Saturday, April 19, 2008

The Pope In New York

After an historic visit to a New York synagogue, Pope Benedict XVI issued a ringing call to other Christian leaders to uphold scripture and the ancient creeds as the foundation of Christian doctrine.

"Only by holding fast to sound teaching will we be able to respond to the challenges that confront us in an evolving world. Only in this way will we give unambiguous testimony to the truth of the gospel and its moral teaching," he told 250 national and local Eastern Orthodox and Protestant leaders at St. Joseph Church on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Among 15 to greet him personally was Pittsburgh's former Lutheran bishop, the Rev. Donald McCoid, now the chief ecumenical and interreligious officer of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Other Pittsburghers present included Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Maximos and Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Basil Schott.

A short time earlier, Pope Benedict brought Passover greetings to Jews. Although this pope and his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, visited synagogues in the past, this was the first visit to one in the United States. The Park East Synagogue, a modern Orthodox congregation, has special significance for this pope because its leader, Rabbi Marc Schneier, is a survivor of the Holocaust and a fellow German.

The pope spoke briefly, emphasizing the Jewishness of Jesus. "I find it moving to recall that Jesus, as a young boy, heard the words of scripture and prayed in a place such as this," he said.

Shortly afterward, he greeted the Christian leaders as "dear brothers and sisters in Christ." But he quickly delved into difficult theological territory, with words that paralleled the concerns of theological conservatives in the mainline Protestant churches. Several of those churches, especially the Episcopal Church, are torn by conflicts over biblical authority, the divinity and mission of Jesus and over sexual ethics, particularly whether same-sex unions are acceptable to God.

Saying that the "splintering" of Christian communities is confusing to non-Christians, he called all Christians to work for unity built on the saving death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He did not focus on divisions between Catholics and other Christians, but on theological tensions that divide many churches internally.

"Fundamental Christian beliefs and practices are sometimes changed within communities by so-called 'prophetic actions' " that go against the words of scripture and tradition, he said.

He warned that a creeping relativism is undermining the gospel message with the idea that the only truth is scientific truth, and that faith is based only on feeling and personal experience. This leads to the idea that all religious beliefs can be equally true, he said.

"For Christians to accept this faulty line of reasoning would lead to the notion that there is little need to emphasize objective truth in the presentation of the Christian faith, for one need but follow his or her own conscience and choose a community that best suits his or her individual tastes. The result is seen in the continual proliferation of communities which often eschew institutional structures and minimize the importance of doctrinal content for Christian living," he said.

In addition to the Rev. McCoid, those greeting the pope ranged from Greek Orthodox Archbishop Demetrios to Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals and Baptist Elder Bernice King, daughter of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

The Rev. McCoid said he was deeply moved by the entire gathering, and considered it an example of the unity the pope called them to. The Rev. McCoid is a theological conservative who shares the pope's views on the authority of scripture and the ancient creeds. But he was not certain that the pope was trying to take sides in the internal divisions of Protestant churches.

"He is not afraid to touch on issues that are internal, but he looks for a sense of uniting us across those lines," he said.

The Rev. James Kowalski, dean of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, whose vibrant liturgies are noted for a liberal interpretation of Christianity, said he didn't believe the pope was trying to criticize liberal Episcopalians.

"I think he was trying to say we share a common faith and our divisions draw other people away from that faith," he said. "I don't think he was necessarily aiming at the Episcopal Church, but he was saying that we are translating some things he would not agree with. We would say we are experiencing God's revelation to us in our own time, when it comes to women's ordination or human sexuality."

James Morton
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