The Oberlin Statement: Christian Unity As Viewed by the Orthodox Church
Statement of the Representatives
of the Greek Orthodox Church in
USA at the North American Faith and Order Study Conference,
Oberlin, Ohio, September 3-10, 1957
As delegates to the North American Faith and Order Study Conference, appointed by His
Eminence, Archbishop Michael, to represent the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and
South America, we want to make the following preliminary statements.
We are glad to take part in a study-conference, devoted to such a basic need of
the Christian World as Unity. All Christians should seek Unity. On the other hand, we feel
that the whole program of the forthcoming discussion has been framed from a point of view
which we cannot conscientiously admit. "The Unity we seek" is for us a given Unity
which has never been lost, and, as a Divine gift and an essential mark of Christian
existence, could not have been lost. This unity in the Church of Christ is for us a Unity
in the Historical Church, in the fullness of faith, in the fullness of continuous
sacramental life. For us, this Unity is embodied in the Orthodox Church, which
kept, catholikos and anelleipos, both the integrity of the Apostolic Faith
and the integrity of the Apostolic Order.
Our share in the study of Christian Unity is determined by our firm conviction that
this Unity can be found only in the fellowship of the Historical Church, preserving
faithfully the catholic tradition, both in doctrine and in order. We cannot commit
ourselves to any discussion of these basic assumptions, as if they were but hypothetical
or problematic. We begin with a clear conception of the Church’s Unity, which we
believe has been embodied and realized in the age-long history of the Orthodox Church,
without any change or break since the times when the visible Unity of Christendom was an
obvious fact and was attested and witnessed to by an ecumenical unanimity, in the age of
the Ecumenical Councils.
We admit, of course, that the Unity of Christendom has been disrupted, that the
unity of faith and the integrity of order have been sorely broken. But we do not admit
that the Unity of the Church, and precisely of the "visible" and
historical Church, has ever been broken or lost, so as to now be a problem of search and
discovery. The problem of Unity is for us, therefore, the problem of the return to the
fullness of Faith and Order, in full faithfulness to the message of Scripture and
Tradition and in the obedience to the will of God: "that all may be one".
Long before the breakup of the unity of Western Christendom, the Orthodox Church has
had a keen sense of the essential importance of the oneness of Christian believers and
from her very inception she has deplored divisions within the Christian world. As in the
past, so in the present, she laments disunity among those who claim to be followers of
Jesus Christ Whose purpose in the world was to unite all believers into one body. The
Orthodox Church feels that, since she has been unassociated with the events related to the
breakdown of religious unity in the West, she bears a special responsibility to contribute
toward the restoration of the Christian unity which alone can render the message of the
Gospel effective in a world troubled by threats of world conflict and general uncertainty
over the future.
It is with humility that we voice the conviction that the Orthodox Church can make a
special contribution to the cause of Christian unity, because since Pentecost she has
possessed the true unity intended by Christ. It is with this conviction that the Orthodox
Church is always prepared to meet with Christians of other communions in
inter-confessional deliberations. She rejoices over the fact that she is able to join
those of other denominations in ecumenical conversations that aim at removing the barriers
to Christian unity. However, we feel compelled in all honesty, as representatives of the
Orthodox Church, to confess that we must qualify our participation, as necessitated by the
historic faith and practice of our Church, and also state the general position that must
be taken at this interdenominational conference.
In considering firstly "the nature of the unity we seek," we wish to begin by
making clear that our approach is at variance with that usually advocated and ordinarily
expected by participating representatives. The Orthodox Church teaches that the unity of
the Church has not been lost, because she is the Body of Christ, and, as such, can never
be divided. It is Christ as her head and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that
secure the unity of the Church throughout the ages.
The presence of human imperfection among her members is powerless to obliterate the
unity, for Christ Himself promised that the "gates of hell shall not prevail against
the Church." Satan has always sown tares in the field of the Lord and the forces of
disunity have often threatened but have never actually succeeded in dividing the Church.
No power can be mightier than the omnipotent will of Christ Who founded one Church only in
order to bring men into unity with God. Oneness is an essential mark of the Church.
If it be true that Christ founded the Church as a means of unifying men divided by sin,
then it must naturally follow that the unity of the Church was preserved by His divine
omnipotence. Unity, therefore, is not just a promise, or a potentiality, but
belongs to the very nature of the Church. It is not something which has been lost and
which should be recovered, but rather it is a permanent character of the structure of the
Church.
Christian love impels us to speak candidly of our conviction that the Orthodox Church
has not lost the unity of the Church intended by Christ, for she represents the oneness
which in Western Christendom has only been a potentiality. The Orthodox Church teaches
that she has no need to search for a "lost unity," because her historic
consciousness dictates that she is the Una Sancta and that all Christian groups
outside the Orthodox Church can recover their unity only by entering into the bosom of
that Church which preserved its identity with early Christianity.
