The divisions among Christians are an ongoing source of scandal. They delight the enemies of the Church and impede its witness, as well as its prophetic challenge to secular idolatries and delusions. Unfortunately, the death of Pope Francis on April 21 dashed hopes that one of the most visible aspects of this division would soon be ended.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the first among equals of the world’s second-largest Christian body, the Orthodox Church, was a close friend of Pope Francis, and it’s easy to see why on one level, as men in their position have few peers or people who can understand the challenges they face and responsibilities they shoulder. In view of the long and friendly association between the pope and the ecumenical patriarch, the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit in Harbiye, Turkey, invited the Ecumenical Patriarch to attend the Divine Liturgy on March 19, commemorating the twelfth anniversary of Francis’s election as pope.
At the church, Bartholomew spoke about a big plan that he and Francis had. He referred to “the mutual desire for a joint celebration of the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, a year in which the celebration of Easter coincides for all Christians according to the calendar. He further emphasized that the differing methods of calculating Easter undoubtedly hinder Christians from having a stronger and more unified voice in our fragmented world.”
The Council of Nicaea in the year 325 was the first meeting to which all the bishops of the world were invited. 318 bishops attended, and there they formulated the Nicene Creed, which most Christians see as the primary summary of the Christian faith, and is still recited every Sunday at Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and many Protestant churches. Nicaea is in modern Turkey, not far from the Phanar, the headquarters of the ecumenical patriarch in Istanbul, which is what the Turks call occupied Constantinople.
As the 1700th anniversary of that momentous occasion is this year, the pope and the ecumenical patriarch had made some special plans. They first started discussing what they would do to celebrate this anniversary eleven years ago, when they met in Jerusalem. The central idea was that they would agree on a common date for Easter, the feast of the Resurrection of Christ, and the most important observance on the Christian calendar. While this year, Catholics (and Protestants with them) and Orthodox all celebrated it on the same day, usually the Catholic/Protestant date for Easter differs from the Orthodox one.
It may seem to those outside the fold (or folds) to be a small matter, but it isn’t. Unifying the celebration of Easter worldwide would have been an extraordinary expression of Christian unity. Both the pope and the ecumenical patriarch were excited about this prospect, as Bartholomew explained in remarks he made upon learning of the pope’s passing last week: “He [that is, Pope Francis] was due to come to our country and together we would go to Nicaea, where the First Ecumenical Council was convened, to honor the memory of the Holy Fathers and exchange thoughts and wishes for the future of Christianity. All of this, of course, was canceled — or rather, postponed.”
Bartholomew also noted Pope Francis’ enthusiastic response to the Nicaea meeting. He said, according to the ecumenical patriarch, “This is an amazing thought, an amazing idea and proposal.”
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Now, laments the ecumenical patriarch, it is all off: “It was not meant to be for him to come.” He said that “the God of life and death decided otherwise, calling him to His side, and now Brother Francis will pray from Heaven for all of us and for the unity of the Churches.” The ecumenical patriarch has not, however, given up on the idea: “I believe that his successor will come, and we will go together to Nicaea to send a message of unity, love, brotherhood, and shared path toward the future of Christianity.”
When he arrived in Rome on Friday for the pope’s funeral, the ecumenical patriarch said of Francis, “We cooperated decisively for a greater rapprochement of our Churches” and “for the promotion of theological dialogue. We worked with dedication for the further rapprochement of our Churches, to promote theological dialogue between us, to overcome difficulties, but above all to highlight all that unites us, so that this journey may lead us to the blessed day when we will once again share the Common Cup.”
The day could still come, but it is a bit farther away than it seemed to be not long ago. The hope for unity is on hold again, and the ecumenical patriarch bid his friend a fond farewell: “Eternal be your memory, Brother Pope Francis.”
