Where, then, is the Church? This was the question – a difficult and existential one – which we were reflecting on with some friends, during a discussion about the many problems the Church faces today, all over the world. Our involvement in Syndesmos offers us the possibility to meet people from many different places and backgrounds and to hear about the situation of their local communities. From all around comes one and the same concern: the Body of Christ is ill, most members fail to be a witness to love and unity, as commanded by Jesus Christ.
Do not be scandalised by this assertion. We are not passing the responsibility on to others, of course. As any other Christian, we consider ourselves as the first of all sinners, the first to bear the responsibility for this crisis and we look at our sin. Since its founding, Syndesmos has been addressing difficult issues. And from the start, the people active in Syndesmos have been asking themselves this question: What can we do to serve the Church in her witness of love and unity? The nature of Syndesmos activities changes throughout the years according to the needs of the Church, but the same founding question remains, the same motivation inspires us.
Sometimes, people ask who we are to address the problematic issues in the Church. Others tell us that it is beyond the call of duty of the youth in the Church to deal with burning issues (e.g. the future great pan-orthodox council, the revitalising of mission, problems of freedom in the Church, etc.), saying that such issues "belong" to the Church hierarchy. Some pastors of our Church encourage us on a regular basis, telling us that it i is precisely we, the youth, who have the freedom and the enthusiasm to address difficult issues – issues which are tricky for pastoral authorities to deal with. Others however argue that only they have the mandate to deal with such things, and that it is not our business to do so. Our theological tradition very wisely ascribes the responsibility of Church governance to pastoral authorities (clergy, clerical councils, etc.), mostly represented by local bishops. They are responsible for the administration of the body of the Church, as well as for our personal salvation. They will have to answer to Christ for us (cf. Hebrews 13,17). They rule the Church, with Christ’s authority, but they do so only when they act as bishops, only when they "recapitulate" the conscience of their local Church (as Christ "recapitulated" humankind, cf. Ephesians 1,10). Only then the local community fully becomes the Holy Church of Christ in its catholicity. It is often the case, however, that the dioceses in the Church are so big, that it is impossible for a bishop to be this incarnation of the conscience of his diocese, in communion with all the local Churches.
Asking the question "Who are you to deal with these issues?"is also a very convenient way of forbidding things that bother some people. In Western Europe, where Syndesmos was founded in the last century,people are used to freedom of speech, both in the society and in all Christian Churches. The revival of medieval habits in Orthodoxy is painful for active Syndesmos members who have been productive in their free ecclesial service.
One of these burning issues in the Church appears to be the long awaited great council of the Orthodox Church. Since the beginning of the 20th century, efforts have been made to prepare such a council, to deal with contemporary problems of our Church, pastoral, missionary, canonical, apologetic and – why not? – dogmatic problems. Many meetings have taken place amongst the delegates of all the canonical Churches. Some agreements were reached. But still the convocation of the council itself is pending, probably due to problems we are not aware of. And even the agreed texts are not yet implemented.
However, the fact that the council itself is slowly in preparation is already a clear sign of the need to re-establish a collegial system in the Orthodox Church worldwide – and a sign of the lack of conciliarity at many levels of Church life. In this respect, we had planned a meeting in August 2005 – a festival, a feast of Syndesmos – with more than 100 participants from many countries and ecclesial backgrounds, who were to gather in Greece. This festival was to take place with the theme "Towards the Council… Urgent issues in the Church". We had various proposals for hosting this festival, but we chose what seemed then to be the best place for both
practical and spiritual reasons: the local Church of Alexandroupoli, through its youth movement, had been active in Syndesmos in the past years, sending participants to events and providing help in Greece for fellow members. It was a kind of recognition from the part of Syndesmos to choose this option. Moreover, the newly elected Metropolitan of the local Church appeared a very warm and welcoming host. The event was planned and prepared for one year. Many young people had applied to participate, and great interest was shown from many regions.
The participants were numerous and apparently very interested.
Unfortunately, on 8th June 2005, about two months before the event, the diocese of Alexandroupoli contacted the General Secretariat and abruptly informed us that the Metropolitan was not willing to host the event anymore, for an unknown reason. We tried to find an alternative location, within the Church of Alexandroupoli and with the help of the synodal authorities of the autocephalous Church of Greece, but no solution could be found. On the contrary, the event appeared to bother the local bishop and he brusquely told the coordinator that he does not care about Syndesmos. Therefore it was decided by the organising committee of the festival and the General Secretariat to cancel the event and postpone it for next year.
