Θεολογικός Διάλογος μεταξύ των Ορθοδόξων και Παλαιοκαθολικών κατά το έτος του 1975
The International Theological Dialogue between Orthodox and Old-catholics
1870 წელს როდესაც ვატიკანის პირველი კრება (რომის ეკლესიისთვის მეოცე მსოფლიო საეკლესიო კრება) დასრულდა კათოლიკეთა ნაწილი რომის ეკლესიას გამოეყო და მასთან ევქარისტიული კავშირი გაწყვიტა, რადგან მათ გააპროტესტეს და დაგმეს კრების განჩინებები. 1870 წლის 18 მაისს კრებაზე დამსწრე ეპისკპოსთან უმრავლესობამ (535) ხელი მაოწერეს რომის ეპისკოპოსის უცდომელობის დოგმას. მაშინ კრების 2-მა ეპისკოპოსმა ხმა ამ დოგმის არმიღებას მისცეს, მრავალი ეპისკოპოსი არც დაესწრო კენჭისყრას და პროტესტის ნიშნად კრება დატოვეს. მაშინვე ჩამოყალიბდა "ძველ-კათოლიკური ეკლესია" გერმანიაში, შვეიცარიასა და ჰოლანდიაში. მათ გადაწყვიტეს ძველ ტრადიციებზე დარჩენილიყო და ამის გამო უარყვეს სწავლება სულიწმინდის ძისგანაც გამომავლობის შესახებაც (Filioque). მაშინვე ამ ფაქტმა მართლმადიდებელი ეკლესიის ყურადღება მიიქცია. 1871 წელს მუინხენში (გერმანია) ძველ-კათოლიკეებმა ჩაატარეს პირველი საღვთისმეტყველო კონგრესი სადაც სტუმრის სტატუსით მრავალი მართლმადიდებელი თეოლოგი ესწრებოდა რამაც ხელი შეუწყო დაიწყებულიყო ურთიერთობების ჩამოყალიბება. ოფიციალურად კი საღვთისმეტყველო დიალოგის დაწყება ძველ-კათოლიკეებთან 1961 წლის როდოსის პანორთოდოქსული შეხვედრისაც გადაწყდა. 1975 წელს მსოფლიო საპატრიარქოს ინიციატივით შამბეზში (ჟენევა, შვეიცარია) მართლმადიდებლურ ცენტრში ძველ-კათოლიკეები მოწვეულ იქნნენ საღვთისმეტყველო დიალოგში. ჩვეულებისამებრ დიალოგი ძირითად საკითხებზე მსჯელობით დაიწყო, რის დროსაც მნიშვნელოვან საღვთისმეტყველო საკითხებზე მოხდა შეთანხმება. დღის წესრგიში იდგა შემდეგი თემები: 1. ღმერთის შესახებ დოგმა (1975 წ.), 2. ქრისტოლოგია (1975-1977 წწ.), 3. ეკლესიოლოგია (1977, 1979, 1981 წწ.). შეხვედრებს თითქმის ყველა ადგილორბივი მართლმადიდებელი ეკლესიიდან ესწრებოდნენ. გთავაზობთ შეთანხმებების ტექსტებს ინგლისურ ენაზე:
1975 წელის შამბეზი - შეთანხმება მიღწეულია:
დოგმა ღმერთის შესახებ:
I. /I DIVINE REVELATION AND ITS TRANSMISSION
საღმრთო გამოცხადება და მისი გავრცელება
Η Θεία Αποκαλυψη και η μετάδοση αυτής
(1) The Triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — created the world
and ‘has not left himself without witness’ {Acts 14:17), but revealed and
continues to reveal himself in many and various ways in the world and in
history.
(2) 1 . God reveals himself in his works, for ‘ever since the creation of the
world his invisible nature, namely his invisible power and divinity, has
been clearly perceived in the things that have been made’ {Rom. 1 :20) and
this especially in the human beings who were created in his image and
likeness, who ‘show that what the law requires is written on their hearts’
{Rom. 2:15).
(3) 2. Human beings were disobedient to the divine commandment and
sinned, and their likeness to God became distorted and obscured, and they
were unable to know the true God, ‘became futile in their thinking and
their senseless minds were darkened’; they therefore ‘worshiped and served
the creature rather than the Creator’ {Rom. 1:21, 25)
But God the All Merciful, ‘who desires all human beings to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth’ (7 Tim. 2:4) chose to reveal
himself to the world in a direct and personal way. God revealed himself,
therefore, directly and effectively ‘of old to the fathers by the prophets’
{Heb. 1:1) and this in the people of Israel. This revelation of God,
although real, was nevertheless partial and educational in character: ‘the
law was our custodian until Christ came’ (Gal. 3:24).
(4) 3. ‘But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son’ (Gal.
4:4). ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ (John 1:14). In
Jesus Christ there took place the whole and perfect revelation of God: ‘in
him the whole fulness of the deity dwells bodily’ (Col. 2:9). Only in Jesus
Christ is salvation possible: ‘and there is salvation in no one else’ (Acts
4:12). In Jesus Christ, the Triune God, whose essence is inaccessible and
incomprehensible to us, revealed himself in his salvific energies and, indeed,
in his whole plenitude: ‘We say that we do indeed know our God
from his energies, . . . but his essence remains beyond our reach’ (Basil
the Great, Letter 234, 1).
(5) 4. This supernatural revelation in Christ is communicated in the
tradition of the holy apostles, which was handed on in written form in the
Scriptures inspired by God and in oral form by the living voice of the
Church. The oral tradition is preserved, on the one hand, in the Creed and
other definitions and canons of the seven ecumenical councils and local
synods, in the writings of the holy fathers and in the holy liturgy and
generally in the Church’s liturgical practice, and, on the other hand finds
expression in the continued official teaching of the Church.
(6) 5. Scripture and tradition are not different expressions of the divine
revelation but distinct ways of expressing one and the same apostolic tradition.
Nor does any question arise, therefore, of the precedence of one
over the other: ‘both have the same force in relation to true religion’ (Basil
the Great, On the Holy Spirit, 27:2). ‘Scripture is understood within the
tradition, but the tradition preserves its purity and the criterion of its truth
through Scripture and from the content of Scripture’ (Inter-Orthodox
Preparatory Commission for the Holy and Great Synod, 16th to 28th July
1971, Chambesy 1973, p. 110). The apostolic tradition is preserved and
handed on unadulterated by the Church in the Holy Spirit.
In the view of the Joint Orthodox-Old Catholic Theological Commission,
the above text on *Divine Revelation and Its Transmission*
reproduces the doctrine of the Orthodox and Old Catholic Churches.
1/2 THE CANON OF HOLY SCRIPTURE
წმინდა წერილის კანონი (წიგნების კრებული)
Ο Καόνας της Αγίας Γραφής
(7) Holy Scripture consists of the books of the Old and New Testaments
which have been accepted by the Church into the canon established by it
and in use in it. They are:
(8) a) In the Old Testament the twenty-two — according to a different
reckoning the thirty-nine — books of the Hebrew canon, together with
another ten books, the so-called ‘Anagignoskomena’, i.e., books ‘read’ or
‘worth reading’, which were later known in the West as ‘deuterocanonic’; a
total of forty-nine books.
The first-mentioned thirty-nine books are ‘canonical’: Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2
Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra (Greek 2 Esra, Vulgate
and Slavic 1 Esra), Nehemiah, Esther, Psalms, Job, Sayings of Solomon,
Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations of
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Obadiah, Joel, Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Micah,
Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
The additional ten books, the Anagignoskomena, are: Judith, Greek:
1 Esra (Vulgate: 3 Esra, Slavic: 2 Esra), 1, 2 and 3 Maccabees, Tobias,
Jesus Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon, Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah.
(9) The ‘canonical’ books are distinguished by the special authority constantly
accorded to them by the Church; but the Church also values highly
the Anagignoskomena which have long been part of its canon of Holy
Scripture.*
(10) b) The canonical books of the New Testament number twenty-seven
in all, namely: the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; the
Acts of the Apostles; the letters of Paul: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians,
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1
and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon and Hebrews; the Catholic Epistles:
James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2 and 3 John, Jude; and the Revelation of John.
In the view of the Joint Orthodox-Old Catholic Theological Commission,
the above text on 'The Canon ofHoly Scripture* reproduces the doctrine
of the Orthodox and Old Catholic Churches.
* With respect to the books in Greek 1 Esra (Vulgate 3 Esra, Slavic 2 Esra) and 3
Maccabees, the Old Catholic Commission adds the following qualification: Although
these books are not rejected by their Church, they are not included in the Old Catholic
lists of the biblical books, which derive from an old Latin tradition. The International
Conference of Old Catholic bishops still has to declare its position on this point.
