THE MIND OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

All the Christians, Clerical and lay, have often become aware that if there is a burning topic and a great contemporary need, it is the need to acquire the mind of the Church. Our mind should be permeated by the mind of the Church. Our thought, life, mode of living, our desire, our will should be altered by the good alteration effected by the life of the Church.

The Apostle Paul urges: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2. 5). But since the Church is not a human organisation, but the holy and blessed Body of Christ, therefore we too are commanded to think with the catholic mind of the Church and be animated by the life of the Church, not to do anything apart from its life and teaching.

This is connected with two facts. One, that there are many Christians today who do not have the mind of the Church, that is to say, their mind is on "earthly things" (Phil. 3,19). Their mind is estranged from the mind of the Church, it is simply worldly. Their life is not in tune with the mind of the Church. The other fact is that acquiring the mind of the Church is related to the "making" of a man, which is connected with his deification. In so far as the man has an unclean and darkened nous, he is an infant and a baby. To the extent that he grows in illumination of his nous, he also is made a man, which means that he is "Christified" and "made Church".

In this perspective we can look at the Apostle Paul's words: " When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things" (1 Cor. 13, 11). If this passage is associated with what the Apostle said before and after it - where he was speaking of the "perfect" in relation to what is "in part" and about seeing God "face to face" in relation to "seeing in a mirror dimly" - then we can understand that the mind of the Church is connected with man's spiritual fulfilment, which consists in partaking of the purifying, illuminating and deifying energy of God.

A great deal is being said today about acquiring the mind of the Church. Sometimes, however, we do not know just what the mind of the Church is. We identify it with a blind obedience to some general laws or else we connect it with outward things. We usually think that it is the mind of the Church when the others accept us. But if they dare to cast doubt on our actions, we consider that they lack the mind of the Church. Thus we divide people as being of the Church or not, by external things and by characteristics which we construct according to our passions.

I shall try to study this topic within the Tradition of the Church. The chapters which follow and which are homilies that I gave to the Catechists of the Holy Archbishopric of Athens in the "Seminar" for further training of catechists in 1989-1990, as Director of Youth of the Archbishopric of Athens, with the blessing of his grace the Ever memorable Seraphim, Lord Archbishop of Athens and All Greece. I do not think that they fully cover the subject, which is so crucial and serious, but they emphasise some aspects essential for the diagnosis of the mind of the Church, and they raise questions. An analysis had to be made as to what the Church is, in order for us to see the real dimensions of the mind of the Church. Some repetitions were necessary, because the mystery of the Church is single and cannot be split into absolutely water-tight compartments.

May the circulation of this new book stimulate us to experience the mind of the Church. It is the greatest pastoral necessity today. However, it will not be the result of a mental exercise, but a fruit of our spiritual rebirth from a deified spiritual father, since the Church is not an object of study, but a reality which we live, our mother which nourishes us and fills us with life.

Written on the Friday
of the Akathist hymn
30 March, l990,
the day of remembrance of
our holy Father John of Sinai.Archimandrite Hierotheos S. Vlachos