Renewing Our Minds.

        Next to recognizing our true situation realistically, a second and even more important level of Orthodox awakening is learning, knowing, and applying our own essential Orthodox principles and values as a faith community. Of course we do not presume to become Chrysostoms, or Basils, or Athanasioses. However, we can contribute our part, small or large, and above all ourselves, to the ongoing task of the spiritual revitalization of the Church. For example, one of the distinctive marks of Orthodoxy is what theologians call “conciliarity” — the principle of working together by consensus as bishops, priests and lay people, granted the hierarchy of authority in the Church. This is not the political principle of democracy, nor is it against democracy, but something higher and better than democracy. It is the affirmation of Christ and the Holy Spirit in each baptized Orthodox Christian which makes each believer a profound agent and witness of the life and truth of God. Orthodoxy knows hierarchy and ordained leadership based on love and service according to the model of Christ. Orthodoxy also knows conciliarity (sobornost) — praying, thinking, and working together on the basis of the authentic tradition which rejects erroneous notions of clericalism, that is, the dominance of clergy as if God’s presence and truth is manifested primarily through clergy. True Christian leadership is listening to the voice of God’s people, being responsive to their needs, discerning their hopes and ideals, drawing out and actualizing their noble insights and talents. The principle of conciliarity is of such depth and significance in Orthodoxy that a number of Orthodox theologians have connected it with the life of God as Holy Trinity. Just as in the life of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, there is mutual indwelling, shared communion, and plentitude of love, so also in the life of the Church there should be free self-giving, full sharing and mutual service reflecting the presence and light of the Holy Trinity.

        The Church is our spiritual home, our spiritual family, and we are all members of it — members of the Body of Christ. In the words of Saint Paul, “the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Cor. 12:21). Just as in a family, we in the Church are all both responsible for and accountable to each other. Just as in a family, so also in the Church, when persistent problems cause dysfunction, all family members must recognize the issues and work together toward their solution for the entire family’s well-being. We cannot say that we are part of the Body, nor that we love our brother and sister, and then stand apart in indifference and cynicism, or complain and merely wring our hands while doing nothing positive. And the Church, your spiritual home and spiritual family, indeed your spiritual mother, needs you, your energy, your creativity, your idealism, your commitment, your talents. She needs you to put new logs in the fireplace. She needs you to stoke the fireplace, to furnish a new supply of wood. And know this: the fire of the Spirit is always eager to kindle the wood and let the fireplace burn brilliantly with holy fire.

        About ten years ago a theological commission of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese published a wide-ranging report, a kind of theological agenda for the twenty-first century,^[127] in which a number of relevant issues were taken up concerning the future of Greek Orthodoxy in America. One of the key problems was what the report defined as a “cultural crisis of faith,” a general drifting away from traditional religious and moral values in a secular society marked by selfish individualism, family instability, substance abuse of all kinds, consumerism, pornography and other dehumanizing aspects of modern life. These phenomena were seen as amounting not only to the breakdown of community in our nation but also the breakdown of personal integrity among its citizens as well as leaders across the board.

        The report’s suggestion for a solution to this problem is still on target and applies to all Orthodox jurisdictions. The report is instructive as follows:

The contemporary crisis of faith can be countered at its roots by raising the

consciousness of the whole Church to the abiding goals of the Church and by

placing these goals at the center of our thinking, deciding, and planning for the

future. A new spiritual vision must be set to work among clergy and laity alike,

not by means of high-sounding promotional statements or radical institutional

changes, but by means of a conscious, deliberate, and consistent focus on the

true goals and priorities of the Church.

According to the report, the Orthodox Church existing in a free, pluralistic society must assume for itself the responsibility to recover and strengthen Orthodox identity both as an intrinsic goal and as empowerment for the fulfillment of its mission in the world. In a society where ethnicity is inevitably fading and interfaith marriages have exponentially increased, drifting away from the Faith will continue unless common ecclesial and spiritual bonds are built. Formal adherence to tradition without insightful knowledge will not win the day in a world where novelty and excitement are at premium. All Orthodox together must look to the essence of their common spiritual heritage and lift up those treasures which unite us and can serve as guiding lights in the present and future. These shared treasures, in the words of the report, “must become the conscious focus of preaching, teaching, meetings, conferences, clergy-laity assemblies, administrative polity, church departments, and parish life.”

        Let us repeat for clarity: we are not advocating substantive renewal in the magnificent forms and objective content of Orthodoxy. Of course, some practical matters and certain other more difficult issues need attention. We can use better and standard translations of our liturgical texts. We need to encourage congregational singing and perhaps some modifications in liturgical services to make worship a truly meaningful and participatory experience for all the faithful. We certainly need to update the canons or at least to develop clear criteria for their interpretation and use in the spirit of Christ. Also, no theological impediments exist to the recovery of the ordination of women deacons and even the ordination of married clergy to the episcopate, both of which were honored traditions in the early centuries of the Church. And we have only begun to activate the talents of the laity, both men and women, that massive reservoir of spiritual power which was decisive in the growth and expansion of early Christianity. And all these difficult issues can be faced most effectively precisely on the basis of the renewal of our minds and hearts.

        The gifts are in front of our eyes. Beautiful forms of worship, the message of the Gospel enriched by unsurpassed hymnology, a theology which rings true to anyone who delves into it. In a word, the Orthodox tradition embodies an exquisite balance between such things as Scripture and Tradition, worship and teaching, faith and works, prayer and action, freedom and responsibility, clergy and laity. The urgency lies in the study, understanding, and appropriation of the inner Tradition. We are advocating that Orthodox Christians, as they grow to adulthood, ought to be moving beyond a childish understanding of Orthodoxy to a renewal of minds, a renewal of vision, a renewal of confidence on the basis of the fullness of truth about God, life, creation, heaven and hell. Orthodoxy is concerned with truth about all things and invites intellectual comprehension of the truth through the use of our reason, which according to the Church Fathers is the noblest element of the image of God in human beings. Christ came, as has been said, to take away our sins, not our minds. In an age when education is absolutely crucial for life, we must be well informed about our Faith and apply the insights of the Orthodox legacy about the meaning of personhood, freedom, moral responsibility, the goodness of humanity, human rights, civic duty, the gift of creation, and the like, to contemporary life and society.

        When it is true to itself, Orthodoxy has explosive potential. Twenty years ago, Jaroslav Pelikan, a preeminent Lutheran theologian and Church historian, gave a key-note address at a large gathering at the University of Chicago on a festive occasion celebrating the 450th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, a milestone in the Protestant Reformation. Along with his usual insightful gems and personal charm, Pelikan startled the audience with the remark that the Eastern Orthodox tradition may well be the most authentic guardian of the classic, universal Christian faith.^[128] We rejoice that a few years ago, Jaroslav Pelikan joined the Orthodox Church, as many others have done as well in our generation. We welcome all into the Orthodox Faith, and our welcome is not an expression of narrow, selfish satisfaction, nor a triumphalistic celebration of victory over others, but rather a joyous sharing of the gifts we ourselves have received from Christ, the Apostles and the Church Fathers. Because Orthodoxy is indeed the universal expression of Christianity for all peoples and cultures, Orthodoxy in essence and at its best is not a diminishment or negation of other faiths but an affirmation and fulfillment of them.