Coptic Church & Ecumenical Movement - Saint Mina Coptic ...

Later doctrinal and papal developments only widened the gap between East and West, as did the
secession of the Uniat churches from Constantinople to Rome.
It was only on 6 th January 1964, the Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I embraced in Jerusalem
in a public gesture symbolic of their willingness to repair the damage. Together they read the
prayer of Jesus for unity in Chapter 17 of John’s gospel. A year later, on 7 th December 1965,
simultaneously in Rome and Istanbul (the present name for Constantinople), the mutual
excommunications of 1054 were officially withdrawn. In the joint declaration the elders of the
East and West stated that they:
“Regret the offensive words, unfounded reproaches and unworthy actions which on both
sides marked or accompanied the unfortunate events of the period... Regret equally and
efface from the memory and the presence of the Church the Sentences of
Excommunication that followed them, the memory of which acts to our own day are an
obstacle to our drawing together in charity, and consign them to oblivion... Deplore lastly
the unfortunate precedents and later developments which, influenced by various factors
such as misunderstanding and mutual distrust, led in the end to the actual breaking off of
ecclesiastical communion.”
Commenting on this historic occasion Congar notes that “the bad memories and the mistrust
were replaced by feelings of brotherly love; the creed of separation was replaced by feelings of
brotherly love; the creed of separation was replaced by the creed of love; the dialogue of charity
had begun. However, from that time on it has been ballasted with a theology of extreme
importance, that of sister churches.”
The current theological dialogue, begun in 1980, between the Roman Catholic Church and the
Orthodox Church is a sign of the continuing goodwill on both sides. In 1980 the Joint
International Dialogue between the two churches was set up. This commission, in the words of
Vatican II, has devoted itself “to the work of restoring the full communion that is desired
between the Eastern Churches and the Catholic Church”. The first meeting of the commission
was in Rhodes (on John’s island of Patmos), and since then it has met virtually annually at
Munich (twice), Nicosia, Crete, Opole (Poland), Bari (twice) and Valamo. It has produced two
important statements, namely, The Mystery of the Church and of the Eucharist in the light of the
Mystery of the Holy Trinity, and Faith, Sacraments and the Unity of the Church. In 1988 it also
produced a common statement with the rather unwieldy title of The Sacrament of Order in the
Sacramental Structure of the Church, with Particular Reference to the Importance of the
Apostolic Succession for the Sanctification and Unity of the People of God.
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