Please advise…

He asserts that as the “molecules of water that comprise the great North Atlantic are neither European nor American” so too the “particles of atmosphere above the United Kingdom are neither Labour nor Tory.”

Water molecules don’t have to be Hellenized like those in the diaspora he claims fatherhood over, whether Russian, Ukrainian, Dominican, or Chinese …

In Christ,

Photini

First, thank you Rod for noticing my post on AOI I do appreciate it.

To be clear upfront, a personal matter, I do not agree with the climate change science or the policy that seems (to me at least) implicit in the Patriarch recent op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. But his science and politics are not the subject of my comments. His secularism, his failure to proclaim Christ in his essay, is.

Forgive me but in failing to acknowledge this, I think Rod you have badly, and unfairly, represented my criticism of His All Holiness’ op-ed piece. I took great care to commend the Patriarch for entering into conversation with not only Christians of other traditions, but all religious believers as well as though without any particular religious faith. I would commend him as well for seeking to find common ground between science and religion. All of these are good things. Unfortunately, I think the essay falls far short His All Holiness’ laudable goals.

As I said in my original response the Ecumenical Patriarch’s argument owes more to the Enlightenment than it does Orthodox theology. Yes, as Tony D points out here, the Holy Spirit “is everywhere present and fillest all things.” Would that the Patriarch had made that argument. Unfortunately he did not.

Nor was he clear what he means when he says that “Just as God is indivisible, so too is our global environment.” On the surface this seems true but on closer examination it isn’t. The unity of God is a communion of Persons. The unity of the environment is impersonal. More over, this unity is momentary; in the end the creation is subject to a variety of changes and divisions. In other words, creation is not indivisible in any sense that resembles the indivisibility God.

Yes, “molecules of water that comprise the great North Atlantic are neither European nor American. The particles of atmosphere above the United Kingdom are neither Labour nor Tory.” But human beings are, and must necessarily be personal. And as in the Holy Trinity, it is our personal uniqueness that makes love not only possible but essential — both to personal happiness and the collaborative efforts that comprise human endeavor. Lose sight of those differences and love becomes impossible.

Moving to the specific criticism offered here, the contention that Orthodox Christianity is panetheistic is at best, a matter of theological speculation rather than dogmatic truth. But even granting for the sake of argument the legitimacy of seeing Orthodoxy in these terms, this was not the argument His All Holiness made.

Truthfully, I think that the statement by Pope Benedict XVI on the environment presents a significantly better theological argument for the care of the creation. Yes, as was pointed out, the Orthodox Church has a sacramental view of creation. However, His All Holiness, unlike Pope Benedict, does not make this argument. Nor did he make, again as the Pope did, the connection which for Christians is essential: “Is it not true that an irresponsible use of creation begins precisely where God is marginalized or even denied? If the relationship between human creatures and the Creator is forgotten, matter is reduced to a selfish possession, man becomes the ‘last word’, and the purpose of human existence is reduced to a scramble for the maximum number of possessions.” None of this is found in the Patriarch’s op-ed piece. For that matter he does not even use the word “creation” much less suggest that turning away from sin toward faith in Jesus Christ is essential to the proper care of the creation. Unpopular though it has been since before St Paul preached at the Mars Hill, this is still the heart of the Gospel.

Of course His All Holiness is free to make whatever type of argument he wishes. He has chosen, in this instance, to make an argument that is secular in nature his passing references to the New Testament notwithstanding. In doing this, however, I think he has missed an opportunity to proclaim Christ. Absent from his words , as Anie rightly says of herself, is any hint that humanity and our relationship to creation can, and must, “be revolutionized by the church.”

For record, I was ordained to the holy priesthood in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and served there for 10 years (I am now in the Orthodox Church of America). This makes me, I say with no small sense of gratitude, a priest of the Ecumenical Throne. I thank God for my time of priestly service under the spiritual fatherhood of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. During these years I learned more about the Gospel and the nature of the priesthood then I ever imagined possible.

