The Vision of Unity

By John Meyendorff

John Meyendorff, in his own words, "has dedicated most of this life to teaching and to investigating the past of Christianity, studying the ways in which the faith of the Church was confessed throughout the ages by the Fathers of the Church." It was during a more recent period -- from January 1965 to December 1984 -- that he was also editor of a church monthly, The Orthodox Church, in which he published signed editorials reflecting upon the growth and development of Orthodoxy in America. For him, this work was a blessed challenge. Indeed, he was forced to relate the permanent and unchanging faith of the Church to the changing circumstances of our recent history, and to the birth of a new Orthodox Church on the American continent. The editorials reprinted in Vision of Unity ask the question: Can we survive in chaos and disunity? They are presented in two sections: 1. the issue of Orthodox unity in America, and 2. the basic principles of Church structure. Throughout, the Church is revealed as a "conciliar" Church, the Church of all people, clergy and laity, old and young, men and women -- the "Catholic" Church, of all nations and generations. Book jacket.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0881410683
• ISBN13: 9780881410686
• Release Date: March 1997
• Publisher: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Unite America!

"Vision of Unity" is a collection of editorials originally appearing the "The Orthodox Church", the monthly publication of the Orthodox Church in America. These editorials appeared over the course of Meyendorff's 20 years as editor of the publication.This collection addresses the issues of Orthodox unity (but specifically the USA), particulary the fact to this day, multiple jurisdictions exist side by side, an uncanonical abnormality unique to the 20th century.At one point in American Orthodox history, this was not the situation. Bishops of various ethnic backgrounds like St. Tikhon and St. Raphael worked together to ensure the unity of all in America...something that existed in their time, but not in ours.Meyendorff is calling for a return to that "vision of unity" and the evidence for this return is hard to ignore. Eventhough most of these articles are 20-40 years old, most of them are still quite relevant to our current situation.Meyendorff repeatedly argues that one unified American church will not only help Orthodoxy in America, but will strengthen the "mother churches" all over the world that currently hold "satellite parishes" in the America. It must be pointed out that the Orthodox in America have a unity of faith, but not an administrative unity (which is still quite important.) The ideas of "strength in diversity" and "unity in diversity" appear in Orthodox writing decades before they appeared in the ranting of the politically correct pundits of our times. The use of those phrases by the Church is undoubtedly purer though.