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Nobody—not a nation, not a state, not a religion, nor science and technology—can face the current problems alone.
We need one another.

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople

His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew attended the 10th World Assembly of Religions for Peace in Lindau (Germany) from 20-23 August 2019 where he delivered the keynote address. Religions for Peace, in partnership with the Foundation Peace Dialogue of the World Religions and Civil Society, is the world’s most representative, multi-religious gathering of religious communities. Every 5-7 years, Religions for Peace convenes a World Assembly for the purpose of forging a deep moral consensus on contemporary challenges, electing a new World Council and advancing multi-religious action across and beyond the Religions for Peace network. Read More

While Orthodoxy in Dialogue considers the notion that one can be “Orthodox in communion with Rome” to be ecclesiologically indefensible absent Rome’s return to Orthodoxy, we fully support open, fraternal dialogue on this topic and the underlying issues.

The following should be read in conjunction with Father Alexander Schmemann’s A Response to the Vatican II Decree on Eastern Churches of 1966 and Brian A. Butcher, Liam Farrer, and Kevin Basil Fritts’ dialogical Can You Be Orthodox in Communion with Rome? of January 2018. (The latter ranks #4 among all guest articles that Orthodoxy in Dialogue has published in our two years of activity.)

Conference participants. Stuttgart. July 19-21, 2019.

International conference in Stuttgart opens the door for dialogue between Orthodox and Eastern Catholics

Christian unity has gained much through various bilateral dialogues. Indeed, today there is almost every possible combination of bilateral dialogue one could imagine. Yet, a rare exception and omission from the ecumenical table is the lack of dialogue between the Orthodox and the Catholic Eastern Churches (the so-called “Uniates”). Throughout their shared history, these two traditions have lived through a very complex and sometimes tense relationship—not only theologically, but also politically. In most cases these tense relationships remain to this day; indeed, some have increased in difficulty (e.g., in Ukraine).

One of the key stumbling blocks here concerns the widely differing perceptions of what Eastern Catholic Churches represent. Regardless of historical accuracy, many Orthodox refer to these churches as “stolen” (most of these churches did not emerge from so-called processes of “uniatism” or “proselytism”), while on the Catholic side they are seen as bridges to the Orthodox traditions (a perspective which, again, many Orthodox strongly reject). Read More

NOTE: Just as this was about to go to press we received news which may compel us to shut down Orthodoxy in Dialogue. A decision will have to be made within the coming week or two.

With thanks to God and to our hierarchs, priests, deacons, monastics, brothers, sisters, friends, enemies, readers, writers, supporters, Patrons, critics, and detractors around the world, Orthodoxy in Dialogue celebrates its second anniversary of service to the Church on August 22, 2019.

We have sought only to create a safe space to discuss some of the most difficult questions facing us Orthodox and other Christians in this first quarter of the 21st century.

We have not shied away from saying the hard things that we feel need to be said. 

Whether you love or hate Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s work, you’re talking about it. In the end that’s a very good thing. We believe that this is how Holy Tradition as a living dynamism “works” in the Orthodox Church of every era, our age being no different from that of the Ecumenical Councils.

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This deeply moving account has been added to our LGBTQI Listening Tour: An Open Letter to Our Bishops in the USA and Canada.

The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America

George Michalopulos over at Monomakhos has honoured the Dormition of the Theotokos by posting what, upon consideration by anyone reasonably acquainted with the Orthodox Church, amounts clearly to no more than gossip-mongering—Breaking: The OCA to Go under EP!

Michalopulos begins:

According to two different sources, Syosset [the headquarters of the Orthodox Church in America] has been in negotiations to cede its autocephaly and go under Istanbul [the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople]. One source says that this is “a done deal,” the other says that negotiations are “ongoing.”

Given the significant difference between done deal and ongoing reported by his two “sources,” and the fact that he relies on “word on the street” in his pentultimate paragraph, one might have wished that Michalopulos had exercised the responsibility of simply not publishing his piece at all. Even at the highly controversial and widely mistrusted Orthodoxy in Dialogue, we generally do not report news that cannot be corroborated by, and linked to, numerous other online sources.  Read More

The Department of Theological Studies at Concordia University in Montreal is hosting a conference called Theology in the City: Resilience and Hope in an Age of Fear on October 31-November 1. I submitted the following proposal, which I share with Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s readers to generate reflection and discussion on all that “Orthodoxy as a way of life” consists of.

Theosis in the City: An Orthodox Reflection

Orthodox spirituality, anthropology, soteriology, eschatology, even cosmology, revolve entirely around the doctrine of theosis, or deification: the eternal purpose for which God created us, and for which the Son and Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us, finds its fulfilment in the transfiguration of the human person by grace into all that God is by nature.

As a foretaste of the age to come, the experience of deification here and now is often thought to lie uniquely within reach of Christian mystics who practice hesychastic spirituality in remote hermitages. Read More

As Orthodoxy in Dialogue approaches its second anniversary on August 22, our original readers will remember our three “pre-launch” posts: Open Letter to Our Beloved Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America (8/16/17), Response to Racist Violence in Charlottesville, VA (8/18/17), and Editorial: Our Response to the Assembly of Bishops (8/20/17). These established Orthodoxy in Dialogue, from its inception, as American Orthodoxy’s loudest and most persistent voice against white supremacy and racism in the social, political, and religious life of the United States—found even within the Orthodox Church. Between then and now, the White Supremacy and Racism section of our Archives has grown to almost 45 of our 643 titles, or 7% of our publishing activity.

We post the following call to collective, peaceful action as consistent with our publishing history and our values. Please share it widely with your activist-minded brothers, sisters, friends, and colleagues. Imagine how wonderful it will be for Orthodox laity, clergy, and hierarchy to show up in large numbers.

To learn about Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s partnership to provide legal and humanitarian assistance at the US-Mexico border click

HERE

Across the country, millions of hearts beat with El Paso, from Pasadena to Parkland, Phoenix to Philadelphia. And on September 7, our hearts will beat to gether in El Paso for a day of action and creative resistance against white supremacy. We are calling for our sisters and brothers from across the country to come down to the border and join Border Network for Human Rights and other local organizations in this fight. What has been polluted by hatred and racist violence, we can begin to cleanse with song and collective action. Read More