Catholicity of the Church

BOOK REVIEW 

Selected Essays, by M. Pomazansky

     Archpriest Michael Pomazansky of Jordanville (†1988, Oct22/Nov4) left us some valuable writings that have been translated into English.  He had a clear concept of the Church and the ability to transmit this to others through his writings.  

     This book review consists of preview pages: the Table of Contents and one particular essay (chapter) that, I believe, can help in discerning the Church.  The most important thing to seek is fellowship (communion) with the Heavenly Church.

     At least some of these essays are available online, but you want to have a copy of this book in your home library.   ~jh

Selected Essays

by Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky

Jordanville, 1996 

240 pages

$17°°

 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

In Memory of Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky

Is This Orthodoxy?

Children in Church

On the Rite of Churching an Infant and the Prayer for a Woman Who Has Given Birth

The Glorification of Saints

Catholicity and Cooperation in Church

Everything Has Its Time, Its Place

How Each of Us Can and Ought to Serve the Church

An Outline of the Orthodox World-View of Father John of Kronstadt, Based on His Own Words

The Liturgical Theology of Father A. Schmemann

Liturgical Books: From Manuscript to Print

A Luminary of the Russian Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Anthony

The Old Testament and Rationalistic Biblical Criticism

Sophianism and Trends in Russian Intellectual Theology

The Old Testament in the New Testament Church

The Church of Christ and the Contemporary Movement for Unification in Christianity

Our War is not Against Flesh and Blood, On the Question of the “Toll-Houses”

Catholicity and Cooperation in the Church.

Catholicity — this is not merely a sonorous word, but a theological concept of the loftiest significance.  It is, of course, used in the Nicene Creed as one of the non-biblical terms to define the Church as one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.  What does the original Greek word mean of itself?  The main root of this word, όλος, means, according to Lampe (G. W. H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1965), “whole, entire, complete.”  The prefix καν has as one of its three meanings the intensification of the word to which it is joined.  Thus, in sum, the meaning is that of an unlimited fullness, all-inclusiveness, a "pleroma."  "Catholicity" expresses what the Scriptures state of the Church, that in her there is neither Greek nor Jew, nor circumcision, nor un-drcumcision, nor Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all in all (Col. 3:11). And again, the Father... gave Him to be the head over all things to the Church, Which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all (Eph. 1:22-3). And again, That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in the heavens, things in earth, and things under the earth (Phil. 2:10).  Catholicity refers to the fact that the Church is not limited to space, by earthly boundaries, nor is it limited in time, that is, by the passing of generations into the life beyond the grave.  In its catholic fullness, in its catholicity, the Church embraces both the Church of the called and the Church of the chosen, the Church on earth and the Church in Heaven.  Such is the Orthodox understanding of the essence and elements of the Church in its perfect form, as our Orthodox services make especially clear.

A problem has arisen in some Russian theological circles due to the misinterpretation of the Russian word for catholicity, sobornost.  This word, whose adjectival form has been used in the Slavonic translation of the Symbol of the Faith for a thousand years, is related to the Slavonic word for a council, sobor.  In its present form as a noun, sobornost is indebted to the Russian Slavophiles, who employed it to define the uniquely lofty connotations of the Slavonic sobornuyu as used in the ninth article of the Creed: "I believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church."  "I will not presume to say," writes the Russian Orthodox thinker and devoted son of the Church, A. S. Khomiakov, "whether this profound realization of the essence of the Church (to translate the word 'Catholic' with the word 'Sobornaya') was taken by the first teachers of the Slavs from the very sources of truth in the schools of the East or whether it was yet a more lofty inspiration granted by Him Who alone is Truth and Life, but I boldly affirm that this one word contains in itself a complete confession of the faith" (A. S. Khomiakov, Theological Works, p. 313).  One must bear in mind that in Greek there is no philological or linguistic connection between the concepts “catholic” and “council” (ecumenical).  A council of the Church is called in Greek Σύνοδος, and an ecumenical council, οικουμενική Σύνοδος.  In the secular usage, the dictionary meaning of Σύνοδος is “a gathering, meeting, congress.”

