Page 279 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

E C U M E N I C A L R E L AT I O N S
Ecumenical Relations
The 20th century will be remembered as a period of intense
efforts to reunite divided Christians and restore the unity
of the Church. In this context, we speak of ecumenism or the
ecumenical movement in the broad sense. Orthodoxy re-
sponded not only positively but with immediate and profound
participation. Already at the beginning of the century, the
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Joachim III, ad-
dressed an encyclical (1902) to all the heads of the Orthodox
Churches, urging reflection on the unity of Orthodoxy and its
relations with the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches.
A second encyclical followed two years later, suggesting that
dialogue begin with the Old Catholics, the Anglicans, and the
Pre-Chalcedonian Churches, although without concrete re-
sults.
A more far-reaching initiative came in 1920 with the encyc-
lical To All the Local Churches of Christ, calling Christians to
overcome distrust and to manifest love through a koinonia of
Churches—a “league of Churches” modeled on the League of
Nations. While not producing immediate results, this initia-
tive contributed to the establishment of the World Council of
Churches after the Second World War. In the meantime, Or-
thodox Churches participated in the Faith and Order and Life
and Work movements, which were eventually integrated into
the World Council of Churches in 1948. Some Orthodox
Churches initially refrained from joining but entered later,
particularly from 1961 onward.
This unprecedented ecumenical development created a
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