(11) We believe and confess One God in three hypostases, Father, Son
and Holy Spirit. The Father, who ‘loved’ the Son ‘before the foundation of
the world’ {John 17:24), revealed himself through him in the Holy Spirit in
order that this love might be in his disciples {John 17:26) through the communion
of the Holy Spirit who has been ‘sent into our hearts’ {Gal. 4:6).
This revelation is an ineffable and inexplicable mystery, a mystery of love,
‘for God is love’ {1 John 4:8).
(12) 1. On the basis of this revelation we believe that the God who is by
nature one is triune in the hypostases or persons. Father, Son and Holy
Spirit denote the three modes of being, without beginning and eternal, of
the three persons and their interrelationships; these persons are indivisibly
bound up with one another and united in one divine nature. Thus ‘we worship
the unity in the trinity and the trinity in the unity, in their paradoxical
differentiation and unity’ (Gregory of Nazianzus, PG 35, 1221).
(13) 2. We interpret this unity, on the one hand and above all, in terms
of the unity and identity of the divine nature, and on the other hand in
terms of the unity and identity of the properties, energies and will and when
we understand the Son and the Holy Spirit to derive from the Father as
their one origin and ground {aition), we are careful to preserve the unity
without confusion. The three divine persons are united in the one God,
bound together yet without confusion, on the one hand because they are
of one nature, on the other hand because they interpenetrate each other
without confusion. Therefore ‘from the unity of nature and the mutual
penetration of the hypostases and from the identity of their will and work,
their power and might and movement, we know that God is one and undivided;
for truly one is God: God (Father) and the Word and his Spirit’
(John of Damascus, PG 94, 825), to the eternal exclusion of any separation
or division of nature, any subordination of the three persons on the
pretext of precedence or eminence.
(14) 3. But we interpret the trinity on the one hand in terms of the difference
between the three persons, on the other hand, in terms of the
diversity of their processions. Thus the three divine persons are distinct
from each other without being divided; each has the fulness of divinity,
and the one divine nature remains, of course, undivided and unseparated,
so that ‘the divinity is undivided in the distinct (hypostases)’ {ameristos en
memerismenois— Gregory of Nazianzus PG 36, 149). The Father is
distinct from the other persons inasmuch as from his nature and from all
eternity he begets the Son and sends forth the Holy Spirit. The Son is
distinct from the other persons inasmuch as he is begotten of his Father;
the Holy Spirit inasmuch as he proceeds from the Father. Thus the Father
is unbegotten, without ground {anaitios) and without origin, but at the
same time is the one origin and the one root and spring of the Son and the
Holy Spirit’ (Basil the Great, PG 31, 609). He alone is their ground {aitios)
who from eternity begets the Son and sends forth the Holy Spirit. As for
the Son, he is begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit is sent forth or proceeds
from the Father. The Father, therefore is without ground (anaitios)
and himself the ground {autoaitios), whereas the Son and the Holy Spirit
have their ground in the Father, the Son because he is begotten, the Spirit
because he is sent forth, and indeed in both cases, without beginning and
eternally, undivided and unseparated. Accordingly the mysterious and ineffable
but nevertheless real distinction between the three hypostases or
persons of the Holy Trinity consists exclusively in these their three incommunicable
properties, namely, in the unbegottenness of the Father, the
begottenness of the Son, and in the procession of the Holy Spirit. The
three holy hypostases are distinct exclusively in these hypostatic properties,
not in nature, but by the distinctive feature of each hypostasis, and
thus separated they remain inseparable’ since they ’do not denote the
nature but the mutual relationship and mode of being’ (John of
Damascus, PG 94, 824, 837).
(15) 4. On the Holy Spirit in particular, it is taught in Holy Scripture
{John 15:26), in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of the 2nd
Ecumenical Council, and in the ancient Church generally, that he proceeds
from the Father, the source and origin of divinity. His eternal procession
from the Father is here to be distinguished from his temporal revelation
and sending into the world, which takes place through the Son. When
therefore we understand the procession of the Holy Spirit in the sense of
his eternal being and procession without beginning, we confess the procession
from the Father alone, and not also from the Son. But when we
understand it in the sense of the temporal procession of the Holy Spirit,
then we confess the procession from the Father through the Son or even
from both Father and Son.
(16.) Accordingly we believe in the Holy Spirit ‘who proceeds from the
Father . . . and is communicated to the whole creation through the
Son . . . We do not say that the Spirit is from the Son . . . (But) we confess
that he is revealed and communicated to us through the Son . . . (He
is) the Holy Spirit of God the Father, since it is indeed from the Father
that he proceeds, but he is also called (Spirit) of the Son because he is indeed
revealed and communicated to the creation through the Son, but
does not derive his being from the Son’ (John of Damascus, PG 94,
821.832.833. [849]; 96, 605).
(17) In this sense the Doctrinal Letter of the International Conference of
Old Catholic Bishops in 1969 states: ‘We entirely reject the addition of the
filioque adopted in the West in the eleventh century without recognition
by an ecumenical council. The ground for this rejection is not merely the
uncanonical form of this addition, though this in itself represented an offence
against love as the bond of unity. But above all we repudiate any
theological doctrine which makes the Son joint author of the Spirit.’ In a
similar sense, the special statement of the same Bishops’ Conference in the
same year, ‘On the Filioque Question’, also emphasizes ‘that there is only
one principle and one source in the most holy Trinity, namely, the Father’.
In the view of the Joint Orthodox-Old Catholic Theological Commission,
the above text on *The Holy Trinity' reproduces the doctrine of the
Orthodox and Old Catholic Churches.
Chambesy, Geneva, Orthodox Centre of the Ecumenical Patriarchate
August 20-28, 1975
Signatures of all members of the Joint Commission present.
ქრისტოლოგია
შამბეზი 1975-1977, შეთანხმება მიღწეულია:
II/l THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD OF GOD
ღვთის სიტყვის განკაცება
Η Ενανθρώπιση του Λόγου του Θεού
(1) 1. We believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son and the only Word of
God ‘who for us human beings and for our salvation came down from
heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and
became a human being’ (Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed). In the incarnation
the eternal and timeless God entered time and history as a human
being ‘in order to unite the human race once again in himself as its head’
(Cyril of Alexandria, PG 76, 17).
Jesus Christ has two natures: he is perfect God who has everything
the Father has, except his unbegottenness; but at the same time he is also
perfectly human ‘with a rational soul and body’, like us in every respect except
our sin.
As human being Jesus Christ stands out from all other human beings
by his supernatural birth and sinlessness, since his incarnation took place
through the Holy Spirit and from the Virgin Mary, and he was also free
from original sin and from all personal sin.
(2) 2. Concerning the two natures of Christ, the divine and the human,
we confess what the Church teaches on the basis of Holy Scripture and
Holy Tradition: namely, that the two natures, the divine and the human,
have been hypostatically united in Christ, and this indeed in the hypostasis
or person of God the Word, ‘without confusion without change, without
division, without separation’ (4th Ecumenical Council).
(3) Jesus Christ is God-man, the one divine person in two natures, the
divine and the human, with two wills and two operations (energeiai). But
since the person of Jesus Christ unites the two natures and it is this person
which wills and operates accordingly, we can therefore call the operations
of the Lord divine-human. ‘He does what the human being does not just in
a human manner, for he is not only human but also divine; and he does
what God does not just in a divine manner, for he is not only divine but
also human’ (John of Damascus, PG 94, 1060). Through the ‘mutual interpenetration’
or ‘mutual indwelling’ of the two natures, not only is the
duality of the natures, wills and operations preserved but also the unity of
the person.
(4) 3. The hypostatic union has certain consequences for the dogma of
the Holy Trinity:
a) Although the whole divine nature was united with the human nature in
Jesus Christ, the whole Holy Trinity did not become incarnate but only
the second person of the Trinity.
b) The incarnation does not bring about any alteration or change in the
unalterable and unchangeable God.
(5) 4. The hypostatic union results in:
a) The exchange or mutual communication of the properties. In the
hypostatic union, the two natures, the divine and the human, communicate
to each other their properties, by penetrating each other and
indwelling in each other.
b) The divinisation (theosis) of the human nature of Christ. It abides, of
course, ‘within the limits proper to it and within its kind’ (6th
Ecumenical Council).
c) The sinlessness of Christ.
d) The worship of Christ even in respect of his human nature. We owe
worship to the divine-human person of the Lord.
e) The Virgin Mary is truly God-bearer and Mother of God.
(6) 5. The incarnation of the eternal Word of God, which took place out
of love for humanity, is an inaccessible and inconceivable mystery, to be
appropriated in faith . . .
In the view of the Mixed Orthodox-Old Catholic Commission, the
above text on 'The Incarnation of the Word of God* represents the doctrine
of the Orthodox and Old Catholic Churches.
II/2 THE HYPOSTATIC UNION
ჰიპოსტატური შეერთება
Η Υποστατική Ένωση
(7) Concerning the hypostatic union of the two natures, the teaching of
the Church is:
1. The divine nature was united with the human nature hypostatically,
i.e., in the hypostasis or person of God the Word. In his incarnation he
assumed not human nature in general, but an inidividual human nature.
