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The Orthodox Theological Schools and Their Cooperation on the Way to the Holy and Great Council

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The Orthodox Theological Schools and Their Cooperation on the Way to the Holy and Great Council Emeritus Professor I v a n D i m i t r o v . THE ORTHODOX THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS AND THEIR COOPERATION ON THE WAY TO THE HOLY AND GREAT COUNCIL The Orthodox Theological Schools this week celebrate their unity. Whatever we call the 8th congress of the higher Orthodox Theological Schools, it is indeed a celebration of the Orthodox theological unity. The Theological schools may sometimes be geographically remote from one another, but they are always connected by the one faith and the same dedication to serving the holy Church of Christ. Scholarly gatherings like the present offer a good opportunity for the theologians to review their yard, but also to see the good things in their neighbors’ yard and to try to apply it. And, if someone has something positive in his own life and work, the theologian ought to offer it to the others not with pride, but with Christian love and humbleness, because we all respect the psalmic words: Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Thy name give glory (Psalm 115: 1). Being representatives of the higher Orthodox Theological Schools of our Churches (regardless of the administrative subordination of each school), we must immediately recognize that the organization is not the best side of ours. The first congress in Athens in 1936 marked a very good start, but the times were pregnant with tension, which soon erupted in a new, terrible war that prevented to convoke a second congress. Later came the Communist "Babylonian captivity" of the Orthodox theology, which again made our communication difficult. So, only in 1976, 40 years after the Athenian Congress, a second assembly of the Orthodox Schools took place again in Athens. After a break, the third congress was in 1987 in Boston, organized by "The Holy Cross" Orthodox Theological Institute there. It was followed by the fourth Congress in 1992 in Bucharest, the fifth in 2001 in Belgrade and the sixth in 2004 in Sofia. The period between the congresses in Sofia and Joensuu was very short, only after a year and seven months, in May 2006, but after that there was a long period of severe lull for 12 years. Meanwhile, some enthusiasts (like the speaker and an archimandrite professor at the University of Athens) many times tried to propose the convening of the eighth congress in Halki or Thessaloniki, under the auspices of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, with whom a meeting on the St. Dimitrios feast (October 26, 2012) was held in the town of Siatista. There were talks with the dean of the Thessaloniki Theological faculty. But obviously things should have matured to reach the current blessed meeting of the world Orthodox theology. Ivan Dimitrov The very irregularity of these congresses shows that something is wrong in coordinating the cooperation of the Orthodox theological schools. And it is hardly necessary to point out what its advantages are. If Jesus Christ requires His followers to be one, how much more, Christians must be united in both the doctrine and the implementation of the theological knowledge. We need to share, to learn from each other, to help each other in solving the difficulties in our work, to strive to be more and more useful to our local Churches. No matter of long distances or languages we speak, write and publish. Sometimes unity is hindered by ethnic, national, and (to say it between us) even by racial prejudices. Nevertheless we have no choice but following the commandment of our Savior and the words of the apostle, to overcome all these rather fictional dividing lines. In the family of Orthodox theological schools, however, there is no need to observe any seniority in honor (or honorary primacy) because they value not the age of a school or the number of scholarly staff and students, but the quality of its researchers and teachers, their desire to move forward and up in science and education. For the people of God expect from us science and instruction. The bishops also rely on us for advice and expert opinion. But woe to us if, as advisers and experts, we succumb to the temptation to serve interests other than the interests of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. The path of our Orthodox Church to the Holy and Great Council, held in June 2016 in Crete, was responsibly passed by the aright-teaching bishops with the unwavering support of the scholars of our theological schools, without whom the Orthodox bishops of the Holy Orthodox Church neither could, nor did want to go ahead. Because the work in its nature was a sacred work of the whole Church and it required faith and reverence, a great deal of knowledge and complete devotion to Christ's Church, devotion