Concerning the Russian and Slavonic word sobor, one can readily see its relationship to the concept of catholicity in its usage as a term for a large church or cathedral.  A sobor is a church with two or three altars, which thus more fully expresses the union with the heavenly church, whose lofty iconostasis portrays the choirs of the saints, where the daily services are constantly being celebrated in memory and glorification of the heavenly Church, and where the vessel of Grace and the bond with the hierarchy of heaven and earth, the bishop, serves and has his seat.

     What is the Catholicity of the Church on Earth and How Is It Expressed?

Catholicity is the unceasing prayerful communion with the celestial Church. The radiant bonds of prayer go in all directions: we on earth pray for one another; we ask the saints to pray for us; the saints, we believe, hear us and lift our prayers unto God; we pray for our reposed fathers and brothers in Christ; we ask the saints to assist us also in these appeals to the Lord.

Catholicity is the unceasing prayerful communion with the celestial Church

Catholicity is expressed in the fact that the ancient Fathers and Teachers of the Church continue to be as relevant in our times, and are just as instructive, memorable and valuable as they were in their own time.  The Church is nurtured by One Spirit, and therefore temporal divisions between generations of Christians are irrelevant.  The Christian who studies the Apostolic Scriptures, the writings of the Holy Fathers and Ascetics, or the texts of the divine services, we believe, enters into a spiritual communion outside of time, with the very authors of these writings, fulfilling the behest of the holy Apostle John the Theologian: That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you you, that ye also may have fellowship (communion) with us; and truly our fellowship (communion) is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ (I John 1:3).

The Christian who studies the Apostolic Scriptures, writings of the Holy Fathers and Ascetics, or texts of the divine services can enter into a spiritual communion outside of time, with the very authors of these writings. . .

Catholicity is expressed in the fact that members of the Orthodox Church living at various ends of the earth have one common faith.  This is why in the ancient Church the faith itself was called the "catholic faith" and "catholic truth."  All have one and the same Mysteries; all commune of the one Body of Christ in the Mystery of the Eucharist, no matter where or when they live; all have one priesthood, which takes its one succession from the Apostles; all Church life is built on the common foundation of the canons of the Church.

Catholicity, finally, is expressed in the fact that all true members of the Church treasure her.  We grieve for the Church in her times of difficulty.  For the members of the small community of a parish, she is just as close whether in part or as a whole. "For the welfare of the holy churches of God and the union of all," we pray at every liturgy.  A Christian who makes the salvation of his soul the goal of his personal life in the Church demonstrates concern for the peace and welfare of his own local church, working towards this according to the measure of his own capabilities and strength.  Of course, such an ecclesiastical cooperativeness is also an expression, although more remote, of the concept of the catholicity of the Church.

It is, generally speaking, with these characteristics that the Russian Slavophiles received into their hearts the concept of the catholicity of the Church; such was the understanding which they had of the term "the sobornost of the Church."  Expressing by this formula the fullness of the spiritual unity of the Orthodox Church, regardless of her geographical and national separations, they underscored the ethical aspect of Orthodox catholicity which is free from compulsion and legalistic concepts.  It is this ethical aspect of Orthodoxy which contrasted with the legal principle of "rights and privileges" in the structure of the Roman Church, and likewise, to the cold rationalism, sometimes replaced by mysticism, in Protes- tantism.  The Slavophiles did not associate with the concept of sobornost any kind of elective lay organs of Church government.

     Catholicity in the Usual Vernacular Sense.

With the passage of time the meaning of the term sobornost began to narrow.  At the beginning of this century when talk arose of the need for calling a council of the Russian Church, due to the similarity of the Russian words for council (sobor) and catholic (sobornaya), this term began to be used in everyday polemics as virtually identical with the concept of a council of bishops, local or ecumenical.  Subsequently it came to be identified with conciliar government in the Church in general, which, incidentally, was conceived of by different people in different ways: for some a patriarchate in conjunction with periodical, frequent convocations of the bishops; for others on the contrary, a continuation of conciliar government by the Synod; still others saw in a patriarchate an immensely unifying moral force which eliminated the need for collegial forms of ecclesiastical government.

