NCC NEWS - Church-to-Church visits begin

[Worldwide Faith News]

Hospitality, worship and openness
mark first NCC Church-to-Church visits

June 5, 2008 - Hospitality, openness and a common commitment to the 
gospel of Jesus Christ were abundantly evident in Church-to-Church 
visits to two member communions conducted by National Council of 
Churches (NCC) delegations.

Both primates welcomed the delegations warmly.

"Feel at home here," said H.E. the Most Rev. Archbishop Khajag 
Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America 
(Eastern) following prayers in St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral in New 
York May 28.

Similarly, the following day H.E. the Most Rev. Archbishop Mor Cyril 
Aphrem Karim of the Syrian (Syriac) Orthodox Church of Antioch said 
in the church's Teaneck, N.J., offices, "We tell our visitors, 'You are home.'"

"We did indeed feel at home," said the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, NCC 
General Secretary. "These visits express the reality that the 
National Council of Churches is a community of Christian communions, 
not a program agency in uptown Manhattan that does things on behalf 
of the churches."

The Church to Church visits are mandated by the Council's Strategic 
Plan for 2007-2011 to strengthen relationships of member churches to 
each other and to identify ways the NCC can assist churches as they 
carry out their ecumenical calling, Kinnamon said. The goal is to 
visit all 35 member communions in the next four years.

Quoting from a book by the church's former Catholicos in Etchmiadzin, 
Armenia, the late Karekin I, Kinnamon summarized the spirit of the 
meetings: "Ecumenism is the very essence of our Christian faith. 
Common prayer is the most important element of our life together - 
the opening up of one to the other."

Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern):

New York, May 28, 2008 - The National Council of Churches visit to 
the Armenian Church in America (Eastern Diocese) came at an 
auspicious time, amid preparations for celebrating the 40th 
anniversary of St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral at 630 Second Avenue.

True to Armenian hospitality, Archbishop Khajag Barsamian told the 
NCC visitors that they will be welcome at all the anniversary 
celebrations, including a concert and art exhibition on June 19 and a 
special ceremony honoring the original planners and builders October 
12 taking place this year.

The first of 35 projected church-to-church visits by representatives 
of NCC member communions took place at the Armenian diocese.

NCC General Secretary, the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, said, "We begin 
here not only because of the ecumenical heritage of this church, and 
not only because of the 40th anniversary of this great cathedral, but 
also in honor of our President, Archbishop Vicken Aykazian." The 
purpose of the visits, Kinnamon said, is to enable member communions 
to get to know one another better, "so we know how and when to pray 
for one another, celebrate our anniversaries, share in one another's 
lives, and have a deeper understanding of one another as Christians. "

"We are here to ask how the NCC can be even more fully a place where 
your ecumenical calling is lived out as a church."

Archbishop Barsamian thanked the NCC delegation for "taking this 
initiative in coming. Ecumenism is a tradition in our diocese, thanks 
to the leadership of former primates."

One of those former primates was Barsamian's predecessor, the 
legendary Archbishop Torkom Manoogian , who served six terms as head 
of the Eastern Diocese before becoming the 96th Armenian Patriarch of 
Jerusalem in 1990. Manoogian served on the NCC Governing Board and 
was president of the board of Religion in American Life. Barsamian 
was Manoogian's vicar.

The Armenian Church has been faithful to its ecumenical commitments 
over the years, although many of its members have been uneasy with 
what they consider excessive politicization of the NCC.

Natasha Aljalian, a pastor's spouse and attorney from Boston, said 
"this impression of a politicized NCC risks alienating certain 
members that don't take into consideration the differences between 
interfaith and faith and order."

"Social problems are a part of the NCC," said NCC President 
Archbishop Aykazian. "But it goes far beyond that. We are a Christian 
organization concerned about suffering in the world."

Kinnamon added, "We're far more radical than left and right in 
politics. We won't back off issues, but we will ground them in faith. 
And the full participation of all our member churches is a way of 
helping us keep that balance."

Father Tateos Abdalian, an American-born priest and director of the 
diocese's Department of Mission Parishes, talked of the challenges 
visiting 23 mission parishes in the eastern U.S. less than once a month.

"Many in these churches come from the former Soviet Union where they 
were never allowed to worship," he said. "They are  ignorant about 
God and church manners, but I find they have a great hunger for 
Christ and God. But if we have services in each church less than once 
a month, they must question whether the Armenian Church is their 
mother church or is it a place they visit once a month?"