This did not exist previously; it was ‘without hypostasis of its own nor did
it have any prior individuality . . . but the Word of God itself became
hypostasis to the flesh’ (John of Damascus, PG 94 1024. 985). Consequently,
the Lord did not assume a human hypostasis but a human nature,
and this indeed is human nature in its entirety. The individual human
nature assumed was a true and complete one ‘with rational soul and body’
(4th Ecumenical Council). It did not exist previously in an individual independent
of the one person of Jesus Christ, nor had it previously been
created, but its existence began in the moment of the divine incarnation ‘of
the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary’, in the unity of the person or
hypostasis of the Word of God. It therefore never had any other
hypostasis than that only of the Son of God.
(8) 2. Jesus Christ is therefore the one person ‘in two natures’, the divine
and the human, but not ‘from two natures’. The 4th Ecumenical Council
teaches us to confess ‘ one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Onlybegotten,
recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change,
without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no
way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature
being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistance
(hypostasis). The hypostatic union of the two natures in Christ, which
took place ‘in the moment of the conception, without confusion or separation’,
remains forever indivisible and indissoluble. The human nature remains
forever inseparably united with the divine nature. The God-man is
therefore ‘Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today and forever’ (Heb.
13:8).
(9) 3. Since there are two natures, the divine and the human, in Jesus
Christ, there are also in him two freely operating wills, appertaining to the
natures, the divine and the human; two operations (energeiai) appertaining
to the natures, the divine and the human, as well as two free wills
(autexousia) appertaining to the natures, the divine and the human; the
wisdom and the knowledge, too, are both divine and human. Because the
Lord is equal in nature to God the Father, he wills and operates in freedom
as God; because he is also equal in nature to us human beings, he wills and
operates in freedom also as a human being. ‘Willing and operating’ he
possesses of course ‘not divided but united; he wills and works in each of
the two natures, of course, in communion with the other’. We therefore
understand the two wills not as contrary or as striving against each other,
but each as willing in harmony the same thing each according to its own
mode. Certainly the weak human will follows the strong divine will and
subordinates itself to that will, for both wills and operations ‘acted in unity’
and ‘cooperated for the salvation of the human race’ (6th Ecumenical
Council). Put in general terms: ‘Since the hypostasis of Christ is one and
Christ is one, he is one who wills in accordance with both natures: as God
on the basis of good pleasure, as human being in obedience’ (John of
Damascus, PG 95, 160).
(10) The Church teaches therefore what the fathers of the 6th
Ecumenical Council also defined: ‘We adhere firmly in every way to the
“without confusion” and “without division” and proclaim in short: Since
we believe that one of the Holy Trinity, after the incarnation of our Lord
Jesus Christ, is our true God, we affirm that his two natures are shown in
his one hypostasis . . . The distinction of natures in the one hypostasis is
seen in the fact that each nature wills and operates what is its own in communion
with the other. Accordingly, we also praise the wills and operations
appertaining to the two natures, which cooperate for the salvation of
the human race.’ Even after the union ‘his divinized human will was not
annihilated but continued all the stronger’.
In the view of the Joint Orthodox-Old Catholic Theological Commission
the above text on The Hypostatic Union’ reproduces the doctrine of
the Orthodox and Old Catholic Churches.
Chambesy, Geneva, Orthodox Centre of the Ecumenical Patriarchate
August 20-28, 1975
Signatures of all members of the Joint Commision present.
II/3 THE MOTHER OF GOD
ღვთის დედა
Η Μητέρα του Θεού
(11) The Church believes that the divine and human natures are
hypostatically united in Jesus Christ. It accordingly believes also that the
Blessed Virgin Mary gave birth not to a human being merely but to the
God-man (the divine-human being) Jesus Christ and that she is therefore
truly Mother of God as the 3rd Ecumenical Council defined and the 5th
Ecumenical Council confirmed. According to St. John of Damascus, the
name ‘Mother of God’ ‘embraces the whole mystery of the divine dispensation’
(i.e., plan of salvation) (de fide orth. 3.12. PG 94, 1029).
(12) 1 . In the Virgin Mary, the Son of God assumed human nature in its
entirety, body and soul, in virtue of the divine omnipotence, for the power
of the Most High overshadowed her and the Holy Spirit came upon her
(Luke 1:35). In this way the Word was made flesh (John 1:14). By the true
and real motherhood of the Virgin Mary, the Redeemer was united with
the human race.
(13) There is an intrinsic connection between the truth of the one Christ
and the truth of the divine motherhood of Mary. ‘ ... for a union of two
natures took place; therefore we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord.
According to this understanding of the unconfused union, we confess the
Holy Virgin to be *theotokos* because God the Word was made flesh and
lived as a human being and from the very conception united to himself the
temple taken from her’ (3rd Ecumenical Council, Formula of Union,
Mansi 5.592). ‘ ... we teach with one voice that the Son (of God) and our
Lord, Jesus Christ, is to be confessed as one and the same
person . . . begotten of his Father before the worlds according to his
Godhead but in these last days born for us and for our salvation of the
Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to his humanity’ (4th
Ecumenical Council, Definition of Faith, Mansi 7.116).
(14) 2. Venerating the Virgin Mary as Mother of God, whose pregnancy
is called by St. Ignatius of Antioch ‘a mystery to be cried aloud’ (ad Eph.
19:1), the Church also glorifies her perpetual virginity. The Mother of
God is ever-Virgin, since, while remaining a maiden, she bore Christ in an
ineffable and inexplicable manner. In their address to the Emperor Marcian,
the fathers of the 4th Ecumenical Council declared: ‘ ... the
fathers . . . have expounded the meaning of faith for all and proclaimed
accurately the blessing of the incarnation: how the mystery of the plan of
salvation was prepared from on high and from the maternal womb, how
the Virgin was named Mother of God for the sake of him who granted her
virginity even after her pregnancy and kept her body sealed in a glorious
manner, and how she is truly called Mother because of the flesh of the
Lord of all things, which came from her and which she gave to him’
(Allocutio ad Marc. Imp. Mansi 7.461 B). And in its decision the 7th
Ecumenical Council declared: ‘We confess that he who was incarnate of
the immaculate Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary has two natures’
(Definitio, Mansi 13.377A). As St. Augustine says: ‘He was born of the Holy
Spirit and the Virgin Mary. And even the birth as human being is itself
lowly and lofty. Why lowly? Because as human being he is born of a
human being. Why lofty? Because he was born of a virgin. A virgin conceived,
a virgin gave birth, and after the birth she remained a virgin’ (de
symb. ad cat. 1.3, 6. PL 40.630). (Cf. also St. Sophronius, Patriarch of
Jerusalem, General Epistle, PG 87.3164, 3176, Mansi 9.476, 485; St. John
of Damascus, de fid. orth. 4,14. PG 94. 1161; St. Maximus the Confessor,
ambig. PG 91, 1276A etc.).
(15) 3. Accordingly the Church venerates in a very special way the
Virgin Mother of God, though ‘not as divine but as Mother of God
according to the flesh’ (St. John of Damascus, de imag. 2,5. PG 94,1357).
If, because of the redemption in Christ and its blessings, the Church
glorifies God above all and offers him the worship of true adoration due to
the divine nature alone, at the same time it venerates the Mother of God as
chosen vessel of the work of salvation, as she who accepted the word of
God in faith, humility and obedience, as gateway through which God
entered the world. It calls her the Blessed One, the first of the saints and
the pure handmaid of the Lord, and thereby ascribes to her a relative
sinlessness by grace, from the time the Holy Spirit descended upon her, for
our Saviour Jesus Christ alone is sinless by nature and absolutely.
(16) The Church does not recognize the recent dogmas of an immaculate
conception and bodily assumption of the Mother of God. But it celebrates
the entry of the Mother of God into eternal life and solemnly observes the
festival of her dormition.
(17) 4. The Church venerates the Mother of God also in her role as intercessor
for human beings before God, which is hers in particular because
of her outstanding place in the work of salvation. But it distinguishes between
the intercession of the Mother of God and the quite unique mediatorship
of Jesus Christ: ‘For there is one mediator between God and
humanity — the man Jesus Christ’ (1 Tim. 2:5). ‘O Merciful One, show
your love to humankind; accept the Mother of God who bore you, who intercedes
for us, and save your helpless people, O our Saviour’ (Saturday
Vespers, Tone 8, Theotokion). ‘
. . . O God . . . grant us all to share the
life of your Son in fellowship with the Virgin Mary, the Blessed Mother of
our Lord and God . . . and of all your saints. Look upon their life and
death and answer their intercessions for your Church on earth’ (Divine
Liturgy of the Old Catholic Church of Switzerland).
