Intercommunion

Vatican II expressed the openness of the Catholic Church to eucharistic sharing with the Orthodox Church. Orthodox observers insisted on limiting this openness but did not close the door. A survey of recent Orthodox theologians fr om the School of Paris, Zizioulas, and Staniloae shows a rift between those who are already open to eucharistic hospitality and those who precondition it on doctrinal consensus, defined variedly. An experiential approach to mixed marriages, however, shows the incongruity between uniting the spouses in Christ to form "a little church," but then requiring them to manifest ecclesial disunity in their eucharistic practices. This article proposes that Orthodox-Catholic marriages in the West become the natural place to introduce eucharistic hospitality, in the hope that this experience will have greater consequences for Church unity around the world. *An earlier version of this article was published in Italian: "Ospitalità eucaristica: un'anal-isi fenomenologica della recente teologia ortodossa," in Luigi d' Ayala Valva, Lisa Cremaschi (also translator), Adalberto Mainardi, eds., Il dono dell'ospitalità: Att i del XXV Convegno ecumenico internazionale di spiritualità ortodossa. Bose, 6-9 sett embre 2017 (Comunità di Bose: Edizioni Quiqajon, 2018), pp. 263-285.

The article (from 2007) concentrates on the problem of intercommunion. It presents current official Roman Catholic and Orthodox positions and brings them into conversation with the sacramental and liturgical theologies of these churches. It points out possibilities of theological grounding of a responsible sacramental communication beyond one’s own confession, provided there is a bond of common faith and solidarity with the confessions, in whose life those who practice intercommunion participate.

'(29) Fr. Sergius Bulgakov' in Orthodox Handbook on Ecumenism: Resources for Theological Education: “That they all may be one” (John 17,21), eds. Pantelis Kalaitzidis, Thomas FitzGerald, Cyril Hovorun, Aikaterini Pekridou, Nikolaos Asproulis, Guy Liagre and Dietrich Werner (Volos, Greece: Volos Academy Publications in cooperation with WCC Publications, Geneva, and Regnum Books International, Oxford, 2014), 201-206.

This article considers the involvement of the East Syriac churches— Chaldean Catholic and Church of the East—in the modern ecumenical movement, in particular Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako's efforts to further ecumenical discussion and encourage a policy for the sustainable development of Christianity in Iraq. The importance of recent ecumenical activity derives partly from re-engagement with Christological and ecclesiological beliefs of over 1500 years standing dating from the Council of Ephesus, and partly from massive demographic changes which Christians of the East Syriac traditions have undergone in the last 100 years: currently as much as 60 percent of their populations reside outside of Iraq particularly in North America, Europe, the Levant and Australasia.

Vatican II expressed the openness of the Catholic Church to eucharistic sharing with the Orthodox Church. Orthodox observers insisted on limiting this openness, but did not close the door. A survey of recent Orthodox theologians from the School of Paris, Zizioulas, and Staniloae shows a rift between those who are already open to eucharistic hospitality and those who precondition it on doctrinal consensus, defined variedly. A phenomenological approach to mixed marriages, however, shows that we incongruously unite the spouses in Christ, but then require them to manifest ecclesial disunity in their eucharistic practices. In our pluralistic or polycentric context, Orthodox-Catholic marriages become the natural place to introduce eucharistic hospitality, which opens up the space for encountering each other qua other and allowing for a mutual transformation in this encounter, with greater consequences for our churches.

The practice of  the Spiritual Communion has existed in the Church at least since the times of Saint Augustine. It is defined as the desire to receive the Eucharist. The value of this practice has been confirmed by the teaching of the Council of Trident, masters of the spiritual life and many popes. It seems that the renewal of this custom can be a response to the problem of the banalisation of the Eucharist and offers a possibility to meet the spiritual needs of the people who cannot take the sacrament of Holy Communion. It can be experienced as a longing for the Lord present in the Eucharist, as well as a sign of solidarity with the sinners.

---Praktyka komunii duchowej wydaje się dzisiaj nieco zapomniana. Nawet kapłani wykazują w tej dziedzinie zaskakującą niewiedzę. Nauczanie Jana Pawła II czy Benedykta XVI na ten temat spotkało się z niewielkim odzewem. Stąd wydaje się potrzebne przynajmniej zarysowanie najbardziej istotnych elementów tego tematu. Niniejszy artykuł ukazuje ludzkie problemy i trudności, w świetle których możemy dostrzec aktualność praktyki komunii duchowej. Następnie prezentuje, istniejące już od czasów patrystycznych, doświadczenie Kościoła związane z komunią duchową, a potwierdzone w ciągu wieków przez sobory, papieży i świętych. Wreszcie stawia istotne pytania dotyczące badanej rzeczywistości. Przede wszystkim, czym ona jest i jakie są jej wartości, starając się znaleźć na te pytania odpowiedź. Nie przemilcza także pewnych trudnych i dyskusyjnych kwestii związanych z tą praktyką w naszych czasach.

