St. Nersēs the Gracious and Church Unity:Armeno-Greek Church Relations (1165-1173)

Much has been written on his manifold contributions to the Armenian Church as theologian, hymnographer, poet, and statesman; in recent decades he has been acclaimed by both Armenian and non-Armenian churchmen as a prophet of today's ecumenism, even a pioneer of the ecumenical movement. After elaborating on the doctrinal openness of the Armenian Church vis-àvis the dogmatic position of the Greeks, the author highlights the three guiding principles espoused by Nersës in his ecumenism that ought to be imperatives for Christian unity: (1) "the communion of love and the spirit of fellowship must continue to sustain the relations of the churches"; (2) "churches should overcome isolation and stagnation and become involved in frank dialogue and closer cooperation"; and (3) "without minimizing the importance of their own theological teachings and doctrinal positions, the churches must transcend their divergences" that are often the result of varying semantic understanding and nontheological factors (pp. 95-96).