(18) Although the Mother of God is also called ‘mediatrix’ {mesitria) in the
hymns of the Church, this is never anywhere in the sense of co-mediatrix
or co-redemptrix but only in the sense of intercessor.
In the view of the Joint Orthodox-Old Catholic Theological Commission,
the above text on the 'Mother of God* reproduces the doctrine of the
Orthodox and Old Catholic Churches.
Chambesy, Geneva, Orthodox Centre of the Ecumenical Patriarchate,
August 23-30, 1977
Signatures of all members of the Joint Commission present.
ეკლესიოლოგია,
შეთანხმება მიღწეულია:
1977 წელი შამბეზი, 1979 წელი ბონი, 1981 წელი ზაგორსკი
iii/i THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH
ეკლესიის ბუნება
Η φυση της Εκκλησίας
(1) By its very nature the church is intimately related to the mystery of
the Triune God who reveals himself in Christ and the Holy Spirit (cf. Eph.
5:32). It is ‘the treasure house of God’s ineffable mysteries’ (St. John
Chrysostomos, Ep. 1 ad Cor. horn. 16,3. PG 61, 134).
(2) No explicit and complete definition of the term ‘Church’ is to be
found in Scripture and Tradition. What we find are many images and symbols
from which in an indirect way the nature of the Church can be
known.
(3) According to the Scriptures, the Church is ‘the body of Christ’ (Rom.
12:4f.; 1 Cor. 12:13, 27), ‘the people of God’ (1 Pet. 2:10), the ‘household’
or ‘temple’ of God (1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 2:19; 1 Cor. 3:16f.), the ‘royal
priesthood’ (1 Pet. 2:9), the bride of Christ (cf. Mk. 2:20; Mt. 25: Iff.; Rev.
21:2), God’s ‘vineyard’ (Isa. 5:7).
(4) Tradition also provides descriptions in which one or other aspect of
the Church is emphasized: it is episcopal in structure, it has a priestly and
charismatic character, it is a communion of believers, it is composed of all
the true believers of all the ages, it is the human race united in the Godman.
(5) The Church, therefore, by its very nature is no mere human
fellowship, no passing phenomenon of human history. It is rooted in
God’s eternal decision and plan for the benefit of the world and the human
race. In the Old Testament it was prefigured in Israel and announced in
advance by the prophets to be the coming people of God of the new covenant
in which God would establish his final and universal sovereignty on
earth (Isa. 2:2; Jer. 31:31). In the fulness of time it became a reality in the
incarnation of the Word of God, through the proclamation of the Gospel,
the choice of the twelve apostles, the institution of the Lord’s Supper,
Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection, as well as through the
sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost for the sanctification of the Church
and the equipment of the apostles for their work.
(6) Thus the Church founded by the Lord on earth is the body of Christ,
with Christ as its Head, a divine-human organism; a community which can
be described and perceived and, at the same time, an inward and spiritual
relationship between its members and its divine founder and among
themselves. As the pilgrim people of God, the Church lives on earth in expectation
of its coming Lord until the fulfilment of the kingdom of God.
It exists and lives both in heaven, in those already made perfect who there
celebrate the victory, and on earth in believers who fight the good fight of
faith (cf. 2 Tim. 4:6). In one aspect the Church is invisible and heavenly, in
the other it is earthly and visible, a community and organism with a
pastoral and priestly ministry, which is structurally linked with the
apostles, with abiding dogmatic and ethical principles and a constant
ordered worship, a body in which clergy and laity are differentiated.
(7) In the Church, the new life in Christ is a reality in the Holy Spirit; in
it the grace and divine life of the Head is given to all members of the Body
for their sanctification and salvation.
The Church established by the Lord on earth cannot, therefore, be
merely something inward, an invisible fellowship or an ideal and indefinable
Church of which the individual churches are only imperfect images.
Such a conception of the nature of the Church is in contradiction to
the spirit of Scripture and Tradition; it destroys the real content of revelation
and the historical character of the Church.
(8) Dogmatic expression is given of the nature of the Church in the
Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, as confirmed by the 4th Ecumenical
Council in Chalcedon. In this creed the confession of faith in the Triune
God is followed by the confession of faith in ‘the one, holy, catholic and
apostolic Church’.
(9) The Church is ‘one’, for just as Christ the Head of the Church is one,
so too there is also one body animated by the Holy Spirit, in which Christ
as Head and believers as members are united. In this body all the local
churches are united to one another by the unity of faith, worship and
order. The unity of faith and worship represents the bond which binds
believers with the redeemer and with one another, in love and peace and
finds expression in the confession of the same faith and in celebration of
the same liturgy, insofar as it rests on dogma. The unity of order takes the
form of the exercise of leadership on the basis of the same principles and
the recognition by believers of one ministry and one authority in accordance
with the canonical rules, namely the episcopate which has a conciliar
structure.
(10) If the members of the Church perceive the truths of faith in various
ways, this does not destroy or diminish the unity of faith; nor does this
happen if the Church sometimes exercises patience towards people who
depart from the unity of faith and order, and does not exclude them from
the body of the Church, for pastoral considerations and in the exercise of
‘economy’.
(11) Although the Church, the body of Christ, has many members,
therefore, these nevertheless all constitute one body and are united in an
indivisible unity. The Lord prayed for this unity and, in doing so, pointed
at the unity of Father and Son (John 17:21), as the ground of the unity of
believers is the image of the unity of the Triune God. Tor Father, Son and
Holy Spirit have one will. Thus it is his will also that we, too, should be
one, when he says: That they all may be one as You and I are one (St. John
Chrysost. in John horn. 78,3. PG 59, 425).
(12) The Church is 'holy' since Christ its head is holy and gave himself
for it ‘that he might sanctify it . . . that the Church might be presented
before him in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that it
might be holy and without blemish’ (Eph. 5:25-27). Christ made the
Church the ‘household of God’ (1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:6); he gave it
fellowship and share in his holiness and grace and in his divine life; he who
sanctified the people through his own blood’ (Heb. 13:12). Christians are
therefore also called saints (Acts 9:13).
(13) The fact that members of the Church sin does not nullify the
holiness of the Church. The fathers were agreed in condemning those who
because of immoderate and ascetic tendencies took the view that the
Church is a community made up exclusively of completely sanctified
members.
(14) The Church is 'catholic', since Christ its head is the Lord of all
things. It is predestined to extend to the whole creation, over all peoples
and through all ages (Mt. 28:20; Mk. 16:15; Acts 1:8). This is the external
quantitative meaning of catholicity.
(15) The Church is called 'Catholic* in the inner qualitative sense of the
word because although it is scattered over the whole earth, it is always and
everywhere the same. It is 'catholic*, because it has the ‘sound doctrine’
(Tit. 2:1; cf. 1 Tim. 6:20), continues in the original tradition of the
apostles and truly continues and preserves ‘that which has been believed
everywhere, always and by all’ (Vincent of Lerins, Commonit. II, 3 PL 50,
640). The Church is therefore in the sense that it is the orthodox,
authentic and true Church.
(16) According to St. Cyril of Jerusalem, ‘the Church is called catholic
because it extends over all the world from one end of the earth to the
other; and because it teaches universally and completely one and all those
doctrines which ought to come to the knowledge of humankind, concerning
things both visible and invisible, heavenly and earthly; and because it
brings into subjection to godliness the entire human race, governors and
governed, learned and unlearned; and because while it deals exhaustively
with and heals every kind of sin of soul and body, it also possesses in itself
every form of virtue which can be named, in deeds and words and in every
kind of spiritual gift’ (Cyr. Hier. Cat. 18,23. PG 33, 1044).
(17) The Church is 'apostolic*, since its divine founder was the first ‘apostle’
(Heb. 3:1; cf. Gal. 4:4), and because it is built upon ‘the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone’
(Eph. 2:20).
(18) The mission of Jesus has a wider context: the Son is sent into the
world by the Father, and he himself sends the disciples (cf. John 20:21) to
whom he says: ‘He who hears you, hears me’ (Lk. 10:16). After their death
the mission of the Church is continued, the inheritance of truth entrusted
by the Lord to the apostles is preserved and passed on in the spiritual life,
in the celebration of the sacraments and in doctrine. The apostolic doctrine
preserved by the Church is the inner aspect of its apostolicity. Its
other element is the unbroken series and succession of pastors and teachers
of the Church, starting from the apostles, which is the outward mark and
also the pledge of the truth of the Church. These two elements of
apostolicity, the inner and the outer, support and condition one another; if
either one or the other is lacking the essential apostolicity and fullness of
truth of the Church are impaired.
(19) The four dogmatic marks of the Church mutually interpenetrate
each other in indissoluble unity and point to the indestructibility and infallibility
of the Church, the ‘pillar and ground of the truth’ (1 Tim. 3:15).
In the view of the Joint Orthodox-Old Catholic Theological Commission,
the above text on *The Nature and Marks of the Church' reproduces
the doctrine of the Orthodox and Old Catholic Churches.