During the sessions of the Russian Church Council of 1917-18 this term took on a new significance.  At that time one could already foresee and sense the approach of the brutal blows against the Russian Church from the enemies of the Orthodox Church, of Christianity, and of religion in general.  It was imperative to seek out means of uniting all the vital forces of the Church, an authentic alignment of firmness and the faithful forces of the believers in accordance with the principle of the catholicity of the Church.  The Church must be defended; a moral confirmation of the episcopate and the parish pastors was required, so that they would not be left isolated.  This goal could be realized only by attracting the faithful to an active participation in the protection of the Church through representatives of the laity who were self-sacrificing and well-tested.  The vast majority of these turned out to be people who were also prepared to be confessors when this choice sooner or later presented itself.  The consciousness of this necessity and the corresponding summoning of the people was reflected in the resolutions of the Council of 1917-18.  This mobilization of Church forces at that moment was truly an expression of the idea of the catholicity of the Church in a profoundly ethical sense.

In the period of the Russian emigration after the First World War, the term sobornost began to be used in an extremely simplistic way and acquired a special connotation.  The idea was spread abroad that the lay members of the Church were being deprived of their rights; that the time had come to put elected persons into diocesan government, both from the laity and from the clergy.  As long as this was lacking in the ecclesiastical framework, it was said, the doctrine of the Creed was not being implemented.  From time to time these voices grew more shrill and they were even given a hearing in the press.  Before the Second World War a pamphlet published throughout the emigration entitled For Sobornost (in Russian), expressed this kind of understanding of the word.

The Church in the Sea of Life.

The historical path of the Church has not been an easy one.  The Holy Fathers represented it by the image of a ship sailing on the sea of life.  Its lot is such that even when the sea is calm, the vessel must move against the current.  What then must be said about the moments of storm?  The Church is forced always to maintain a resistance against the sinful world.  The world possesses power, authority, the instruments of compulsion and punishment, as well as the seductive pleasures of life.  The Church in and of herself possesses nothing except moral influence.  Whence could she draw on the strength that she requires, were it not that the Lord protects and has mercy on her?

The Orthodox Church is the inheritance of Christ.

The Lord protects as well the little vessel which is called the Russian Church Outside of Russia, the offspring of the once outwardly magnificent Russian Orthodox Church. Should the Church in the homeland be reborn, then this free part of her will return to her bosom.

Within the diaspora, our little Church watches over, to the fullest extent, the canonical structure that she inherited from of old, and sets for herself as one aspect of her duties to maintain the entire inheritance of Orthodoxy inviolate, undiminished, and undistorted.  To keep watch over oneself in this way in foreign lands is more difficult than at home, however, she has not only succeeded in this, but even shows certain encouraging signs in comparison with the past in Russia.

In old Russia the ruling bishop had under his jurisdiction a thousand or more parishes; this meant a population of millions in a diocesan flock.  Could he have visited each and directed it personally?  Could he have been as close to it as are our archpastors here?  Our bishops here know the parishes committed to them, with their own eyes they see their members and, one can say, bear them all within their hearts, rejoicing and weeping together with them.  All the more painfully, of course, do they experience disturbances in the parishes, and it may be that only God sees their suffering of soul for their flocks.  One must also say the same concerning the parish pastors.  How often both bishop and priest quietly reconcile them-selves to the most adverse conditions of life, concerning which many of the flock, being themselves well provided for in life, perhaps do not even take the trouble to consider...?  And frequently those who serve the Church face, instead of cooperation, only cold analysis and criticism — a very discouraging phenomenon.

Nonetheless, the negative aspects do not overwhelm the spiritual consolation which accompanies service to God and the Church.  Those living amid the vanity of the world do not even imagine the existence of such consolation, and for this reason so few are prepared to embark on the pastor's way of life.  Because of this, there is in our day an acute lack of clergy, and the number of parishes not tended by their own pastors continues to grow.

