SaveTheGOP: Under the Turkish Guns, the Christians Roar
From our friends at SaveTheGOP, we get this outstanding perspective on Pope Benedict XVI's and Patriarch Bartholomew I's amazing moment this week:Bartholomew ascends to the iconostasis and welcomes Benedict in Greek. Benedict, aware of the cameras surrounding him, replies in English. We must, he says, recall Europe to its Christian heritage before it is too late -- and we must do it together. Then they emerge into the cold sunlight of a cold day. They ascend to a balcony overlooking the courtyard where we gather in expectation. They speak briefly. And then, they clasp hands, Pope and Patriarch, smile and raise their arms together. Tears come to my eyes, and I am shocked to see several media personnel crying openly. For an instant, the Church is one. For a shadow of a second, the dreams of Christendom are again real.
Under the Turkish guns, the Christians roar. There are many who do not recognize the extreme importance of the papal visit to Turkey this week. The very moment of the joining of hands was a moment that brought together Christendom for the first time in 1000 years. It wasn't Byzantium reborn, but it was a tremendous step towards the eventual reunion of East and West.
Could we have witnessed the moment where no longer we discuss the Muslims in Europe, but rather the state of our Christians in Asia?
|
 |
James Atticus Bowden 
2 Comments:
I've thought for several years that the most dramatic and necessary thing for the Church - Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant - to do in Europe is to get off the government dole and quit taking tax money.
Live or die on their own as the New Testament church did for a several hundred years and all in the U.S. and other parts of the world do now.
It would be great for the Church to regain its energy and purpose. Especially as so many cathedrals go up for auction if not state-supported.
Pope Paul VI met with Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in 1964, and the two of them together rescinded the excommunications that had been issued as a result of the Great Schism of 1054.
Pope John Paul II also met with his counterparts in the Orthodox churches, and in fact was the first Roman pontiff to visit Greece since the first millennium.
Benedict XVI's trip to Constantinople might be unique, but joining hands across the East-West divide is not unprecedented.
Post a Comment
Home