Orthodox Church in Greece to Host World Conference

[Natasha]

Orthodox Church in Greece to Host World Conference on Mission & Evangelism
Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC)
P.O. Box 4319 St. Augustine, FL 32085-4319
Email: missions@ocmc.org -- Web: http://www.ocmc.org

August 22, 2003

St. Augustine, FL (OCMC) -- Athens, Greece is to be the site of the next conference on World Mission and
Evangelism from May 12 to 29 in 2005. The Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) of the World Council of
Churches (WCC) received official acceptance and welcome from the Orthodox Church in Greece. This will be the first
time that an Orthodox-majority country will host a WCC World Mission and Evangelism conference.
The theme of the 2005 conference is “Come Holy Spirit, Heal and Reconcile. Called in Christ to be Reconciling and
Healing Communities.” Approximately 500 official participants from all around the world, including representatives
of WCC member churches, the Roman Catholic church and various evangelical/Pentecostal/charismatic traditions are
expected. The last World Mission and Evangelism conference was held in 1996 in Brazil.
Fr. Martin Ritsi, the Executive Director of the Orthodox Christian Mission Center, is one of seven Orthodox
representatives on the WCC Commission of World Mission and Evangelism. Also serving on the commission is Fr.
Athanasius Akunda, an Orthodox missionary in South Africa from Kenya sponsored by OCMC.
The current WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr. Konrad Raiser, recently expressed the value of Orthodox participation
in ecumenical dialogue when he said, “there is no doubt for me that the active presence of the Orthodox churches in
the WCC has been essential in shaping the understanding of our common ecumenical calling.” He also spoke of a
“major Orthodox contribution to unfolding the self-understanding of the WCC is in the establishment of a
Christocentric affirmation of its Basis (the confession of the Lord Jesus Christ and God and Saviour) in a
Trinitarian setting (to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit).”

[bogoliubtsy]

"Reconciling" ourselves to heresy... interesting concept.

[Justin Kissel]

What I got from Rev. Dr. Konrad Raiser's comments:

• The Orthodox kept the WCC mostly sane (e.g., christocentric, Trinitarian).

• In helping the rest stay seemingly sane, the Orthodox have themselves lost their own minds (e.g., how exactly could Orthodoxy ever be "essential in shaping the understanding of" a "common ecumenical calling"?)

People sometimes call ecumenism the pan-heresy, but do we really understand what that means? Do we think about what we are saying when we say that? If we did, we couldn't treat the subject so lightly.

[Logos]

I don't have a great feeling about the GOA. I feel like sometimes the Greeks have dropped the ball when it comes to Orthodoxy.

[Seraphim Reeves]

Well, I think the GOA and the Greek State church are two different things. If the GOA is anything like the Greek churches here in Canada, they really are little more than "Greek clubs", with a level of basic catechesis so ridiculously minimal (or outright non-existant) that I would have to say that the people at my old "mainstream" (Novus Ordo) Roman Catholic parish were undoubtedly receiving more of "Orthodox" instruction than they were (both in content and quantity, which is quite sad, since the modern RCC is pretty inept in this area, even with it's own doctrines.)

I have a feeling though, that the Greek churches here are probably a little more "traditional looking" than the ones in the U.S., if only because there was historically (and still is not) the same kind of social pressure for conformity that there was/is in the United States - thus, not so much perceived pressure for priests to look like Episcopalian ministers.

Seraphim