“Concluding Reflections [to the International Conference: The Forthcoming Council of the Orthodox Church: Understanding the Challenges]” (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church & the Ecumenical Movement
ANTONIOS STAMOULIS, 2013
The issue of the Orthodox participation in the Ecumenical Movement in general, and in the WCC in particular, remains always a timely and challenging topic for discussions and deliberations, not only among the Orthodox specialists, clergy and professors, who are directly involved in that matter, but also among the Orthodox faithful. The variety of divergent opinions1 extends from a wholehearted support of a complete and active Orthodox participation in the process of searching for Christian unity to a more cautious and critical stance on it. Some conservative Orthodox circles have expressed even an absolute and fundamentalist opposition to any kind of rapprochement among the Christian Churches. These alignments constitute the scope of the Orthodox understanding and interpretation of Ecumenism, not only during the previous decades, but also nowadays. It is generally acknowledged that the last decade of the 20th century was the most problematic and painful period concerning the Orthodox participation in the WCC. The Orthodox Church, which, under the relevant initiatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, had a pioneering role in the formation of the Ecumenical Movement from the very beginning of the 20th century, found herself in difficulties relating to her position in the WCC. Indeed, the Churches of Georgia and Bulgaria withdrew their membership from the WCC and the Conference of European Churches (CEC); Georgia in 1997, followed by Bulgaria in 1998. 1. Archbishop Iakovos of America, “The Orthodox Churches vis-à-vis the Ecumenical Movement”, in The Catholic World, vol. 201, no. 1, April 1965, 237- 239. Moreover, a significant and perilous rekindling of anti-ecumenical Orthodox circles was manifested during the 1990’s, especially in the former Soviet countries after the fall of communism. That crisis in the relations of the Orthodox Church with the Ecumenical Movement led the 8th General Assembly of the WCC in Harare (1998) to appoint a Special Commission on Orthodox participation in the WCC. Motivated by that reality, due to the fact that I was studying between 2004 and 2005 in the official Institute of the WCC, at Bossey, and the Autonomous Faculty of Protestant Theology of the University of Geneva, I considered it important to study further the issue and deepen my understanding of the Orthodox involvement in the Ecumenical Movement. More specifically, in this dissertation I try to explore the official Orthodox position vis-à-vis the Ecumenical Movement as it had been formulated by the official synodical bodies of the Orthodox Church in her process of convoking the Holy and Great Council. The convocation of the Holy and Great Council was envisioned as an attempt of the Orthodox Churches to come closer and deal on a Pan- Orthodox level with the main issues that confronted them in the 20th century. After many centuries of mutual isolation and alienation, the process of meeting of the Orthodox Churches was only put into practice during the 1960’s, even though this issue occupied the thought of the Orthodox leaders from the very beginning of the 20th century. Among the themes of the agenda of the Holy and Great Council, the issue of Ecumenism and inter-Christian relations had a primary place. While dealing with the issue of the Orthodox participation in the Ecumenical Movement, I will try to answer the following questions: Is the participation of the Orthodoxy in the Ecumenical Movement and in its institutional forms, such as the WCC, based on firm principles logically applied? Are there any divergences or shifts in the attempt of the Orthodox Church to articulate her official position concerning her presence in the Ecumenical Movement? If so, how can they be explained? How can one analyze the changing attitudes of Orthodoxy vis-à-vis the orientation of the Ecumenical Movement and of the WCC after a common decision (1986) has been reached on a Pan-Orthodox level? Has that common decision a binding character for the autocephalous Orthodox Churches? In my attempt to answer to those questions, I focused my research on studying the formal decisions taken by the Orthodox Churches on a Pan-Orthodox level. My study was based on the Encyclicals, official Church documents and minutes of Pan-Orthodox Conferences and Ecumenical Assemblies and Consultations, as well as on related articles and essays. In addition, influential personalities involved in the WCC activities and in the Pan-Orthodox Preconciliar process have been interviewed. Despite the fact that this topic also touches ecclesiological aspects, my purpose was to deal with all these sources by limiting myself to a historic point of view until the work performed by the well known Special Commission on Orthodox participation in the WCC (1998-2002) was completed. The chronic limit (2002) is exclusively related to the time when this Master’s thesis was written (2004-2005), namely before the convocation of the Porto Alegre 9th General Assembly of the WCC, where the proposals of the Special Commission on Orthodox participation in the WCC were adopted and put into practice.
SOTER: Journal of Religious Science
Involvement of the Orthodox Church in the Ecumenical Movement in the Context of the Orthodox Participation in the World Council of Churches SUMMARY. The main concern of the ecumenical movement is to overcome the problem connected with the schism and division among Christians. The position of the Orthodox Church is very important in this process, because of historical and other reasons. Orthodox Churches have participated in the ecumenical movement from the very beginning. The purpose of this article is to review the historical context and to examine the main difficulties that exist in the modern ecumenical movement in relation to the Orthodox Churches. As far as the structure of the Orthodox Church differs from that of the Roman Catholic Church, it should be mentioned that the documents and the encyclicals on which the article is based are from autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches. Autocephalous means that there are seventeen self-governing Eastern Orthodox Churches that recognize each other as canonical Churches. The highest-ranking bishop is called a patriarch, archbishop, or metropolitan. These seventeen Orthodox Churches share a eucharistic communion, they recognize common dogmas and common ecclesiastical traditions. Therefore, when the article attempts to express the position of the Orthodox Church, it refers to the official documents of the Orthodox Churches announced at inter-Orthodox gatherings or as the encyclicals. The article examines when and why the Orthodox Churches became involved in the ecumenical movement and what challenges the Orthodox Church faces in modern ecumenical organizations.
Response to the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church
Journal of World Christianity, 2021
The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church was a momentous event not simply for the Orthodox world, but for all Christians. In this response, I suggest that the Council opened the door to a new set of relations centered on the recognition of the “historic name” of other churches outside the boundaries of Orthodoxy. The theological ground for this claim is the realization of the fullness of Christ in the life of the people of God through the Spirit. I turn to two areas of opportunity for further dialogue between Orthodox and Pentecostals. The first is the Christian life and the role of the sacraments while the second is proselytism.
The Witness of the Orthodox Church in the Ecumenical Movement
The ecumenical movement is still a difficult communication space for the Orthodox, which to date have contributed creatively to the theological reflection on mission, the understanding of the sacred mysteries, of ecclesiology. Simultaneously they gave testimony of the uninterrupted continuity of an undivided Church of the apostolic times through space and time, as experienced in the conscience of the faithful.
The article deals with the ecclesiological challenges that rose after the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church in Crete (June 2016) following the encounter between East and West, as far as the orthodox-catholic dialogue is concerned. The conciliar restrictive formulations (included in the document " Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian World ") concerning the denomination of other Churches caused negative reactions from the roman-catholic side, which questioned the future of the dialogue with the Orthodox Church. From that perspective, this study analyses the above-mentioned document and some other documents of the Council in Crete and sketches future perspectives on the orthodox-catholic dialogue. The main thesis of the present study is that, considering the ecclesiological debates that were held in Crete and afterwards, it becomes obvious that the theological orthodox-catholic dialogue needs a restart, arising from the spirit of the beginnings (the so called " plan for dialogue " adopted in Patmos/Rhodes, 1980). Some of the premises for this restart should be: the liberation of church-political strategies, the emphasis of the spiritual relevance and responsibility of the inter-Christian dialogue and a deeper consideration and implementation of the theological results of the different regional or unofficial dialogue groups. The study finalizes with concrete proposals of alternative themes of reflection for overcoming the aporias that the official theological dialogue is dealing with.