Journeying by Faith, not by Sight 

Metropolitan Herman, Primate
Orthodox Church in America 

St. Vartan’s Cathedral
New York City

November 8, 2007 

This message was sent to St. Vartan Armenia Cathedral on November 8, 2007, to be read at the installation of His Eminence Archbishop Vicken Aykazian as President of the National Council of Churches and the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon as the Council’s General Secretary. 

We are assembled in the Armenian Cathedral Church of St. Vartan in New York City for the conclusion of the 2007 General Assembly of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America and Church World Service.  To be in this Cathedral offers the opportunity to reflect on the Christian journey through history. In the Armenian context we are mindful that the Christian journey is one of many centuries, and that the preaching of the Good News of Christ has come through Apostles and those whom they evangelized to many nations, cultures, and peoples. 

The first people who confessed Christ as a nation were the Armenians.  Early in the fourth century the Gospel of Christ was wholeheartedly received by the Armenian people.  Since their birth in Christ through faith and baptism the Armenian people have been steadfast in their confession of the Gospel.  Often they have confessed the Christian faith under severe hardship and persecution, witnessing to Christ in suffering and martyrdom. 

Less than one hundred years ago the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire visited mass death and destruction on the Armenian people.  The story of this genocide is a profoundly moving record of the suffering of a whole people.  It is also the story of the beginning of the genocides, killing fields, and holocausts of the 20th century. 

The Cross of Christ is at the center of the Armenian spiritual journey.  The Cross is a sign of Christ’s death on the Cross and of Christ’s Resurrection.  Thus, the centrality of the Cross in the Armenian religious experience testifies both to suffering and to resurrection, both to grief and to joy.  It is this understanding of the Christian faith which offers the deepest and most meaningful explanation of the suffering as well as the renewed life and vitality of the Armenian communities. 

In the Eastern Orthodox liturgical texts, a hymn which is sung each Sunday makes the announcement that “through the Cross joy has come into all the world.”  In Orthodox cultures and languages Sunday is called not only the “Lord’s Day” but also the Day of the Resurrection.  Thus each Sunday is a celebration of the Resurrection of Christ, with a deep awareness that it is through the Cross that the joy of the Resurrection comes into the world.

The joy of the Resurrection is not limited to religious experience as a separate category of human life.  All of life and all relationships are transformed through the presence of the Risen Christ.

A great mystic of the Orthodox Church of Russia, St. Seraphim of Sarov, is a wonderful example of life transfigured by the joy of the Resurrection.  St. Seraphim was a monastic priest in central Russia during the latter part of the 18^th century and the first part of the 19^th century.  He spent many years as a hermit, practicing intense prayer in solitude.  When he returned to his monastery and took up life in his monastic cell, he opened his door to all.  People from all of Russia found their way to St. Seraphim’s cell, seeking words of truth and love.  Whether it was the season celebrating the Resurrection of Christ or not, St. Seraphim’s greeting to every person was “Christ is Risen, my joy.”  A French existentialist philosopher of the 20^th century proclaimed with certainty that “hell is other people.”  The Russian Orthodox mystic of the 19^th century lived out the truth that the Risen Christ is present in other people, and therefore the other person is not hell but heaven – the very joy of the Resurrection. 

The Resurrection Faith is not reducible to a dogmatic proposition or a theological approach.  The presence of the Risen Christ gives a new orientation to all of life and to all relationships. 

In The Orthodox Way, a book first published in 1979, the English Orthodox bishop and theologian Kallistos Ware included a passage from a text identified as a “Letter from a Soviet concentration camp.”  Here is the message of this letter. 

It is only by being a prisoner for religious convictions in a Soviet camp that one can really understand the mystery of the fall of the first man, the mystical meaning of the redemption of all creation, and the great victory of Christ over the forces of evil.  It is only when we suffer for the ideals of the Holy Gospel that we can realize our sinful infirmity and our unworthiness in comparison with the great martyrs of the first Christian church.  Only then can we grasp the absolute necessity for profound meekness and humility, without which we cannot be saved; only then can we begin to discern the passing image of the seen, and the eternal life of the Unseen. 

