THE P RTAL
July 2015
Page 7
From Patmos to Oxford
Jackie Ottaway and Ronald Crane meet His Eminence,
the Most Reverend Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia
W
e found Bishop Kallistos’ flat easily. It is in a quiet road in north Oxford where good quality
houses have been turned into pleasant flats.
He told us, “I am English by birth, brought up an
Anglican. I first came in contact with the Orthodox
Church when I was 17 and I was immediately attracted
to it, but it was not until I was 23 that I was received into
the Orthodox Church and later ordained deacon and
priest. I became a monk of the Monastery of St John
the Theologian on the island of Patmos in Greece. I
am still a monk of that monastery but I spend most
of my life in Oxford where I used to teach in the
University. I am now retired from my university work,
but am still an assistant Bishop in the Greek Orthodox
Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain.
Titular Metropolitan of the
Ecumenical Throne of Constantinople
“A few years ago, I was raised to the rank of
Titular Metropolitan of the Ecumenical Throne of
Constantinople. I have never been a diocesan Bishop
but I was for some thirty years a parish priest of the
Greek parish here in Oxford as well as my University
duties. From that I am also retired, but I remain a
member of the international commission for dialogue
between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches
and I am also the Orthodox co-chairman for the
international dialogue between the Anglicans and the
Orthodox.
arise. I do not say that he alone would try to solve
the problems. Putting things more precisely, we
Orthodox would then see him as having a certain
pastoral responsibility for the whole of Christendom,
but we do not believe that he has direct jurisdiction in
the Christian East.
“In the West it is a different matter, but we believe
that in the Christian East, in the early centuries when
he was honoured and he sometimes intervened, he
did not have direct jurisdiction. Of course, linked
with that is the question of Papal Infallibility. For the
Orthodox, the Supreme Authority is the Ecumenical
Council and we would say that no one Bishop is in the
position to determine doctrine, though of course any
“On Patmos, one speaks Greek or one does not Bishop in the Christian World may in fact be called
speak at all! Our services here in Oxford, at which I to bear witness to the Christian truth. Those are the
still officiate, are partly in Greek, partly in Slavonic and primary things.
partly in English, because we also serve the Russian
from the Father through the Son
Orthodox in our church in Oxford.
“Historically there is a difference concerning the
the ministry of the Bishop of Rome
Holy Spirit. The Orthodox say the Spirit proceeds
“The most obvious and the most important difference from the Father through the Son. The Western
between the Orthodox and the Catholic Church, in position, going back to St Augustine, is that the Holy
my opinion, is how we understand the ministry of Spirit proceeds from the Father and from the Son, and
the Bishop of Rome in the Universal Christian world. the West inserted that into the Creed. We believe that
Orthodox would certainly consider that in a re-united the Creed should continue to be said in its original
Christian world the Pope would be in the first place, form, as originally defined by the first and second
we have no doubt about that.
Ecumenical councils.
We would not say it is merely an honorary Primacy, equal to the other two
we would believe that he has also, according to the
“The Creed said that the Holy Spirit proceeds “from
will of Christ, the responsibility to take the initiative the Father” and, at a later date, the West added “and
in all parts of the Christian World where crises might from the Son”. This has caused great controversy
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