A working group meeting on discipleship took place at the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey, Switzerland on 5-7 April 2019. Those gathered were continuing to follow up the World Council of Churches (WCC) Conference on World Mission and Evangelism held in Arusha, Tanzania in March 2018. They met at the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey to reflect on the Arusha Call, a document compiling ideas from more than 1,000 people gathered in Tanzania. The theme of the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism was “Moving in the Spirit: Called to Transforming Discipleship.” A tradition of the International Mission Council and the WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, mission conferences are held roughly every decade.

The working group worked to point out fresh, innovative elements that the Arusha Call to discipleship is lifting up. The group also discussed the Arusha Call with an eye toward the WCC 11th Assembly in 2021. Participating in the meeting from the Ecumenical Patriarchate was the Very Reverend Second Patriarchal Deacon Nephon Tsimalis.

The Archbishop of Australia Stylianos Harkianakis died following a lengthy illness in Sydney on 25 March 2019. He was born in Rethymno, on the island of Crete, Greece on 29 December 1935. He studied theology at the Theological School of Halki near Istanbul and graduated in 1958. He was ordained a deacon in 1957 and a priest in 1958. He completed postgraduate studies in systematic theology and the philosophy of religion at the University of Bonn in Germany from 1958 to 1966. He had among his professors Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI). The subject of his doctoral thesis was “The Infallibility of the Church in Orthodox Theology”, analyzing the correlation between infallibility and conciliarity of the Church. Continue reading →

Thank you for your time and your noble intention to give readers of “Politika” answers to very sensitive issues that characterize the positions of Orthodoxy in the modern world, namely – as you feel and know well – answers to very interesting questions about the Church of Ukraine. We admit that among the Serbian public, your explanation for this situation and your arguments have not been presented to a satisfactory degree. In contrast to this, the view and attitude of the Russian Church is constantly repeated in the Serbian media, and readers are fully familiar with them. With this interview, I am taking the opportunity to clarify your positions and recent actions. In this interview, we would like to start with some general issues, and then move on to more specific questions. Continue reading →

On Sunday, March 17, 2019, the Sunday of Orthodoxy and First Sunday of Great Lent, His All-Holiness solemnly concelebrated the Divine Liturgy together with Metropolitans Elder Dimitrios of the Princes’ Islands, Augustinos of Germany, Germanos of Tranoupolis, Sotirios of Toronto, Makarios of Aneon, Eugenios of Rethymno and Avlopotamos, Amphilochios of Ganou and Chora, Damaskinos of Kydonia and Apokoronos, Nathanael of Kos and Nisyros, Constantine of Singapore, and Chrysostomos of Symi. During the Liturgy, the Patriarch ordained Mr. Dimitrios Nikiforos to the Diaconate, giving him the name Aetius. Continue reading →

Archbishop Job of Telmessos, Permanent Representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the World Council of Churches, has been appointed on 20 February 2019 Rector of the Institute of Post-Graduate Studies in Orthodox Theology in Chambésy (Switzerland), where he is Professor of Liturgical Theology since 2010. He succeeds to Professor Vlassios Phidas who has resigned from his position of Rector.

The Institute of Post-Graduate Studies in Orthodox Theology in Chambésy was established as an independent academic activity of the Orthodox Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and operates since 1996 in collaboration with the Roman Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Fribourg and the Protestant Theological Faculty of the University of Geneva. The mission of the Institute is to prepare young Orthodox theologians, coming from all the local Orthodox Churches, capable to conduct inter-Christian and inter-religious dialogues.

The European Conference of the Episcopal Churches Consultation in the Netherlands and the Old Catholic archdiocese of Utrecht hosted on 15-16 February 2019 two days of reflection on the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church held on the island of Crete in 2016. The keynote speaker was Archbishop Job of Telmessos, Permanent Representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the World Council of Churches, who spoke on the relations of the Orthodox Church with the rest of the Christian world and on the mission of the Orthodox Church to the contemporary world.

Present at the seminar on 15 February were among others the Archbishop Joris Vercammen of Utrecht of the Old Catholics, Bishop Dirk Jan Schoon of Harlem of the Old Catholics, Metropolitan Athenagoras of Belgium (Ecumenical Patriarchate), Metropolitan Isaac (Barakat) of the Patriarchate of Antiochia, Archbishop Polycarpus (Aydin) of the Syrian Oriental Orthodox Church, Fr. Theodoor van der Voort, representing Archbishop John of Charioupolis, and Fr. Hildo Bos, representing as an observer Archbishop Elisey (Ganaba) of the Russian Orthodox Church. On the next day, public lectures were attended by more than 100 participants. The meeting ended with a Vespers service celebrated according to the Orthodox Tradition.

The Ecumenical Patriarch met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Ankara on 5 February 2019, responding to the invitation of the Turkish President to attend the official dinner in honor of the Prime Minister of Greece.

On the next day, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras visited the Holy Theological School of Halki and had a meeting with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in a cordial atmosphere. His visit on 6 February coincided with the feast of Saint Photius, Patriarch Constantinople and benefactor of the Holy Trinity Monastery of Halki where the historical theological school of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is housed, but which is unfortunately ceased to function due to the decision of the Turkish authorities.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) continues its mission of being a platform for Churches to come together, to understand each other better and to work together for the good of their societies, said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches during a meeting with His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church on 30 January 2019.

The meeting took place on invitation to the WCC general secretary to attend the 10^th anniversary of the patriarchal enthronement of Patriarch Kirill in Moscow. Tveit greeted Patriarch Kirill and emphasized the importance of the ecumenical engagement of the Russian Orthodox Church and participation in the WCC’s work. Continue reading →

As it concluded its meeting in Cyprus, held from 9-16 January, and hosted by Metropolitan Vasilios of Ammochostos and Constantia of the Church of Cyprus, the World Council of Churches (WCC) Assembly Planning Committee (APC) released a report to the WCC Executive Committee detailing building blocks for the 11th WCC Assembly, to be held in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2021.

There will be 775 delegates at the assembly. The Assembly Worship Planning Committee will hold its first meeting in the Karlsruhe region on 5-11 July 2019. A host committee is soon to be established in order  to involve churches on national, regional and local levels. The APC also discussed the theme for the assembly: “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.” In its report, the APC described the 11th Assembly as “a place of listening to each other, building trusted relationships, discerning together the way forward, encouraging each other to work together for change, and celebrating Christ’s gift of love with gratitude and joy.” Continue reading →

The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, during its meeting on 9-11 January 2019, following its decision of 11 October 2018 to restaure a stauropegion of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Kiev, one of the many stavropigia that the Ecumenical Patriarchate used to have in Ukraine in the past centuries, has appointed as its head The Very Reverend Archimandrite of the Ecumenical Throne Michael Anishchenko, who headed until now the Orthodox Community in Antalya (Turkey) of the Holy Metropolis of Pisidia.