They used to call that evangelizing and not "ecumenism". Why label it "ecumenism" then? I have no doubt that some of the people involved make use of the organizations and opportunities of modern ecumenism (the World Council of Churches, the various discussions that organized, etc) as vehicles to spread Orthodoxy, to teach Protestant and Roman Catholics to abandoned their churches, and embrace the true faith, etc. Often I've heard Orthodox participants mimic the modern evangelical line that it is wrong to "steal sheep" though! It's one thing to use the front of ecumenism to do something other than ecumenism (ie evanglization) but people often seem to join in the worldview of ecumenism.
There already is a method for communion with Orthodox. It's rather simple. You become a cathecumen in the Church. We don't need to unite "Churches". We need to unite persons to the Orthodox Church. If a person goes into a World Council of Churches meeting (for example) with this in mind then they might do some good. Then again if doing so is against the wishes of the founders and the intent of the very organization in question and they therefore need to keep their true motives on down low (be subtle about it, etc) so to speak they might confuse the Orthodox who see them participate. The Orthodox faithful who see this will worry if he has actually bought into the mindset that formulated the organization to begin with.
The thing is though, I don't participate in my class or in these groups with the intention of convincing others of my position. I don't have a direct intent to convert them.
Take the Anglican Church as an example... Our Ecumenical relations (back in the day) brought our two Churches closer to one another, and many Anglicans took Orthodox under their wings (well, that is, they allowed us to temporarily use buildings, etc...), and we helped to show them the way back to the true faith.
However, the Anglican Church has since been drawing farther and farther from the truth and from the Church. Thus our Ecumenical Relations have changed and our Churches are no longer close...
As for uniting "Churches", I simply see it as mass evangelism. If, one day, in the next few centuries, the Roman Catholic Church is reunited with the Orthodox, I see that as being a successful mass evangelism of them. They ARE entered into the Church.
I don't think it's any different than other mass conversions... Look at Guatemala where about 500,000 people converted to Orthodoxy en-masse. Was that wrong simply because it wasn't each individual member coming and converting on their own?
Or what about those who converted and entered the Antiochian Orthodox Church en-masse just a few decades ago?
And the Churches, whether Anglican, Catholic, or whatever, that decide as Parishes to enter into the Church...
Ecumenism (that is, not the heresy) is just mass evangelism. But is isn't the type of evangelism we are familiar with. Ecumenism is simply dialogue, learning what one another believes, and showing how we live our faith out. It leads to many things, mutual understanding, cooperation, and in some cases, through the Holy Spirit, our Churches grow closer to one another.
Look at the Oriental Orthodox for example... Would we have such good relations with them, and would we realize they are essentially Orthodox if we never entered into extensive dialogue with them?
How would we know the state of other Christians if we don't enter into dialogue with them?
Ecumenism is a way to learn about one another, learn from one another, come closer to one another... It is a way to help improve relations and prevent isolation and ignorance.
It is simply just stupid to sit back and isolate yourself in your own world, not learning about other people. We see what this does, World War I and World War II were not just political fights, but were fights amongst people and faiths. One nation isolated itself from another and became "nationalistic", each nation held this as a central value, and it exploded into all out warfare.
Look at the West today... It has been isolated from Islam for centuries, and has been in continual war with Muslims for centuries. There is no understanding between the two, no productive dialogue.
Orthodox have been amongst Muslims for many centuries, and from what I can tell, while there were times of persecution, Muslims tend to understand Orthodox much better than they understand other Christians.
Why is this? This is because they weren't isolated from us, they lived amongst us and around us daily, talking with us etc...
When you don't have dialogue with people around you, not only do you eliminate many chances for evangelism, but you create opportunities for misunderstanding, ignorance, distrust and prejudice.
Orthodox Christians must be involved with ecumenical dialogue. But we must not remember who we are, and what we are. We are the One, True Church, and there is none other like her.
