Remarks by Christopher Yip: The Eastern (or Greek) Orthodox Church understands too that any ecumenical unity must be build on fidelity to apostolic doctrines or else everything is simply a farce. We are not opposed to ecumenicity, just ecumenicity on heretical Rome's terms. For a Eastern Orthodox summary of the ecumenical movement, see
http://www.myriobiblos.gr/texts/english/schwartz.html
Excerpt: The Orthodox communion has special difficulties which the ecumenical movement, since it regards itself as the church which has never separated itself from the true faith and which has preserved the unbroken tradition. Nevertheless it perceives a divided Christendom as a bleeding wound on Christ's body which must be healed. Thus it has been important for the Orthodox communion to be active in the WCC and to contribute to the various documents gathered by the CFO on the road towards unity.
In this process some difficult questions remain to be addressed to the Orthodox. It is inconceivable for them to attempt intercommunion with heretics or schismatics, since one cannot have communion with those who are separated. Ιn pursuing the ecumenical road they must not only ask, "Can we commune others?" but also, "Can we refuse to commune others?"10. Only if the essence of faith or church order are in jeopardy can they refuse communion to others. Thus the important question is whether the separation they speak of is a separation from the one true tradition of the faith, or rather a separation in terms of different forms of the same tradition? Damaskinos Papandreou rightly said: "We live in a time of detoxification of the poisoned climate between the churches, which resulted from a century long process of fanaticism and thorough misunderstandings. We live in a time of free mutual encounters and true dialogue, which consists in everyone fully and wholly stating one's opinion, but also being ready to listen, and, if necessary to re-appropriate the inadequate elements of one's own exposition"11.
and for a Eastern Orthodox view of the Rock of Matthew 16, read
http://www.myriobiblos.gr/texts/english/boumis_peter.html
It is the same as the Protestant view.
Address by the
Archbishop of Athens and all Greece,
CHRISTODOULOS
to Pope John Paul II of
Rome
May 4, 2001
Your Holiness, Pope
John Paul II of Rome, we bid You welcome!
We feel it a special
honor that the Primate of the Church of Rome has expressed his desire to visit
us as the Primate of the Orthodox Church in Greece while on a pilgrimage in our
Homeland. We are especially moved by the fact that at the center of this
pilgrimage stands the figure of the Apostle Paul, founder of our Church. His
teaching to the Athenians laid the foundations for the spiritual identity of all
Christian peoples, especially those of Europe. By this teaching was revealed to
us the gift of the love of God and of our redemption in Christ. Truly, «while
we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we are now justified
by His blood much more shall be saved by Him from wrath. For if while we were
enemies were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we
are reconciled, shall we be saved in His life». (Rom. 5, 8 - 10)
A Pope of Rome is
visiting Athens for the first time in history. This event brings us joy. Our joy
however is overshadowed by the fact of our division. Dogmatic and
ecclesiological reasons, existing for a millennium, poison the atmosphere and
negate the necessary conditions that would have allowed for your visit to be
fruitful and to have borne results. The anathemas have been lifted, by the grace
of God. The causes that brought them about however, have not.
In spite of the above,
the Church of Greece wishes to address to You, through me, a word of love and
truth, devoid of conventional courtesies, because only if we «speak the
truth in love» (Eph. 4, 15) and admit our errors can we hope to arrive unto
the unity of faith.
Your Holiness,
Understandably a large
part of the pleroma of the Church of Greece opposes your presence here,
though St. Mark of Ephesus, expressed our tradition when he said in Ferrara,
while addressing Pope Eugene IV in 1438: «Our Head, Christ our God… does
not tolerate that the bond of love be taken from us entirely». (PO, xvii,
198)
We wish to explain the
reactions of this people because Your visit to the city of Athens functions as
an unusual stimulus for «cleansing of ecclesial memory» from the
traumatic experiences, that resulted from the unbrotherly behavior of the
western Christian world towards the Orthodox peoples through the second
millennium, since the Great Schism of 1054.
These reactions express
not only explicit censure of the unacceptable acts of violence perpetrated
against concerned Orthodox peoples, but also the demand of Orthodox conscience
for a formal condemnation of injustices committed against them by the Christian
West. This would facilitate the advancement of a spirit of constructive dialogue
in our bilateral relations. The Orthodox Greek people, more than other Orthodox
peoples, senses more intensely in its religious consciousness and national
memory the traumatic experiences, that remain as open wounds inflicted on its
vigorous body, as is known to all, by the destructive mania of the Crusaders and
the period of Latin rule, as well as by the unlawful proselytizing of the Latin
Unia. Yet until now, there has not been heard even a single request for pardon.
Indeed, on many
occasions in our history, our people bitterly noted that the powerful Church of
Rome denied it during difficult moments; that, she frequently oppressed its
ecclesial conscience; and that, she wronged it even with regard issues of its
national concern. It would be useless for us to set forth a list of events,
either from among those that belong to the past, or among those that remain as
sores on the historical body of the Church. The problem of Unia, for example,
which constitutes the basic reason for the blockage of the Roman Catholic and
Orthodox theological dialogue. That which is important is that we await a
courageous word to be uttered by Your lips, the word of a Christian Bishop that
speaks to our heart. This word must set the foundation stone on which shall be
built understanding, forgiveness and reconciliation.
