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Both Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Francis have said that Christian Division is a scandal.

“It was precisely that Gospel truth that, at the beginning of the twentieth century, was the inspiration for the mobilization of our churches, who,confronted with the scandal of division, (emphasis mine) gave their attention to the pressing question of Christian unity, by establishing bonds of fellowship between divided churches and by building bridges to overcome their divisions.”[1]

“But we should recognize with sincerity and pain that our communities continue to live in division that is scandalous. Division among us Christians is a scandal. “(Emphasis mine)[2]

Obviously scandal is not virtue, it is sin.  Thus, of all the reasons to proclaim oneness and unity in Christ immediately and then continue working through the issues that divide us, the scandal of schism requiring Christians to sin seems to be the most urgent.

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Sin misses the mark.  The mark is God Who is Trinity in Unity; Diversity in Unity; Three Persons in the Oneness of God.

In contrast, Christians are a trinity (Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant) divided; diversity in division; three in division.    

Jesus prayed, “…that they may be one as We are.”  Later Jesus prays that all who believe in Him may be one as the Trinity in Unity is One.  (John 17.11; 20-23).    Believe in Jesus and be one.  Belief in Jesus Christ is all that He requires for oneness. 

By 55 A.D. the Corinthian Christian community was divided and in factions.   St. Paul wrote to them and we clearly see in 1 Cor. 1.10, 17-34 that he pleaded with them to work through their issues as one and commune together.  What was St. Paul thinking?  How could he counsel divided Christians to commune together?  It is possible that he believed communing with the One, True God would heal their divisions and factions because God is divine medicine and perfect Oneness. 

Even with God’s example and Paul’s guidance, over the centuries Church leaders and some Christians still choose the scandal of division for the collective church experience.  

Therefore let us discover how this scandal of Christian division affects the individual Christian.  

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The definition of ancestral sin according to Orthodox Christianity, as I understand it, offers insights.  Ancestral sin is theoretically defined like an inherited disease with ‘moderate to severe’ tendencies to sin personally but without being responsible for anyone else’s sins.  

Practically, Christian schism requires the individual Christian to be responsible for the sins of those Church leaders who created and continue Christian division in the following ways.   First, the individual Christian is responsible for the sin of a divided Christianity created by others just by being a member of a church.  This inherited scandal is felt more acutely when the individual Christian disagrees and determines ours is a false division but has no authority to change the reality.  (The phrase ‘false division’ refers to how churches have not followed Jesus’ own requirements for oneness nor St. Paul’s guidance to the Corinthians, as noted above.) 

Second, the individual Christian must personally sin by maintaining and creating new Christian divisions in their own life.  Take the example of upholding the created custom where baptized Christians are prevented from receiving God until that person first agrees with the community/denomination in which they are worshiping God.  Once they join that church community by believing its theology and teachings then God is accessible to them. 

The Gospels show a different process for receiving God.

Everyone who approaches Jesus Christ with faith that He is the Messiah and that He can help and heal them receive Him, often immediately, and without needing to agree with any community or even be baptized first.   The focus is only on the person receiving God for their own salvation; the community that is God!

These few examples show how the scandal of Christian division requires Christians to sin both as a collective community and also as individuals.  How might this acknowledged scandal finally propel us to proclaim our oneness and unity in the year 2024-2025?

After so many centuries officially divided, I imagine how it may feel irresponsible to pronounce our oneness and unity due to our outstanding differences. 

Because this blog is a place to creatively imagine oneness and unity differently between East and West Christianity, the conclusion of the article is a possible pastoral message for how our spiritual shepherds could attend to the reality that Christian division requires Christians to sin.

Most honorable brother hierarchs and beloved children in the Lord,

Reminded of God’s vision for us that He makes us one as He is one, we the Fathers and Hierarchs of Christianity East and West acknowledge to you, our beloved spiritual children, that in our faithful work to dialogue and seriously study what divides us Christians we unintentionally lost sight of the impact schism has on you, the individual Christian.  We now realize that our careful and slow approach to unity with each other actually makes you, our dear spiritual children sin by inheriting and maintaining this schism in your own lives and families. You personally bear the burdens of Christian schism; scandal that it is.   We are deeply grieved and we humbly ask your forgiveness for this significant oversight.  