The apostolic epistles provide us with a sketch of the image of pastoral sorrows.  The Apostle Paul writes to the community of Christians which he founded: "You are already filled; you have grown rich; you have begun to reign with us... We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are in glory but we are in dishonor... O, if only in fact you had begun to reign, so that we might reign together with you!" (cf. I Cor. 4:10, 8) What then? Is this grief of the apostle a cause of despair and indecision? Not in the least! Note the outstanding spiritual state of the Apostle: "Who can separate us from the love of God: grief or deprivation? or persecution or hunger or nakedness? or danger or the sword?.. All this we overcome by the power of Him Who loved us" (cf. Rom. 8:35, 37).

Catholic Unity and Cooperation in the Church.

The biblical image of the Church in the world is that of a human body. In the body there is an innumerable number of parts that work together, both visibly and invisibly. They all have their value and their purpose. The foot does not say: I do not belong to the body, because I am not a hand... the ear does not say: I do not belong to the body because I am not an eye... (I Cor. 12:15-16) — So also in the Church; for each of her members there is a place for union with the other persons who serve her. But just as the body is in need of outer coverings, clothing, and other necessary items which are not a part of the body, so in the serving of the Church there are also two spheres: the internal sphere, truly ecclesiastical, catholic; and another -the outward, on the surface, temporary, passing. We must distinguish between the "essential" and the "nonessential," at least in practice and in indispensable matters. Since we live in a material world, a world of relativity, the external often becomes indispensable. In the Church this constitutes the organizational aspect — besides the Grace-bearing hierarchal structure; there is also the need to maintain the church building and clergy, parish meetings, finances, organizations associated with the Church: schools, publishing, and so on. Life summons us to participate in both spheres. However, it is of no benefit to a person's salvation to take part in the outward without participating in the internal.

Which of our activities, then, represents the full and authentic expression of the catholicity of the Church?

It is manifested, namely, in congregational prayer in the church building. The church is the Christian center of our lives. Setting out for the services, we say, "Let's go to church," or "Let's go to the cathedral"; thus we express half-consciously by these words the fact that catholicity and the Church are fully manifested in the church building.

Is the priest, standing before the gates of the sanctuary or within it, praying for himself alone? No, these prayers of thanksgiving for the past day and the approaching night, these petitions for the mercy of God are completely catholic. "Incline Thine ear, and hearken unto us, and remember by name, O Lord all that are with us and pray with us, and save them by Thy might... Give peace to Thy world, to Thy churches, to the priests and to all Thy people." "Teach us, O God, Thy righteousness... grant us to behold the dawn and day in rejoicing,.. Remember, O Lord, in the multitude of Thy compassions, all Thy people that are with us and pray with us, and all our brethren, on land, on the sea, in every place of Thy dominion, needing Thy help and love for mankind... that always remaining saved in soul and body, with boldness we may glorify Thy wondrous and blessed name..." One after another, these prayers reach ever higher unto the "Treasury of good things, the Ever-flowing Fountain, the Benefactor of our lives, Who is Holy and Unattainable." The majority of these prayers could be read aloud. But experience has proven that people in church are not able to maintain sufficient concentration and attention to become absorbed in the meaning of these prayers — the fruit of the lofty, Grace-filled inspiration of the great Fathers of the Church. In particular, this must be said of the principal section of the Divine Liturgy, that of the Faithful. Therefore, the Church has found it better to place in our thoughts and mouths as often as possible, the brief prayer of contrition and request, "Lord, have mercy." This prayer expresses the Church-inspired catholic consciousness of the primary importance for a Christian: sincere repentance.

Is not the whole Church meant to pray through the mouth of the choir? We must add that the readers and chanters, as well as those who listen, should bear in mind the communal character of the praises, petitions, and thanksgiving of the services, and mutually strive to realize common prayer. In at least certain parts of the divine services it is possible for the whole congregation to participate actively in the chanting. Undoubtedly, in the future Russian Church, reborn through sufferings, this aspect of ecclesiastical catholicity will attain a more complete expression.