Surely Your bold word
will not automatically resolve our dogmatic and ecclesiological differences.
This shall be achieved with the grace of God through a sincere theological
dialogue, which already has been taking place over the last two decades, albeit
facing hurdles. The dialogue in truth between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox
Churches must be based on the common Apostolic faith of the undivided Church of
the seven Ecumenical Councils and on our Patristic Tradition. «We seek»,
together with our Holy Father St. Mark of Ephesus, «and we pray for our
return to that time when, being united, we spoke the same things and there was
no schism between us». (Acta Graecorum, p 53)
In this common course
we have as illustrious examples the God - bearing Fathers of the Church of the
first millennium, both Eastern and Western. They illumined, and continue to
illumine both by their word and deed, the spiritual course of the Church in this
world. Thus they showed themselves not only as brilliant examples of men who
placed the greater interest of the Church of God, before all personal or worldly
expedience, but also as the diachronically fixed criterion for the continuous
confirmation of the healthy functioning of ecclesiastical memory.
Your Holiness,
representing the two thousand year historical course of Western Christendom, is
well aware of the priceless contribution of the Greek Holy Fathers of the East
to the formation of the spiritual legacy of the Christian world of the West, as
for example Saints Athanasius the Great, Basil the Great, Gregory the
Theologian, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Irenaeus of Lugdunum, Maximus
the Confessor. Without them the establishment of Western Tradition in its
entirety would have been difficult, if not impossible. This can be readily seen
in the declarations concerning the relations of the Roman Catholic with the
Orthodox Church made by the Second Vatican Synod (1962-1965). Thus, Your
Holiness in the recent encyclical «Ut unum sint» proposed that all
differences that have disrupted the communio in sacris, be dealt with on
the basis of the Patristic and the wider ecclesiastical Tradition of the first
millennium.
Your Holiness also is
well aware that the Orthodox Church, having held firmly on to the common
Tradition of the first millennium, lives and experiences the entire mystery of
Divine Economy in Christ, in the Holy Eucharist par excellence, not
simply as remembrance, but as continuous manifestation of the Holy Spirit, Who
composes and sustains the entire institution of the Church. In it also is
preserved the resounding voice of the Western Fathers, as for example of Saints
Cyprian of Carthage, Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, Leo of Rome, Gregory
Dialogus, Martin the Confessor Pope of Rome et al. Through their voice
was strengthened the communion of faith in the bond of love. We yearn therefore
to return to this unity. Henceforth, «being eager to maintain the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace» may we reach that point when we all
confess «one body and one Spirit, just as we were called to the one hope
that belongs to our call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
of us all, who is above all and through all and in all». (Eph. 4, 3 - 6)
Walking uprightly,
we wish to work, with the Lord’s blessing, for the formation of a United
Europe. We hail Your decision to recognize the enlightening and civilizing
mission in Europe of our Greek Saints Cyril and Methodius, from Macedonia. The
time has come for us to work together in order to welcome the Slavic, Baltic and
other European peoples, both those who are Orthodox and those who are not, and
Cyprus, into the bosom of United Europe.
It should be noted
that, even though the Apostolic island of Cyprus groans for a quarter century as
a result of barbarous partition, a victim of brutal ethnic cleansing, having
suffered hecatombs of dead and missing martyrs on behalf of liberty, living
through constant vandalism and looting of its most beautiful Christian
monuments, she has not heard even one statement of sympathy on the part of Your
Holiness, even though You have frequently and justifiably intervened on behalf
of different peoples of our planet.
The time has come for
us to coordinate our efforts to assure that Europe remain a Christian land, away
from the apparent tendency to transform her nations into atheist states (états
laiques), denying their Christian identity. The time has come for us to work for
a United Europe, that respects its minorities as well as the freedom of each of
its peoples to retain its faith, its language, its culture and its tradition, in
other words, its spiritual identity.
Having always before us
His will, we shall work, neither to increase the influence of one Church at the
expense of another, nor to reinforce our superiority on the basis of secular
criteria, that are foreign to our spirituality, but in order to contain the
insatiable appetite of injustice, to relieve the suffering of God’s children,
to offer to man of the twenty first century the one Gospel of life, grace and
freedom; to put forth the hope of faith to contemporary man who, while inundated
by material goods and technological achievements, greatly suffers from the lack
of hope, inner peace and certitude.
Your Holiness,
We wholeheartedly wish
You a blessed stay in our homeland. Even more, we wish that Your visit
constitute the beginning of positive developments in the great matter of the
unity of all, and that it should be for the glory of God.
Amen.
Read What Christodoulos Says to John Paul II 
Reconciliation, Towards Unity: JOINT STATEMENT BY POPE, ORTHODOX PRELATE (Matthew Tan Yew Hock)
PAPAL APOLOGY TO GREEK ORTHODOX (Matthew Tan Yew Hock)
to: 
Outline:
Beware of those who ADD to Jesus' Salvation Under the Pretense of Unity! by Christopher Yip, 2001, Jun 05 
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