In the essay the hermeneutical views of Jean–Luc Marion, as they are expressed in his God without Being: Hors–Texte in relationship with the Eucharist and the story of Luke 24, are presented and critically assessed. The criticisms registered touch in the first place upon the concept of in persona Christi, which concerns the relation between the celebrant and Christ. Furthermore, the issue of the relationship between the eucharistic minister and his (or her) community and thereby the hermeneutical function of the Eucharist as a celebration of the whole community is discussed in dialogue with Marion's views.

Between the 17th and 18th centuries, the main cities of the Ottoman Empire became the stage of an intense Catholic missionary activity, mainly directed toward the faithful of the Eastern Christian Churches. My paper examines the different strategies employed by religious orders (especially Capuchins, Jesuits and Franciscans) in their relations with the local Orthodox and pre-Chalcedonian Christian communities. I have chosen three main points of inquiry: the adaptation of the European missionaries to the local social structures, their attitude toward the Eastern rites and traditions (respect vs. “latinization”) and finally the measure of tolerance or intolerance displayed toward the practice of sacramental intercommunion between Catholic converts and non-Catholics. As a result of these divergent views, the years between 1700 and 1730 saw the insurgence of several controversies, motivated not only by ideological rivalry or competition, but also by the different social and political conditions specific to each mission. In particular, I will focus on the cases of Constantinople, Aleppo and Cairo, showing how local circumstances influenced the missionaries in their relationship with the Ottoman Christians, with the officials of the Sublime Porte and with the representatives of the Crown of France and of the Roman Church.
https://www.routledge.com/Catholic-Missionaries-in-Early-Modern-Asia-Patterns-of-Localization-1st/Amsler-Badea-Heyberger-Windler/p/book/9780367028817

Intercommunion, (Pre-)Marital Relations and Ecumenism. A Romanian Orthodox metropolitan has received communion during a Greek-Catholic liturgy (2008), which has opened up a controversial debate. Praise, but also harsh criticism have been expressed. The present article attempts to approach this issue by making yse of the similarity between Eucharist and Marriage in the history of salvation, spirituality, and canonical norms. Receiving communion and having marital relations are both based on a covenant and communion, with Christ, and between man and woman. Since the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches are close enough to allow for mixed marriages, there is no reason to sustain the absolute impossibility of intercommunion.

The paper offered some biblical evidence for the "inclusive" character of the Eucharist, thus providing some arguments to overcome the dividing dilema "communion vs/or intercommunion"

Georges Florovsky is the mastermind of a 'return to the Church Fathers' in twentieth-century Orthodox theology. His theological vision-the neopatristic synthesis-became the main paradigm of Orthodox theology and the golden standard of Eastern Orthodox identity in the West. Focusing on Florovsky's European period (1920-1948), this study analyses how Florovsky's evolving interpretation of Russian religious thought, particularly Vladimir Solovyov and Sergius Bulgakov, informed his approach to patristic sources. Paul Gavrilyuk offers a new reading of Florovsky's neopatristic theology, by closely considering its ontological, epistemological and ecclesiological foundations.

It is common to contrast Florovsky's neopatristic theology with the 'modernist' religious philosophies of Pavel Florensky, Sergius Bulgakov, and other representatives of the Russian Religious Renaissance. Gavrilyuk argues that the standard narrative of twentieth-century Orthodox theology, based on this polarization, must be reconsidered. The author demonstrates Florovsky's critical appropriation of the main themes of the Russian Religious Renaissance, including theological antinomies, the meaning of history, and the nature of personhood. The distinctive features of Florovsky's neopatristic theology—Christological focus, 'ecclesial experience', personalism, and 'Christian Hellenism'—are best understood against the background of the main problematic of the Renaissance. Specifically, it is shown that Bulgakov's sophiology provided a polemical subtext for Florovsky's theology of creation. It is argued that the use of the patristic norm in application to modern Russian theology represents Florovsky's theological signature.

Drawing on unpublished archival material and correspondence, this study sheds new light on such aspects of Florovsky's career as his family background, his participation in the Eurasian movement, his dissertation on Alexander Herzen, his lectures on Vladimir Solovyov, and his involvement in Bulgakov's Brotherhood of St Sophia.

* Offers an accessible introduction to the thought of Georges Florovsky
* Presents a new interpretation of twentieth-century Orthodox theology that revises the standard narrative of Russian émigré theology
* Contextualizes Florovsky's neopatristic theology through analysis of different currents of the Paris school of Orthodox theology
* Discusses little known aspects of Florovsky's biography
* Draws on unpublished works and correspondence

Readership: Students and scholars of Orthodox theology; of religious studies;of Slavic/ Russian studies.