No good in politics

My friends know this already. I'd be a washout in politics. I haven't the skill to do the subtle thing, or to play the game right. I'd strike out and throw an interception all in the same period.

I'm sure I wouldn't know how to pray right in the Blue Mosque, and do just the right inflection on mentioning that we all worship the same God. And honor the same Mary.

I wouldn't know how to do group hugs with those wild and crazy guys that have decimated an Orthodox population down to 2000, after they just about erased a whole nation (i.e., Armenia) and sliced up Smyrnaean Greeks into smithereens. That's not to mention the wholesale theft of church property, the forced closure of my bishop's theological alma mater on Halki, the prohibition of ecclesial dress, the demand of Turkish citizenship for the Patriarch.

I wouldn't know how to coach my advisors, cardinals and spin doctors into throwing a desultory fog over doctrinal issues like the primacy of Persons in the Trinity. I'd have talked about a lot of stuff with those Ortho guys -- if I were the Pope, I'd have given up on that 1870 business ("just give me that first among equals thing and I'll be happy"), but I would have fought for Augustinian Trinitarianism, which is the primary reason f0r the Rome/New Rome divide (i.e., not Petrine Primacy by a long shot -- that's only a fog bank).

Give me Augustine in theology proper and I stay Western. Take me to Cappadocia, and I fall into the East.

I wouldn't know how to tell my handlers to miniaturize (and caricaturize) this issue as "just technical stuff." I wouldn't know how to set down talking points for Monsignors to characterize the entire process as an extended family having a real big fight years ago, and now we're just now visiting together and talking together and taking care of the details.

I wouldn't know how to visit a dinky little church like St. George's in the Phanar and take a bearded Patriarch and his Holy Synod seriously. Everyone is dressed in funereal black, and I'd be in a red robe with white poofy fur trim. I wouldn't know how to treat with him, and meet in the same month with the Archbishop of Canterbury and hold the door open to Patriarch Alexei of Moscow.

Bear in mind that I'm not speaking for my beloved Patriarch, His All Holiness, Bartholomew Archbishop of Constantinople. I am sure that he supported the activities of the Pope in the latter's visit to Istanbul (shudder). As I am also sure that there were good reasons for this next, and last, complaint.

But I'm not a politician, remember? And so I wouldn't know how to pray a nice inter-religious prayer at the big Blue Mosque, but not even make the sign of the Cross at Hagia Sophia, which suffers the pricking of four spikes at the compass, and arabesque uncials blaring into the nave.

Not even a Cross, a tiny little Roman flutter of the palm to acknowledge the lordship of Justinian (and his beautiful wife), and the legacy of Chrysostomos, whose Liturgy was promulgated from this site to the ends of the earth.

How does one not make the Sign of the Cross?

I wouldn't know.

Comments

[Visibilium]

Could you expand on your view of Augustinian Trinitarianism as the primary reason for the divide?

[Ben]

Fr. Jonathan, the fact that you aren't a politician helps you maintain a healthy -- albeit troubled -- worldview. Unfortunately, your Orthodox view will be ignored by the mass media. The creepy visit to the Blue Mosque gives fodder to the likes of LaHaye, whose warped perspective will be the only counterpoint (if any) raised by the media. I can see it now: "Evangelicals, on the other hand, are aghast at the Pope's visit. LaHaye and other notable leaders point to this as a sure sign of the imminent Rapture of the 'true' Church." Ugh. I sure wish there would be more historical depth in the political news (sic), but alas ... it shall not be.

[Reid]

Fr. Jonathan, as Visibilium also said above, I would be grateful for a few words from you on what Augustinian Trinitarianism is and how it differs from the Orthodox understanding. As an Evangelical I am increasingly aware of how seldom many Evangelicals think about the doctrine of the Trinity and how we impoverish ourselves thereby. And I increasingly appreciate the richness of what the Orthodox have to say on the subject.