"Let your light shine forth …": challenges to Orthodoxy in the new millennium

External challenges

I begin with my own perception of how Orthodoxy is affected by some recent historical developments which seem to me urgently to require a concerted response from the leadership and the faithful of the churches.

1. In the wake of what has been called the "new world order", there seem to be various attempts today to subordinate or discredit Orthodoxy as being the inspiration for certain anti-Western religious, cultural or social attitudes. This is especially felt in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, where Western initiatives are -- willingly or unintentionally -- exacerbating existing divisions among Christians, interreligious sensitivities, intercultural tensions and international conflicts.

2. Especially after the radical changes in Eastern Europe, certain secular ideologies, such as modem nationalism, socialism and communism, have been marginalized and even disappeared. The result in some places has been social and political fragmentation and a shift to pragmatism or Realpolitik, based on economic self-interest and a self-centred concept of security, on the national, communitarian and even individual levels. This new climate is tempting Christians, including the Orthodox churches, to withdraw into their particularism and thus to become isolated from one another. At the same time it is creating an ethic of selfishness that affects the Christian spirituality of solidarity and self-sacrifice.

3. In some countries this withdrawal of uniting secular ideologies has created space for an ethnic or religious nationalism to emerge which emphasizes the sacralization of the "particular" in a people's ethnic or religious identity. All religions are tempted to replace those ideologies by their own spiritual ideals, exposing themselves -- and God -- to political and military exploitation and thus appearing as a cause of division and war rather than a factor of unity and peace between people of different confessions, faiths, cultures, ethnicities or ideologies. Christianity, including Orthodoxy, is in some places succumbing or in danger of succumbing to this temptation.

4. In some parts of the world, the Orthodox, like many other Christians, feel themselves victims of a conflict between two cultures. One of these is called "Western". Dominated by secular humanism, it has, according to many observers, invested so much power in the human being that God is marginalized or even eliminated through materialistic and atheistic philosophies. The values of this culture are believed to have been made internationally valid through Western colonialism and mission and through the concept of internationalism promoted by the United Nations and (some would say) the ecumenical movement. The other cultural trend attempts to re-centre power in God leading sometimes to exaggerated trends called in some places religious fundamentalism or ethnic chauvinism. This is also leading to the elimination of the human being in the name of God or ethnic purity.

Will this conflict be allowed to destroy human societies? Or will opposing cultures find a way to interact constructively on the basis of the assumption that God and the human being have been reconciled in Jesus Christ as the prototype of the new humanity? If the latter alternative is adopted, it could aim at discovering common values for harmonious living and peace between people of different historical experiences.

Internal challenges

Against the background of these external challenges, the Orthodox churches appear to suffer from a number of serious but unrelated problems.

1. The internal tensions arising within some churches from ethnic, cultural, legal or political considerations are exploited by religious or political powers, leading occasionally to proselytism among the Orthodox or to their emigration. Such tensions not only hinder Orthodox witness within the ecumenical movement at the local level but also threaten the heritage of other religions and society in general.

2. New obstacles to Orthodox unity arise from the increasingly strained relations between autocephalous or independent churches for ethnic, political and canonical reasons. These appear not only at the level of the leadership, but also locally in some cases, where parishes refuse eucharistic hospitality to each other.

3. There are few opportunities for common reflection on modem challenges to Orthodoxy. including the radical social and political changes mentioned above, the requirements of a just peace in the world, the impact of Western culture and cultural conflict, the issue of Chalcedonian unity and Orthodox involvement in the ecumenical movement.

4. Inter-Orthodox cooperation and mutual support in developing church-related educational, pastoral or other diaconal institutions are lacking. Many Orthodox churches seem to assume that autocephaly and independence mean self-sufficiency, and that the principle of sharing of resources portrayed in the New Testament account of the early church is no longer valid. For the same reasons, the existence of something like a pan-Orthodox fund to support local projects seems to be foreign to the Orthodox churches.