Chambesy, Geneva, Orthodox Centre of the Ecumenical Patriarchate,
August 23-30, 1977.
Signatures of all members of the Joint Commission present.
III/2 THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH AND THE LOCAL CHURCHES
ეკლესის და ადგილობრივ ეკლესიათა ერთობა
Η ενότητα της Εκκλησίας και των κατά τόπους Εκκλησιών
(20) 1. The Church is the one indivisible Body of Christ in which the
believers, as members of this Body, are united with Christ as its Head and
with one another. The supreme expression and the perennial source of this
unity is the sacrament of the Eucharist, communion with the body and
blood of Christ: ‘Because there is one loaf, we, many as we are, are one
body; for it is of one loaf of which we all partake’ (1 Cor. 10:17 NEB).
(21) 2. The one Church on earth exists in the many local Churches
whose life is centred on the celebration of the holy Eucharist in the communion
with the lawful bishop and his priests. ‘Let all follow the bishop as
Jesus Christ did the Father, and the priest as you would the Apostles . . .
Let that Eucharist be held valid which is offered by the bishop or by one to
whom the bishop has committed this charge’ (Ignatius of Antioch, Smyrn.
S. 1 PG 5,582; tr. The Fathers of the Church, Catholic University of
America Press, Washington, D.C. 1947, vol. 1 p. 121).
(22) 3. The spread of the Christian faith to different lands and among
many peoples and the consequent rise of a multitude of local Churches did
not abolish the unity of the Church nor does their existence now do so, so
long as the local Churches maintain pure and undefiled in the harmonious
disposition of all, the faith transmitted to them from the Lord through the
Apostles. Unity in faith is the supreme principle of the Catholic Church:
‘The Church . . . has received from the apostles and their disciples the
faith ... in one God, the Father Almighty . . . and in one Christ Jesus,
the Son of God . . . and in the Holy Spirit . . . The Church, having received
this preaching . . . although scattered throughout the whole world,
yet, as if occupying but (of doctrine) just as if it had but one soul, and one
and the same heart, and it proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands
them down, with perfect harmony, as if it possessed only one mouth’
(Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1:10, 1-2; Ante-Nicene Fathers^ tr. Roberts and
Donaldson, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan, vol. 1 p. 330; Pg. 7, 549.552).
(23) 4. As a fellowship of believers united around the bishop and the
priests and as the Body of Christ, each local Church is the manifestation
of the whole Christ in one particular place. It represents the sacramental
reality of the whole Church in its own locality. For it is in no divided form,
that the life, that has been given to the Church by God the Father through
the presence of Christ in the Holy Spirit, is given to the local Churches;
each local Church, on the contrary, has that life in its fulness. Thus, for all
the differences in custom and usage, the life of the local Churches is in
essence one and the same: ‘There is one body and one Spirit, . . . one
Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all ... ’
(Eph. 4:4-6). There are not many bodies but the one Body of Christ, undivided
and whole, in each place. This unity of life in the local Churches
reflects the unity of the Holy Trinity itself.
(24) 5. The local Churches recognize in one another the same reality and
they affirm their essential identity, above all, by the unity of their
liturgical and sacramental life, their unity in the basic principles of
canonical order and of church government, as well as by the unity of the
episcopate. Authentic expression has been given to these basic principles in
the canons of the Seven Ecumenical Synods and the acknowledged local
Synods or they are attested in the Church Fathers. Since the Church in this
present time still awaits deliverance from all evil and must therefore pray
God so to deliver it, to make it perfect in His love and bring it together
from the ends of the earth into His kingdom (Didache 10,5; 9,4), the local
Churches must devotedly maintain the essential unity given to them, and
constantly struggle against the forces of sin and division.
(25) 6. In the course of history, the local Churches have established
larger groupings in defined geographical areas, with one of the bishops
placed at the summit as the prime bishop. They affirm and practice their
fellowship by the common reception of the eucharistic gifts by their
members, by the exchange of visits between their leaders and represen-
tatives, by the interchange of messages of greeting, as well as by mutual
aid and intercession, as well as in other ways in accordance with the
distinctive gifts received by each. Each is careful to observe the rule forbidding
intervention or meddling in the domestic affairs of the others.
(26) 7. On matters of faith and other common concerns, i.e., where
issues arise which concern them all and exceed the competence of each individual
Church, the local Churches take counsel together and make common
decisions, faithfully observing in such Synods the order of honour
and rank canonically established in the Church. They do so, above all, in
Ecumenical Synods, which are the supreme authority in the Church, the
instrument and the voice through which the Catholic Church speaks, in
which there is a constant effort to preserve and strengthen its unity in love.
In the view of the Mixed Orthodox-Old Catholic Commission, the
above text on 'The Unity of the Church and the Local Churches* represents
the doctrine of the Orthodox and Old Catholic Churches.
III/3 THE BOUNDARIES OF THE CHURCH
ეკლესიის საზღვრები
Τα όρια της Εκκλησίας
(27) 1. The love of God and His purpose of salvation are unlimited
and embrace all human beings of all times in the whole of creation, for
it is His will ‘that all should find salvation and come to know the truth’
(1 Tim. 2:4). In accordance with the divine plan of salvation, it is
in and through the Church founded by God and not at a distance from it
and independently of it that humanity comes to partake of salvation, for
in the Church is found the divine truth, to it the Saviour has entrusted the
means of achieving beatitude; the Church is the sure way to salvation and
eternal life. Salvation is offered to believers in the Church by the Holy
Spirit which abides always in it. This is why Irenaeus also says: 'Ubi ecclesia,
ibi et Spiritus Dei, et ubi Spiritus Dei, illic ecclesia et omnis gratia*
(‘For where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God, and where the Spirit
of God is, there is the Church and every kind of grace’, Iren. adv. Haer.
111,24; Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, p. 458).
(28) 2. Because of sin, not everyone accepts the saving grace of God and
comes to the fellowship of the Church. But not all those who do come to
the Church confess the divine truth as revealed by Jesus Christ in the
fulness of time. Journeying through history, the Church of Christ has
become divided into many Churches which disagreed with each other
because the faith and doctrines handed down from the apostles were
debased. This led among other things to the false and unacceptable theory
that the true visible Church, the Church of the age of the apostles and
church fathers, no longer exists today but that each of the individual
Churches retains only a portion, greater or less, of the true Church and
that none of them, therefore, can be regarded as a genuine and essentially
complete representation of the true Church. Up to our time the teachings
of the Christian Churches and Confessions differ in some respects, not
just in unessentials but even in fundamental points of Christian doctrine.
(29) 3. But from the day it was founded right down to our own days, the
true Church, the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, has gone on existing
without any discontinuity wherever the true faith, worship and order
of the ancient undivided Church are preserved unimpaired as they are
reflected and formulated in the definitions and canons of the Seven
Ecumenical Synods and the acknowledged local Synods, and in the church
fathers.
(30) 4. Our Mixed Commission gives heresy and schism the appropriate
significance and regards communities which continue in heresy and schism
as in no sense workshops of salvation parallel to the true visible Church. It
nevertheless believes that the question of the Church’s boundaries can be
seen in a larger light. Since it is impossible to set limits to God’s power
whose will it is that all should find salvation and come to know the truth
and since further the Gospel clearly speaks of salvation by faith in the
unique Son of God, — ‘He who puts his faith in the Son has hold of eternal
life, but he who disobeys the Son shall not see that life’ (John 3:36) — it can
be considered as not excluded that the divine omnipotence and grace are
present and operative wherever the departure from the fulness of truth in
the one Church is not complete and does not go to the lengths of a complete
estrangement from the truth, wherever ‘God Himself is not called in
question’, wherever the source of ‘life, the Trinity, is sincerely proclaimed
and the mystery of the divine economy in the incarnation is acknowledged’
(Petrus III, Patriarch of Alexandria, Letter to Michael Kerularios, PG
120, 798-800).
(31) 5. On this view of the question of the Church’s boundaries, where
the unity of the Church as the Body of Christ is understood in a wider
sense, all who believe in Christ are called to seek lovingly, sincerely and
patiently to enter into dialogue with one another, and to pray unceasingly
for the restoration of the Church’s unity in faith and full fellowship so that
the Lord God may lead all to know the truth and to attain the fulness of
unity.
In the view of the Mixed Orthodox-Old Catholic Commission, the
above text on The Boundaries of the Church’ represents the doctrine of
the Orthodox and Old Catholic Churches.
Bonn, Greek-Orthodox Metropoly
August 20-24, 1979
Signatures of all members of the Joint Commission present.
