Ecumenism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Orthodoxy=== [[File:Fond-du-lac-circus.preview.jpg|350px|thumb|The consecration of [[Reginald Heber Weller]] as an Anglican bishop at the [[St. Paul's Cathedral, Fond du Lac|Cathedral of St. Paul the Apostle]] in the [[Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac|Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac]], with the Rt. Rev. Anthony Kozlowski of the [[Polish National Catholic Church]] and the [[Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow]] (along with his chaplains [[John Kochurov]], and Fr. Sebastian Dabovich) of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] present]] The [[Oriental Orthodox]] and Eastern Orthodox churches are two distinct bodies of local churches. The churches within each body share [[full communion]], although there is not official communion between the two bodies. Both consider themselves to be the original church, from which the [[Western Christianity|West]] was divided in the 5th and 11th centuries, respectively (after the 3rd and 7th [[Ecumenical council]]s).{{cn|date=January 2022}} Many theologians of the Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxies engage in theological dialogue with each other and with some of the Western churches, though short of full communion. The Eastern Orthodox have participated in the ecumenical movement, with students active in the [[World Student Christian Federation]] since the late 19th century. Most Eastern Orthodox<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oikoumene.org/en/church-families/orthodox-churches-eastern|title=Orthodox churches (Eastern)|publisher=oikoumene.org|access-date=2014-02-11}}</ref> and all Oriental Orthodox churches<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oikoumene.org/en/church-families/orthodox-churches-oriental|title=Orthodox churches (Oriental)|publisher=oikoumene.org|access-date=2014-02-11}}</ref> are members of the World Council of Churches. [[Kallistos of Diokleia]], a bishop of the Eastern Orthodox Church has stated that ecumenism "is important for Orthodoxy: it has helped to force the various Orthodox Churches out of their comparative isolation, making them meet one another and enter into a living contact with non-Orthodox Christians."<ref name="Diokleia_1993">{{cite book|last=Ware|first=Kallistos |title=The Orthodox Church|date=28 April 1993|publisher=Penguin Adult|isbn=978-0-14-014656-1|page=322}}<!--|access-date=23 April 2015--></ref> Historically, the relationship between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion has been congenial, with the Patriarch of Constantinople in 1922 recognising Anglican [[Holy orders|orders]] as valid. He wrote: "That the orthodox theologians who have scientifically examined the question have almost unanimously come to the same conclusions and have declared themselves as accepting the validity of Anglican Orders."<ref>[http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgbmxd/patriarc.htm The Ecumenical Patriarch on Anglican Orders<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020125091106/http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgbmxd/patriarc.htm |date=January 25, 2002 }}</ref> Moreover, some Eastern Orthodox bishops have assisted in the ordination of Anglican bishops; for example, in 1870, the Most Reverend Alexander Lycurgus, the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Syra and Tinos, was one of the bishops who consecrated [[Henry Mackenzie (bishop)|Henry MacKenzie]] as the [[Anglican Bishop of Nottingham|Suffragan Bishop of Nottingham]].<ref name="Redmile2006">{{cite book|last=Redmile|first=Robert David|title=The Apostolic Succession and the Catholic Episcopate in the Christian Episcopal Church of Canada |date=1 September 2006|isbn=978-1-60034-517-3|page=239|quote=In 1870, the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Syra and Tinos, the Most Reverend Alexander Lycurgus, paid a visit to the British Isles. During his time in England, Archbishop Lycurgus was invited by the Lord Bishop of London, John Jackson, to join with him in consecrating Henry MacKenzie as the Suffragan Bishop of Nottingham. Archbishop Lycurgus agreed to assist, and on 2 February 1870, he joined in the laying on of hands with the Bishop of London at the consecration of Bishop MacKenzie. Thus the Apostolic Succession in the Greek Orthodox Church was passed on to the Bishops of the Anglican Communion, and through them to the Christian Episcopal Churches in the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada.}}<!--|access-date=23 April 2015--></ref>{{self-published source|date=September 2017}} From 1910 to 1911, the era before [[World War I]], [[Raphael of Brooklyn]], an Eastern Orthodox bishop, "sanctioned an interchange of ministrations with the [[Anglicanism|Episcopalians]] in places where members of one or the other communion are without clergy of their own".<ref name="Herbermann1912">{{cite book|last=Herbermann|first=Charles|title=The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church|year=1912|publisher=Robert Appleton|page=149|quote=This A.E.O.C.U. is particularly active in the United States, where the existence side by side of Westerns and Easterns offers special facilities for mutual intercourse. It is due mainly to its instances that the orthodox Bishop Raphael of Brooklyn recently sanctioned an interchange of ministrations with the Episcopalians in places where members of one or the other communion are without clergy of their own-a practice which, as coming from the Orthodox side, seemed strange, but was presumably justified by the "principle of economy" which some Orthodox theologians unaccountably advocate (see Reunion Magazine, Sept., 1910).}}</ref> Bishop Raphael stated that in places "where there is no resident Orthodox Priest", an Anglican (Episcopalian) priest could administer Marriage, Holy Baptism, and the Blessed Sacrament to an Orthodox layperson.