Father Tateos also noted that one of the evils faced by all 
communions "is the secularization of Sundays. Sundays are no longer 
the Lord's Day but a day that belongs to the world. Parents want 
their children to go to church Sundays, but have to contend with 
Sunday morning soccer games. There needs to be some effort to bring 
back Christ's presence on Sundays."

Kinnamon said other NCC member communions probably have the same concerns.

"This would be a great test case," he said. "As we move from 
conversation to conversation, we can take issues like this with us to 
find out how many of us have similar goals.

Syrian (Syriac) Orthodox Church of Antioch:

Teaneck, N.J., May 29, 2008 - Archbishop Mor Cyril Aphrem Karim 
gathered the NCC delegation with Syriac church priests and lay 
leaders in a comfortable parlor and served manna, the biblical pastry 
associated with God's love and protection.

Karim, a tall man with a graying black beard and ready smile, 
welcomed the group as "brothers and sisters of the one body of Christ."

  He noted that the church of Antioch,"was the first ecumenical 
church and the first universal catholic church." The bible records 
that "it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called 
"Christians" (Acts 11:26). The Syrian Orthodox Church traces its 
history back to the days immediately following the resurrection of 
Jesus. Aramaic, the language of Jesus, is still used in the church's 
liturgy and in many homes, Karim said. "In visiting us you are 
visiting a tradition as old as Christianity."

Karim, a life-long ecumenist who has served on the Central Committee 
of the World Council of Churches and the Governing Board of the NCC, 
told the group gathered in the parlor that the visit "truly expressed 
the nature of the National Council of Churches - churches working together."

The group participated in a wide-ranging discussion of the pluses and 
minuses of their relationships. They agreed that the NCC could uses 
its good offices to increase American awareness that there are 
Christians in Syria. Members of the group exchanged stories of their 
experiences returning to the U.S. from the Middle East. In some 
cases, Homeland Security agents refused to believe there are 
Christian churches in Syria, Iraq and other Middle Eastern nations.

Kinnamon said NCC member communions must "bear witness that if you 
are persecuted we all are persecuted. I am not a Christian American, 
I'm an American Christian. You are part of a body that is much larger."

Another area in which the NCC could enhance the effectiveness of 
individual communions is to counter the secularization of Christian 
holidays. "Our children are missing the whole meaning of Christmas 
and Easter," a woman said.

Children are also missing the historical significance of those 
holidays, she added.  "When our children sing, 'O little Town of 
Bethlehem,' do they know there are children suffering in that little 
town of Bethlehem?"

Another concern of Orthodox Christians has been the proselyting 
efforts of some Protestant denominations, Karim said. "It was a very 
sad phase of history when our churches were a field of missionary 
work by Protestant churches," he said. "Thank God that kind of 
activity ceases as we got to know each other better."

The NCC's concern, Kinnamon said, is not they churches try to convert 
one another, "our concern is that we be Christians together."

The group noted that some developments are bringing churches closer together.

The Very Rev. Fr. John Khoury noted that Protestants are showing "a 
growing appreciation of the ancient Patristic tradition," once little 
known among non-Orthodox Christians. "That can build a very important 
bridge," Father Khoury said.

The Very Rev. Fr. John Meno said one of the oldest dialogues between 
churches was established between the Oriental Orthodox Churches and 
the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "It's not so much a 
discussion of theological issues as on the pastoral concerns of 
interest to us all," Father Meno said. In the past, "there has been a 
tendency only to stress our differences rather than the things that 
we share in common," he said. Talking about those ties that bind "is 
one of the most beautiful things about our membership in the NCC."

The Rev. Melvin Wilson, pastor of St. Luke's African Methodist 
Episcopal Church in New York, a member of the NCC delegation, shared 
some history of the founding of his church in 1787 by the Rev. 
Richard Allen in Philadelphia.

"Could we worship together?" Rev. Wilson asked? "Our people will 
benefit from that and our people in the pew will realize that if we 
rely on CNN we'll never know there's a church in Syria."

Father Meno reached his hand our to Rev. Wilson. "Name the date," he 
said, "and we're there."

"When we worship with you," Wilson said, smiling, "don't change a 
thing. Do it the way you do it. Because when you come to us, I'm 
going to do it the way we do it."

In addition to Kinnamon and  Wilson, members of the NCC delegation 
included NCC President Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, Rev. Clifton 
Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Bishop 
Fritz Mutti of the United Methodist Church,  Rev. Lydia Veliko, 
ecumenical officer of the United Church of Christ, and Philip E. 
Jenks, NCC staff.

The National Council of Churches is the ecumenical voice of 35 
Anglican, Orthodox, Protestant, historic African American and peace communions.

NCC News contact: Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228, NCCNews at ncccusa.org