such, among themselves, they cannot speak with one voice. The same is true, but to a lesser extent, for the Byzantine Orthodox Churches.
The Greek Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox, Ukrainian Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, and so forth, took their national origin from the old Byzantine Empire, which fell to the Turks in 1453. Under the titular leadership today of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (Istanbul), who is a Greek, these Churches maintain that they are one Church, though autonomous and independent as national or ethnic churches. If we look at them more carefully, however, we find, beyond an admittedly very important creedal and sacramental unity, frequent, serious, and often long-lasting disputes and conflicts among them on administrative and canonical matters. Thus, the ability of these Churches—all in dialogue for decades with the Catholic Church—to cooperate in a unified evangelizing effort is minimal.
New ecumenical dialogues, and their collective dialogue with the Catholic Church over the last 50 years, have improved understating, and overcome some differences, but not resolved the chief obstacles to reconciliation. Orthodox preoccupation with their own ethnicity, particularly in lands to which they have emigrated, their tenaciously held independence in respect to one another, and their long-standing hostility to the “Western” Church, impede their ability to speak with one voice.
A Contemporary Orthodox Problem in North America Allow me to give you one example of a contemporary Orthodox problem on our own continent. 6 There are about 15 separate (some very small) Orthodox jurisdictions or churches in North America. The Greek Orthodox is the largest; but there are, as already mentioned, Ukrainian, Albanian, Antiochan-Syrian, Bulgarian, Russian (called Orthodox Church in America) Serbian, Romanian, and more.
The Orthodox Mother Churches in Eastern Europe, now for about 50 years, and especially since they were freed for Communist domination, have been planning to hold a General Council of the Orthodox Church. But who will preside? Most Orthodox Churches do not acknowledge any decisive authority in the office of the Ecumenical Patriarch. He is more like a chairman of the board for all the canonical Churches. But they do accept him as the one properly coordinating preparations for this “great and holy” council which has been on the table for about 50 years. To prepare the ground for a council, the Patriarch has recently directed all the separate overlapping Orthodox jurisdictions in the diaspora—a term that denotes Orthodox units outside their Eastern European motherlands, e.g., in North and South America, Western Europe, Oceania—to gather their canonical bishops in an assembly, which is then directed to draw up a blueprint that will settle all their administrative and canonical differences, and produce one unified synodal church in each diaspora area to participate fruitfully in the hoped-for general council of Canonical Orthodox Churches.
The North American Assembly The previous principal Greek Orthodox bishop (Exarch) in the United States, Archbishop Demetrius, was originally in charge of this reorganization, and provided instructions for unification to the bishops in the separate Orthodox jurisdictions here. He had listed areas where they must reach agreement. Some such areas encompass issues of “canonical normalcy,” which, in fact, involve ecclesiological and sacramental doctrines at odds with one another, and with Catholic teaching. Since the time of the Archbishop’s charge (May, 2010) to the bishops of the separate jurisdictions, no progress has been publically reported. A request for a statement from the Assembly Secretariat has gone without response. Thus it can be concluded if no such progress has been made in bringing the Orthodox bishops together with one another on these issues, any kind of partnership with us in the New Evangelization is an unrealistic goal at this point—and, a fortiori, any partnership with the Reformation Church communions.
Since the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has made numerous, substantial steps of outreach to the Orthodox Churches. The response of the Orthodox Churches has been relatively weak. It is hard at this time to point to any enthusiasm in Orthodoxy for reconciliation with the Catholic Church. Presently, no leaders in Orthodoxy have taken up, with a passion, the goal of restoring the full communion between the Church of Rome and the Byzantine Eastern Churches that existed until roughly 500-600 years ago, when a public break occurred after the Council of Basel-Ferrara-Florence (1438-44). Work does go on—at a rather slow pace—in the International Orthodox-Catholic Theological Commission, but it would seem that, for the sake of progress, some cages will need to be rattled, both in Orthodoxy, and in the upper echelons of the Catholic Church.
