More about the Archbishop´s visit to the USA

The information that the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, Dr Rowan Williams, has received an honorary doctorate from one of the leading orthodox academies in the world, St. Vladimirs Seminary in New York, has reached Polish internet media either. Although our friends from www.ekumenizm.pl have preferred to publish a statement of Archbishop H. Anis, who has recently decided to leave the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion, continuing to present Anglicanism almost exclusively from a single perspective (a link for those interested) with an admirable consistency, thanks to a reporter from www.cerkiew.pl Polish-speaking internet users were able to learn about this from sources different then our, still rather unknown, blog. ABC belongs doubtlessly to the group of the best experts in the Eastern Church’s tradition (which is to a great extend the common tradition of the undivided Christianity and one of its most important foundations) and its thought in the West. The appreciation from the orthodox seminary is more then earned. A careful listener of archbishops lecture on “Philokalia” has certainly heard how firmly it was stressed out that Christian spirituality may not lead to an escapist attitude. Who uses classic works of Christian spirituality to escape people, the world and their/his or hers problems, will get disappointed. Such an attempt can’t be successful. The “Philokalia” confronts the reader with reality in all its dimensions, but above all in reference to God – the Creator and Sustainer of this reality. Dr Williams’s stay in the Unites States has once again proved that the archbishop of Canterbury belongs to those church leaders who understand this and strive to implement this practically. On January 26 Archbishop Rowan and Prisiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts-Schori met the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon. They talked about the situation in Haiti and Africa, the Millenium Development Goals. Presiding Bishop Katherine spoke about this conversation as a “very constructive” one. More about this meeting can be found here. One of the most important points of the archbishops visit in the United Stats was the conference organized by the Trinity Institute associated with the parish of St Trinity in Wall Street, NY. Its topic was “Building an Ethical Economy”. And this in turn has been totally ignored by polish reporters and commentators. Once again it was revealed how narrowly understood is the social role of churches and theology in Poland, how dualistic in a Manichean fashion the world is still divided into the “spiritual” and the “materialistic dimension”, limiting the church’s sphere of influence only to the first one. It is supposedly one of the greatest victories of real socialism: the ridiculous slogan that the Church ought to “keep away from” the spheres of politics, economy and widely defined social life invading peoples minds. On the other hand, not the communists’ work has earned this success, but, without the slightest doubt, the roman-catholic Church of Poland itself and, to a lesser degree, other churches. Their participation in the political, economical and social reality resembles often a truly nietzscheanic, but certainly not Christian, “will of power”, a pursuit to gain the “rule of souls”. The Church is perceived simply as a political block among many others: with its own goals and interests. In reaction to this there arise voices urging the Church to withdraw from this sphere. This is however the classic “throwing the baby out with the bath-water”. There is supposedly no religion more materialistic, secular and down-to-earth-oriented then Christianity. A church that allows to be removed from the “material sphere”, that doesn’t recognize the existence of such two not only separated, but even contradictory spheres, betrays itself. This issue is truly interestingly described by Father Stephen Freeman in a series of reflections available at the Ancient Faith Radios website, titled “One Storey Universe” (the first episode is to be found here). Father Stephen is a former Anglican priest who converted to Orthodoxy and serves presently as a priest at St. Annas Church in Oak Ridge, TN. Besides that, he is the author of a very popular website, “Glory to God for All Things”. But lets come back to the conference in New Yourk. We won’t lie that we have managed to read and listen to all the lectures and discussions that the Trinity Institute has published on its website. It’s a material for a longer “session”. What we were able to listen to, however, indicates that the rest ought to be recommended as well. No only Dr Williams’s lecture titled “Theology and Economy – two different worlds?” (the answer to a question like this may be easily predicted, but, nonetheless, we encourage you to watch the material), but also Prof. Kathryn Tanner’s lecture (“Is Capitalism a System of Beliefs?”) and, possibly the most fundamental of all, reflections of Prof Partha Dasgupty, are incredibly interesting. We hope that we will be able to come back to these materials later and translate at least part of them to Polish. For now we just share this link wishing all of you inspiring moments in company of the New York’s conference participants.