If you’ve been watching the news lately, you might have seen some beautiful, hopeful images. Pope Leo the Fourteenth and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, standing side-by-side. Praying together in Istanbul, blessing crowds in the rain. It looked, for all the world, like a family reunion a thousand years in the making.
Many of us have lived long enough to see several Popes reach out to our Orthodox brothers and sisters. We remember the historic meetings, the warm words, the promise of healing the great split between East and West that happened back in 1054.
But today, I want to talk about what happened behind those hopeful pictures. Because during this latest visit, the Patriarch said something that changes the conversation entirely. He wasn’t just asking for friendship. He was asking for something that Rome may simply never be able to give.
Let’s pull up a chair and look at what was really said, and what it means for the dream of one, united Church.
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