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While I know that from a human point of view, it looks like that the physical re-union of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Oriental Churches of the East are far off, I would like to throw out this thought for discussion.
I think that we can begin to anticepate this re-union. (I am not saying how this union will take place) If we begin to treat each other as Members of Sister Churches. I am looking for some suggestions on how to do this right now.

Dear Theodore.

Great topic. I would like to volunteer as stating we must all acknowledge each church and its respective customs and liturgies as containing the fullness of Truth as revealed to that particular institution. As long as we quibble over which church is correct or incorrect, and possesses or does not possess the fullness of the whole Truth, then we doom a potential reunion from ever happening. Maybe the key is to educate from within each of the churches. Once the members can accept that each church possesses the fullness of the Faith, then the most important keystone has been set into place. As long as there is doubt, I, no matter how much I would love to see this happen, do not foresee a reunion.

Just my two centavos!

In Christ,

Michael

One suggestion: Form a chapter of the Society of St. John Chrysostom look here: http://www.byzantines.net/stjohnchrysostom/

Christ is Born!!! Glorify Him!!!
Christ is in our midst!!! He is and always will be!!!

Another suggestion is saying this prayer every day and not quitting. When we pray and how we pray influences how we think and how we act toward each other. It's the same principle that self-help people use: how you think influences how you act which comes back around to how you think.

In Christ,

BOB

Prayer for the Unity of Christians

(Introductory Meditation) Our Lord Jesus Christ prayed that all of us might be one as He and the Father are one. And here we are. Allow me to propose that we begin to pray for the unity of the Faith and the unity of the faithful with particular fervor and not stop from this day onward. Let's pray that the Lord Jesus will take over this work since we cannot seem to get it right by ourselves.

Lord Jesus, You came to earth to break the bonds of death for us and to show us the Way to the Kingdom where You and the Father dwell. Send the Holy Spirit to us and let us see that Your Kingdom is within each of us to the extent that we let the Spirit in. Help each of us to see that there are others that You have called who are not of the particular flock that You have placed us in, but that they are our brothers and sisters nonetheless because they are Your followers just as we are. Grant us the grace to let the Holy Spirit heal the terrible wounds that we have all inflicted on Your Holy Body, the Church, just as we have inflicted the wounds on Your Physical Body by our sin, though we may be centuries in time removed from the time You suffered. Help us all to rise from the tombs we have constructed around ourselves that seal us in with our own self-righteousness and the Holy Spirit and our brothers and sisters out. Expand our vision and make our love so grow that we will see each one who calls himself your servant as our brother or sister rather than "one of them" that is "separate from us." Show us Your kindness and have patience with us and with the mess we have all made.

Lord, may each of us who calls himself Your servant take time today to remember that there are others You have placed in this world with theological and doctrinal positions that are directly opposite to what You have given us in the place where You placed us. Let us with Your Grace learn that these may also call themselves Your servants. Let us remember that we have no corner on You, Your Grace, Your Great Mercy, or Your Promises. Let us remember that we do have the same command from You, that we love one another as You have loved us. Help us to remember that Your commandment of love does not release us from living and preaching Your Good News as we have received it, but let us also remember that our brother who may be opposite to us has also been given the Good News even though we may not recognize it in the form he has received it. Shine into all hearts and let each one speak the Truth as he has received it and be charitable to others in listening to them speak. Grant to us the day when the Holy Spirit will cut through the Tower of Babel we have erected in Your Vineyard by our own sin. Let each one remember that his brother does not hold his understanding of the Truth as a heretic, but rather as one who has been placed in another place than oneself.

Grant all these things, Lord, so that the healing of Your Holy Body, the Church, may come quickly.

Through the prayers of the All-holy, Ever-Virgin, Mother of God, Mary, who is also our mother by Your gracious Gift from the Cross, through the intercessions of the holy apostles, saints, martyrs, and of all the blessed spirits You have gathered into Your Kingdom from every age, land, and culture, through the intercessions of the holy Choirs of angels who have one will in doing the Will of the Father, O Savior, save us all. AMEN.

