Press release

 

A particular value on the ecumenical plane is represented by the official delegations of the Churches of East and West.

On the part of the Catholic Church are expected mons. Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the promotion of Christian unity, together with fr. Milan Žust, S.J., don Andrea Palmieri and sr. Barbara Matrecano of the same office; archbishop Antonio Mennini, apostolic nuncio to the Russian Federation; cardinal Achille Silvestrini, former prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, mons. Piero Marini, president of the Pontifical Committee for the International Eucharistic Congresses, and mons. Mansueto Bianchi, bishop of Pistoia and president of the Commission for ecumenism and dialogue (Italian Bishops' Conference). During the course of the proceedings several bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Piedmont will participate, among the the secretary of the Conference, bishop Arrigo Miglio of Ivrea and bishop Gabriele Mana of Biella, the local ordinary.

Archbishop Feognost of Sergiev Posad will lead the delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate, composed also of bishop Feofilakt of Brjansk and Sevsk, archimandrite Filipp (Ryabykh) and hieromonk Aleksij (Zavidonsky). The Orthodox Church of Greece will be represented by metropolitans Ignatios of Dimiatriados and Daniel of Kessariani, Vironas, and Hymettos and bishop Ioannis of Thermopyli. Further, as official representatives of their Churches will be present: metropolitan Serafim of Germany  and bishop Ioachim of Roman and Bac?u (Romanian Orthodox Church), metropolitan Grigorij of Veliko T?rnovo and bishop Kiprian of Traianopol (Bulgarian Orthodox Church), bishop Volodymyr of Rovin’ky (Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Patriarchate of Moscow), bishop Stefan of Turov and Mozyrsk (Belarusian Exarchate of the Patriarchate of Moscow), fr. Ruben Zargaryan (Armenian Apostolic Church), delegat of the Catholikos of all the Armenians Garechin II; archimandrite Athenagoras (Fasiolo) (Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy and Malta), rev. Jonathan Goodall, delegate of the archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, and Tamara Grdzelidze of the World Council of Churches of Geneva. In addition, we may note the presence of Anatolij Krasikov of Moscow, Spyridon Kontoyannis of the University of Athens, Pendelis Kalaitzidis of Volos, Gelian M. Prochorov of the Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg, Hugh Wybrew of Oxford.

The conference program was prepared in collaboration with the Orthodox Churches by a scientific committee presided by fr. Enzo Bianchi, and which includes fr. Hervé Legrand (Paris), fr. Michel van Parys, Antonio Rigo (University of Venice), Roberto Salizzoni (University of Turin).

As described above, the course of the conference desires to offer a space for a fraternal encounter between the various Christian Churches, for communion and sharing of their multiform spiritual traditions. The announced participation of numerous monks and nuns from Orthodox (Greece, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Mount Sinai, Georgia, Armenia) and Catholic monasteries (Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, Hungary) gives the hope that this purpose of the conference will be achieved.

XVIII International Ecumenical Conference
on Orthodox Spirituality