Tuesday, February 11, 2025

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show ***

It is the 11th of February 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis. 

Today’s show has some international intrigue, back channel agreements, and a meeting between two giants of their respective churches in a dingy airport in Havana, Cuba, on this day in 2016.

You might remember the news- Patriarch Kirill of Moscow- the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (the largest Orthodox Church in the world) and the head of the Roman Catholic Church- Pope Francis met after months of secret preparation in a small room at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana Cuba on this day in 2016- the first meeting between these two church bodies since the schism in 1054.

I think it can be a useful story to look at, even for those of us not in either church body, as it relates to the question of the possibilities of Church unity and wondering if, and how, centuries-old schisms might be healed.

For a quick background/refresher- the Western Latin church and the Eastern Orthodox formally broke up in 1054 with the great Schism- check out the show transcript for a helpful article written at 1517 by our own Sam Leanza Ortiz [https://www.1517.org/articles/a-church-divided-the-east-west-schism-of-1054].

Over time, there have been significant theological differences, but these are secondary to the centuries of cultural, linguistic, and liturgical differences between the churches that have been in the forefront for almost 1,000 years. The division over time led to suspicion, and leaders of the various church bodies couldn’t even meet to discuss union. And I say “various church bodies” because unlike the Western Latin/Roman Catholic Church, there is no one head of the Orthodox Church- rather, there are regional patriarchs who have historically received each other as equals, with the patriarch in Constantinople seen as the “First among equals”. With the growth of the Russian Orthodox Church since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus’ has controversially claimed that title of “first among equals”.

Since the late 20th century, there had been dialog between orthodox and catholic camps, but for various reasons [many political], the heads of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox church had never met. There was a plan to meet in the early 2000s with Pope John Paul II and Alexy II but it was cancelled in part because of the negative reaction from members in both church bodies who saw a meeting as betraying their distant cultural and theological heritage.

Credit Francis, who allegedly contacted Kirill and offered to meet “anywhere”- while this was certainly a friendly overture- “anywhere” would not do. It’s a relic of a pre-internet age and old geopolitics that saw a meeting in the East or West as favoring one body. And so, in secret, the calendars of the two men were scoured while they ought a place that would be perceived as neutral.  As both leaders had plans to visit their own church bodies in Latin America, they found Cuba to be an appropriate crossroads- not only literally between hemispheres, but Cuba has a long relationship with Russia (think Cuban Missile Crisis in the 60s- they were the one Soviet Ally in the West).

Critics would note that these two leaders couldn’t actually unite the church bodies, and the Kirill has since been accused of being little more than a puppet for Putin, and Francis has been especially unpopular with certain conservative factions of the Catholic Church.

But this was a meeting occasioned by the slaughter of Christians by ISIS in the Middle East and confusion over baptism or rebaptism in the event of a Christian leaving one of those church bodies for the other.  While they did not talk much theology, the declaration that was promoted claimed that the two were brothers in Christ, and while there were differences, one need not be “rebaptized” if it was done in the name of the Trinity- regardless of the church. The two exchanged gifts, and the two-hour meeting was praised as part of an ongoing dialogue between the churches that have been hurt recently with the events in Ukraine. One can question “dialog” especially for unity if the main theological distinctions are ignored, and we can wonder if a reunification could ever happen after centuries- but movements in the direction by people of good faith can be applauded. Today, we remember the meeting between the leaders of two of the largest church bodies in the world on this day in 2016.

The last word for today is coming off the board because of John 17:20-23: Jesus' prayer before his crucifixion.

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 11th of February 2025 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who can be confused for a Russian patriarch by low church folk who have never seen a bearded high church Lutheran. He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who has had it confirmed with over 2 million words analyzed through Grammarly- I don’t really know how to use commas. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.