Category: Articles

Death And Orthodox Iconography

In the Orthodox Church, iconography holds a central and important place, both visually and theologically. Icons are not merely decorations or pictorial teaching aids. They do serve these purposes, but their fundamental reason for being is to bear witness, in an artistic manner, to the Church’s beliefs. They are a reflection of the life in Christ as lived in the Church. We should expect, therefore, to receive from iconography that which is witnessed to and preached by other means, such as Scripture, liturgical texts, dogmatic statements, and the writings of the Fathers.

Fr. George Florovsky: Ecumenist?

Many Orthodox Christians reject ecumenism as a panheresy and those who participate in ecumenical activities as disloyal. This attitude, so sweeping as it is, would have to condemn Fr. George Florovsky, hardly, from anyone's perspective, disloyal to Orthodoxy. And yet he participated in many ecumenical activities, was a founder of the World Council of Churches, and felt it absolutely necessary for Orthodox to participate. What is lacking in the contemporary discussion is nuance. This article proposes Fr. George Florovsky as an Orthodox model for ecumenical activity: neither an "ecumaniac" nor a panheretic.

The 1872 Council of Constantinople and Phyletism

In 1872, the Patriarch of Constantinople in a synod, refused to establish a parallel patriarchate just for Bulgarians on the territory of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. This decision defined and condemned phyletism--parallel Churches on the same territory and organized only for certain ethnic groups.

L’histoire d’un œcuméniste fatigué

Cet article raconte mon histoire par rapport à l'œcuménisme : comment j'ai commencé comme un oecuméniste protestant enthousiate pour terminer comme un oeuméniste déçu. Il analyse également ma perception de l'Église orthodoxe dans le mouvement œcuméniquel.