How could we not be brothers?

The ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, addressing the Syond last week:

It is well known that the Orthodox Church attaches to the Synodical system fundamental ecclesiogical importance... Therefore, in having today the privilege to address Your Synod our hopes are raised that the day will come when our two Churches will fully converge on the role of primacy and synodality in the Church’s life, to which our common Theological Commission is devoting its study at the present time.

The meat of the address summarized:

In so doing, we seek to draw on a rich Patristic tradition, dating to the early third century and expounding a doctrine of five spiritual senses. For listening to God’s Word, beholding God’s Word, and touching God’s Word are all spiritual ways of perceiving the unique divine mystery. For listening to God’s Word, beholding God’s Word, and touching God’s Word are all spiritual ways of perceiving the unique divine mystery. Based on Proverbs 2.5 about “the divine faculty of perception (áisthesis),” Origen of Alexandria claims: "This sense unfolds as sight for contemplation of immaterial forms, hearing for discernment of voices, taste for savoring the living bread, smell for sweet spiritual fragrance, and touch for handling the Word of God, which is grasped by every faculty of the soul."

BXVI after the address

And this was also a joyous event – an experience of unity, perhaps not a perfect one, but a true and deep one. I thought: your Fathers, that you have quoted so many times, are also our Fathers, and ours are also yours: if we have common Fathers, how could we not be brothers? Thank you Your Holiness. Your words will follow us in our work next week – and beyond – on a common path with you. Thank you, Your Holiness.