In January 2014 Archbishop of Canterbury, His Grace
Justin Welby, visited His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in
Constantinople. There the significance of the relations between the Anglican
Communion and the Orthodox Church were stated. Of great importance, for the
relations in Britain and inevitably for my personal research, is the fact that
the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association and the Fellowship of St. Alban
and St. Sergius (two ecumenical bodies promoting relations between the
Anglicans and the Orthodox) were praised by the Ecumenical Patriarch. Below are
the two welcoming addresses by both hierarchs:
Welcome by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to His
Grace Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury (Phanar, 13 January 2014)
Your Grace Archbishop Justin, Beloved Brother in
Christ:
‘Christ is in our midst! He is and shall be!’
It gives us the greatest joy to welcome Your Grace
as the honoured guest of the Ecumenical Throne, on this your first pilgrimage
to the Patriarchate. We hope that Your Grace will be very happy during
your time in Constantinople, and that your visit will strengthen the bond of
mutual love that exists between our two Churches, the Orthodox and the
Anglican.
The friendship between our Churches is not new, but
has deep roots in past history. As long ago as the early 17th
century Cyril Lukaris, Patriarch first of Alexandria and then of
Constantinople, had many contacts with the English Church and State. As a
token of his esteem, he sent to King James I the Codex Alexandrinus, one of the
three most ancient manuscripts of the Greek Bible, which is now one of the
greatest treasures at the British Library in London. Personal contacts
between our two communions have been promoted more recently by the Eastern
Church Association, founded in 1864 – now known as the Anglican and Eastern Churches
Association – and by the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius, founded in
1928. These two societies have fostered countless ecumenical friendships;
and without such ecumenical friendships, on the direct and personal level, we
cannot hope to build a firm foundation for Christian unity.
Since 1973, as Your Grace will be well aware, there
has been an official dialogue, world-wide in scope, between our two ecclesial
families. The International Commission for Anglican-Orthodox Theological
Dialogue has so far produced three weighty reports: the Moscow Agreed Statement
(1976), the Dublin Agreed Statement (1984), and most recently the very detailed
Cyprus Agreed Statement (2006), entitled ‘The Church of the Triune God’.
The International Commission is now preparing a fourth agreed statement on the
Christian understanding of the human person. This will consider, among
other topics, the Christian teaching on marriage, and also our human
responsibility for the environment, a matter to which we personally, throughout
our time as Patriarch, have always attached particular importance. We are
fully confident that, under the inspiration of Your Grace, our
Anglican-Orthodox dialogue will continue to flourish and to make positive
progress.
In its formal title, this dialogue is entitled
‘theological’. But it is of course essential that our theology should
always be a living theology. Doctrinal discussion must never be
separated from a practical interest in social and philanthropic issues.
At this present moment, as Anglicans and Orthodox, we share in particular a
joint concern for the situation of Christians in the Middle East, who are
confronting increasing problems and, in many places, are undergoing a veritable
persecution.
In the past, the rapprochement between our
two Churches has been greatly assisted by the exchange of students, and we
trust that this will continue. Our Theological School at Halki used to
offer scholarships to Anglicans, and when it is reopened – as will happen in
the near future (so it may be hoped) - we shall certainly wish to revive this
tradition. These exchange students have frequently gone on to become
leaders in their respective Churches, and their early inter-Church experience
has enabled them to further the cause of Christian unity in highly constructive
ways.
Dear Archbishop Justin: during the course of the
visit of Your Grace we shall have the opportunity to speak further about these
and other subjects. It is a great joy to us that, so soon after your
elevation to Canterbury, Your Grace has found it possible to visit the sacred
centre of Orthodoxy, the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Indeed Your Grace is
more than welcome: please feel entirely at home. From our encounter
during these two days, may great benefit come to our Churches. In that
spirit we conclude with words from the Divine Liturgy, proclaimed immediately
before the recitation of the Creed: ‘Let us love one another, that with one
mind we may confess the Trinity one in essence and undivided.’
Archbishop
of Canterbury’s response to welcome message by the Ecumenical Patriarch:
Your All-Holiness, Beloved Brother in Christ,
I thank you most warmly for your welcome and
greetings and at the outset bring the greetings from the Anglican Communion and
the Church of England. I realise that this is an initial and very short visit,
but it is a vital opportunity so soon after my enthronement for us to be able
to share and be strengthened through this more personal visit. Your All
Holiness has once mentioned that in a world “becoming smaller and smaller
distance-wise, the need for personal communication has become imperative.” I
see my short visit in that light. To be with you in this holy and historic
place is indeed a great privilege. The warmth of your welcome adds to my deep
sense of privilege at meeting you.
