MEMBERS OF CILICIAN SEE PARTICIPATE IN ECUMENICAL DIALOGUE IN SWITZERLAND

NEW YORK, NY—His Grace Bishop Anoushavan Tanielian, Vicar General of the Eastern Prelacy of the United States and Ecumenical Officer of the Catholicosate of Cilicia for the United States, and Ms. Nayiri Baljian, delegate to the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), joined 18 other men and women from around the world for an ecumenical seminar entitled, “What It Means to be Human: Orthodox and Evangelicals in Dialogue.” The Seminar, which took place at the Ecumenical Institute, Bossey, Switzerland, was the fourth in a series of topical dialogues between members of Evangelical and Orthodox churches. The previous three seminars each focused on one of the following themes: salvation, ecclesiology, scriptures, and the way in which Orthodox and Evangelicals perceive one another. As indicated by its title, the agenda for this seminar centered on the theme of theological anthropology, with the first two full days of the program dedicated to hearing and responding to papers prepared by Rev. Dr. Andrew Louth, Antiochian Orthodox priest and lecturer at the University of Durham (England), and Dr. Mark Elliot, an evangelical and professor for the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrew’s (Scotland). Dr. Louth, in his paper entitled, “An Orthodox Understanding of What it is to be Human,” discussed both the idea of human creation in the image of God and the notion of hypostases, a Greek term used to express the existential nature of human beings. Dr. Louth noted that from the Orthodox perspective, and opposed to Western individualism, humans primarily exist in relationship, with one another and God. Via current Orthodox scholarship, Dr. Louth linked creation in the image of God to the individual’s prayer life, while Orthodox participants in the seminar insisted that the hypostatic reality of humanness relates to participation in the Eucharist, i.e. corporate worship. Dr. James Stamoolis, Professor of Biblical Studies at Trinity International University (United States), read a thoughtful statement of response from the Evangelical perspective. Dr. Elliot presented his paper on humanness from the Evangelical perspective, acknowledging that a single “Evangelical perspective” on any matter is difficult to define. Dr. Elliot concluded that in general Evangelicals view anthropology with “sobriety,” given Calvinistic views on the seriousness of sin and the hopeless nature of the human soul sans Christ; however, in light of human salvation and redemption through Jesus, humanness assumes a hopeful, service-oriented significance. Rev. Dr. Stelian Tofana, Romanian Orthodox priest and member of the Theological Faculty at Cluj (Romania), responded to Dr. Elliot’s paper from the Orthodox perspective. Through response statements and group discussion, the plenary concluded that despite obvious differences pertaining to human salvation and the depravity of human nature, Evangelicals and Orthodox share a similar theological understanding of anthropology. Day three of the seminar was spent in nearby Geneva, at the headquarters of the WCC. Participants heard two lectures under the heading “Revisiting the thought of the Reformation about anthropology within the context of patristic views.” Lecture one was given by Rev. Dr. Sven Opengaard, from the Lutheran perspective, lecture two by Rev. Dr. Odair Pedroso Mateus, from the Reformed perspective. Immediately following, Rev. Dr. Kersten Storch presented recent work on anthropology by the Faith and Order commission of the WCC. This work has been published in a booklet entitled, Christian Perspectives on Theological Anthropology: A Faith and Order Study Document (Faith and Order Paper No. 199, WCC, 2005, 58pp). Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, General Secretary of the WCC, met briefly with the group, discussing his vision for the WCC, including facilitating breadth and depth of relationship among churches, via means such as ecumenical dialogue. The final two days of the seminar were dedicated to work in small groups. Groups first focused either on the idea of creation in the image of God or on the corporate vs. individual nature of anthropology, discussing each (as assigned) from the Orthodox and Evangelical perspectives. Groups next discussed practical matters pertaining to our convergent and divergent views on anthropology. Various suggestions were made regarding steps that might be taken jointly, particularly on social and ethical issues, in light of the strong agreement between Evangelicals and Orthodox regarding theological anthropology. A publication encompassing the reports of groups and the papers/response statements presented from the entire series of Evangelical-Orthodox dialogues at Bossey will be forthcoming. Participants at the seminar strongly recommended continuing the Orthodox-Evangelical dialogue in the same forum, and as such, a similar seminar has been tentatively scheduled for the summer of 2008 at Bossey, with a topic yet to be determined. The newly-formed dialogue steering committee, to which Ms. Baljian was named, will stress the recruitment of Orthodox theologians and lay leaders, as out of 20 attendees on this occasion only six were Orthodox while 14 were Evangelical. Although the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey is affiliated with the WCC and its seminars receive support from WCC staff, the Orthodox-Evangelical dialogue series is considered “unofficial,” as participants need not be official delegates of their churches. Open to the public, all Bossey seminars may be applied to, following the instructions found online at www.wcc-coe.org/bossey.