These are claims that arise not from presumptuousness, but from an inner historical
awareness of the Orthodox Church. Indeed, this is the special message of Eastern Orthodoxy
to a divided Western Christendom.
The Orthodox Church true to her historical consciousness declares that she has
maintained an unbroken continuity with the Church of Pentecost by preserving the Apostolic
faith and polity unadulterated. She has kept the "faith once delivered unto the
saints" free from the distortions of human innovations. Man-made doctrines have never
found their way into the Orthodox Church, since she has no necessary association in
history with the name of one single father or theologian. She owes the fullness and the
guarantee of unity and infallibility to the operation of the Holy Spirit and not to the
service of one individual. It is for this reason that she has never felt the need for what
is known as "a return to the purity of the Apostolic faith." She maintains the
necessary balance between freedom and authority and thus avoids the extremes of absolutism
and individualism both of which have done violence to Christian unity.
We re-assert what was declared at Evanston and what has been made known in the past at
all interdenominational conferences attended by delegates of the Orthodox Church. It is
not due to our personal merit, but to divine condescension that we represent the Orthodox
Church and are able to give expression to her claims. We are bound in conscience to state
explicitly what is logically inferred; that all other bodies have been directly or
indirectly separated from the Orthodox Church. Unity from the Orthodox standpoint means
a return of the separated bodies to the historical Orthodox, One, Holy, Catholic, and
Apostolic Church.
The unity which Orthodoxy represents rests on identity of faith, order, and worship.
All three aspects of the life of the Church are outwardly safeguarded by the reality of
the unbroken succession of bishops which is the assurance of the Church's uninterrupted
continuity with apostolic origins. This means that the uncompromised fullness of the
Church requires the preservation of both its episcopal structure and sacramental life.
Adhering tenaciously to her Apostolic heritage, the Orthodox Church holds that no true
unity is possible where episcopacy and sacraments are absent, and grieves over the fact
that both institutions have either been discarded or distorted in certain quarters of
Christendom. Any agreement on faith must rest on the authority of the enactments of the
seven Ecumenical Councils which represent the mind of the one undivided Church of
antiquity and the subsequent tradition as safeguarded in the life of the Orthodox Church.
We regret that the most vital problem of Ministry and that of the Apostolic Succession,
without which to our mind there is neither unity, nor church, were not included in the
program of the Conference. All problems of Order seem to be missing in the program. These,
in our opinion, are basic for any study of Unity.
Visible unity expressed in organizational union does not destroy the centrality of the
spirit among believers, but rather testifies to the reality of the oneness of the Spirit.
Where there is the fullness of the Spirit, there too will outward amity be found. From
Apostolic times the unity of Christian believers was manifested by a visible,
organizational structure. It is the unity in the Holy Spirit that is expressed in a
unified visible organization.
The Holy Eucharist, as the chief act of worship, is the outward affirmation of the
inner relation rising from unity in the Holy Spirit. But this unity involves a consensus
of faith among those participating. Intercommunion, therefore, is possible only when there
is agreement of faith. Common worship in every case must presuppose a common faith. The
Orthodox Church maintains that worship of any nature cannot be sincere unless there is
oneness of faith among those participating. It is with this belief that the Orthodox
hesitate to share in Joint prayer services and strictly refrain from attending
interdenominational Communion Services.
A common faith and a common worship are inseparable in the historical continuity of the
Orthodox Church. However, in isolation neither can be preserved integral and intact. Both
must be kept in organic and inner relationship with each other. It is for this reason that
Christian unity cannot be realized merely by determining what articles of faith or what
creed should be regarded as constituting the basis of unity. In addition to subscribing to
certain doctrines of faith, it is necessary to achieve the experience of a common
tradition or communis sensus fidelium preserved through common worship within the
historic framework of the Orthodox Church. There can be no true unanimity of faith unless
that faith remains within the life and sacred tradition of the Church which is identical
throughout the ages. It is in the experience of worship that we affirm the true faith, and
conversely, it is in the recognition of a common faith that we secure the reality of
worship in spirit and in truth.
Thus the Orthodox Church in each locality insists on agreement of faith and worship
before it will consider sharing in any interdenominational activity. Doctrinal differences
constitute an obstacle in the way of unrestricted participation in such activities. In
order to safeguard the purity of the faith and the integrity of the liturgical and
spiritual life of the Orthodox Church, abstinence from interdenominational activities is
encouraged on a local level. There is no phase of the Church’s life unrelated
to her faith. Intercommunion with another church must be grounded on a consensus of faith
and a common understanding of the sacramental life. The Holy Eucharist especially must be
the liturgical demonstration of the unity of faith.