to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church and not to the Bulgarian, or Greek, or Romanian, Russian, Serbian and other churches (in alphabetical order, so that no one is disappointed). It is not by chance that the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, in his address to our congress, pointed out: "We gratefully remember the pioneers who prepared the Council and dutifully fought the good fight in the pre-conciliar period. We also wish to highlight the definitive contribution of the Orthodox Churches that participated in the Holy and Great Council, as well as to express our personal gratitude – as the Council’s President – for their seamless and creative cooperation and concord." As one of those small and humble workers and assistants of the bishops, for 40 years (1976-2016) I did my best to be useful in the sacred work of pan-Orthodox unity and interaction. And I am happy to say, that I had the great chance of working in a room with hierarchs such as the Metropolitans Meliton of Chalcedon, Chrysostom of Myra, Bartholomew of Philadelphia and later of Chalcedon, John of Pergamon, Damascene of Switzerland, Ignatius (Hazim) of Laodicea, George (Kodr) of Mount Lebanon, Parthenios of Carthage, Philaret of Minsk, Cyril of Smolensk, Theoctist of Iași, Antony of Ardeal, Stefan of Zhicha, Sava of Shumadiya, Nikodim of Sliven, Pancratiy of Stara Zagora, Chrysostom of Paphos, Chrysostom of Peristeri and dozens of other Metropolitans and Bishops of ecumenical Orthodoxy. All these were wise and responsible hierarchs who, in terms of knowledge, did not give in to the professional theologians, professors 591 The Orthodox Theological Schools and their Cooperation in Orthodox theological schools around the world. From the other side, the theologians - mostly laymen, but also clerics - were doing their best to prepare good texts of the Orthodox decisions on the issues of the agenda of the Holy and Great Council. They worked in the preparatory commissions and in the pre-conciliar meetings, discussions were held in working groups for whole nights so that the representatives of the Orthodox churches in the morning could get a good, coherent and possibly acceptable for all text. Time does not allow me to list the names of the theologians who have contributed to the successful preparation of the Council. Because many dozens of world-famous theological scholars of all local churches participated in this 40-year wander in the desert of the difficult and even thorny issues, which had to be exposed, discussed, and accepted in a form of consensual texts. Unfortunately, some of them did not live until the Orthodox Church entered the promised land of the Council. Let their memory be eternal! I will not speak now about those hierarchs and theologians who, on the threshold of the Promised Land of the Pan-Orthodox unity (literally on the bank of the Jordan River, which trembledly withdrew its waters!) refused to pass and remained outside. Their act is not my subject today. But I must say that the whole behavior and the concrete decision of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church met only a tacit disagreement on the part of the Bulgarian theological schools. Disagreement was shared in private conversations and audiences, it was also announced in the media, but there was no single opinion of the Bulgarian theology to be presented to Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church - regardless of whether the Synod would comply with it or rather not. At the same time, an international team of theologians, having its center in Piraeus, tried to work against the convening of the Holy and Great Council by visiting a number of countries with predominantly Orthodox populations. This is a serious issue and it must make us more cohesive in our unity and more effective in our initiatives. It is worth paying close attention to what the dean of the Faculty of Theology in Thessaloniki said at the opening ceremony of our congress: "Addressing the challenges of the time is not an individual affair of some enlightened people or some powerful personalities. Instead, it is necessary to assist all spiritual powers working with the same zeal and responsibility in the search for solutions, placing above all the support of the work of the Church in every way, by producing a sober and scientifically documented discourse without ignoring the new facts." The Holy and Great Council as an event is already in history. But as long as he is part of the Orthodox Church's life, we will continue to live with the problems it has put forward and for which solutions have been proposed. All these solutions must be implemented by the leadership of the Churches, being explained in detail by the scholars of these churches in order to reach the believers as "a rule of faith and a model of meekness". The Council lasted seven days. Now, however, we are left to continue living the non-dying day of the graceful life of the Church of Christ.
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