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| Service | Pressedienst | Pressematerial | Press Communiqué: 5th Patristic Conference of the foundation PRO ORIENTE “The Holiness and Apostolicity of the Church” |
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PRESS COMMUNIQUé: 5TH PATRISTIC CONFERENCE OF THE FOUNDATION PRO ORIENTE “THE HOLINESS AND APOSTOLICITY OF THE CHURCH” From 22nd to 26th of September 2009 the fifth patristic colloquy of the foundation PRO ORIENTE took place in the Higher Church Academy of Thessaloniki, Greece, on the theme “The Holiness and Apostolicity of the Church”. It was on invitation of Metropolitan Anthimos of Thessaloniki and Metropolitan Varnavas of Neapolis as well as the Higher Church Academy that this Conference came to Thessaloniki, a city visited already by the Apostle Paul, who has addressed his first letter to its Christian community. 25 professors and scholars of patristics, both Orthodox and Catholic, coming from 18 countries of Western and Eastern Europe (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland and Ukraine), participated in the colloquy. The participants were in agreement that the colloquy took place in the serene climate of trust and friendship. The group of Catholic and Orthodox patrologists of the foundation PRO ORIENTE has already met on three occasions to reflect on the mystery of the Holy Trinity: on Christ (Vienna, 2001), on the Holy Spirit (Vienna, 2003) and on God Father and Creator (Luxemburg, 2005). A new phase of reflection on Ecclesiology started in Romania in 2007 with the study on “Unity and Catholicity of the Church”. The present Colloquy on “Holiness and Apostolicity of the Church”, the two other of the four characteristics of the Church, confessed by all Christians in the symbol of faith (the creed) of Nicaea-Constantinople, concludes this series. The study of the heritage of the Fathers of the Church is one of the rare academic disciplines that can be pursued together by the two Churches. The participants were extremely grateful for the cordial welcome and hospitality offered by the Metropolis of Neapolis (Thessaloniki) and of the Higher Church Academy of Thessaloniki. They took part in Vespers at the Monastery of Vlatades, the very place where Saint Paul preached and where today the headquarters of the Centre of Patristic Studies of the Ecumenical Patriarchate are to be found. The colloquy was inaugurated by Cardinal Christoph SCHÖNBORN, president of Board of Trustees of PRO ORIENTE and initiator of this series of patristic colloquies, by Metropolitan Michael (Staikos) of Austria and by Prof. Dr. Christophoros KONTAKIS, director of the Academy. An introduction was given by Prof. Dr. Theresia HAINTHALER, scholarly director of the patristic colloquies. During what turned out to be his first visit in Greece the Archbishop of Vienna was warmly received with his delegation by the Archbishop of Athens and all the Greece, HIERONYMOS, by Metropolitan ANTHIMOS of Thessaloniki and Metropolitan PROKOPIOS of Kalamaria. After numerous, rich papers presented on the Church Fathers, the participants were in agreement that apostolicity is concerned with all the aspects of the life of the Church. The discussions pointed out that the word “Apostle” has different meanings in the early Church. The participants distinguished two dimensions of such apostolicity: a) a missionary and historical dimension, corresponding to the fact that the Apostles were sent by Christ who Himself was the first “Apostle” of the Father; b) an eschatological dimension, relating to the fact that since Pentecost each Eucharistic assembly united around a minister, anticipates the calling together of the Apostles by Christ on the Last Day. With regard to the first perspective, a number of local Churches have been historically defined as Apostolic sees, especially the See of Rome where the Saint Apostles Peter and Paul were martyred. However with regard to the second – eschatological – perspective which is predominant in the Christian East, each local Church articulates apostolicity, since each manifests the catholicity of the Una Sancta in the faith and the sacraments shared with the other local Churches. Since the development of the authority of certain local sees was connected with the organisation of the civil structures of the Christian Roman Empire, the apostolicity and authority presumably are not therefore strictly connected. Though the participants admitted the eminent role of Peter in the apostolic college, some discussions centred on the specifically Roman interpretation of a Petrine ministry associated in an exclusive