Orthodox Catholic Unity... How excited are you?! :)

[ljubim]

For everybody… Personally I am just GIDDY with excitement. I was reading all of the articles on this at catholic cultureCyprus: setting for an ecumenical summit? and OH MY GOODNESS!!! I’m so overjoyed by this!

How do you guys feel about it? How do you think the average Catholic/ Orthodox/ Protestant feels about it?

I am ready for union NOW. We’ve waited a thousand years, and God’s been patient with our bickering, but seriously, it’s time. (and I don’t want to wait until then, but how fitting would it be for the official reunion to be in the year 2054… exactly 1000 years after the split? )
this part got me really excited too!:

the Russian prelate said that a “summit” meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest Christian churches would not be held in Russia or in Italy, but in some other country.

Imagine how much more of a difference, how many more people we can reach out to with God’s love, with this kind of diversity and yet common unity?

 

[Eucharisted]

Whenever God wills it, let it be

 

[Wesley7]

Somewhat excited, but not without noting the considerable differences in Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy.

. . .

 

[Milliardo]

Nothing will happen much unless one side would give in; Orthodoxy will not give in to Rome nor would have it under Rome, and Rome will not back down on its supposed “universal jurisdiction”. With such an obstacle, when will unity happen? Perhaps what we can work on for now is to see what would unite us, which would just happen to be 90% or so of what both Churches believe in.

 

[Hesychios]

How do you guys feel about it?

I am ready for union NOW.

No one would say they are against Christian unity, unless they are not Christians. Christian unity is PC.

I am for Christian unity.

What do you think Christian unity means? How is Christian unity to be defined? What does it entail?

I am all excited over the prospects of Christian unity, and I cannot wait to see my idea of Christian unity become a reality. I pray for it.

Do you think your idea of unity matches mine?

 

[dzheremi]

(Warning: Wet blanket alert)

I always make it a point to follow threads like this, thinking that with all the breathless excitement of the Catholics there must be SOMETHING new involved in the discussion that makes them so excited, so sure that re-unification will happen after/as a consequence of this or that summit. I just don’t see it!

As the Orthodox posters have pointed out, there isn’t much to the idea of yet another meeting like this. The Orthodox standpoint will be the Orthodox standpoint, the Catholic standpoint will be the Catholic standpoint. Both Churches will go on as they have for nearly a thousand years at this point.

Quite frankly, I think there is a world of difference between WANTING reunion (?) now and actually being READY for it. We can all honestly say we want it, but are we READY for it? As Hesychios points out, do we even have the same idea of what the “unity” we’re supposedly all seeking is all about? I don’t think we do, but maybe I’m too cynical. It is definitely true that with God anything is possible, and we should never stop praying for the continual strengthening of our relationships, on an official level but even more importantly (in my view) on a personal level. But this does not mean that I can really be excited about any supposed Orthodox-Catholic unity. I will be excited when I can worship together with my friends in the EO and OO churches, but realistically I know that can’t happen. Just wanting it to be different than it is will never make it so.

 

[Cluny]

<< For everybody… Personally I am just GIDDY with excitement. I was reading all of the articles on this at catholic cultureCyprus: setting for an ecumenical summit? and OH MY GOODNESS!!! I’m so overjoyed by this!>>

And if you think this is going to end with “Russia converting and returning to the fold of Peter”, you’re terribly naive.

Russia was never in “the fold of Peter” to start with.

A few weeks ago there was a posting on these fora quoting the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Moscow saying that unity between the Russian Orthodox and Catholic church could take place in a matter of months.

Apparently, he doesn’t have a clue, either.