“Nobody would think it’s a good idea to live your life with just one lung operating, and yet for over a thousand years, we think that’s normal in the Christian world.”

“We have gotten so used to breathing with one lung that we can’t even imagine what it would be like to be breathing with two. We regard it as perfectly normal to have one lung. It’s not normal. We are in a state of radical abnormality which we now accept as quite conventional”  

Episode 1 - Introduction

The phrase "two lungs of the church" is a metaphor used by Pope St. John Paul II to describe the relationship between the Eastern and Western Christian traditions. This podcast series integrates the historical, theological, cultural, and experiential dynamics of living into the possibility of a more meaningful engagement between the Western Christian traditions and the Eastern Christian traditions. The first episode introduces the origins of the phrase and how a small Christian community of ex-Byzantine and Roman Catholics are exploring the lived experience of joyfully living out a vision of Christian unity within the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado

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episode 2 — The pre-pandemic trial run

Keith and Fr. Chrysostom begin walking backwards from the current bi-ritual community of St Mary Magdalene Equal to the Apostles to its pre-pandemic expression at St Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic parish in Denver. They describe the emergence, trials, and unexpected joys of “breathing with two lungs.” They continue to explore on a local level the re-unification of Eastern Christianity and Western Christianity.

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episode 3 - One priest’s journey to the one holy catholic and apostolic church

Fr Chrysostom describes his faith journey pointing to the key elements that shaped his commitment to a full embrace of the “one holy catholic and apostolic church.” He traces his childhood encounters with Episcopal, Lutheran, and Presbyterian traditions to his formation as a priest at Nashotah House Theological Seminary and St. Vladimir Seminary. Fr Chrysostom relates significant experiences in both Western and Eastern church institutions, both positive and negative, that pushed him toward a “return home” to the Episcopal tradition while still presiding over both Western and Eastern liturgical traditions. 

See also: the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral and St Mary Magdalene Equal to the Apostles Episcopal Church.

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YouTube channel: @smmchurchdenver