I am not, if it matters, an ex-Evangelical Christian conservative with an ax to grind against the Ecumenical Patriarchate. I was until my wife and I joined the Orthodox Church in 1991, Catholic and the product of a fine Catholic education from high school, through college (University of Dallas for both my BA and MA), and graduate school (I took my doctorate at Duquesne in Pittsburgh). My criticism of the Patriarch’s op-ed piece, though pointed, are not the result of any Evangelical theological baggage or personal disappointment with the lack of any public opposition to abortion on the part of the Ecumenical Throne. If anything my argument owes as much to Catholic education as to my Orthodox faith.

Finally, one clarification. Like the Pope Benedict, Patriarch Bartholomew does have a local jurisdiction, he is the Archbishop of Constantinople just as the Pope is the Bishop of Rome. What Bartholomew does not have in the Orthodox Church and what the Benedict does in the Catholic Church, is a universal jurisdiction, that is a direct an authority over the whole Church.

In Christ,

+Fr Gregory

Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church (sort of like our Archbishop of Canterbury — he’s the figurehead, but he has no local jurisdiction, as the Pope does for Catholics), has long been called the “Green Patriarch” for his……

Thanks for the observations.

The in the absence of the Gospel what else do we have but power politics and in bondage. I am always tempted to return to this way of life or worse to twist the Gospel toserve my own desire for power. When I do pevert the Gospel in this way, I am living a life with the appearance of religion but the substance of that life is envy and jealous.

This is why I most always examine myself in light of the Tradition of the Church. I must root out my own love of power. Doing so is, I think, central to the ascetical life of the Christian.

To root out my love of power, I must commit myself to think a life of daily prayer and Scripture reading, of fasting, almsgiving and stewardship, regular (WEEKLY AT LEAST) Holy Communion and regular confession with a priest who I trust and respect and (and this is more important) who I know trusts and respect me.

But none of this will save me, none of this will heal me of my love of power. But I cannot be healed without these remedies and it is worse than foolish to think a cure is possible–it is self-deception.

Finally, as for who or who hasn’t in the Church hitched their wagon to power, let me say that the last 5 or so years has provided us with an enough illustrations of this to make me confident that no jurisidiction or individual Orthodox Christian has cornered the market on the love of power.

In Christ,

And thanks again.

+FrG

Thank you for your comment and question.

In part I think what I’m referring to might be called a fundamentalist ghetto. But what I’m getting at are Christian groups that look to their social status as a sign of their fidelity to Christ and the Gospel. For example, when I first arrived in Redding (the small city where I was sent to start and Greek Orthodox parish), I was approached several times by Evangelical ministers who wanted to know what was my “target ministry group.” At the time I frankly had no idea what they were talking about and said I was there to serve whomever God brought to me.

Over time I can to realize that many of the Evangelical ministers had targeted particular demographic groups with the hope of securing one or two prominent members “for Christ” so that they could influence the larger community.

There was no sense of service here–just of power politics. In fact, I think many had simply given up on evangelism in the proper sense and were almost wholly concerned with acquiring influence. Again, the goal was politics and nothing else.

With influence as the goal, doctrine and theology, even the Scriptures, became superfluous, even a distraction. What mattered was power pure and simple. Again and again I met a most peculiar animal, the evangelical Christian relativist. Accepting Jesus as personal Lord and Savior was the only constant–and there was no content to this–and once a person was “born again” his or her goals were sanctified and beyond criticism as long as they advanced the influence of the Gospel.

This may sound unbelievable to some, but it was for 6.5 years my daily experience. While I had a good relationship with the Roman Catholic community, such a relationship was impossible with the vast majority of the mainline Protestant and Evangelical Christian pastors and congregations. Their goal was to capture some measure of social/political/culture power and influence. And let me be clear, this wasn’t a “fundamentalist” thing–it was as much an addiction of the so-called liberal Protestant groups.

Once jealous and envy and the love of power and prestige took hold, the Gospel (and everything that goes with it) goes out the window.

I fear that if the Orthodox Church in ths country isn’t careful, we could go down the same road. This doesn’t mean we should give up our social witness (so AOI is still good in my book!) but what we do must be done with dispassion and not simply as a power grab to bolster our sagging personal and corporate egos.

Make a little sense maybe?

In Christ,

+FrG