PARTICIPANTS - მონაწილეები - Συμμετέχοντες
Participants of the Meeting in the Orthodox Centre in Chambesy
(20-28th August 1975):
მონაწილეთა შეხვედრა შამბეზში მართმადიდებლურ ცენტრში
(20-28 აგვისტო, 1975):
Η Συνάντηση των Συμμετεχόντων στο Ορθόδοξο Κέντρο του Σαμπεζύ
(20-28 Αυγούστου του 1975):
Orthodox Members - მართლმადიდებელი წევრები - Ορθόδοξα Μέλη
Ecumenical Patriarchate - მსოფლიო საპატრიარქო - Οικουμενικό Πατριαρχείο
Irenaios, Metropolitan of Germany, Chairman
Professor Emmanuel Photiadis
Patriarchate of Alexandria - ალექსანდრიის საპატრიარქო - Πατριαρχείο Αλεξανδρείας
Parthenios, Metropolitan of Carthage
Nikodemos, Metropolitan of Central Africa
Patriarchate of Jerusalem - იერუსალიმის საპატრიარქო - Πατριαρχείο Ιεροσολύμων
Kornelios Rodussakis, Archimandrite
Professor Chrysostomos Zaphiris, Archimandrite
Patriarchate of Moscow - მოსკოვის საპატრიარქო - Πατριαρχείο Μόσχας
Philaret, Metropolitan of Berlin
Nikolaj Gundjajev, Archpriest
Patriarchate of Romania - რუმინეთის საპატრიარქო - Πατριαρχείο Ρουμανίας
Professor Isidor Todoran, Priest
Professor Stefan Alexe, Priest
Patriarchate of Bulgaria - ბულგარეთის საპატრიარქო - Πατριαρχείο Βουλγαρίας
Professor Ilja Tsonevski
Church of Cyprus - კვიპროსის ეკლესია - Εκκλησία της Κύπρου
Chrysostomos Chrysanthos, Metropolitan of Limasol
Professor Andreas Mitsidis
Church of Greece - საბერძნეთის ეკლესია - Εκκλησία της Ελλάδος
Professor Johannes Karmiris
Professor Johannes Kalogirou
Professor Megas Pharantos
Church of Finland - ფინეთის ეკლესია - Εκκλησία της Φινλλανδίας
Johannes Seppala, Priest
Old Catholic Members - ძველ-კათოლიკე წევრები - Παλιοκαθολικά Μέλη
Church of Switzerland - შვეიცარიის ეკლესია - Εκκλησία της Ελβετίας
Leon Gauthier, Bishop, Chairman
Professor Herwig Aldenhoven, Priest
Church of Holland - ჰოლანდიის ეკლესია - Εκκλησία της Ολλανδίας
Professor Petrus Johannes Maan, Canon
Church of Germany - გერმანიის ეკლესია - Εκκλησία της Γερμανίας
Josef Brinkhues, Bishop
Professor Werner Kiippers, Priest
Church of Poland (representing the Polish-National Catholic Church of
the United States of America and Canada) - პოლონეთის ეკლესია - Εκκλησία της Πολωνίας
Tadeusz R. Majewski, Bishop
Wiktor Wysoczanski, Priest
Church of Austria - ავსტრიის ეკლესია - Εκκλησία της Αυστρίας
Dr. Gunter Dolezal, Priest
Chambesy (23-30th August 1977) - შამბეზი (23-30 აგვისტო, 1977) - Σαμπεζύ (23-30 Αυγούστου 1977)
Orthodox Members - მართლმადიდებელი წევრები - Ορθόδοξα Μέλη
Ecumenical Patriarchate - მსოფლიო საპატრიარქო - Οικουμενικό Πατριαρχείο
Irenaios, Metropolitan of Germany, Chairman
Professor Emmanuel Photiadis
Patriarchate of Alexandria - ალექსანდრიის საპატრიარქო - Πατριαρχείο Αλεξανδρείας
Parthenios, Metropolitan of Carthage
Patriarchate of Jerusalem - იერუსალიმის საპატრიარქო - Πατριαρχείο Ιεροσολύμων
Kornelios, Metropolitan of Sebastia
Chrysostomos, Metropolitan of Gardikion
Patriarchate of Moscow - მოსკოვის საპატრიარქო - Πατριαρχείο Μόσχας
Philaret, Metropolitan of Berlin
Nikolaj Gundjajev, Archpriest
Patriarchate of Serbia - სერბეთის საპატრიარქო - Πατριαρχείο Σερβίας
Professor Dimitrije Dimitrijevic, Priest
Patriarchate of Romania - რუმინეთის საპატრიარქო - Πατριαρχείο Ρουμανίας
Professor Stefan Alexe, Priest
Patriarchate of Bulgaria - ბულგარეთის საპატრიარქო - Πατριαρχείο Βουλγαρίας
Professor Ilja Tsonevski
Church of Cyprus - კვიპროსის ეკლესია - Εκκλησία της Κύπρου
Professor Andreas Mitsidis
Church of Greece - საბერძნეთის ეკლესია - Εκκλησία της Ελλάδος
Professor Johannes Kalogirou
Professor Megas Pharantos
Old Catholic Members - ძველ-კათოლიკე წევრები
Church of Switzerland - შვეიცარიის ეკლესია - Εκκλησία της Ελβετίας
Leon Gauthier, Bishop, Chairman
Professor Herwig Aldenhoven, Priest
Church of Holland - ჰოლანდიის ეკლესია - Εκκλησία της Ολλανδίας
Professor Petrus Johannes Maan, Canon
Martien Parmentier, Priest
Church of Germany - გერმანიის ეკლესია - Εκκλησία της Γερμανίας
Professor Werner Kiippers, Priest
Professor Christian Oeyen, Priest
Church of Austria - ავსტრიის ეკლესია - Εκκλησία της Αυστρίας
Dr. Gunter Dolezal, Priest
Church of Poland - პოლონეთის ეკლესია - Εκκλησία τς Πολωνίας
Tadeusz Majewski, Bishop
Maksymilian Rode, Bishop
(these also represented the Polish-National Catholic Church in the USA
and Canada)
Orthodox consultants or interpreters - მართლმადიდებელი კონსულტანტები ან თარჯიმნები - Ορθόδοξοι σύμβουλοι ή μεταφραστές
Dr. Theodoros Nikolaou
Grigorij Skobej
Old Catholic consultants or interpreters - ძველ-კათოლიკე კონსულტანტები ან თარჯიმნები - Παλαιοκαθολικοί σύμβουλοι ή μεταφραστές
Professor Peter Amiet, Priest
Urs von Arx, Priest
Dieter Prinz, Priest
Germany in Bonn-Beuel (20-24th August 1979) - გერმანია (20-24 აგვისტო, 1979) - Γερμανία (20-24 Αυγούστου 1979)
Orthodox Members - მართლმადიდებელი წევრები - Ορθόδοξα Μέλη
Ecumenical Patriarchate:
Irenaios, Metropolitan of Germany, Chairman
Professor Emmanuel Photiadis
Patriarchate of Alexandria:
Parthenios, Metropolitan of Carthage
Patriarchate of Jerusalem:
Kornelios, Metropolitan of Sebaste
Chrysostomos, Metropolitan of Persisterion
Patriarchate of Moscow:
Philaret, Metropolitan of Minsk and White Russia
Nikolaj Gundjajev, Archpriest
Patriarchate of Romania:
Professor Stefan Alexe, Priest
Patriarchate of Bulgaria:
Professor Ilja Tsonevski
Church of Cyprus:
Varnavas, Bishop of Salamina
Dr. Benediktos Englesakis
Church of Greece:
Professor Johannes Karmiris
Professor Johannes Kalogirou
Old Catholic Members:
Church of Switzerland:
Leon Gauthier, Bishop, Chairman
Professor Herwig Aldenhoven, Priest
Church of Holland:
Professor Petrus Johannes Maan, Priest
Church of Germany:
Professor Werner Kiippers, Priest
Church of Austria:
Dr. Gunter Dolezal, Priest
Church of Poland:
Tadeusz Majewski, Bishop
Professor Maksymilian Rode, Bishop
Church of USA and Canada'
Dr. Wiktor Wysoczanski, Priest
Orthodox consultants or interpreters:
Augustinos, Bishop of Elaia
Vasilios, Bishop of Aristi
Professor Theodoros Nikolaou
Dr. Grigorij Skobej
Old Catholic consultants or interpreters:
Professor Peter Amiet, Priest
Koenraad Ouwens, Priest
ეკლესიოლოგია - Ecclesiology - Εκκλησιολογία (1981)
შეთანხმება მიღწეულია:
I
(1) The source and confirmation of the authority of the Church as the
God-Man union is the power, received from the Father, and the authority
of the Lord and her Head, Jesus Christ (Mt. 28. 18; Lk. 10. 16). The Lord
manifested this power and authority, connected with the Redemption,
during His earthly life, and after His Resurrection invested the Apostles
with them, and through the Apostles—the bishops and the entire Church
(Mt. 28, 19-20; In. 20. 21).