So that you our cherished faithful Christian flock may be released from these sinful schism burdens we officially proclaim Christian oneness today because ultimately God has already done this for us through His Son’s ministry as the Chief Cornerstone.

You may be assured we will continue our dialogues and serious studies of the issues where we disagree in hopes of deeper understandings.  Because we will all understand ourselves as one in Christ and will be communing together as St. Paul guides divided Christians to do (1 Cor. 1.10, 17-34) we expect to generate more quickly joint statements for our outstanding issues like for example, the role of the Pope of Rome/Patriarch of the West in the Christian experience.

We understand not everyone will agree with our newly realized oneness and unity however we ask for your patience and trust in God that He is inspiring and guiding us in this Way.

Please accept this starter plan for how we will live out our oneness in parish life.

Each Christian will be able to exercise their own free will and choose for themselves how to proceed.   We expect every Christian community to continue practicing their beloved prayer and worship traditions.  These will not be lost since we are not suggesting consolidating traditions into one.  In this way we will imitate the Divine Diversity in Unity.

Then, for those Christians who agree with us, you will be responsible for finding the priest and community who also agree with our oneness/unity in God.  That the Priest will be leading his community in our newly proclaimed oneness implies their Bishop agrees with us and is guiding their clergy in this way too.  This will keep good order, as St. Paul says. (1 Corinthians 14.40)

In Church communities as described in the paragraph above, all baptized Christians may receive Christ sacramentally, practice their faith and then over time grow into communion and agreement with that church’s teachings, if they choose.  Jesus Christ Himself taught us that the only requirement to be one is believing He is the Messiah; it is to our Lord’s requirement that we are returning.

Those Christians who are not ready to accept this oneness that God gifts us with will no longer be living in the sin of Christian schism because the Church will officially not be practicing it.  

We know that this change may result in concerns from some that what we are describing is a ‘false unity’.    We understand how you might be feeling as many of us have felt this way in our lifetime too. 

What we are saying is that instead of making the focus of oneness about us-limited human beings that we are- we are saying now that we are one in the True God because He made us and makes us one.  Again, we commit to you that we will continue working through our disagreements as we shared with you earlier in our caring counsel.

Because this approaches oneness and unity from a different direction, for those who are not ready to accept Christian oneness, you may continue with a Bishop, Priest and Community of your choosing and in the tradition of members’ only sacramental participation until such time as you personally and/or the community are ready to embrace East and West Christian oneness in Christ in the model introduced above.

It would even be expected that anxious attempts to divide from we who write these words and also from the communities who start to practice Christian oneness are contemplated and even begin to happen.  While we will grieve such decisions please know those will be personal choices that will not affect the oneness God gifts to us as Christians of East and West.  Our pastoral guidance to you will be the same as the Apostle Paul’s to his flock in Corinth. (1 Cor. 1.10, 17-34 )   Again, a path forward for you is described above.  We do implore you to consider how we collectively missed throughout history how our division decisions actually goes against our Lord’s ministry for us.   As spiritual shepherds we must lead our spiritual children to follow our Lord’s teachings and examples.

For now, we close believing we are continuing to be empowered by the Holy Spirit Who is guiding us to adjust our traditions for our uniquely modern era of the rejuvenated Body of Christ as expressed in Eastern and Western Christianity.   We are confident we are following our ancient church’s creativity and innovations in tradition making with these words and actions.   

Please continue to pray for us as we pray for you so that we may faithfully become more closely resembling our True God Who is One; a Diversity in Unity.

Paternally yours.

Creatively writing the proposed message in italics above is also a prayer that gives me brighter hope that our Christian oneness is truly right around the corner…stone.

As always, what is impossible with us, is possible with God…when we allow Him and follow Him!

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[1] https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/homily-by-the-ecumenical-patriarch-hah-bartholomew

[2] https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/scandal-of-division-7509