When St. Paul and St. Barnabas completed what is known as the First Missionary Journey they returned to their starting point. They sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now accomplished. The journey went through what is now central Turkiye. In almost all of the town mentioned where Paul and Barnabas had established churches no Christians remain today. Even in Antioch (present day Antakya), the hub of Christian mission in the first century, maybe as little as 2% of the population is still Christian. However, there are five Patriarchs in Antioch, representing different Christian Churches. You can’t help but wonder if one of the reasons that Christianity has diminished so dramatically in the land of its founding is the lack of unity. Jesus prayed that “all my be one.” If we are to grow the Church today we need to recover the unity we possess in Christ in the midst of our diversity.
