DURING his visit to the UK this week, the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew of Constantinople, spoke of the timelessness of “our vocation to unity”.
Patriarch Bartholomew, who’s primus inter pares among the many patriarchs of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, was the guest at a Nikaean Club lunch in central London, hosted by the Archbishop of York, on Tuesday. At the gathering, the Patriarch described the fellowship as “leading us to the sacred space of dialogue where we are able to discover the commonalities . . . as willing and devoted partners who share homoousios, a shared humanity”.
His reference — rendered within the creed as “of 1 being” — was to the Council of Nicaea which marks its 1700th anniversary this 12 months, and from which the club takes its name. The Nikaean Club was established in 1926 to support the archbishops of their ecumenical work, and helps to facilitate hospitality and dialogue for the Church of England’s ecumenical delegations.
Archbishop Cottrell spoke of “all that we hold dear and all that we hold in common”. He said: “This shared faith means the whole lot to us, and it’s a joy beyond measure to precise our fellowship, our koinonía, in the religion, and, so far as we are able to at present, to experience our communion with each other in Christ.”
Gerry LynchPatriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople with the Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, and the Dean of Chichester, the Very Revd Dr Edward Dowler
Speaking to the Church Times afterwards, he commented on the “deep personal holiness” of the Patriarch, along together with his longstanding theological leadership on the environment.
The two had been together the weekend before, in Chichester, for the Ecclesiastical Law Society’s (ELS) “Nicaea Received” conference, at which the Patriarch gave the ultimate keynote address. He was awarded a Fellowship of the ELS by its President, the previous Bishop of Guildford the Rt Revd Christopher Hill, who said that this was “the primary Fellowship within the Society’s history, and reserved for many who have made ‘a contribution of great and lasting significance to the study and of ecclesiastical and canon law’”. Bishop Hill spoke of the Patriarch’s commitment to “the principles of Christian law, issues to do with Europe (and the EU) and religion, human rights and Orthodoxy, and spiritual freedom. . . He has consistently encouraged the ecumenical study of canon law.”
Patriarch Bartholomew also preached at evensong in Chichester Cathedral on Saturday, which the Dean, the Very Revd Dr Edward Dowler, described as “an important privilege” for the cathedral. “Patriarch Bartholomew brings us into contact with the 300 million members of those churches worldwide,” he said. “And, as a Christian bishop living in severely constricted circumstances in what’s now modern Turkey, he reminds us of our brothers and sisters within the persecuted churches world wide whom we’re tragically liable to forget.”
The Bishop of Chichester, Dr Martin Warner, who welcomed the delegation, praised the Patriarch and his contribution to ecumenism. “Patriarch Bartholomew reminded us that the canons of Nicaea are a living voice, through which the Holy Spirit unites us within the scriptures and draws us into unity with the Church across time and in every place,” he said.
“The presence of the breath of the East, with its emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit and its profound Christian anthropology, brought enrichment and joy to us in Chichester. In the sunshine of this teaching, we saw ourselves afresh within the continuum of religion. We recognised ourselves as brothers and sisters, a part of a family that is just too often unfamiliar to us and loves us after we meet.”
Patriarch Bartholomew was awarded the Templeton Prize earlier this 12 months for his pioneering efforts “to bridge scientific and spiritual understandings of humanity’s relationship with the natural world” (News, 11 April).
