Lazarus Abboud
Christian unity is obstructed by two problems: the first is monopoly: the monopoly of the Church on one hand, and second, the desired unity. The Church is defined as the Body of Christ, and the Body of Christ does not accept being divided or fragmented. But when schisms occurred in history, and there came to be multiple churches, a problem was born in thought and reflected on conduct, and created the question: how is the Church the Body of Christ, incapable of division, yet it was subjected to schisms and there came to be churches instead of the one Church?
Some resolve this problem with another, more painful problem, whereby each church regarded itself as the original and mother church, and the rest departed from it, and it is no longer part of the Church; at best it is a church, that is, a sect that gathers people and accumulates individuals with no divine dimension whatsoever. For example, we Orthodox define ourselves as the Orthodox Church, and the rest are churches, sects, gatherings. Each church monopolized the “the” of self-definition for itself and consequently monopolized the Holy Spirit for itself, so that the Spirit works only in it and through it. There are churches to this day that re-baptize the Christian woman who wishes to marry one of their sons.
But if we want a precise clarification to resolve this dilemma, let us return to the Liturgy, which shapes doctrine and expresses theology. During the Divine Liturgy, at the fraction of the Lamb (the Body of Christ), the deacon says: Break, O Master, the Holy Bread, and the priest answers: ”Broken and distributed is the Lamb of God, who is broken and not divided, ever eaten and never consumed, but sanctifies those who partake of Him”.
The Church “was broken and distributed” throughout history, but it “was not divided”. It was distributed into several sees, and there is still independence and growth of new Orthodox churches, for example, and it divided into multiple churches (Syriac, Byzantine, Latin, Maronite, Coptic and Assyrian). As for the Protestants, we approach them in a different way that requires a different study. This is what deep Orthodox theology realized with precision and expressed, for example, during the convening of the Great Orthodox Council; the council was not called (the Eighth Ecumenical Council, for example) even though it gathers all the Orthodox churches, because an ecumenical council cannot convene in the absence of an apostolic see, namely the See of Rome, because of the severing of communion between the Orthodox churches and Rome. This is precisely an accurate expression that clarifies that we are not the Church by ourselves, and the Church is not complete in its sees without Rome. Patriarch Ignatius Hazim says: “We are not alone on earth, and we are not alone the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church”.2
The second matter is that all the churches have an apostolic succession that was never interrupted. Rome was founded by the Apostle Peter; an abbot of a monastery on Mount Athos describes Rome as “the Orthodox Church in old Rome”(3). The Syriac and the Maronite are churches of Antioch whose apostolic succession reaches Peter and Paul. Clement of Alexandria says “the way of truth is one, but into it flow streams like a gushing river, running in every direction”. What happened between all the churches is a severing of communion, exactly as happened between Antioch and Jerusalem, or between Russia and Constantinople. Each church grew in its own tradition, theology and saints in isolation from the other. If the severing of communion between the Church of Antioch and the Church of Jerusalem were to continue, could we say that Jerusalem is heretical and turn it from a church and an apostolic see into a sect?
We are brothers whether we like it or not; we belong to one Father and one Savior, we have one Creed and are called by one name, but unfortunately we have turned ourselves into the enemy brothers. Each of us wants to monopolize the Holy Spirit for himself and for his sect. We have lost the divine spaciousness of comprehending the other and grasping him in his fullness and his part; we could not love the other, and each of us turned the other into a heretical infidel, so the “salt of the earth” was corrupted. What have we done with the witness of Christ and with His Gospel? We divided it because of our pride and drove it out because of our grudges. We Christians have betrayed our God, and did not allow His prayer “that they may be one” to act in us. The spirit of division and dissension triumphed over the Spirit of Christ in us; we wanted to monopolize the truth as the Jews monopolized it for themselves, and each one cries out for himself: I am the truth and I am the origin, and we forgot that Jesus is the origin who roots every branch, and we forgot that He is able to raise up from these stones Christians and Orthodox. Metropolitan Georges Khodr says “I am certain that Christians alone are the problem of the world, and that the answer to this problem lies between the covers of a New Testament that we read with sobriety”(4).
Sources
1. Bishop John Yazigi, The Book of the Service of Priests, Convent of the Nuns of Our Lady — Balamana, second edition, 2005, pp. 240 and 295
2. Patriarch Ignatius Hazim, Fragrances of Antioch, p. 11.
3. Kyriacos Markides, The Mountain of Silence: A Search for Orthodox Spirituality, translated into Arabic by Dina Fam Antonius, Monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God, Hamatoura, 2013, p. 464.
4. Georges Khodr, Sunday Talk, Religion and Religions, part two, p. 55