Imagine; a Church leader not imprisoned by history:
“I think, we should not poison our relations today with the phantom pains of the past.” So said the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav in an interview to the “Focus” magazine in response to a question about the relations with the Moscow Patriarchate.
According to the head of UGCC, our Churches have many wounds inflicted in the past: “I read about phantom pains felt by a person in their absent lost arm. It is a psychological illusion,” noted Patriarch Sviatoslav.
“I am convinced that we will be able to heal the wounds when we heal our memory with mutual forgiveness. We are now ready for it and, moreover, our faithful demand it. We, as the pastors, should hear the voice of the people, which is the voice of God,” stressed the head of UGCC.
Read the rest: http://sainteliaschurch.blogspot.com/2011/04/patriarch-sviatoslav-urges-to-get-rid.html
Eh…the man is a Catholic, not Orthodox. I don’t think it’s the Eastern Catholics who are “imprisoned by history.”
Victims of injustice can very easily become imprisoned by history. So long as Armenians hate Turks, or blacks hate whites, etc, so long as there is not willingness to forgive, we are trapped by history.
The Ukrainians have been horribly treated by the Muscovites; I think it is a noble man who expresses willingness to reconcile.