Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Christian involvment in the modern ecumenical  movement was spurred by with the urging of John Mott (who eventially became the first General Secretary of the WCC).

In 1911, (sixteen years after John R. Mott's missionary success through the coalescence of various student christian movements into the "World's Student Christian Federation" in 1895), the Constantinople Conference of the Federation was held with it's "epoch-making representatin of the Eastern Churches". However,  not all Orthodox responded to Mott's call to unity and communion "precisely on the grounds that those issuing it were ignoring the ever-present unity and communion of the Church." (Heers, 1971)

Ironically, today's "push beyond the frontiers spirituality" that is heralded by religious christian progressives is an attempt, albeit a failed one, to seek an authentic unity that has never been lost. In the stampede for "visible unity", the Orthodox contribution to the ecumenical movement was at the least, misunderstood and undervalued, and at the most, undermined and marginalized. Be that as it may however, the modern history of the WCC was in no small part kicked off with the participation of the Orthodox Church via the Constantanople assembly WCSF in 1911 and the 1920 Encyclical of the Ecumenical Patriarch, " Unto the Churches of Christ Everywhere, that they no longer consider one another as strangers and foreigners, but as relatives, and as being a part of the household of Christ and 'fellow heirs', members of the same body and partakers of the promise of God in Christ' (Eph. 3:6)" (Heers, 1971)

In The Missionary Origins of Modern Ecumenism- Milestones Leading up to 1920, Fr. Peter Alban Heers notes that Visser't Hooft (see below)  had made references that, contrary to his earlier view that in 1919 the Metropolitan of Cesaria was divinely inspired in planning to hold a World Conference on Faith and Order, a more 'sober assessment' leads to a view that the 1920 encyclical was in no small part a result of the political turmoil and instability of the day.

For the Orthodox Christian World, which has balanced, and transcended seemingly opposing concepts within the mystery of the Church for 2000 years, it appears ironic that involvement in the ecumenical movement would result in the realization of a 'characteristic mark' in that, as referred to by Heers, "in spite (at times), of quite orthodox statements concerning the Church by individual participants, the very basis of involvement- inclusivness of that which is incongruous- undermines and ultimately (if the goal is the building up of the Church through sacramental initiation) renders non-existant Orthodox witness." (Heers, 1971)

Perhaps in the greater picture then, it would in the end surprise no one, in hindsight, if that one visible Church with it's apostolic succession and witness, would find itself more marginalized by the paper tiger of social justice politics in the WCC and its affiliated ever changing movements, then in the days of facing lions in Rome. Would it come as any greater surprise then, that the Jesus Christ preached by the Church, is likewise 'considered an outdated model' to be replaced with the ideals of more contemporary men, running a grand experiment of convergent consensus? Or the more pragmatic "virtues" of liberation activitism, even at the expense of proclaiming the "Good News"?


 * Orthodox Articles
 * John S. Romanides

An Excerpt from:

ORTHODOX-HETERODOX DIALOGUES and THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES THE THEOLOGIAN IN THE SERVICE OF THE CHURCH IN ECUMENICAL DIALOGUE   © John S. Romanides
Amsterdam in 1948 Protestant founders of the WCC began their theological cooperation with their three Orthodox co-founders..

"...But by the time of the Genral Assembly of the WCC in New Delhi 1961 Father Florovsky and other Orthodox present sensed that their Patristic theology was about to be replaced by Nikos Nissiotis' ideas about theology. That Nickos Nissiotis had beome the "chosen one" of Visser 't Hooft, the first General Secretary of the WCC, became clear when he made his debut as a main speaker at the General Assembly at New Delhi in 1961. This was 'the omen' that dialogue between the Orthodox and the Protestants within the WCC would end up a disappointing and expensive failure."

Professor Hamilcar Alivizatos

Father Georges Florovsky

http://www.romanity.org/htm/rom.12.en.orthodox_heterodox_dialogues.01.htm