Religion: A Question of Dogma

Enthroned last week as archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church of North & South America, big, bearded Archbishop Michael Constantinides, 57, promptly proceeded to toss a hand grenade into the ecumenical movement. At a recent meeting in Athens, said he, the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Greece had decided that henceforth “no bishops of the Church of Greece could serve as official delegates to the World Council of Churches or hold any office . . .” The Church of Greece (membership: 5,961,000) is only one of 15 member churches in the Orthodox Communion, but, asserted Michael, it holds that the tenets of its faith can never be discussed with the least implication of compromise.* Therefore, Archbishop Michael contends, dogmatic discussions or official positions are now forbidden to priests of the Church of Greece. The World Council of Churches, he added, has already been informed through its general secretary, Willem Visser ‘t Hooft, of the decision.

But last week England’s Bishop Stephen C. Neill, an associate general secretary of the council, had something to say about the question: “The World Council of Churches has received no official notification that the Greek Church intends to diminish its participation. We are well aware that there are divisions of opinion within the Greek Church on the subject of the World Council and the relation of the Greek Church to it. Archbishop Michael is a leading representative of one shade of opinion. But it is the Archbishop of Athens, or his official representative, who alone can communicate to us official decisions of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece.”

*Even so, the Church of Greece was represented by Metropolitan Ambrosius of Naupaktos at the ecumenical conference on “Faith and Order” at Lausanne in 1927, and one of its metropolitans, Panteleimon of Odessa, was elected to the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches in 1948.