<ref name="Convention1910">{{cite book|title=Journal of the Proceedings of the One Hundred and Ninth Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0VgQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA411|access-date=15 April 2014|year=1910|publisher=The Rumford Press |page=411|quote=Inasmuch as there is a variance between your and our Churches in these matters, I suggest that, before any marriage Service is performed for Syrians desiring the services of the Protestant Episcopal Clergy, where there is no Orthodox Priest, that the Syrians shall first procure a license from me, their Bishop, giving them permission, and that, where there is a resident Orthodox Priest, that, the Episcopal Clergy may advise them to have such Service performed by him. Again, in the case of Holy Baptism, that, where there is no resident Orthodox Priest, that the Orthodox law in reference to the administration of the Sacrament be observed, namely immersion three times, with the advice to the parents and witnesses that, as soon as possible, the child shall be taken to an Orthodox Priest to receive Chrismation, which is ''absolutely binding'' according to the Law of the Orthodox Church. Furthermore, when an Orthodox Layman is dying, if he confesses his sins, and professes that he is dying in the full communion of the Orthodox Faith, as expressed in the Orthodox version of the Nicene Creed, and the other requirements of the said Church, and desires the Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, at the hands of an Episcopal Clergyman, permission is hereby given to administer to him this Blessed Sacrament, and to be buried according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Episcopal Church. But, it is recommended that, if an Orthodox Service Book can be procured, that the Sacraments and Rites be performed as set forth in that Book. And now I pray God that He may hasten the time when the Spiritual Heads of the National Churches, of both yours and ours, may take our places in cementing the Union between the Anglican and Orthodox Churches, which we have so humbly begun; then there will be no need of suggestions, such as I have made, as to how, or by whom, Services shall be performed; and, instead of praying that we "all may be one" ''we shall known that we are one in Christ's Love and Faith''. Raphael, ''Bishop of Brooklyn''.}}</ref> In 1912, however, Bishop Raphael ended the intercommunion after becoming uncomfortable with the fact that the Anglican Communion contained different [[churchmanship]]s within Her, e.g. High Church, Evangelical, etc.<ref name="Herbermann1912a">{{cite book|last=Herbermann|first=Charles|title=The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church|year=1912|publisher=Robert Appleton|page=149|quote=This A.E.O.C.U. is particularly active in the United States, where the existence side by side of Westerns and Easterns offers special facilities for mutual intercourse. It is due mainly to its instances that the orthodox Bishop Raphael of Brooklyn recently sanctioned an interchange of ministrations with the Episcopalians in places where members of one or the other communion are without clergy of their own-a practice which, as coming from the Orthodox side, seemed strange, but was presumably justified by the "principle of economy" which some Orthodox theologians unaccountably advocate (see Reunion Magazine, Sept., 1910), The concordat did not, however last very long' Bishop Raphael seems not to have understood, at first, the motley character of the Episcopalian communion, but having come to realize it, quickly revoked his concession (Russian Orthodox American Messenger, 28 Feb., 1912).}}</ref> However, after World War I, the [[Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius]] was organized in 1927, which much like the [[Anglican and Eastern Churches Association]] worked on ecumenism between the two Churches; both of these organisations continue their task today.<ref>{{cite book|title=Church Quarterly Review|date=January–March 1964|publisher=[[Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge]]|location=London|quote=In 1927, the "Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius" was founded, becoming, like the "Anglican and Eastern Church Association", one of the chief focal points of these contacts.}}</ref> In accordance with the [[Soviet anti-religious legislation]] under the [[state atheism]] of the Soviet Union, several [[Russian Orthodox]] churches and seminaries were closed.<ref name="Greeley">{{cite book|last=Greeley|first=Andrew M.|title=Religion in Europe at the End of the Second Millennium: A Sociological Profile|year=2003|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-3298-4|page=89|quote=Seminaries were closed, churches turned into museums or centers for atheist propaganda, the clergy rigidly controlled, the bishops appointed by the state.}}<!--|access-date=23 April 2015--></ref><ref name="Liquidation">{{cite book|author=Gerhard Simon|title=Church, State, and Opposition in the U.S.S.R.|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|quote=On the other hand the Communist Party has never made any secret of the fact, either before or after 1917, that it regards 'militant atheism' as an integral part of its ideology and will regard 'religion as by no means a private matter'. It therefore uses 'the means of ideological influence to educate people in the spirit of scientific materialism and to overcome religious prejudices..' Thus it is the goal of the C.P.S.U. and thereby also of the Soviet state, for which it is after all the 'guiding cell', gradually to liquidate the religious communities.|year=1974}}</ref> With ecumenical aid from [[Methodism|Methodists]] in the United States two Russian Orthodox seminaries were reopened, and hierarchs of the Orthodox Church thankfully made the following statement: "The services rendered by the American Methodists and other Christian friends will go down in history of the Orthodox Church as one of its brightest pages in that dark and trying time of the church. Our Church will never forget the Samaritan service which your whole Church unselfishly rendered us. May this be the beginning of closer friendship for our churches and nations."<ref name="Methodism">{{cite web|author=Rev. Thomas Hoffmann; William Alex Pridemore |url=http://www.demokratizatsiya.org/bin/pdf/DEM%2012-3%20Pridemore%20.pdf |title=Esau's Birthright and Jacob's Pottage: A Brief Look at Orthodox-Methodist Ecumenism in Twentieth-Century Russia |publisher=[[Demokratizatsiya (journal)|Demokratizatsiya]] |quote=The Methodists continued their ecumenical commitments, now with the OC. This involved a continuance of financial assistance from European and American resources, enough to reopen two OC seminaries in Russia (where all had been previously closed). OC leaders wrote in two unsolicited statements: The services rendered... by the American Methodists and other Christian friends will go down in history of the Orthodox Church as one of its brightest pages in that dark and trying time of the church.... Our Church will never forget the Samaritan service which... your whole Church unselfishly rendered us. May this be the beginning of closer friendship for our churches and nations. (as quoted in Malone 1995, 50–51) |access-date=19 October 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929054409/http://www.demokratizatsiya.org/bin/pdf/DEM%2012-3%20Pridemore%20.pdf |archive-date=29 September 2011 }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page