The Opening Of The Bose Conference
The Opening Of The Bose Conference Of Orthodox Spirituality On St. Isaac Of Nineveh.
The introductory Speech by brother Dr. Sabino Chialà, prior of the organizing monastic community of Bose, who made a special reference to the Center of Ecumenical, Missiological and Environmental Studies (CEMES), represented by prof. Christophe Arvanitis
CEMES sent from Thessaloniki, (August 31, 2022) to the Monastery of Bose, on the occasion of the 2022 ecumenical conference on
“Saint Isaac of Nineveh and his Spiritual Teaching” the following message:
“Most precious and dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
First, I would like to express, on behalf of our acting President, Prof. Nikolaos Dimitriadis, as well as the rest of its Executive Committee and all its members, our continuous respect for the Bose community and our sentiments of gratitude for the hospitality they have been offering to us during the last 20 International Ecumenical Conferences of Orthodox Spirituality.
For all these years, the Monastery has been for the Orthodox world an indispensable step in the dialogue between our Churches. The presentations and interventions presented in all their ecumenical initiatives illuminated the different sides of our basic doctrines, and most importantly the ethics of reconciliation that are at the heart of the Christian faith.
In a particular way the selection of the theme in this year’s conference of the community, “St. Isaac of Nineveh”, a bishop outside the canonical boundaries of both the Orthodox and the Catholic Church, and yet highly revered by both, is a sign quite relevant today in the ecumenical journey of the Churches, in view also of the extraordinary initiative by Pope Francis to restore the authentic synodality in his Church, also officially pronounced by the 2016 Pan-Orthodox Holy and Great Council.
Based on this common vocation and commitment, CEMES unanimously decided in an official letter sent in 2015 to continue and expand this “journey” and to proceed to a closer collaboration with the Community of Bose and to study concrete ways for the mutual support of our common task. And we assured that at CEMES the Community of Bose will be able to find the same welcome and hospitality that animates the monastic spirit of the East and the West. We also expressed our profound thanks for the support offered by the Community of Bose with interventions in the Italian press to our initiative “Pray for Europe, Pray for Greece”(cemes-en.weebly.com), an appeal to the Churches and Christians of Europe to pray and support, at that particular moment, of our country, the ideas of democracy, dignity, solidarity and social justice which are inherent in Christian sensitivity.
CEMES, founded in 2011, has taken on, by its statute and vocation, and in the wake of the mission of the Community of Bose, the task of promoting and supporting, in Greece and elsewhere in the Orthodox world, and beyond, initiatives and projects of a scientific, educational and publishing nature. Aiming at fostering the spirit of unity among Christians, welcoming all fraternal dialogues with non-Christians, and protecting the creation as a maximum responsibility of the Churches. Our intent is, also to support the ecumenical formation of the new generation of theologians and Christians, so that they can discover, witness and share the charisms and diachronic heritage of the undivided Church.
As a humble contribution to the conference’s deliberations this year, our Center – which will be represented by its treasurer, Professor Christophe Arvanitis – is sharing with the participants the results of the CEMES Master Program in “Orthodox Ecumenical Theology” (MOET)’s Open Public Lectures, which this academic year was around “The Unity of the One Church of Christ”.
In simple terms the answer to the question “what still divides Orthodox and Catholics” was: “Many and nearly nothing”. The problem is whether this diversity is legitimate, as it was in the first millennium. And the participants to the full academic year’s lectures based their answer on the following remarks, taken from the book with the proceedings of the above Lectures, with participation of Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, as well as Latin and Greek Catholic scholars:
“Modern Catholic theology speaks of ‘imperfect communion’, which means an ontological and spiritual communion in faith, sacraments, and ministries which is real, though incomplete. And they have also developed an evolutionary view of our past conflicts and divisions with a view towards the unity of the Church as the one Body of Christ in true faith, forgiveness, reconciliation and love.
In addition, Pope Francis has started a lengthy process of restoring the traditional conciliar application in Church administration. He also seems to affirm the very ancient institution of synodality, as experienced in the form of pentarchy in the first millennium, during which Rome occupied the first place. Therefore, it would not also be meaningless – as suggested by a Catholic Archbishop from the theological academic community – for the Orthodox Christian brothers in the East, if Pope Francis, accustomed to prophetic gestures, restores to the Pontifical Yearbook his ancient title of “Patriarch of the West”.
Finally, Pope Francis has also recently provided new regulations enforcing stronger implications, including removal from office, for those in leadership. The accountability of leadership within the local church was till now very much “vertically” understood. Therefore, in view of the church’s moving from a hierarchical to a more synodal understanding, yet another obstacle for reunion is practically removed, if the Church is really being held accountable.