I will just be honest. I think that there is little, if any progress in the area of reunion, and I think that the status quo is going to stay for a very, very long period of time. I believe that the current Pope has little, if any, energy to spend on this topic and I think that the Orthodox chruches don't really care at all. There is little, if any, real conversation on this point in the Orthodox community.

Both sides have a long way to go. The Orthodox have to realize that reunion is good for them and for their churches. On the Catholic side, and this is from my point of view, I see the Catholic Church's effort at reunion still in a sense of trying to conquer the Orthodox. Rome sending missionaries to Russia did not help matters.

I hate to use business terms but when both churches are ready to accept reunion as a "merger of equals" then it will happen. I just don't see it happening.

jporthodox:

You posted

"I will just be honest. I think that there is little, if any progress in the area of reunion, and I think that the status quo is going to stay for a very, very long period of time."

The Holy Spirit will do what bishops and clergy and learned theologians cannot do on their own. We need to simply get praying harder.

OTOH, we have made tremendous progress in my lifetime. Some 45 years ago, I attended a wedding in my family--the Protestant side. Our pastor told us that we were not allowed to pray with heretics so we were forbidden to even pray the Lord's prayer and were told we were not to touch the service books while we were in the Protestant church. My father was to be honored for work he did in his church and we were forbidden to go to the dinner that he was being honored at for fear that his minister might offer a blessing or "pretend" to offer a benediction. He was terribly hurt--the seats where we were to be seated with him at the head table went empty that night. In funeral service we weren't allowed to have a person in a "mixed marriage" buried next to a spouse unless we took the "consecrated ground" away, bricked up the grave lest a crumb of consecrated ground should fall into the grave of a non-Catholic, and bring in a fresh load of soil that was not from the Catholic cemetery. (Not to mention the fact that no Protestant minister was allowed to walk onto the soil of the Catholic cemetery to perform a committal rite for one of his flock.)

Yeah, the good old days. It was a real time of stress for those of us who tried to serve our fellow man who might be different from us but who were seeking the same things we were: be a follower of Christ in this life and somehow hope that He would recognize us when He called and we had to face Him.

I have a very good friend who is an Orthodox priest here. I am welcome in his home any time. He and I have long discussions and we're on parallel wave lengths. I have lots of friends among Protestant clergy. And plenty of Catholic priests that I count as friends, benefactors, and confidants. I count friends across the spectrum of belief and those without. I count the time as passing faster than when I was 15--I'll be 55 next week--and I have no time to waste on polemics or backbiting.

Somehow the stories I have heard from people in all walks of life have left me with the distinct impression that we have moved light years in the last 45 years. But it's taken people who have dared to simply make friends and acquaintances across the lines of belief. Not that these lines are not important and not that we should get into some form of indifferentism, but we should be thankful that the ways of life of our ancestors haven't managed to completely separate us.

Sure there are places where there are pockets of the old prejudice and old ways of looking at "us" and "them," but they are not the predominant way of dealing with others. We are not, by and large, still in our own little ghettos.

So, be thankful for what we have. Remember that some 55 years ago we wouldn't be able to meet here on a forum like this because we'd be too busy hurtling anathemas at each other rather than praying for each other and trying to understand each other.

Hope this doesn't sound like a personal put-down. It's not meant to be. Look up and be thankful--we're light years away from almost 1000 years of animosity IMHO.

In Christ,

BOB

Indeed, Bob, the most fruitful ecumenical work in the last decades has occured between Catholics and Evangelicals, working and praying together on the front lines, not among the professional theologians.
-Daniel

I suggest reading the document on ecumenism in the Vatican II documents. The basic ground rules we are to operate under are clearly stated there. One of the first ground rules is to not give a false peace. That has always stayed with me. The rest I must brush up on when I find my copy of the documents.

I think there has to be a real change in the perspective of the western church, basically in what constitutes the church and how it is governed. Ultimately I think that is what is required to fulfill the goal of what the title of the thread lays out.

Like jporthodox, I really doubt that's going to happen.

Andrew