To my brother in Christ, grace and peace be upon you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God amen.
I write to you from the bottom of my heart with a deep brotherly love, for not only do we worship the risen Christ together, we are also physical brothers as kinsmen. I want to remind you of the love Saint Paul had for his kinsman according to the flesh, wishing himself accursed from Christ if it meant to save them, love me in this way brother. For I know you believe I am separate from the covenant, and I understand why too. You maintain the traditions handed down from the Apostles to the Apostolic Fathers as you were taught (2 Thessalonians 2:15) and have a deep view of the Church whereby ecclesiology and sacramentology are inextricably intertwined; as emphasized by the 1st century church leaders, Ignatius, Polycarp, Clement and maintained by the early fathers of the faith such as St Justin Martyr and St Cyprian of Carthage. For this, I have deep respect for you.
Know that I love you in Christ and consider you my brother in Him. While I know you cannot affirm the same with certainty, for I am separate from a bishop, I ask you at least consider me your friend in Christ, who taught you to love your enemies. How much more should you love me? My heart breaks at the divide between us, I earnestly look and pray for unity in the Church of Christ, not by means of compromise or ecumenism, but real unity, communion, worship and fellowship together.
I know that your solution is for all men to join the Orthodox Church of Christ, but I think we both understand that the world is more complicated than that. The Assyrians and Orientals have been out of communion with you for 15 centuries, Roman Church for 10, and unfortunately the dialogue Jeremias II of Constantinople and Lutherans 5 centuries ago did not yield unification:
‘… A committee of Lutheran divines met at Wurttemberg to compose a further reply, which was dispatched in June 1580. Its tone was very conciliatory. When not yielding on any points, it tried to suggest that the doctrinal differences between the Churches on justification by faith, on free will and on the change in the elements at the Lord’s Supper were only matters of terminology, and that other differences could perhaps be treated as differences in ritual and usage. The Germans had to wait for an answer. It was eventually sent in the summer of 1581. He briefly recapitulated the points of disagreement, then begged for the correspondence to cease. “Go your own way,” he wrote, “and do not send us further letters on doctrine but only letters written for the sake of friendship.”’
But I implore you, do not give up on me so rashly. The Lord knows my heart that I am not a lover of disputes as Arius. Rather I am truly seeking Him, His Truth, Kingdom and reconciliation with you. Is it not the Lord’s desire that his followers are one?
‘..that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.’
You are the body of Christ, did not Christ say concerning the lost:
“…What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’
Consider me so, if you will, that your heart may not be hardened against me as to resign brotherhood for friendship, or worse – hatred. How is it that we have been so quick to condemn each other in times past? I believe the answer is found in the Wisdom:
‘A soft answer turns away wrath,
But a harsh word stirs up anger.’
For did not the Reformer Metallinos remain in your Church for many years after his experience with Christ? What was the cause of our separation? Surely you remember what transpired and the words that were exchanged. There are differences between us, and points of contention that are significant. I seek the time and place to discuss these things further for the purpose of mutual understanding, reconciliation and unity, however unlikely you may believe that to be:
“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
One creed at a time, I invite you to let us consider each other in love. For all your brilliance and majesty, eloquence, theological might and profound impacts on world history: I ask, have you the love of Christ for us?
‘Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked… but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.’
Greek Evangelical
ethankatsos@protonmail.com