Sobornal Orthodox Ecclesiology Today: Faith in the Church, Knowledge of the Church, and the Organization of Church Life

Ecclesiology, which has become the central theme of Orthodox Theology over the past two centuries, has been developed in several aspects by church thinkers and figures of this period. First and foremost, the doctrine of the Church has been revealed with renewed vigour as faith in the Church. Additionally, the development of Christian philosophy over the 19th and 20th centuries has provided an impetus for revitalizing our doctrinal understanding of the Church. Furthermore, the renewal of faith and knowledge of the Church has been closely intertwined with the search for appropriate forms of church life, in which faith, knowledge, and practical life would not diverge, as has often happened over history.

For many Orthodox theologians and church figures, conscious entry into the Church after the end of the "Constantinian" era, and the organization of church life as the living union of the faithful within current historical conditions became a new inspiration and revelation of Christianity. This included an historically unprecedented experience of freedom from state oversight, the duality of societal life, and the experience of enduring unprecedented persecutions aimed at the Christian faith and church life. Yet, from within the diverse expressions of the Church in this time, a testimony emerged, bearing witness to the Church's sobornost, its otherworldly unity embodied in spiritual alliances, movements, brotherhoods, and communities. In our time, it is difficult to imagine the development of church life without such an experience of faith, prayer, and life. However, at the ecclesiological level, the experience of sobornal life has not yet been fully synthesized or articulated. This conference's organizers plan to dedicate time to the development of various aspects of the ecclesiology of sobornost.

Possible themes for plenary sessions and roundtable discussions include:

1. The relationship between parish and eucharistic principles with communal and brotherhood structures for church life
2. The gathering of communities and brotherhoods, their composition, and their relationship with institutional forms of church life (parish, monastery, diocese, local church)
3. The uniqueness of informal unions of the faithful (communities, brotherhoods, movements) and their continuous existence over the course of history
4. The development of the Orthodox liturgical tradition in the experience of spiritual movements, brotherhoods, and communities of the 20th–21st centuries
5. Sacramental-hierarchical and charismatic ministries within the Church
6. Personal and sobornal ministry of the faithful in the experience of spiritual movements
7. The particular features of pastoral, priestly, and episcopal ministry, and the ministry of other spiritual elders in spiritual unions in sobornal ecclesiology
8. Christian witness and church mission in the context of communal and brotherhood ecclesiology
9. Catechesis and entry into the Church for adults, children, teenagers and young people in the experience of communities and brotherhoods

The conference will feature plenary sessions and a series of roundtables dedicated to particular issues. The conference will be The conference format is in-person with the option for remote participation. We will publish some of the papers given in a collection of conference papers or in the scholarly journal St Philaret’s Quarterly Journal.

Conference organising committee:

• Chairman: Dmitry Sergeevich Gasak, First Vice-Rector, St Philaret’s Institute
• Contact: Yulia Nikolaeva Antipina, 89633165393, conference@sfi.ru
• Press Contact: Sofia Vadimovna Androsenko, sofia@sfi.ru

Applications for conference participation will be accepted until 15 August, 2025.

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