cestors if they were to see us now— Turks and Greeks together, sharing freedom, sharing meals at banquets, working together in a common cause and, most importantly, hoping for a still better future. I, a Greek Orthodox bishop, one born in the United States, whose spiritual ties are to that great city on the shores of the Bosphorus, have stood before Turkish audiences and the people of America’s multicultural, multi-ethnic faith traditions, as an honored guest. We have been together at a table laden with the true food of human being—of human existence: understanding, mutual respect and hope. Our future is contingent upon our acknowledgment of the past. History is always the greatest teacher. And after the long, difficult history of our interactions, we have something else that can and must help us become even greater witnesses: each of our own cultures and of the shared experiences we still remember. It is perhaps a difficult truth to embrace, but those who have been enemies quite often understand each other better than those who have never been part of their conflict. In the film, The Matrix Reloaded, one character says to another, whom he has just fought: “You never really know who someone is until you fight him.” At this point in our history, when the need to fight has long passed, we have an opportunity to look at each other in a unique and intense way, and seeing one another in truth and love, we may yet see ourselves in the other. And this then may become the key to our common future and works of righteousness done in shared hope for a better world. So, perhaps we have even managed to give goodness to the world together, to save what was the best of our respective histories, and allow the future to be a mirror, worthy of the deepest truths of our faiths, in which to see the truest reflection of our humanity. Turan Oflazoğlu says, “What we need is to enrich ourselves with those aspects of foreign culture which are not congenial to 36
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our nature.”3 We must seek the “other” amongst us and invite them into our lives. We must share our hopes our fears, our joys, and our sorrows. We must find ways of transcending our conflicts, both historical and intellectual, and create a new future together. My reflection on this dialogue is that, “We are the world in small.”4 May we may now truly praise the Creator’s gift of life in all its diversity, and walk together into the future in a new way. I hope that we will take the second step with the same sense of warmth and respect that we have experienced the first step. To quote the late, great prophet of reconciliation, Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras— ἐλάτε
νά κοιτταχθούμε – “come, let us look into one another’s eyes.” Notes 1.
Portions of this article have been taken from remarks delivered October 11, 2005, in Atlanta, GA, at an event sponsored by the Istanbul Center for Culture & Dialogue. 2. M. Fethullah Gülen, Essays, Perspectives, Opinions, (New Jersey: The Light, 2002), 26. 3. Turan Oflazoğlu, Making Use of Traditions, Türk Dili (July, 1991: 475: 1-10). Accessed online at http://www. turkishlit.boun.edu.tr/popup_print. asp?ID=1537&CharSet=English. 4. Eleanor of Aquitane in the stage play and film, The Lion in Winter: William Goldman (author), Avco Embassy Films, 1968. This echoes Greek Orthodox spiritual authors who frequently refer to humanity as a microcosm.