Doctrinal Agreement on Christology
approved
by Pope John Paul II and Catholicos Mar Baselius Marthoma Mathews
I
issued June 3rd, 1990
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In our first
meeting which was characterized by a spirit of concord, mutual
trust, fraternal love and desire to overcome division and misunderstandings
inherited from the past, we found our common ground in the one,
holy, catholic and apostolic faith, held by the one and undivided
Church of the early centuries, the faith in Christ always affirmed
by both sides.
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Above all we
thank the Lord Our God for having brought us together for a
cordial and sincere dialogue on some doctrinal and pastoral
problems which can stand in the way of our mutual ecclesial
relations and communion.
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In this atmosphere
we have worked out this brief statement to be submitted to our
respective church authorities for their approval, wherein we
seek to express our common understanding of, and our common
witness to the great and saving mystery of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Word of God Incarnate; we hope, this statement can lead
us to the restoration of full communion between our churches.
Our work was made much easier by the painstaking documentation
and detailed discussions held at an unofficial level by our
theologians during the past twenty-five years.
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We affirm our
common faith in Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior, the Eternal
Logos of God, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, who
for us and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate
by the Holy Spirit from the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God.
We believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh,
is true God and true man. The Word of God has taken a human
body with a rational soul, uniting humanity with divinity.
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Our Lord Jesus
Christ is one, perfect in his humanity and perfect in his divinity
at once consubstantial with the Father in his divinity,
and consubstantial with us in his humanity. His humanity is
one with his divinity without change, without commingling,
without division and without separation. In the Person of the
Eternal Logos Incarnate are united and active in a real and
perfect way the divine and human natures, with all their properties,
faculties and operations.
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Divinity was
revealed in humanity. The Glory of the Father was manifest in
the flesh of the Son. We saw the Father's love in the life of
the suffering Servant. The Incarnate Lord died on the Cross
that we may live. He rose again on the third day, and opened
for us the way to the Father and to eternal life.
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All who believe
in the Son of God and receive him by faith and baptism are given
power to become children of God. Through the Incarnate Son into
whose body they are integrated by the Holy Spirit, they are
in communion with the Father and with one another. This is the
heart of the mystery of the Church, in which and through which
the Father by His Holy Spirit renews and reunites the whole
creation in Christ. In the Church, Christ the Word of God is
known, lived, proclaimed and celebrated.
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It is this faith
which we both confess. Its content is the same in both communions;
in formulating that content in the course of history, however,
differences have arisen, in terminology and emphasis. We are
convinced that these differences are such as can co-exist in
the same communion and therefore need not and should not divide
us, especially when we proclaim Him to our brothers and sisters
in the world in terms which they can more easily understand.
It is the awareness of our common
faith that leads us to pray that the Holy Spirit of God may remove
all remaining obstacles and lead us to that common goal
the restoration of full communion between our churches.
[Information
Service 73 (1990/II) 39]
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