Perspectief 2016-34

2016-34 Learning ecumenically from each other 37 Com ment “if through the Church’s attribute of unity the fact that the Church is one is simply affirmed, then through the attribute of sobornicity we see what the nature of this unity is. It is a unity achieved and maintained through the convergence, communion, and unanimous complementarity of its members, not through a simple attachment or through a melding of all into one uniform whole.” 6 The sobornicity of the Church as the mystery of communion in diversity is therefore the basis of the Church’s capacity to embrace the legitimate theological and spiritual values of other Christian traditions and to let itself be enriched by them: “for in a dialogue which is the expression of a sincere and profound communion, one partner always introduces something of his own life into the life of the other,” 7 and viceversa . However, when it came to explain the way ‘open sobornicity’ could be implemented, Stăniloae put forward the concept of ‘spiritual intercommunion’: a form of communion that includes common prayer, study, and action among Christians. Despite the fact that the ‘spiritual intercommunion’ advocated by Stăniloae is different from the Eucharistic communion, it is still necessary “so that the Holy Spirit multiplies the connections among Churches, connections through which their life may be transmitted from one Church to another, thus becoming more and more alike.” 8 It is extremly important to emphasize the ecumenical openness of Stăniloae, for there are many fundamentalist groups within the Orthodox Church which try to defend their anti-ecumenical and anti-Western positions through an appeal to the argument that important Orthodox theologians shared their extremely conservative views. Receptive ecumenism Receptive ecumenism, which intends to be a fresh approach for contemporary ecumenism, has been developed since 2006 by prof. Paul Murray in a series of projects organized at 6 D. Stăniloae, Teologia dogmatică ortodoxă , vol. II (București: Editura Institutului Biblic şi de Misiune al Bisericii Ortodoxe Române, 1978-1979, 3 2003), 292; English translation: The Experience of God , vol. IV, transl. by Ioan Ionita (Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2012), 80. 7 D. Stăniloae, “The Problem and Perspectives of Orthodox Theology”, in: Theology and the Church , transl. by Robert Barringer (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1980), 222. 8 D. Stăniloae, “Teologia euharistiei [The Theology of the Eucharistic]”, Ortodoxia 21:3 (1969): 361.