CHRIST IS RISEN!
Deviation away from debate on liturgical and theological matters in the WCC—again, the foremost ecumenical force in the religious world—is a fact. In 1995, during his visit to the WCC in Geneva, Œcumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, admitting that theological dialogue had come to an impasse, said: "This should not discourage us. And even if theological dialogue is, unfortunately, making no progress, it does not in any way prevent member Churches from...envisioning a World Council of Churches aligned for the wonderful cooperation of all Christian powers on the ethical, social, mission, and service front, independently of their basic theological differences..." ("The Informer," official Greek-language publication of the Permanent Delegation of the Œcumenical Patriarchate to the WCC, 11-1995/12. p. 24).
The WCC has become increasingly preoccupied with the interfaith movement, moving beyond the Christian communities to dialogue with the non-Orthodox. Hence, Metropolitan Georges Khodr of Mt. Lebanon, speaking at a meeting of the Central Committee of the WCC in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in January of 1971, made reference to the operation of the Holy Spirit "independently of Jesus Christ and his Church" (see the official Greek-language publication of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, "The Church Beacon," Vol. LIII, No. 2, pp. 232-241). In 1990, in Hong Kong, the WCC organized an Interfaith Consultation which issued the following statement: "We have to learn to recognize in our neighbors the presence of the divine, spoken of in different ways in different traditions: the Shekina in the Jewish tradition, the Holy Spirit of the Triune God to the Christians, the Atman to the Hindus..." ("Ecumenical Press Service," No. 34, 90.10.41). This reflects a statement made in the same year at a meeting organized by the WCC in Switzerland, where the participants affirmed that: "We recognize the need to move beyond a theology which restricts salvation to a particular explicit commitment to Jesus Christ..." (Marlin Vanelderen, "Consultation Speaks on Plurality," in "Ecumenical Press Service," No. 3. 90.01.82).
Let us cite but a few statements by respected Orthodox ecumenists who certainly do seem to believe that the Orthodox Church of not the ONE Church of Christ and who openly affirm the ecclesial reality of the heterodox churches:
a) In the introduction to the 1920 Encyclical of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, "To the Christian Churches of the Whole World," we see references to "the honored Christian [heterodox] Churches" as "co-inheritors, constituting the same body, and...partakers of God's promises in Christ." We are told in this remarkable document that we must set aside the "prejudices" of the past and work beyond the walls of dogma and doctrine.
b) Patriarch Ignatios of Antioch (also the recipient of an honorary degree from St. Vladimir's Seminary), speaking in January 1987 to an ecumenical assembly in Geneva, during the "Week of Prayer for Christian Unity," said: "We are all [Orthodox and heterodox] members of Christ, a single and unique body, a single and unique 'new creation,' since our common baptism has freed us from death." It takes no great theological expertise, let alone anything more than a superficial reading of the Fathers, to understand that, from an Orthodox standpoint, the Body of believers in Christ, the "New Creation," and those "Baptized" in Christ are none other than Orthodox Christians. These words are never applied by the Fathers to the heterodox, and to do so is to acknowledge the reality of "churches" outside the Church.
c) The "Sister Churches" ecclesiology of the Balamand Agreement, signed in 1993, unequivocally states that both the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church cannot claim Apostolic Succession as the "exclusive property of one our churches" (Section XIII; see "The Balamand Union: A Victory of Vatican Diplomacy" [Etna, CA: Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, 1994], p. 10). One might argue that the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church are one, and therefore that Balamand does not embrace a "Branch Theory" of the Church, but this argument is one certainly open to dispute.
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