We have outlined this rather detailed description of the unfortunate episode of the festival in order to demonstrate how the theme itself of the festival is burning, how methods of past ages in society are sometimes still in use in the Church (fortunately not always). The cancellation of the Syndesmos festival is a clear testimony of the need to address the problem of conciliarity in the Church. In the past, Syndesmos managed to address some issues nobody was dealing with. In a number of our previous events, H.B. Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and Primate of the autocephalous Church of Albania, has explained to us how much Syndesmos was his starting point in the revival of missionary awareness in Orthodoxy. Syndesmos was also one of the most active bodies in examining the difficult
question of the pastoral organisation of the Orthodox Churches situated geographically outside the borders of existing canonical Churches (we refuse the common appellation of "diaspora" used for these communities, in opposition to an "egataspora". In fact, all the Churches of God are seeds on the earth, are in situation of diaspora, but we cannot develop this aspect in this short text).
Today, Syndesmos still addresses some sensitive problems, with daring and respect. Last year, we prepared and implemented an event in a difficult place, a symbolic place in Orthodoxy, Estonia (see article on p. 6-8), a country beloved by Christ, but very stigmatised by some Church members. The event was difficult to plan due to ecclesiastical tensions, but it turned out to be a success. Nobody lost anything, everybody left the project with new and positive ideas for the future.
Despite the fact that the situation in Estonia is so difficult that the two Orthodox communities do not even take part in the same eucharistic communion, the youth of both communities spontaneously agreed to collaborate in the future. Nobody knows what will be the evolution of this event and the extent to which the youth leaders present may have to withdraw their wish for reconciliation, but what we do know is that the Holy Spirit is working and acting towards unity there too.
Raising missionary awareness has always been a matter of grave concern in Syndesmos. Following a recommendation of the last general assembly therefore, the board of administration planned to organise an event especially on mission each year until the next general assembly.
Last year, we organised an event in Russia, hosted by the Theological Seminary of Belgorod (see article on p. 8-9). The theme of the event may appear surprising: mission in Eastern Europe today, that is, mission in non-Christian societies, in post-communist countries. It is a challenging theme because it puts mission back to the forefront of the concerns of the Orthodox Church. There was a second challenge in this title: a new kind of mission was to be discussed. Usually, when we say "Mission", we mean proclaiming the Gospel to those who have never heard of Christ and his Church. Since post-communist societies have a strong ecclesial tradition, doing missionary work in those societies has a different meaning. Their specificity is that their ecclesial tradition has not been totally erased but has been altered, sometimes corrupted, always influenced by totalitarian regimes. Today, Church mission in these countries has not only to proclaim who Christ is, but also who Christ is not, what the Church is, but also what she is not!
Since the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, Syndesmos has organised several events in the former Soviet Union. This has become possible thanks to the freedom the Church experiences nowadays, maybe for the very first time in history. However, for those societies where the Good News of the Gospel has been forbidden for decades, the priority should not be only to hear the Gospel but also to restore the freedom and tolerance in the Church, for our Lord Jesus has been sent on mission by the Father "to proclaim liberty to the captives (...); to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (Isaiah 61,1-2). And so the apostles taught us: "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty" (James 2,12). "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3,17).
In 2005, two events are to take place in a missionary field: "Training Missions – The Challenge of Outreach on the Indian Subcontinent" in India and "Youth Leadership Training" in Kenya. Reports on theses events will be published in future issues of Syndesmos News.
The end of summer will see an important event in Germany: a conference on liturgical language and translations, followed by a meeting with Church pastors. This subject – liturgical languages and translations – is one of the most difficult problems in our Church today, not only in Western Europe where the event will take place. Our tradition is known for having always been aware of the need to speak to the people and proclaim the Gospel in their own tongue (cf. Acts 2,8). The reality is different from the theory: in most places Orthodox people do not understand even the most basic Church texts. In our next issue of Syndesmos News, you will find a report on this event.
Where, then, is the Church? Fortunately, the Church is living and will never die, because she is the bride of Christ. Around each bishop, in the eucharistic communion, the Church realises herself like in a systolic movement of the heart; at the end of each liturgy, the people of God, the heart of the world, is sent in a diastolic movement to scatter the seeds of love in the world in a personal and collegial witness. One of these moments of witness of Christ is Syndesmos and Syndesmos activities. May the Lord bless us all and grant us His divine support, for the life of the world (cf. John 6,51). | 