The Lord, Who promised the Church that He would be with her always,
even unto the end of the world (Mt. 28. 20), also sent her another
Comforter—the Spirit of truth (In. 14. 16-17; 15. 26; 16.13), to be with her
always and to instruct her on all the truths. For this reason the Church is
defined as the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the
truth (1 Tim. 3. 15).
(2) The Church manifests her power and authority in the Name of Jesus
Christ, through the power and action of the Comforter Who lives in her.
That is why she accomplishes her work authoritatively, not through outside
compulsion, but by means of the spiritual forces which suffuse her in
all of her members and which are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Gal. 5. 22-23).
(3) This manifestation of the Church’s authority leads her members to an
inner readiness to accept the Divine Truth authoritatively advanced by the
Church and to obediently assimilate it in the liberty wherewith Christ hath
made us free (Gal. 5. 1). The Truth is perceived through the Holy Spirit,
for the Truth makes us free (Jn. 8. 32), because where the Spirit of the
Lord is, there is liberty (2 Cor. 3. 17).
II
(1) The authority of the Church, the bearer of which is the entire Church
as the Body of Christ, was historically manifested through the acts and
decisions by which Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition were protected
from any distortion and falsification by heretics; the canonical books of
Holy Scripture were separated from spurious ones, and its canon was defined;
the living tradition of faith was preserved, interpreted and handed
down; the Creed was formulated, completed and disseminated; questions
of the priesthood and government, the order of service and of Church life
were defined.
(2) The interpretation of Holy Scripture is a constant concern of the
Church. Holy Scripture is not higher than the Church: it originated in
her, and, as the Church lives in the light of the witness of Divine Revelation
so, too, is Holy Scripture weighed and interpreted in union with the
Tradition living in the Church and the decisions regarding the Faith formulated
by the Church. Therefore, a true teaching is only that which.
while being higher than problems depending on time and linguistic expressions,
accords essentially with Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. In
manifesting her authority in dogmatic decisions, the Church always draws
on both, i.e.. Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, while preserving the witness
of both and deepening her comprehension of them.
(3) Of particular significance for the Church is the singleminded teaching
of her Fathers and Teachers. Apostolic Tradition is preserved and explained
in their works of which Holy Scripture is a divinely inspired
written monument. The Church perceives this singlemindedness of the Fathers
as authoritative witness to the Truth (Vincent of Lerins, Commonitorium,
3 and 28 and the entire patristic tradition).
Ill
The following are the individual bearers and manifestors of authority
in the Church:
(1) The bishop, who heads the Local Church canonically in Apostolic
Succession. The place and work of a bishop in the sphere of authority was
elucidated by St. Ignatius of Antioch, who pointed out that one who obeys
the bishop accepts the authority of God, because the authority of God is
represented and borne by the bishop (Epistle to the Magnesians, 3, 1,2; 6,
1; to the Trallians, 2, 1), who always acts in conjunction with the presbyters
ordained by him. “Thus as the Lord did nothing without the Father
(being united with him), either by Himself or by means of His Apostles so
you must do nothing without the bishop and the presbyters.” (Epistle to
the Magnesians, 7, 1, cf. Mt. 4. 1; Epistle to the Trallians, 3, 1; to the
Smyrnaeans, 8, 1).
Through the power, authority and grace of his dignity the bishop preserves
the purity of the dogmatic teaching of the Church and maintains
her order; he is the celebrator of the Sacraments, and, through his preaching,
leads the flock entrusted to him along the salvific path of the Gospel
grace. In his Church, the bishop acts in union and harmony with the presbyters
and the people, who follow him as their Gospel shepherd. According
to St. Cyprian [of Carthage] “the Church is made up of the people,
united to their priest, flock cleaving to its shepherd. Hence you should
know that the bishop is in the Church, and the Church in the bishop”
(Epistle 66.8).
(2) The councils of the Church and predominantly the ecumenical. At the
councils, every bishop represents his Church by virtue of his episcopal dignity;
the decisions of the councils deserve authority and have it, inasmuch
as the Church, represented by the assembled bishops, agrees with them
(cf. Acts 15).
IV
(1) The authority of the Church is also connected with the common confession
of faith of the Church. This is a unanimous, general awareness and
faith of the clergy and people, a broader witness of the entire Church
Plenitude which shares in the responsibility for the preservation of the
Truth handed down and for the integrity and purity of the Teaching. A
common confession of the Church also comprises the definitive criterion
for recognition of the Ecumenical Councils as such, and their Fathers as
the true interpreters of the Faith of the Church which they rightly represent.
(2) This common confession is expressed in different ways. Its manifestors
are the confessors of and martyrs for the Faith, theologians and mystics.
Holy Fathers, charismatics, and in general all those who received the Gifts
of the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation and who are called in
equal measure to bear witness to the Gospel in the world, as well as to divine
services and other forms of ecclesiastical life.
(3) It should be pointed out in conclusion that authority at all stages and
in all forms of its manifestation presupposes the spirit of truth, love, wisdom
from humility, and freedom. It is only in this way that the authority
of the Church and authority within the Church is manifested for the benefit
of her life and service in the world, inasmuch as the Lord of the
Church, to Whom all power and authority were given in Heaven and on
earth, manifested this power among men as he that serveth (Lk. 22. 27; Jn.
13. 14-17). It is for this reason that the authority of the Church, wholly
directed as it is at creating the Body of Christ and its growth in love (Eph.
4. 11-16), should bear the nature of service.
The above-mentioned regarding the authority of the Church and authority
within the Church comprises, as was determined by our Mixed Orthodox-
Old Catholic Theological Commission on Dialogue, the teaching
of both the Orthodox and Old Catholic Churches.
THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CHURCH
ეკლესიის უცდომელობა
Το Αλάθητο της Εκκλησίας
The true God (Jn. 3. 33; 17.3; Rom. 3. 4; 1 Thess. 1. 9) sent His Son,
Who is the Truth (Jn. 14. 6) “for us men, and for our salvation”, which is
realized in the Church He founded. The Son thus sends to her from the
Father the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, which proceeds from the Father,
that He may be with her for all time and instruct her in all truths
(Jn. 14. 15-17). That is why the Church participates in God’s truth, faithfulness
and infallibility. The Holy Spirit bears witness to Christ; therefore
the Church, too, receiving and passing on the Apostolic Tradition, bears
witness to her Lord and His teaching, being illumined by the Comforter
(Jn. 15. 26-27), Who teaches her everything and reminds her of everything
which Christ said (Jn. 14. 26; 15. 26).
The Church, despite the human infirmity of her members, preserves
the Revealed Truth, the good thing entrusted to her (2 Tim. 1. 14) in purity
and undefiled, because Christ is with her until the end of ages (Mt. 28.
20) so that the gates of hell should not prevail against it (Mt. 16. 18). For
this reason the Church is called the house of God, the pillar and ground of
the truth (1 Tim. 3. 15) and can correctly pass on to her members the
Faith handed down to her and truthfully give witness to it before the
world. The infallibility of the Church proceeds from her Lord and the
Holy Spirit. The Church is within Christ, and He acts through her by
means of the Spirit Who is sent into the hearts of the faithful (Gal. 4. 6).
This essential infallibility is not destroyed by the sins or transgressions of
the members (Rom. 3. 3-4).
The Church is infallible only as a whole; infallibility does not apply
to individual members, be they bishops, patriarchs or popes, not to the
clergy alone, the people alone, or separate Local Churches. Inasmuch as
the Church is a community of the faithful all of whom hath learned of the
Father (Jn. 6. 45), infallibility applies to the Church’s integrity. All together,
the clergy and the people, comprise, as members, the Body of Christ
and are thus the fullness of him that fdleth all in all (Eph. 1. 23). For this
reason the totality of the fruitful, who have an unction from the Holy One,
know the truth correctly and live by it (1 Jn. 2. 20, 27), is not amiss when
it professes unanimously their common Faith, from bishops to any one of
the faithful people.
That is why the Ecumenical Council alone is the supreme organ of
the Church in the infallible proclamation of her Faith. Below it, like the
mouth of the entire Church, stand the Local Councils, the bishops and all
the individual members of the Church, just as in the apostolic times the
Council of Apostles did, at which the Apostles along with the presbyters
of the entire Local Church of Jerusalem authoritatively expressed the will
of the whole Church, and received more authority than the authority of
any single Apostle (Acts 15). The Ecumenical Council, inspired by the
Holy Spirit in its proclamations, is infallible as a result of accord with the
entire Catholic Church. Not a single council would be an Ecumenical
Council without this accord.
The Church formulates dogmatic decisions when there is a threat to
sound teaching or she needs a special interpretation or witness to thwart
heresies and schisms or to preserve Church unity. Naturally, infallibility
applies only to the saving truth of the Faith.
