The Anglican and Eastern Churches
Association in association with The Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius
organised the annual Constantinople Lecture on Thursday 27th
November 2014. The lecture was given by Fr John Behr, who is Dean of St
Vladimir’s Seminary in New York. The title of the lecture was ‘Take Back Death!
Christian Witness in the Twenty-First Century.’ The event took place in St
Mellitus College. The evening began with Evening Prayer, led by the Chairman,
Revd Dr William Taylor. Following, Fr William introduced Dr Catherine Reid, who
had won the AECA Travel Award in commemoration of the 1700th
anniversary of the Edict of Milan. She then gave a brief account of her time at
St Elisabeth’s Convent in Belarus.
Following is a summary of the
lecture given by Fr John Behr, which can be found in the new edition of the
AECA’s journal KOINONIA[1].
Also it will be broadcasted on the Voice of the Church, a programme aired on
the London Greek Radio (LGR – 103.3 FM).
Modern medicine and health care
today is much better than what it was in the past. We now have every
expectation that every illness will be cured. Currently the physicians treat
not the patient but the illness. We have the depersonalising medicine. The
patients are actually not treated. The physician has become the high priest of
the modern life. What is, therefore, life? What is human life? Human beings are
more than living beings. They are endowed with logos.
Christ has stated ‘I am life.’ He
is the very life and light of the world. Life is more or other than what
biology explains. Life is something that we should acquire; something that we
should live into; something that we should be born into. We live radically
different lives than our predecessors; this is evident when understanding
death. The manner with which we act after the death of a loved one has changed.
The body is now given to the death industry. Our focus is on the body, not
death.
The problem has yet to be
addressed on a theological level. If we don’t see death, we don’t see the face
of God. Life comes through death. If we don’t see death, then we only see this
life. Christ has set us free from the fear of death. He turned death inside
our; He formed a new life, sacrificial love. This reversal is located in the
heart of the Gospel. By His death, Christ beat death. What was the end, is now
the beginning. The speaker then explained in great detail the Creation of the
world, the Creation of man. God’s Creation is yet not complete. There is no
issue of no perfection. Perfection in Christ is his death for love. God is
patient; while we learn by experience of our own weakness and death during our
own apostasy. We become acquainted with God through death, seeing our
dependence on God.
The death of a martyr is their
birthday, their entrance into life. The terms life and death are reversed.
However, we should not seek the death of Martyrdom. This was explained by many
Fathers. Our life takes meaning when we love, when we devote it to a
self-sacrificial service. If we don’t recognise that life comes through death,
then our horizons will become immanent. We see only ourselves, in this life. We
block death from our sight.
One of Christianity’s task today
is challenging the presuppositions of modern life. We are in a crisis (a notion
with which the speaker began this lecture). The real course of crisis is that
we have been put in crisis by Christ. Now is the judgement of the world,
meaning that now is the crisis of the world. Our judgement related to how we
respond to it.
After the talk, Fr Stephen Platt,
Secretary of the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius had the opportunity to
speak briefly about the speaker and give a Fellowship presence to this event.
The evening finished with light refreshments, where everyone had the
opportunity to speak to Fr John Behr one to one and ask questions on the
lecture. The 2015 Constantinople Lecture will take place on Thursday 19th
November 2015 at St Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Moscow Road. More
information will be published and advertised close to the date.
[1]
Behr, John, ‘Take Back Death! Christian Witness in the Twenty-First Century’, KOINONIA, (New Series No. 64, Advent
2014), pp. 7-22.
An important paper by Father John Behr that merits wide circulation and careful study.
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