The XVth Ecumenical Conference on Orthodox Spirituality

Participants to the XVth Ecumenical Conference on Orthodox Spirituality

The annual conference on Orthodox spirituality was held in Bose from 16 to 19 September; beginning with this year there is one common session prepared in collaboration with and under the patronage of the patriarchates of Constantinople and Moscow. We were pleased to see that this innovation was favorably received

The annual conference on Orthodox spirituality was held in Bose from 16 to 19 September; beginning with this year there is one common session prepared in collaboration with and under the patronage of the patriarchates of Constantinople and Moscow. We were pleased to see that this innovation was favorably received; although it increased somewhat the number of participants staying at any one time in Bose, it has also created greater opportunities for Orthodox Christians from different traditions to meet and to exchange views. The theme chosen, “The transfigured Christ in the Orthodox spiritual tradition”, was examined from the Biblical, patristic, liturgical, historical, and iconographic aspects, as reflected in the tradition of the various Orthodox churches, as also at certain times of the Western tradition. This year the Patriarchate of Constantinople was represented, in addition to our Emilianos Timiadis, by metropolitan Kallistos Ware of Diokleia; the Patriarchate of Antioch by metropolitan Georges Khodr’ of Mount Lebanon; the Patriarchate of Jerusalem by Timotheos of Vostra; the Patriarchate of Moscow by Aristarkh of Kemerovo, by bishop Ilarion Alfeev of Viena, and by several members of the Moscow Theological Academy and of the Department of external affairs; the Patriarchate of Serbia by fr. Gajo Gaji?; the Patriarchate of Romania by Seraphim of Germany and by fr. Constantin Preda; the Ukrainian Orthodox Church linked to the Moscow Patriarchate by Antonij of Boryspil’;