Holy Scripture, which witnesses to the Incarnate Eternal Word of
God, is fundamentally inspired by the Holy Spirit, Who is the Spirit of
Christ. For this reason the leadership of the Church through the Holy
Spirit is always viewed in conformity with Holy Scripture and with the
Apostolic teaching handed down, and is always related to one or the other
(Jn. 16. 13). Hence the continuation, based on them, of the Faith which is
preserved in the Church, includes existence in the fullness of this Faith,
according to the witness of the Church all through the centuries.
The above-mentioned points with respect to Church infallibility, comprise,
as determined by our Mixed Orthodox-Old Catholic Theological
Commission on Dialogue, the teaching of both the Orthodox and Old
Catholic Churches.
CHURCH COUNCILS
ეკლესიის კრებები
Οι Σύνοδοι της Εκκλησίας
The Church, as the Body of Christ, is the temple of the Holy Spirit,
whose members were baptized into the One Body, and therefore all partake
of the New Life and come to know the Truth in the Holy Spirit.
The early ecclesiastical episcopal and conciliar system comprises the
expression of Church life as the community of all members in the unity of
the body of Christ. For this reason the bishops, who, as the representatives
of the Head of the Church, i.e., Christ, lead the conciliar and Eucharistic
gathering, are bound with the entire people of God as members of
the One Body (St. Ignatius Theophoros. To the Smyrnaeans, 8. 2).
The conciliar nature as the basis of Church order manifests itself in
the diversity of the New Life in Christ through the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 12,
1-31). For this reason the Church, as the people called by God, redeemed
by Christ and illumined by the Holy Spirit, may be called the Great
Council which reflects the oneness in the Triune God of the Father, of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
This basic nature of the Church acquires a precise form particularly
during representative conferences of bishops of the Local Churches at
their councils during discussions and adoption of decisions which are
eventually subject to adoption or rejection by the entire Church.
This conciliar life of the Church receives its highest expression at an
Ecumenical Council, which is convened to adopt binding decisions on
matters of Faith and Church Order concerning the entire Church, through
the bishops as representatives of the society of all the Local Churches. The
Ecumenical Councils serve as the highest organ of the Church for wiping
out heresies, formulating dogmatic teachings, forming and consolidating
Church life, and preserving Church unity which rests on the true Faith.
Seven councils are recognized as ecumenical per se: the councils of
Nicaea (325), of Constantinople (381), of Ephesus (431), of Chalcedon
(451), of Constantinople (553 and 680), and of Nicaea (787). A common
Creed and recognition of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church
were formulated at them, and the unity of the Local Churches in the One
Holy Body of Chrsit manifested itself For this reason the Ecumenical
Councils are not higher than the Church as a whole, but are within her.
Thus the ecumenism of any council and acceptance of its decisions are not
conditioned by its convening alone. More precisely, it becomes ecumenical
by virtue of its subsequent free recognition by the Plenitude of the
Church.
By their participation in the full life of the Church, her members the clergy and
laity—effect their unity in the Body of Christ. The infallibility
of the Church is expressed in this unity and integrity. In conformity
with this Ecumenical Councils may also recognize the decisions of the Local
Councils as adopted through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Incidentally,
it was the Local Councils that prepared the content of the
decisions of the Ecumenical Councils and contributed to the adoption of
these conciliar decisions.
Conciliar decisions are divided into definitions of faith and rules. Of
these, the definitions touching upon dogma based on Revelation, receive
absolute authority and are constantly binding for the entire Church. Consequently,
they are not subject to change or abolition, i.e., to anything
that would alter their content. Nevertheless, the Church can effect their
hermeneutic revelation through modern phraseology in accordance with
emergent circumstances and needs for clarification and witness to the
Faith. The rules of the Local as well as Ecumenical Councils, if they do
not apply to questions of the Faith, are theoretically subject to substitution
or addition by means of new rules of respective later councils.
In general, the Churches, both Orthodox and Old Catholic, believe
that their councils have the right, if need be, to enact laws and apply them
within their own bounds.
The above-mentioned points concerning the Church Councils comprise,
as was determined by our Mixed Orthodox-Old Catholic Theological
Commission on Dialogue, the teaching of both the Orthodox and Old
Catholic Churches.
THE NEED FOR APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION
სამოციქულო მემკვიდრეობის საჭიროება
Η αναγκαιότητα της Αποστολική Διαδοχής
(1) Apostolic succession here is taken to mean the transmission, through
the canonical imposition of hands, of the grace of the priesthood, as well
as the continuation and preservation in purity of the Teaching and Faith
passed on by the Apostles. In the continuous succession of the bishops
from the Apostles the former comprises the foundation of Apostolic Succession,
while the latter constitutes an essential sign of it. Deviation from
Apostolic Teaching destroys Apostolic succession, and anti-canonical ordination
by unauthorized persons violates it.
Clearly, Apostolic succession in a broader sense is something essential
for the life of the Church and imperative for her continuation of the redemptive
work of the Lord thanks to the reliable transmission of the sanctifying
and saving grace. As Jesus Christ was sent by the Father so, too,
did He send the Apostles, gathering the people of God through them and
founding and nurturing His Church.
(2) The Apostles, as eyewitnesses of the Risen Christ and leaders of the
newly-founded Church, do not and cannot have successors. However, they
have successors in the entire apostolic work of gathering the Church at
any time and setting her in order through the preaching of the Word of
God, through their leading position and their activity in the liturgical life,
and through celebrating the Sacraments, the Holy Eucharist in particular.
Although the New Testament speaks of the many gifts and services of
the faithful, there can be no doubt about the uniqueness and inimitability
of the basic significance of the apostolic calling and work (Acts 1. 21, 22;
1 Cor. 12. 28; Eph. 2. 20; Rev. 21. 14).
(3) The Church receives her life from Christ, Who is present in her and
acts through the Holy Spirit. Christ is the Lord of the Church, who talks
with her, loves her and is heard by her. This union of Christ and the
Church is understood not as something abstract, but as a concrete reality
and experience through persons called by Christ. As this was effected in
the times of the Apostles so, too, should it be effected in our day in all
ages, because the order of the Church is essentially the same as the one
given by Christ.
As a society of believers which cannot exist without this order, the
Church must remain in continuous temporal contact with her origins and
with the Church of the preceding and future generations. For this reason
the vocation of the priesthood in Apostolic Succession is not something
new, something unrelated to the origins of the Church; it is the repetition
and continual transmission of that which has existed in the Church from
the very beginning. The imposition of hands with a prayer in communion
with the entire Church is the only mystic means of transmitting the grace
of the priesthood indicated in Holy Scripture and Tradition [For details
see the texts on the Sacraments which the commission will be working on
in the future].
(4) The necessity of observing uninterrupted Apostolic Succession as both
continuation of Apostolic Teaching and the transmission of the priesthood
and grace, and the mission by the canonical imposition of hands comprises
the common teaching of the Fathers of the Church.
(5) The Orthodox Easter Church emphasized particularly the necessity of
Apostolic Succession just as in the early day so today in the above-mentioned
sense, making this question fundamental to any endeavour to restore
Christian unity. The Old Catholic Church also adheres firmly to this
view regarding the necessity.
The above-mentioned points concerning Apostolic Succession comprises,
as was established at our Mixed Orthodox-Old Catholic Theological
Commission on Dialogue, the doctrine of both the Orthodox and Old
Catholic Churches.
Zagorsk/Moscow, September 20, 1981
PARTICIPANTS
Inter-Orthodox Commission:
Metropolitan Damaskinos of Tranoupolis
Prof. Dr. Theodoros Zisis
Metropolitan Parthenios of Carthage
Archbishop Cornelios of Sebasteia
Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Byelorussia
Archpriest Prof. Nikolai Gundyaev
Hieromonk Savva Milosevic
Bishop Adrian of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Central and
Western Europe
Father Prof. Stefan Alexe
Prof. Dr. Ilija Tsonevsky
Bishop Barnabas of Salamis
Hierodeacon Pavlos
Prof Dr. loannis Kalogirou
Prof. Dr. Vlasios Fidas
Archbishop Ioann of Chkondidi and Tsager
Bishop Anania of Akhaltsikhe
Archpriest Dr. Serafim Zelezniakowicz
Bishop Alexi of Joensuu
Hieromonk Ambrosius (Jasklainen)
Old Catholic Commission:
Bishop Leon Gauthier of the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland
Prof. Ernst Hammerschmidt
Father Peter Maan
Prof. Martin Parmentier
Prof. Christian Oeyen
Prof. Dr. Herwig Aldenhoven
The Rev. Dr. Gunter Dolezal
Bishop Tadeusz Majewski
Bishop Dr. Maksymilian Rode
The Rev. Wiktor Wysoczanski
Note
For details on the Fourth Meeting of the Mixed Theological Commission on Orthodox-
Old Catholic Dialogue, Zagorsk—Moscow, September 15-21, 1981, see
JMPNo. 12, 1981, p. 52.
Source: Harding Meyer, Lukas Vischer, Growth in Agreement - Reports and Agreed Statements of Ecumenical Conversations on a World Level (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1982), 389-420.