Over the past week, from October 4-11, the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Hellenic College Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology hosted the plenary meeting of the International Commission for Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue (ICAOTD), the first time in its history that the Dialogue has taken place at HCHC. The Commission identified “The Mission of the Church in the World Today” and “Christian Formation” as the focus of its 2024 conversation in Brookline, MA.
The Dialogue, which commenced in 1973, marked fifty years of conversations last year. On Sunday, October 6, the Huffington Ecumenical Institute organized a formal celebration for the 50th anniversary of the Dialogue at the Maliotis Cultural Center. Members of the Dialogue spoke about the seven agreed statements published to date by the Commission, and around seventy-five people gathered to ask questions of the members of the Commission, who arrived from as far as the Middle East, Australia, Asia, and Africa, as well as Europe and Great Britain.
Yesterday, October 10, 2024, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America offered remarks at the closing dinner of the ICAOTD, where he thanked the Dialogue’s leadership and Huffington Ecumenical Institute Director Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis for their work. He also expressed his belief that “ecumenical dialogue [is] a vital ingredient to our interconnected world,” emphasizing that through encounters “of love and mutual understanding…we move beyond the dyad of ‘self and other,’ and complete our own triad in communion with God.”
Read His Eminence’s full remarks here.
This final dinner was sponsored by His Eminence at the Maliotis Cultural Center in honor of the delegates, who came from most Orthodox Autocephalous Churches and almost every corner of the Anglican world. The closing dinner was also blessed with the extraordinary visit of the Armenian Catholicos Patriarch of Cilicia in Lebanon, His Holiness Aram I, who arrived at the invitation of Archbishop Elpidophoros in order to greet the delegates, guests, and students.
The current Dialogue is co-chaired by His Eminence Metropolitan Athenagoras of Belgium (Orthodox) and His Grace Bishop Michael Lewis in Jerusalem (Anglican). Orthodox participants comprise representatives of Autocephalous Churches from all over the world: including but not only from Alexandria and Antioch, to Jerusalem and Georgia, as well as Greece and Cyprus. Anglican participants range from Australia and Canada, England and the Middle East, as well as Brazil and Ceylon.
Photo: Maliotis Cultural Center.
