Are We Living in Diaspora?
by Archbishop PETER
(L’Huillier)
[Fall, 2003]
Although the term Diaspora
is often used in Orthodox ecclesiastical milieus, it is difficult to find an
accurate definition of its meaning. The
literal translation of that term into English is Dispersion;
however, one can find the word Diaspora
in dictionaries with three closely related explanations: 1) the dispersion of the Jews after the Babylonian exile; 2) the Jews
thus dispersed; 3) in the time of the Apostles, Jewish Christians who lived
outside of
Palestine.
(Webster’s Dictionary)
In the Old Testament, it
firstly refers to the situation of the Israelite people in exile after the
capture of
Jerusalem
by the Babylonians in 587 B.C. Later Jews
are found everywhere around the
Mediterranean
Basin
and in the
Middle East
up to
Persia. But for all the Jews, the
country of
Israel
was the Promised Land and the
temple
of
Jerusalem
was the only legitimate place of sacrifice.
So we can understand the sadness of the Psalmist who proclaims: "How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O
Jerusalem
, let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth" (Psalm
137:4-6).
For the believers in Christ,
the position is different. They
remember very especially the prophecy of Jeremiah:
"Behold, the days are coming, says
the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and the
house of Judah; not like the covenant which I made with their forefathers . .
. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them and I will write it
upon their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people"
(31:31-32, 33-34). This
prophecy is obviously mentioned as fulfilled in the New Testament.
It is quoted in the epistle to the Hebrews, 8:8-10, and is the theme of
that entire letter. One of the
most salient characteristics of the New Covenant is its universality based on
the command of Christ before His Ascension:
"Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you,
and lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20).
Those words of Jesus were
something so new that it took some time before their significance was fully
understood and implemented. This
was essentially, but not exclusively, the work of
St. Paul
, the Apostle of the Nations. He
proclaimed the axiomatic principle of the absence of discrimination in the
evangelical spreading: "There
is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither
male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).
In primitive Christianity,
there was a strong consciousness of the fact that the Church was the messianic
community of the end times and it is noteworthy that St. Peter, in his address
to the crowd on the day of Pentecost, affirmed that this event was the
fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel 2:28-32.
This expectation of the second coming of Christ is expressed in the
last article of our Creed: "I
look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come."
As it can be expected, this fundamental tenet of our Faith has been
reflected not only in the thought, but also in Christian vocabulary even if,
more than often believers ignore, or don’t pay attention to, this reality.
Notwithstanding, the reading
of Holy Scriptures and Patristic literature is evidence of this fact.
For example, St. Peter addresses his first epistle:
"to the exiles of the Diaspora in
Pontus
,
Galatia,
Cappadocia,
Asia, and
Bithynia (I Peter 1:1).
Later,
he calls the believers “aliens and exiles” (ibid
2:11). Such a terminology is common
place among Christian writers of the early centuries.
Besides, until now, we frequently use terms which, etymologically,
refer to our condition on earth; it is sufficient to mention the word Parish,
coming from the Greek verb Paroikein
which means to sojourn in a place as a pilgrim.
From what I have just
expounded, it is obvious that the contemporary trend to use the term Diaspora to characterize the Orthodox communities established
outside territories where the Church had been present in Antiquity or during
the middle Ages is inaccurate and often tendentious.
Surely, the term Diaspora can be correctly used to designate the immigrants of a
certain country and they are entitled to keep their language, their customs,
and preserve their cultural heritage. In
this area, the local Orthodox community must bring its useful contribution in
organizing liturgical services and cultural activities, within the framework
of parishes, and the diocese. Insofar
as the unity, or the unity on the level of the diocese is respected, it is
perfectly acceptable.
This principle was expressed
in Antiquity by the people of
Rome
when the emperor Constantius proposed that the office of bishop was split
between two bishops. The Christian
people proclaimed: "Only one God, only
one Christ, only one bishop."
It
is worthy of note that this ecclesiological principle was strictly observed
until the second half of the nineteenth century and when it was infringed it
was officially condemned as a heresy. It
is only in the twenties of the last century, as a consequence of the Bolshevik
revolution, that this anti-canonical situation has affected
America
and thereafter other parts of the world. Needless
to say, this odd situation raised, and continues to raise, numberless,
unsolvable problems of Church order.
It happens that a
misconception sometimes exists in some places about the unity of the Church
universal: Unity is viewed as
necessarily implying jurisdictional subordination.
Actually, nothing was more alien to the thought of ancient
Christianity. I will give only one
example drawn from Church History. It
is an account of a persecution which took place in 177 in
Gaul
. It starts with the address:
"The servants of Christ dwelling
at
Lyons
and
Vienna
in
Gaul
to those brethren in
Asia
and
Phrygia
, having the same faith and hope with
us; peace and grace and glory from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord."
It is noteworthy that there is no canonical subordination of the
Church
of
Gaul
vis-à-vis that of
Asia Minor
, but there was full communion in faith, love, and sacramental life, and that
constitutes the model of unity which must always prevail in the entire
Orthodox Church.
[Other articles by Archbishop Peter on this
site.]