North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation holds 77th meeting
The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation held its 77th meeting, held at Saint Paul’s College in Washington, DC, from October 22 to 24, 2009. It was presided over by Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Maximos of Pittsburgh and Roman Catholic Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans.
Archbishop Aymond had been with His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in New Orleans the day before the Consultation opened, and extended the Patriarch’s warm greetings to Consultation participants. The members attended Mass celebrated by Archbishop Aymond in the college chapel on the morning of October 23.
During the meeting the members finalized a joint response to the international dialogue’s 2007 “Ravenna Document.” The response examines the Ravenna Document’s treatment of conciliarity and authority at three levels within the Church: the local level (diocese), the regional level (Episcopal conferences, metropolitanates and patriarchates) and the universal level.
The members also examined a first draft of a proposed agreed statement on conciliarity and authority, entitled “Steps Towards a United Church: A Sketch of an Orthodox-Catholic Vision for the Future.” Still in its preliminary stages, the text will be revised and considered again at the next meeting of the dialogue that is scheduled to take place at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts, from June 1 to 3, 2010.
Other topics discussed included the Fourth Pre-Conciliar Pan-Orthodox Conference and its implications for Orthodoxy in North America, the papal encyclical Caritas in Veritate, the nomination of a new United States Ambassador to the Holy See, relations between the two Romanian Orthodox jurisdictions in North America, the recently announced creation of personal ordinariates for former Anglicans within the Catholic Church, and the situation of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese.
The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation is sponsored jointly by the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA), the Bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
More information on the 77th meeting of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation may be found http://www.scoba.us/articles/2759.html.