The Universality of the Church, the Body of Christ

Tree outside the gate of the Monastery of Philotheou in Mount Athos, Greece

Ethnic and national identity and interests can never be placed above the universality of the Orthodox Church. The boundaries of the local Church are defined by geographical location around its Bishop, not race or country of origin. The mission of the Church is the salvation of man, all men. If our racial and national self-awareness is so strong it excludes others on the basis of national origin, then it is sin and heresy, because it stands in opposition to the mission of the Church, canon law and more importantly the expressed command of our Lord Jesus Christ, to go and make disciples of all nations!

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” Matthew 28:19

Here is the Pan-Orthodox Synod’s official condemnation of ecclesiastical racism, or “ethno-phyletism,” as well as its theological argumentation. It was issued on the 10th of August 1872 in Istanbul, Turkey;
We renounce, censure and condemn racism, that is racial discrimination, ethnic feuds, hatreds and dissensions within the Church of Christ, as contrary to the teaching of the Gospel and the holy canons of our blessed fathers which “support the holy Church and the entire Christian world, embellish it and lead it to divine godliness.”from For the Peace from Above: an Orthodox Resource Book on War, Peace and Nationalism, edited by Hildo Bos and Jim Forest (Syndesmos, 1999) 

St Justin Popovich in his book, ‘The Orthodox Church and Ecumenism’ p.5, Lazarica Press 2000, writes, “In the Church, His theanthropic (this word means God-man) Body, the Lord has united all angelic beings, all men and all God-created matter into an eternally-living organism.

In p.10, “What is the basis of the hope of our Christian calling? It is our union with the Lord Christ and through Him with those who are in Him, in His theanthropic Body, the Church. His Body is one body (Eph.  4:4), the Body of the incarnate God, the Logos; and the spirit in that Body is one spirit (Eph. 4:4), the Holy Spirit. This theanthropic unity is more perfect and complete than any other. There is no union more real, more comprehensive and immortal in the earthly world than the union of man with God and other men, and with all creation. The means to enter into this union are accessible to each and all: the holy mysteries and virtues. The first holy mystery is baptism and the first holy virtue is faith.”

In p. 23, “You are a member of the Church? This means that you are always with all the saints and through them with the wondrous and wonderworking Lord Christ. With Him you are entirely limitless holy and eternal; you are love, truth, justice and prayer. Everything of yours is of one heart and one soul with all the saints: your mind is conciliar, as are your soul, heart, truth and life. All is conciliar through the Holy Spirit, and you are not your own; you are in all and through all, and all is in you and through you. Nothing is yours, because it is yours through all the saints, and you yourself are not yours, but Christ’s and only through Him your own, and only your own through all the saints. It is they who, with unutterable joy, make you Christ’s and fill you with the fullness of Christ: from whom, by whom and in whom all things consist (Col. 1:16-17).

In p. 34, “A sense of conciliarity, of personal responsibility, is a mark of every Christian. He knows that when he falls, he pulls others down with him; when he rises, he lifts others as well. His life is not his alone, but it is interwoven with the lives of his brethren in the Faith, because we all constitute the One Body of the Church.

In his essay, ‘The Inward Mission of our Church” St Justin openly declares, “It is now high time—the twelfth hour—time for our Church representatives to cease being nothing but the servants of nationalism and for them to become bishops and priests of the One, Holy Catholic, and Apostolic Church. The mission of the Church, given by Christ and put into practice by the Holy Fathers, is this: that in the soul of our people be planted and cultivated a sense and awareness that every member of the Orthodox Church is a Catholic Person, a person who is for ever and ever, and is God-human; that each person is Christ's, and is therefore a brother to every human being, a ministering servant to all men and all created things. This is the Christ-given objective of the Church.” Source

May God open our eyes to see and to experience with awareness the reality of our union with this Body, the Body of Christ, the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, the Orthodox Church and that in it, we are One.