From the Orthodox side it was suggested that there is no “canonical” or “ecclesiological” schism between the Old and the New Rome. Which means that the use of the term “Church” for the Catholic Church, but also that of “sister Church”, is fully justified; and it is absolutely necessary to abandon the use of the terms “heresy” and “schism”, and resolve the still existing theological differences in a honest dialogue.
In addition, for many centuries, especially in the second half of the second millennium, we have unconsciously developed a “negative” Orthodox identity: we are not what the Bible and our Tradition have left us as a legacy, but what the others, mainly the Catholics, are not, i.e., without a primacy, the visible expression of the Church’s unity, accompanied of course by conciliarity. We am referring of course to the Russian Church, which for geopolitical reasons denies the ecumenically decreed the primatial prerogatives of the Ecumenical Patriarch. We are, therefore, suggesting to the Ecumenical Patriarch of the New Rome, together with the Old Rome to unilaterally heal the non-existing schism, the way these sister – and first in rank – Churches lifted the anathemas in the past (Athenagoras and Pope Paul VI).
The reasons for the break of communion between the Catholic and the Orthodox Church were of political, cultural, linguistic, and theological nature. The term “estrangement” describes the interaction between these factors, that lead to the episode of 1054 and eventually to the break of communion between the Greek and the Latin Church. But if separation is first lived and then declared, also unity can be first lived and then formally declared. It is very problematic to set aside or even degrade the complex political and socio-economic background of the ecclesiastical developments, and to constantly absolutize theological, ecclesiological or liturgical differences ignoring history through a kind of “pseudo- or crypto-theology”.
Finally, on behalf of the Greek-Catholics, they now affirm that they know in what direction this dialogue between Eastern and Western Christianity should develop. Its goal remains to restore full and visible unity between the Western (Catholic) and Eastern (Orthodox) Churches. And as Uniates they are convinced that the old model of unity they had followed cannot be applied in today’s ecumenical era. And they are very delighted by Pope Francis conciliar process that is now going on in the Catholic Church.
Since its origins in the undivided Christianity of the “Old” Rome, Ukraine’s religious dynamics, and especially after the present war, independent Ukraine is demonstrating the will to restore unity in communion with the “New” Rome.
Why Ukraine and its religious landscape are so important and matter so much? Why is Ukraine considered nowadays the center of attention and concern? It is no longer the autocephaly or its geopolitical status. Nor is the brutal invasion of Russia. Ukraine, or the geographical area of the present independent state, was in the past the arena of encounter and clash of the two main theological and spiritual streams of Christianity, Eastern and Western. And today, contrary to what happened in the past, the Christians in that area lead Christianity at large to a new era, to an ecumenical encounter, and why not to the restoration of Church unity, “for the life of the World”.
Orthodox and Catholics in anticipation of the 1.700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council, in fact Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, are planning in 2025 in Nicaea, a common celebration of Pascha. After all, the unity of the Churches will be discovered, when ecumenical metaphysics will have sufficiently penetrated consciences for such a discourse to be grasped by all Christians as authentically Orthodox and life giving.
CEMES dedicated the book containing the proceedings of the above ecumenical lectures to Patriarch Bartholomew for the 30th anniversary of his elevation to the throne of New Rome. Bothcal, ecclesiological, theological etc, standing to this very day against the command of our Lord ‘that we may all be one’ “.
Both Orthodox (Eastern and Oriental) and Catholics (Latin and Greek) agreed that the theological issues that still divide the Christian Churches cannot be resolved through sterile discussions in the style of the traditional conflicts. The legacy of Yves Congar was followed by both. The ecclesiology of Sister Churches and Chiara Lubich’s notions of Jesus Forsaken and the Spirituality of Unity, as well as the vision of the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras on Christian Unity, are examples to be imitated today for our Churches’ journey towards Eucharistic union. East and West can only be faithful to Jesus’ gospel if theologians concentrate on the present and the future and seek to rethink and preach this traditional gospel message about God, Jesus Christ, and His grace, in such a way that it can be heard and received. by the pagan world of today.
Until we reach Eucharistic communion, embracing all people of the universe is a non-negotiable fact and at the same time a blessing on the journey to reunion, as the artistic examples of Saints Andrew and Peter the Apostles show.
Commemorating non-Orthodox names in the Orthodox Eucharistic service of Proskomede brings us face to face with the problem of the boundaries of the Church and sacramental grace in a new perspective.
Not to mention, in addition, that the continued restoration of the order of women deacons in both Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholic churches, by Pope Francis’ institution of two commissions to consider their restoration and similar ones in the East, help unify East and West in the desire to return to the practices of the undivided Church, practices seen in art in both East and West”.
(Source: https://fosfanariou.gr/index.php/2022/09/06/enarktiria-omilia-igoumenou-monis-bose-sabino-chiala/?fbclid=IwAR2-i9yPfx2UEoLBorfg9zC5bOAwQd8vt1kdsnmbd5rLQoNVkxDi223LN30)
Photo credits: Fos Fanariou