way to the Bishops of Rome. From the point of view of the Christian East the bishop, beside the fact of being a figure of Christ, is the successor of the whole of the apostolic college, the unity of which is represented by Peter. A similar thought was formulated by Cyprian of Carthage. The Roman ecclesiology centred on Peter as attested by St. Leo of Rome (5th c.) has not been received as such by the Christian East. The papers on the holiness of the Church according to the Fathers have underlined the antiquity of this attribute and the rich variety of the local traditions in the treasury of the universal Church. The Fathers unanimously affirm that the holiness of the Church comes from God in the Holy Spirit and that the Church is a holy community composed of repentant sinners. The debates have shown that the writings of the Fathers can shed light on contemporary theological and spiritual issues addressed by the Churches. With regard to current encounters between Churches, the knowledge and thus the study of the teachings of the Fathers are indispensable. The contributions of the colloquy will soon be gathered together in a volume, like the other four preceding colloquies, which gave material for the publication of four volumes, printed at Tyrolia publishing house (Innsbruck/Vienna) in 2003 (Christus bei den Vätern), in 2005 (Der Heilige Geist im Leben der Kirche), in 2007 (Gott, Vater und Schöpfer) and in 2009 (Einheit und Katholizität der Kirche). During the colloquy contributions were made, from the Catholic side by: Gregor EMMENEGGER (Fribourg / Switzerland; Apostolizität im Kontext des Streites der Bischöfe Cyprian und Stephanus), Father Franz MALI (Fribourg, Switzerland ; Die Heiligkeit der Kirche beim hl. Ambrosius), Dominique GONNET (Lyon ; L’église comme temple du Saint Esprit ou sanctifiée par l’Esprit Saint – maintenant et dans la perspective eschatologique), Father Vittorino GROSSI (Rome ; L’Apostolicità nell’ecclesiologia agostiniana), Lenka KARFÍKOVÁ (Prague ; Die Heiligkeit der Kirche in der Hoheliedauslegung des Origenes), Taras KHOMYCH (Leuven / Lviv ; Trajectories of the Notion of Apostolicity through the Writings of the Apostolic Fathers: From a Contested Terrain to an Ecumenical Potential), Theresia HAINTHALER (Frankfurt ; Die Petrus-Idee bei Leo I. von Rom), Ysabel DE ANDIA (CNRS and École cathédrale, Paris ; La tradition apostolique et la succession apostolique chez Irénée de Lyon), Prof. Paul MATTEI (Lyon ; La notion d’apostolicité (ou de succession apostolique) selon la première tradition africaine (Tertullien ; Cyprien), Father Athanase OROSZ (Budapest ; L’apostolicité et la sainteté de l’Église chez saint Maxime le Confesseur), Joseph NAUMOWICZ (Warsaw ; «L’Église sainte» dans les anciens symboles de la foi). From the Orthodox side contributions were given by: Father Vladan PERIŠIĆ (Belgrade ; Is the concept of 'Apostle' a well-defined concept?), Father André LOUTH (Durham, Great Britain ; St Andrew and the Apostolicity of the Church of Constantinople), Father Vaclav JEŽEK (Presov, Slovakia ; Limits and possibilities of apostolicity), Michel STAVROU (Institut St. Serge, Paris ; La continuité apostolique chez les Pères des trois premiers siècles), Ovidiu IOAN (Sibiu ; Apostolizität und Petrustradition in der ostsyrischen Kirche), Father Cyril HOVORUN (Kiev ; Apostolicity and right of appeal), Father Mykola MAKAR (Orthodox Theological Academy of Kiev ; The Church, holy and formed of sinners – according to St Augustine), Petr MIKHAILOV (Moscow ; The image of Apostle Paul according to Cappadocians and St John Chrysostomus), Daniel MUNTEANU (Bamberg, Germany; Die kosmische Heiligkeit der Kirche nach Maximus Confessor) et Alexei MURAVIEV (Academy of Sciences in Moscow ; Apostolizität der Kirche bei Mar Aphrem: De Ecclesia als Modell. Einige Beobachtungen und griechische Parallelen), Mariyan STOYADINOV (Veliko Tarnovo ; The Heavenly and Earthly Tabernacle – A Vision of St Gregory of Nyssa on Church in De vita Moisys), Georgios MARTZELOS (Thessaloniki ; Die Apostolizität der Kirche im theologischen Dialog zwischen der Orthodoxen und der Römisch-Katholischen Kirche). Founded in 1964 by the late Cardinal Franz KÖNIG (1905-2004), the task of the PRO ORIENTE Foundation with its headquarters in Vienna is to maintain and promote relations on a non-official level between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council. The main working instruments of PRO ORIENTE include convening academic conferences, symposia and theological consultations and issuing publications. |
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Patristische Tagungen