MEETING OF THEOLOGICAL DIALOGUE COMMISSION
VATICAN CITY, JAN 30, 2007 (VIS) – The Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity this morning released a communique announcing that the
annual meeting of the Joint International Commission for Theological
Dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox is being held in Rome from January
30, to February 3.
The meeting is to be presided by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the
pontifical council, and by Metropolitan Anba Bishoy of the Coptic Orthodox
Church. The Orthodox delegation includes representatives from seven local
Churches that are part of the family of the Eastern Orthodox Churches: the
Coptic Orthodox, the Syrian Orthodox, the Armenian Apostolic (represented by
the two catholicosates of Etchmiadzin and Cilicia), the Ethiopian Orthodox,
the Eritrean Orthodox and the Malankara Orthodox Syrian.
The Catholic delegation includes representatives of the Latin tradition
and from the various Eastern Catholic traditions (Coptic Catholic, Syrian
Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Maronite, Syro-Malabarese, and Ethiopian).
Since its creation in 2003, the commission has concentrated its attention
above all on two ecclesiological questions: structures of communion, and the
exercise of apostolic ministry in the Church.