A Catholic Pope and an Orthodox Patriarch walk into a...

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:18-22 ESV)

Pope Francis and Patriarch Kyrill walk into an airport in Havana and... No joke!

Pope Francis and Patriarch Kyrill, head of the Russian Orthodox church, have met in Cuba in a historic act which some believe may have political motivations

The People's Pope is at it again! I hope Christians across the planet were watching yesterday as these two men put aside a nearly 1,000-year old doctrinal feud to put their two Heads together; perhaps to make the rest of us stop and blink at God's Church, which has only one name: The Body of Christ. How we came to refer to it by any other name is a shame, really. The ecumenical feuds and finger-pointing that have occurred since Jesus' earthly ministry and violent death on the Cross are works of men and remind us-- especially today-- of our need for Savior. Reconciliation, like the foxtrot, takes one person to step forward, make eye contact, proffer a hand, and ask "May I have this dance?" Then after the first step, the give-and-take of the dance is on. I would like to naively hope that the music keeps playing for more than 3 hours for these two prominent men of God and that they could make more than just a statement, a difference not only in Syria, but in the world at large.

Alas, that huge scar from the Great Schism must still itch...

The German news outlet Deutsche Welle made this skeptical, but probably accurate comment about the impression this mini-summit is making on the minds of most who bother to pay attention:

To some, Pope Francis's meeting with the Patriarch of Moscow could be seen as support for the Kremlin. Likewise, Christian critics in the US have argued that Catholics as well as the Orthodox churches are on principle quite reticent about ecumenical dialogue. A coming together of the two churches, which still hold fast to the dogma from the first centuries after Christ, could be seen as a distancing from the Church that developed after Martin Luther. Those include Protestants, Evangelicals, Lutherans or Free Church congregations and make up, as non-Catholics and non-Orthodox, the majority of the more than 225 million Christians living in the USA.

It's a pity that so many may see it this way when there's still plenty of room on the dance floor (and on the "dance card" that is 1 Corinthians 12:25)...

sigh