Without the Holy Spirit

"Without the Holy Spirit:

God is far away,

Christ stays in the past,

the Gospel is a dead letter,

the Church is simply an organization,

authority a matter of domination,

mission a matter of propaganda,

liturgy no more than an evocation,

Christian living a slave morality.

"But with the Holy Spirit:

the cosmos is resurrected and groans with the birth-pangs

of the Kingdom,

the risen Christ is there,

the Gospel is the er of life,

the Church shows forth the life of the Trinity,

authority is a liberating service,

mission is a Pentecost,

the liturgy is both memorial and anticipation,

human action is deified."

The above passage was written by Bishop Ignatius Hazim of Latakia (later Patriarch Ignatius IV of Antioch) in The Uppsala Report 1968: Official Report of the Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Uppsala July 4-20, 1968, Normal Goodall, ed. (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1969), p. 298. The text has been set as poetry to highlight the ideas. This photo was taken by Fr. Thomas on 13 April 2023.