At the conclusion of each service we leave the church. At the end of the vigil service we hear the concluding prayer of the First Hour: "O Christ the True Light, Who enlightenest and sanctifiest every man that cometh into the world..." And, indeed, our departure from the services is, in fact, a passing over "from the Church into the world." We depart to our worldly cares and interests. The Church and catholicity recede for a time into the background, into the past. Completely? That depends on us. Not completely, if we preserve them within ourselves, in our soul, in our consciousness, in our actions; in a word, if we maintain ourselves in piety. Thus, even in the world it is possible to work together with the Church, as a reflection of that same catholicity. It cannot be said here that the Church's path is narrow.

What activities of the members of the Church, then, can and do express the spirit of catholicity?

One of the first modes of activity is directly associated with the church building itself. This includes the construction of the church, the providing of it with all that is necessary, acquisition of icons and frescoes. In terms of moral value, acts of love and philanthropy in the name of Christ have an even greater significance. The manifestations of Christian faith and love can be extremely diverse. For example, personal Christian missionary activity springs from devotion to Christ and the Church, upholding the right, compassionate defense of the persecuted and abused. Christian service through lectures, reports, the printed word, work in church schools, scholarly activity in a Christian spirit — all this constitutes a broad, open and, here outside the Communist world, a free field for Church cooperation, both as individuals and in groups.

These forms of activity and those like them are loftier and more worthy than plans for participating in the administrative side of the Church. The peaceful and prosperous management of the house of God rests not on legal foundations but on the rock of right faith and ethical, voluntary obedience to the rules of the Church by all her members, both clerical and lay. One cannot imagine how such an approach to the question of catholicity could be considered conventional or boring.

Vladimir S. Soloviev and the Catholic Aspect of the Church.

So that the skeptical reader might not think that the concept of catholicity found in the ninth article of the Creed and set forth here is onesided, and to make it clear that such an understanding is not limited to a single group of persons or to that movement whose spokesman was A. S. Khomiakov (the Slavophiles), let us avail ourselves of the opinions of Vladimir S. Soloviev on this question. We consider him here not as a theological authority, but as a free-thinker who did not confine himself to the traditional theological frame of reference. In many of his opinions he went far beyond the bounds of the Gospel's truths. However, he was a sincere Christian, and he had a well-intentioned, if vain, hope that by an originality of conclusions he might interest the Russian intelligentsia in the questions of faith, towards which it had grown so indifferent. But his devoted followers, when they began to introduce certain philosophical speculations into theology and develop them, made him the source of one more heresy. In his work The Justification of the Good, Soloviev, commenting on the characteristics of the Church given in the Creed, writes in agreement with the conception generally accepted by the Orthodox Church:

Catholicity (καθόλον — as a whole, or in agreement with the whole) consists in this, that all the forms and activities of the Church join separate persons and separate nations with the entire God-Manhood, both in its individual concentration  – Christ, and likewise in its collective circles – in the world of the bodiless hosts, the saints who have departed and live in God, and the faithful struggling upon the earth.  In so far as all within the Church is brought into harmony with an absolute whole, all is catholic.  Within her all the exclusions of national and personal characteristics and social status fall away, all the separations and divisions cease, and all differences are left behind, for godliness requires that one perceive unity in God not as an empty indifference nor bleak uniformity, but as the unconditional fullness of every life.  There is no separation, but rather there is preserved the distinction between the invisible and the visible Churches, for the first is the hidden active power of the second, and the second is the first becoming manifest; they are one with each other in essence, but different in condition.  There is no separation, but rather there distinction is preserved in the visible Church between the many races and nations, in whose unanimity the one Spirit by various tongues witnesses to the one Truth and by various gifts and callings imparts one Good.  There is not, finally, any division, but rather there is preserved the distinction in the Church between those who teach and those who are taught, between the clergy and the laity, between the mind and the body of the Church, just as in the distinction between husband and wife there is not a barrier but a basis for their perfect unification.

(The Justification of the Good, Pt. Ill, Sec. VIII, pp. 473-4)