antioch, where they were first called christians, or, holy faith

this week i and my good friend josh parrish are in santa fe, new mexico: the royal city of the holy faith of st. francis of assissi. mostly i am visiting old friends, either people or rivers or places. he is finding new friends and checking out st. john's college. we are also vising communities of faith, one of them holy trinity, a parish of the antiochan orthodox church, one of them the church of antioch at santa fe, a parish of the catholic and apostolic church of antioch. josh says they are like second cousins twice removed.

both of them trace their roots back to the first century church in antioch. how they treat, and what they value most, in the tradition they have received from that time are very different. i look at them in terms of paul's analogy of the body in his first letter to the corinthians. the whole, the one holy catholic and apostolic church, is the body, but it "consists not of one member but of many." (12:14, njb).

unfortunately, these cousins don't always respect each other as they should, i'm afraid. we all know that family quarrels are the worst. it reminds me to wonder why antioch was such an important center in the early church, beyond its importance as a market city at the cross roads of the empire. i suspect that the church at antioch fulfilled jesus' prayer in the 17th chapter of the gospel according to john, which condlues with "i have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that i may be in them." (17:26, njb). may we continue to fulfill this prayer, so that the words of the hymn, they will know that we are christians by our love, may be true.