Ecumenical Delegation to Visit Armenia to Bond East-West Church Relations
Christian Today, UK
Aug 16 2005
A five-member ecumenical delegation is set to visit Armenia from Aug.
24 to Sep. 1, 2005. The Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada,
Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, will take part in this visit.
Posted: Tuesday, August 16 , 2005, 12:27 (UK)
The Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, Archbishop Andrew
Hutchison, will take part in this visit which has been organised by
the Canadian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church.
(anglican.ca) A five-member ecumenical delegation is set to visit
Armenia from Aug.
24 to Sep. 1, 2005. The Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada,
Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, will take part in this visit which has
been organised by the Canadian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic
Orthodox Church. This comes in response to an invitation by His
Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians,
to visit the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.
It will be recorded as the first ever visit to Armenia by a delegation
from Canada. The delegation, Led by the Primate of the Canadian Diocese
of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, Bishop Bagrat Galstanian,
will discuss the role and mission of Christian churches in the future
and cooperation between the churches in the East and West.
Other members of the delegation are include Archbishop Sotirios,
Metropolitan of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Canada, Archbishop
Brendan O’Brien, President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic
Bishops and Professor Richard Schneider, President of the Canadian
Council of Churches.
The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin is located near Yerevan, the
capital city of the Republic of Armenia. The Mother see is the
pre-eminent centre of authority in the worldwide Armenian Apostolic
Orthodox Church.
The Armenian Orthodox Church is a member of the Orthodox family of
churches which includes Coptic, Syrian, Armenian, Ethiopian, Eritrean
and the (Indian) Malankara. The Anglicans and the Oriental family
are currently in the midst of theological dialogue, which follows
an agreed statement on Christology in November 2002 reached by the
Anglican-Oriental Orthodox International Commission.
Recommendations of the Lambeth Conferences of 1988 and 1998 stemmed
formal dialogue between the Anglicans and the Eastern Orthodox
churches. Talks were also sparked by the decisions of the Oriental
Orthodox Churches that the Anglican-Orthodox dialogue be upgraded
from a forum, in 1985 to 1993, to a commission.
Relationships between the Anglican Church of Canada and the Canadian
Diocese of the Armenian Orthodox Church goes back 125 years, when the
Anglicans offered the liturgical space and hospitality in Anglican
churches to the Armenians during the absence of Armenian sanctuaries.
The relationship between the Armenian Orthodox Church and the Canadian
Anglicans has been strengthened to become recognised more through
the Scholarship of St. Basil the Great, which is administered by
the Anglican Foundation. The scholarship was established by retired
bishop of Diocese of Ontario, Bishop Henry Gordon Hill, with means to
facilitate exchange between members of the Anglican Church of Canada
and members of the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Assyrian Church
of the East.