Contemporary Orthodox Ecclesiology: Theological Foundations of Church Unity

St. Philaret’s Institute invites you to take part in a theological conference continuing the contemporary Orthodox Ecclesiology series. The previous years’ agenda featured issues such as the perception and development of Eucharistic ecclesiology. The resulting discussion highlighted a range of issues around the current understanding of the nature of the Church and its boundaries. The upcoming conference will focus on the unity of the Church in its theological dimension.

Nowadays we face two simultaneous tendencies. On the one hand, the Eastern and Western churches keep taking steps at least towards expanding the dialogue and eliminating historically accumulated stereotypes, if not towards restoring full-fledged unity. On the other hand, there are new challenges to church unity, in particular, a number of recent events in the Orthodox world, ranging from the non-participation of several local churches in the Pan-Orthodox Council to the establishment of a new metropolis under the jurisdiction of Constantinople in Ukraine and the debates around the status of the Archdiocese of Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe.

Not a few would agree with a known statement by A. S. Khomyakov: “It [the Church] is one and holy, as it sanctifies the whole humankind and the whole earth;” “its essence is the unity of all its members in spirit and life.” However, what exactly is the unity to be seen in? How is it ensured in the historical journey and empirical life of the Church? This is presumably the major question of the present day, which is suggested to be focused on along with the following issues for discussion:

• the nature of the Church's unity and its understanding in history;
• aspects of actualizing church unity (canonical, liturgical, etc.);
• the Church's unity within the main types of ecclesiology (clerical, Eucharistic, etc.).

Live stream on our Facebook page and Youtube.