We are fully aware of deep divergences which separate Christian denominations from
each other, in all fields of Christian life and existence, in the understanding of faith,
in the shaping of life, in the habits of worship. We are seeking, accordingly, an
unanimity in faith, an identity of order, a fellowship in prayer. But for us all the three
are organically linked together. Communion in worship is only possible in the unity of
faiths. Communion presupposes Unity. Therefore, the term "Intercommunion" seems
to us an epitome of that conception which we are compelled to reject. An
"intercommunion" presupposes the existence of several separate and separated
denominations, which join occasionally in certain common acts or actions. In the true
Unity of Christ’s Church there is no room for several "denominations."
There is, therefore, no room for "'intercommunion." When all are truly united in
the Apostolic Faith and Order, there will be all-inclusive Communion and Fellowship in all
things.
It has been stated by the Orthodox delegates already in Edinburgh, in 1937, that many
problems are presented at Faith and Order Conferences in a manner and in a setting which
are utterly uncongenial to the Orthodox. We again must repeat the same statement now.
But again, as years ago in Edinburgh, we want to testify our readiness and willingness
to participate in study, in order that the Truth of the Gospel and the fullness of
the Apostolic Tradition may be brought to the knowledge of all who, truly, unselfishly,
and devoutedly seek Unity in Our Blessed Lord and His Holy Church, One, Catholic, and
Apostolic.
Bishop Athenagoras Kokkinakis, Chairman
Very Rev Georges Florovsky
Very Rev Eusebius A. Stephanou
Rev George Tsoumas
Rev John A. Poulos
Rev John Hondras
Rev George P. Gallos
Comments by Bishop Kallistos Ware
From the 1963 edition of his The Orthodox Church, pp. 318-319:
Yet there is one field in which diversity cannot be permitted. Orthodoxy
insists upon unity in matters of the faith. Before there can be reunion among
Christians, there must first be full agreement in faith: this is a basic principle
for Orthodox in all their ecumenical relations. It is unity in the faith that matters, not
organizational unity; and to secure unity of organization at the price of a compromise in
dogma is like throwing away the kernel of a nut and keeping the shell. Orthodox are not
willing to take part in a 'minimal' reunion scheme, which secures agreement on a few
points and leaves everything else to private opinion. There can be only one basis for
union—the fullness of the faith; for Orthodoxy looks on the faith as a united
and organic whole. Speaking of the Anglo Russian Theological Conference at Moscow in 1956,
the present Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Michael Ramsey, expressed the
Orthodox viewpoint exactly:
The Orthodox said in effect: " ... The 'tradition is a concrete
fact. There it is, in its totality. Do you Anglicans accept it, or do you reject it?' The
Tradition is for the Orthodox one indivisible whole: the entire life of the Church in its
fullness of belief and custom down the ages, including Mariology and the veneration of
icons. Faced with this challenge, the typically Anglican reply is: 'We would not regard
veneration of icons or Mariology as inadmissible, provided that in determining what is
necessary to salvation, we confine ourselves to Holy Scripture.' But this reply only
throws into relief the contrast between the Anglican appeal to what is deemed necessary to
salvation and the Orthodox appeal to the one indivisible organism of Tradition, to tamper
with any part of which is to spoil the whole, in the sort of way that a single splodge on
a picture can mar its beauty." ['The Moscow Conference in Retrospect', in Sobornost,
series 3, no. 23, 1958, pp. 562-3.]
In the words of another Anglican writer: "It has been said that the
faith is like a network rather than an assemblage of discrete dogmas; cut one strand and
the whole pattern loses its meaning.' [T. M. Parker, 'Devotion to the Mother of God', in
The Molher of God, edited by E. L. Mascall, p. 74.] Orthodox, then, ask of other
Christians that they accept Tradition as a whole; but it must be remembered that
there is a difference between Tradition and traditions. Many beliefs held by Orthodox are
not a part of the one Tradition, but are simply theologoumena, theological
opinions; and there can be no question of imposing mere matters of opinion on other
Christians. Men can possess full unity in the faith, and yet hold divergent theological
opinions in certain fields. This basic principle—no reunion without unity in the
faith—has an important corollary: until unity in the faith has been achieved, there
can be no communion in the sacraments. Communion at the Lord's Table (most Orthodox
believe) cannot be used to secure unity in the faith, but must come as the consequence and
crown of a unity already attained. Orthodoxy rejects the whole concept of 'intercommunion'
between separated Christian bodies, and admits no form of sacramental fellowship short of
full communion. Either Churches are in communion with one another, or they are not: there
can be no half-way house.
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