This city has left its mark in a diversity of ways
upon Christianity as a whole. It was from this city that manuscripts of the
Bible in the original languages were received in the West. This city (also
renowned as the New Rome) is your seat as the Ecumenical Patriarch, and we
continue to benefit from the insight of what the secular and Christian
leadership through this link has taught the world church about the relationship
between Christianity and the application of worldly power over the years. Your
history is more and more important in the increasing confrontations of the
world in which religion is used as a pretext for violence that in reality comes
from greed and the pride of human beings.
You have demonstrated over the centuries the
martyrdom to which we are called in scripture, the call to witness in word and
life, a call more important than life itself. The cost of that martyrdom is
seen in so many places today. Closest to here we remember and seek the mercy of
Christ and intercession of the Blessed Mother on Syria, especially for His
Eminence Metropolitan Yohanna Ibrahim of Aleppo of the Syrian Patriarchate of
Antioch, and His Eminence Metropolitan Boulos Yazigi of Aleppo and Alexandrette
of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, for whom we pray daily. You
yourself have been an example of peace and reconciliation, politically, with
the natural world and in your historic visit for the installation of His
Holiness Pope Francis I.
Istanbul is at the crossroads between Europe and
Asia. It is the place where two great faiths meet. Its significance for trade
is enormous and continues to remind us of Turkey’s importance as an industrial
and commercial nation. Commerce and trade may be objects of greed, but may in
the Grace of God open the way to dialogue between nations.
Your All Holiness, my distinguished predecessors,
Archbishop Robert Runcie in 1982, Archbishop George Carey in 1992 and
Archbishop Rowan Williams in 2003 all visited this holy place and have been
blessed by the encounter and engagement. As Archbishop Rowan has emphasised
during his last visit, our roots go back to the Christian missions of the days
of Constantine. He furthermore expressed a particular concern for Eastern and
Western traditions of the Church to be reconciled.
Such reconciliation is also very dear to my heart
and is one of my key priorities. It is the call of Christ that all may be one
so that the world may see. I will therefore be taking back with me the warmth
of your hospitality and also, after our discussions today and tomorrow, a
renewed and refreshed focus for greater unity and closer fellowship. We want to
carry the cross of our divisions, but be filled with the hope and joy that
comes from the grace and the love of Jesus.
This can be further developed through the ongoing
conversations in the International Commission for Anglican Orthodox Theological
Dialogue and through the more informal talks that happen. I can assure you that
I will provide the necessary encouragement for our ecumenical journey together.
During the last years we have seen the world
changing in a diversity of ways. We have had an economic crisis through a
banking system which had lost its way, seeking its own good at the expense of
nations and their peoples. There is conflict in many regions of the world,
acute poverty, unemployment and an influx of oppressed people driven away from
their own countries and seeking refuge elsewhere. In Southern Europe terrible
suffering has seized the people, most especially the poor for whom we weep and
cry to God. The churches are rising to the challenge, empowered by the Holy
Spirit and filled with his compassion. Hence in standing with the poor in love,
we may work together. How can we strengthen and help each other bear one
another’s burdens?
Your Holiness, I am aware that you are known as the
‘Green Patriarch’. We are grateful for your energy and efforts to raise
awareness for preserving and protecting our environment. You have been the
leading voice expressing concerns and have initiated a number of seminars and
dialogues, also in co-sponsorship with His Royal Highness Prince Philip, to
mobilise spiritual and moral forces to achieve harmony between humanity and
nature. This third millennium has made us realise that environmental issues
require our day to day attention. We are witnesses to global calamities. The
Christian Orthodox theological understanding points us all to our natural
environment as part of Creation and characterised by sacredness. This is a
responsibility for all of us and your contributions will enable us to speak out
more intentionally on environmental issues at an individual, national and
international level. Abuse and destruction of the environment denies the grace
of God. Economic crises tempt governments and people to look to the short term
and forget the needs of the generation to come.
Finally, it is clear to me that our theological
dialogues today do face new challenges and I do recognise that there are also
some issues that raise difficulties, but I take courage from your words to one
of my predecessors:
In spite of such obstacles, we cannot allow
ourselves to congeal the love between us which is also manifested in dialogue
so “let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us” with the good
hope that the Lord of powers and mercy “will not let us be tested beyond our
strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that we may
be able to endure it” (1Cor. 10:13).
Your All Holiness, this is a vital visit for me and
it would be my privilege to be able to welcome you in 2015 to London. I look
forward to the remaining time with you and the Patriarchate. There is much that
unites us and as we continue to strengthen the bonds of friendship our
understanding of each other’s traditions will grow. It is therefore in this
spirit that I greet you and ask for your prayers for our ministry. [1]
