The Last Alliance of Men and Elves

I have been bringing up the topic of reunion between East and West a few times within the last few weeks (forgive my repetition). So I picked the Last Alliance as a picture for this. Let me explain. Below are six links to a series done by Fr George Morelli of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese titled “Towards Healing Apostolic Church Schism: Some Psychotheological Reflections” I think this is one of the most thoughtful treatments of the subject of reunion, not only between East and West, but ALL the Apostolic Churches. This includes the Oriental Orthodox, Uniates, and even those Anglican communions with a link to Apostolic Succession. One of the podcasts draws from a psychosocial experiment and an exhortation by Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of the need for those of us who are of the Apostolic Churches to unite against militant secularism with the Gospel of Christ.

Therefore I chose the theme of the Last Alliance for this reflection. Those fans of Lord of the Rings will note that the Last Alliance ended up being an utter failure, as they had seemingly defeated their common foe Sauron and his forces, but drifted apart from one another, only to see their enemy resurge. Of course by the time Sauron resurges, Elves are leaving Middle Earth, Ents have dwindled, Dwarves have little dealings with others, and men quarrel amongst themselves. As with all my analogies, I am focused on a very specific aspect, as these are very imperfect analogies. I am obviously pointing to the fact that all the peoples of Middle Earth united against a common foe at the end of the Second Age.

As we approach the end of a full millennium of schism, my prayer is that we humble ourselves, repent of this sin and reach out in love, one to another. As I well know, there are a lot of things for both sides to work and pray through. No reunion will come easy or quickly, but as this series points out, it is not impossible to do. Interestingly, Fr George draws on the patristic insight of Met Hilarion in his book The Mystery of Faith in which he points out that were far more interested in having open arms toward those that departed from the Church than we are in these days. I pray that we head the voice of our Savior who prayed that we would be one as He and the Father are one (John 17:11-26).

As Fr George points out, this really is a sin, and should be repented of so we can be healed. If the Church be healed, what could that do for the Gospel? I have said this before, but let me say it again: We who are Christians aught rather to follow the example of St Proclus who stated before his torturers, “I am of the race of Christ.”, than to say we are of a certain nationality, ethnicity, jurisdiction, etc.

Here are the links to the 6-Part Series:

Towards Healing Apostolic Church Schism Some Psychotheological Reflections – Healing – Ancient Faith Radio