The Reception of the Balamand Declaration (1993-2018) and the Current Relations Between the Orthodox and Oriental Churches and their Catholic Sister Churches

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International Conference

With the participation of the Director and Academic Associate of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies

November 26-28, 2018, Leuven, Belgium

On November 26-28, 2018 an International conference on the topic “The Reception of the Balamand Declaration (1993-2018) and the Current Relations Between the Orthodox and Oriental Churches and their Catholic Sister Churches” was successfully held in Leuven, Belgium. The conference was organized by the Louvain Center for Eastern and Oriental Christianity (LOCEOC) of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of KU Leuven.

25 years ago the international dialogue commission between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church agreed upon a short document entitled Uniatism, Method of Union of the Past, and the Present Search for Full Communion. In this colloquium an attempt was made to reread the Balamand declaration and investigate whether the theology of “sister churches” it developed was sufficiently received in Orthodox and Roman Catholic ecclesiology. As far as the “problem of uniatism” is concerned the conference sought to test the hypothesis that it makes more sense to study the reception of the Balamand declaration as well as the history of the relations between Orthodox and Oriental churches and their Catholic sister churches in specific geographical contexts like Ukraine, Romania, the Balkans and the Middle East, than providing a general answer.

Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis, Director of the Volos Academy, Research Fellow at KU Leuven and Member of the Executive Committee of the European Academy of Religion spoke on the topic “The Problem of Uniatism and the Future of the Orthodox-Catholic International Dialogue.”

Rev. Dr. Amfilochios Miltos, Academic Associate of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies spoke on the topic “Églises sœurs ou Una Ecclesia ? Imaginer l’Église locale après Balamand.”

For more information about the program of the conference please visit its official website at https://theo.kuleuven.be/en/research/centres/centr_loceoc/conference-balamand/balamand-2018