On Easter Day all of us who were imprisoned for religious convictions were united in the one joy of Christ.  We were all taken into one feeling, into one spiritual triumph, glorifying the one eternal God.  There was no solemn Paschal service with the ringing of church bells, no possibility in our camp to gather for worship, to dress up for the festival, to prepare Easter dishes.  On the contrary, there was even more work and more interference than usual.  All the prisoners here for religious convictions, whatever their denomination, were surrounded by more spying, by more threats from the secret police. 

Yet Easter was there:  great, holy, spiritual, unforgettable.  It was blessed by the presence of the risen God among us – blessed by the silent Siberian stars and by our sorrows.  How our hearts beat joyfully in communion with the great Resurrection!  Death is conquered, fear is no more, an eternal Easter is given to us!  Full of this marvelous Easter, we send you from our prison camp the victorious and joyful tidings:  Christ is Risen! 

This letter is a testimony to the power of the Cross of Christ to transform suffering into joy, and defeat into victory.  In the very lands in which all the power of the state was mobilized to destroy the Christian faith and all religion, we today witness the miracle of the revival of the Church and the renewal of its apostolic mission.   

The words of scripture which are identified with this General Assembly come from Second Corinthians:  “We journey by faith” (2 Corinthians 5:7a).  Each Christian person and each Christian church and community do well to journey by faith, not by sight.  In speaking of the journey by faith, the Apostle refers also to courage as a necessary quality during the journey.  In a powerful and vivid passage, the Apostle Paul writes of humility, the transcendent power of God, holding together the suffering of the Cross and confidence in the power of God and the victory of Christ.

….We have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.  We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies (2 Cor. 4: 7-10). 

In their ecumenical journey, the National Council of Churches and Church World Service also journey by faith.  A journey implies movement.  Movement suggests transitions and changes.  Among the transitions and changes in the National Council of Churches is the transmission of leadership from the Reverend Michael Livingston, President, and the Reverend Robert Edgar, General Secretary, to the new President, Archbishop Vicken Aykazian of the Armenian Church, and the new General Secretary, the Reverend Dr. Michael Kinnamon of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  We join together in gratitude and thanksgiving both for the leaders who are laying down the burdens and challenges of leadership and for the new leaders of the National Council of Churches. 

It is obvious that ecumenical bodies face challenges and are burdened by difficulties.  These challenges and difficulties are not limited to matters of finance and organization.   There are challenges presented by contradictory visions and convictions – visions and convictions which not only divide churches and communities from one another, but also create divisions within churches and communities. 

The Orthodox Churches hold to a vision of Christian unity in which the essential role belongs to the churches – and not to organizations.  In other terms, the role of the ecumenical bodies such as the National Council of Churches is not to be “ends in themselves,” but rather forums for the living encounter of the churches and Christian communities with one another.   

While the Orthodox Churches are clear about the vision of Christian unity, we are less clear about the nature of our participation in the ecumenical journey.  There are several reasons for this ambiguity.  There is a difference of ethos and historical perspective between the churches coming from the Christian East and the churches of the Christian West.  This brings about differences in theological approach to contemporary challenges in many arenas – theological, ethical, and social. 

Nevertheless, during the past twenty years, there have been two Presidents of the National Council of Churches from the Eastern Orthodox member communions – first, Fr. Leonid Kishkovsky of the Orthodox Church in America, and more recently Elenie Huszagh of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.  Today we participate in the installation of the first President of the National Council of Churches from the Oriental Orthodox member communions.   

We commend Archbishop Vicken for taking up the task of ecumenical leadership as a strong representative of the Orthodox traditions.  We welcome the Reverend Dr. Michael Kinnamon, an articulate ecumenical theologian among the Protestant churches, as he assumes the office of General Secretary of the National Council of Churches.  We look to both of them for clear and lucid ecumenical leadership.  One dimension of this leadership will be expressed in meeting the challenge of the differences of ecclesial perspective and theological emphasis among the member communions. We pray that God will grant them the vision and the grace to bear witness to the National Council of Churches as an expression of the quest for Christian unity in our nation. 

If we are engaged in this quest together, if we walk together this journey of faith, may each of us encounter in the other the presence of the Risen Christ and see in the face of the other not hell, but the heaven of the joy of the Resurrection. 

And let us be mindful of the truth expressed in the writings of an Orthodox lay theologian of the 19^th century: 

The one who believes is in a community of faith.
The one who prays is in a community of prayer.
The one who loves is in a community of love.