For the Christian, unity and mission are inseparable. On the eve of His crucifixion Christ prayed that His disciples "may all be one," even as He and the Father are one, "so that the world may believe..." (Jn 17:21). When a concern for unity is absent, the Gospel’s message of reconciliation becomes unbelievable, and the Church’s mission is undercut. Given this imperative for unity, it should not be surprising that Orthodox Christians have participated in the ecumenical movement from its beginnings early in this century—that St Tikhon of Moscow in 1917 welcomed and blessed the nascent Faith and Order movement on behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church, that the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1920 appealed for a establishment of a "league of churches," that countless Orthodox theologians since then, including many from St Vladimir’s Seminary, have contributed to the work of various ecumenical agencies, commissions, councils and dialogues.

Orthodox participation in this movement for Christian unity often has been difficult and painful -- a true "agony," as Fr. Alexander Schmemann described it. In recent years dissatisfaction with some of this movement’s institutional expressions -- the World Council of Churches, the National Council of Churches -- has been mounting. Some Orthodox Christians have even appealed for our churches to "withdraw from the ecumenical movement." Such appeals ignore the fact that the ecumenical movement is far wider, more variegated and more encompassing than its institutional expressions. Such appeals also ignore the intimate link between unity and mission. Orthodox Christians would be untrue to their calling if they turned their back on those who claim Christ as Lord but who for a variety of reasons are separated from the Orthodox Church. Fifty years ago, in an address to the first assembly of the World Council of Churches, Fr Georges Florovsky (who soon was to become dean of St Vladimir’s Seminary) indicated in the starkest possible terms why "withdrawal" would be tantamount to spiritual suicide: "In divided Christendom nobody can be fully Christian, even if one stands in the full truth and is sure of his complete loyalty and obedience to the truth ‘once delivered to the saints’ -- for no one is permitted freedom from responsibility for the others."

The Church’s mission—to proclaim the Gospel, to confess the truth, to witness to God’s love—demands "responsibility for the others." Here theological seminaries like St Vladimir’s have an important role to play. Over the decades they have supplied many of the theologians who have represented the Orthodox Churches in formal ecumenical activities. But they can and do advance the Church’s mission in other ways as well—in ways less conspicuous but no less tangible. "Responsibility for the others" implies, first of all, that we take the trouble to listen to them, to hear them, to try to understand where they are coming from. However zealous we may be for witnessing to the truths of our faith, we will be unsuccessful in our efforts to reach "the others" if, in our contacts with them, we reveal only our own ignorance of what they really believe or our own neglect of basic pastoral skills in communication and interpersonal relations. "Responsibility for the others" also implies that we ourselves have assimilated as fully as possible our own Orthodox Christian faith. This is indeed "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 1:3). But this faith does not exist in a timeless vacuum. Its message is addressed to each new age and historical context—including our own.

The primary task of Orthodox theological education is to make this faith, ancient yet ever new, a living reality, so that "the world may believe." Orthodox theological education therefore has a necessary ecumenical dimension. This does not imply involvement in each and every activity and agency bearing the label "ecumenical." But it does demand a lively sense of "responsibility for the others." Without this we can hardly hope to make Christ’s prayer "that they may all be one" our own.