Pope and Patriarch herald new bond

ST ANDREW the Apostle has drawn together the Pope and the Patriarch in a gesture which augurs great things for Christian Unity. The Ecumenical Patriarch enjoys the primacy of honour among the Orthodox churches, while the Bishop of Rome immediately after a meeting with his Cardinals, itself an expression of his primacy among Catholic bishops, announces his decision to visit Constantinople to discuss the ending of nine hundred years' separation.
The most immediate result will be the formal opening of a theological dialogue between the two largest churches in Christendom. But already a general "Council of Union" comes into focus and with it the "concelebrated Eucharist" which Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras longed for, but did not live to see.
The meeting comes as no surprise to those who are aware of the great and deep concern of Pope John Paul for the Eastern churches. For some years a delegation has gone from Rome to Constantinople to celebrate St Andrew's day. His decision to lead it himself today completes a process which has matured over the past twenty years.
Pope John XXIII, when he called together the second Vatican Council in 1959, did so with more than half an eye on Eastern Christians. He had spent many years in South east Europe and been Apostolic Delegate in Istanbul.
The close of the Council was marked by the simultaneous abolition, in Rome and Constantinople, of the excommunications dating from 1054. But when the Pope and Patriarch met it was in Jerusalem. Much has happened since then to pave the way for this week's meeting.
Vatican 11 was careful to stress the strong and close theological bonds between Catholics and Orthodox:
"These Eastern Orthodox Churches, although separate, yet possess true sacraments and above all — by apostolic succession — the priesthood and the Eucharist, whereby they are joined to us in closest intimacy. Therefore some worship in common, given suitable circumstances and the approval of church authority, is not merely possible, but is to be encouraged." (Ecumenism, 15).
It is also very difficult to establish when the East and West finally separated, or just why. Estrangement began quite early, largely for cultural reasons, language difficulties and geographical distance, and perhaps most of all differing legal and ecclesiastical traditions.
But there was the addition of the term Filioque to the Creed, the mutual excomunications of 1054 and the sacking of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204.
Despite all this there remained a sense of mutual dependence on a shared past going through theFathers of the early church and the Apostles to the one church established by Our Lord.
In recent times Christians of the West have come to appreciate the value of these common roots and in doing so developed an awareness of the strength of Eastern teaching in the liturgy. notably of the local eucharistic community as an embodiment of the Church. Another very influenlial factor has been the emigration of Eastern Christians all over the modern world, carrying with them their faith and their theology, so that it is no longer seen as localised but universal.
The two architects of the steady progress made since Vatican II have been Cardinal Willebrands and Metropolitan Menton. They have kept before them one objective — the Great Church" still in the future but already beginning to take shape, not so much as the effect of legal agreement but as growing out of ever-increasing love, service and humility.
This will take time, since so many social and cultural differences have to be respected, but on the other hand deeper. unaltered unity is rediscovered, not only in Scripture. tradition and sacraments. Perhaps the most significant recovery is that which Bishop Christopher Butler has pointed to in his latest book'flu. C'hurch and Unity.
"The two great communions, including together almost three quarters of living Christians, wholly agree with one another, and with Christian antiquity, that the Church is an indivisible visible communion" (p.152.) It is precisely to put this basic agreement into everyday practice that there has been so much careful preparation.
Agreement to open theological dialogue was announced in 1976.
A first meeting of the joint working party took place the following year in Rome. This summer, in the course of the regular visit made to Rome for the feast of St Peter, Metropolitan Meletios was able to report that the Orthodox were ready to make a start immediately. One result of the Pope's visit is expected to be the announcement of the first session, which is expected to he devoted to sacramental theology. A large measure of agreement on this is expected and it will pave the way for other points.
The Orthodox Churches are engaged in preparing for a PanOrthodox "Great and Holy
Council" of their own, which will
be important for them in the way that Vatican II was to us. No date for this has yet been agreed.
They are, as is well known, in dialogue with the Anglican Churches.
There have been conversations with the Copts and other Eastern churches who became separated at the time of the Council of Chalcedon in 451. All these moves. as well as the establishment of the Orthodox Centre in Geneva, by the Ecumenical Patriarch, will have served to
prepare for the new Orthodox / Catholic dialogue.
An idea of the way this may proceed, though only a tentative one, may be gathered from a dialogue which has taken place in North America in the last few years. This began in 1965 under the sponsorship of the Conference of Orthodox Bishops (SCOBA) and the Catholic Bishops Ecumenical Commission (13CEIA).
Its reports appear in the pages of New York journal Diakonia imel over the years they have discussed such subjects as the Eucharist, mixed marriages. respect for life, the Church, bishops and presbyters, unity and divine economy.
The conditions in North America have favoured this pioneer dialogue and there can be little doubt that the lessons learnt by it will be fed into the larger discussion which will make 1980 so important not only for Catholic and Orthodox, but the whole Ecumenical Movement.