He already asked that you post it, are you waiting for someone to beg you or something?
The San Francisco Chronicle
JULY 20, 1990, FRIDAY, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1
SF Shows Off Its Ecumenical Spirit
Church leaders welcome head of Orthodox Christianity
Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer
Pope Leo IX (1048-54) and Patriarch Michael I (1043-58) would be shocked.
There was Roman Catholic Archbishop John Quinn kneeling down to kiss the ring of Orthodox Patriarch Dimitrios I -- only 936 years after leaders of the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople excommunicated each other in the Great Schism of 1054.
Quinn, the archbishop of San Francisco, made his gesture yesterday at an extraordinary ecumenical meeting between Dimitrios, the archbishop of Constantinople and world leader of Orthodox Christianity, and a dozen Bay Area religious leaders.
Actually, the 11th century ecclesiastical curses that flew between Rome and Constantinople, which refused to acknowledge the primacy of the Roman pope, were formally lifted in 1965.
Nevertheless, the two largest and most ancient branches of Christianity remain separate -- a division religious leaders in San Francisco are trying to heal in their own small way.
Quinn said it is ''quite extraordinary'' that the Orthodox Patriarchate has invited him to preach with Dimitrios at a 10 a.m. worship service tomorrow at Davies Symphony Hall.
''His Holiness' visit heightens the consciousness of all of us to pursue the road of deeper Christian unity,'' Quinn said in an interview.
Episcopal Bishop William Swing, in formal remarks yesterday to Dimitrios at the Greek Orthodox Diocesan House in St. Francis Wood, said he hopes the patriarch will ''feel the ecumenical spirit that abides in the Bay Area.''
United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert of San Francisco, a leading force in the National Council of Churches, said the presence of the Orthodox churches in that group helps provide ''balance'' to the ecumenical movement. The Roman Catholic Church does not belong to the National Council of Churches.
KEY DIFFERENCES
Talbert said Orthodox and Protestant leaders ''struggle over the role of women in the church,'' but he said working together is a way to ''learn how to get along with other people in the world.'' Most Protestant denominations, unlike the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, allow the ordination of women.
Dimitrios said his visit has helped him understand the unique ''social and spiritual environment in which you are called to do your work.''
''But at the same time it must be confessed that contemporary societies, with their material comforts and advanced technology, also offer, unfortunately, the means of greater barrenness and erosion of the spirit,'' said Dimitrios, speaking through a translator at the breakfast meeting. ''This explains why the occupations of psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and the like are flourishing.''
Dimitrios, 75, has given no news conferences or media interviews since his July 2 arrival in the United States, although the man described by church sources as his ''heir apparent'' did meet the press yesterday.
'NO HYPOCRISY'
''His All Holiness has been impressed with the simplicity and openness of the American people and with their deep Christian faith,'' said Metropolitan Bartholomais of Chalcedon, the patriarch's closest aide. ''There is no hypocrisy. There is a sincereness and simplicity that must be proper to all Christians.''
Asked the Orthodox church's position on abortion, Bartholomais described a stand more liberal than that of the Roman Catholic Church, which condemns abortion in all cases and whose clergy have, in some cities, excommunicated leading pro-choice Catholics.
Although the Orthodox church believes the soul enters the body at conception and, ''generally speaking, respects human life and the continuation of pregnancy,'' Bartholomais said, the church also ''respects the liberty and freedom of all human persons and all Christian couples.''
''We are not allowed to enter the bedrooms of the Christian couples,'' he said. ''We cannot generalize. There are many reasons for a couple to go toward abortion.''
Also joining Dimitrios at yesterday's ecumenical gathering were Bishop Lyle Miller of the Evangelical Lutheran Church; Rabbi Malcolm Sparer, president of the Northern California Board of Rabbis; and officials representing the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Society of Friends, San Francisco Evangelical Association, the Reform Church of America, the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church and the Moscow Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.
After the meeting, Dimitrios, who is considered the ''first among equals''
of Orthodox Patriarchs representing 200 million Orthodox Christians
worldwide, headed for Stockton for a parish visit.