News

LOI is pleased to announce details of this year’s North American regional consultation, scheduled for 5-7 June at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Theological Seminary, Brookline, MA. The theme is ‘Discipleship and Spiritual Formation’, following on from the upcoming CWME gathering in Tanzania. Sessions will explore how our respective traditions form disciples, what resources each has […]

The Coptic Church Centre at Stevenage in England was, as usual, the venue for the annual residential meeting of the LOI Board. The main item we discussed was next year’s consultation, scheduled for 5-8 June at Holy Cross Orthodox Seminary near Boston. The theme is ‘Discipleship’, following on from the upcoming CWME gathering in Tanzania. […]

I couldn’t let this anniversary pass without some reference here. It was on 31 October 1517 that Martin Luther is said to have published his protest against the abuses evident in the church of his day, the ‘Ninety-Five Theses’. Churches and ecumenical bodies around the world have been marking the anniversary this year, and some […]

An International Commission of Anglicans and Oriental Orthodox has just issued an agreed statement on the work of the Holy Spirit and its relation to the Church’s mission. For more on this story, see: https://dublin.anglican.org/news/2017/10/27/anglican-and-orientalorthodox-churches-sign. The story is given poignancy by the present situation and sufferings of many Oriental Orthodox Christians, for which concern was […]

An unexpected aspect of the arrival of hundreds of thousands of displaced people from various Middle Eastern countries is the exponential increase in membership and attendance of Orthodox churches in parts of Western Europe. The Media Project, which reports on the role of religion in public life, has run an article on developments in Sweden, exploring how […]

The Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide (CCCW; https://www.cccw.cam.ac.uk/) is seeking to appoint a Director to serve from January 2018. Applications are invited by 19 October 2017 from candidates who wish to promote the understanding of and engagement with Christian mission and World Christianity. This is an excellent opportunity for a creative and enterprising individual with a strong […]

A Recent Doctoral Work on Orthodox-Evangelical Dialogue in North America Danut Manastireanu Rev. Ovidiu Dorin Druhora, minister of a Romanian Pentecostal church in Los Angeles, has defended in 2016, at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the University in Bucharest, Romania, his doctoral research titled ‘Protestantism and Orthodoxy in North America: Dichotomy and Ecumenical Dialogue’, […]

The papers and podcasts from last week’s consultation are now available for download from the website under the ‘LOI 2017’ tab. Together they form a body of material on the topic of theological formation for mission which we hope will stimulate increased co-operation between our two Christian traditions. We hope that you will find them […]

At least seventy church leaders, mission workers and seminary teachers, including a number of younger leaders, gathered at Selwyn College, Cambridge, last week for four days of prayer, study and conversation around the topic of ‘Theological Formation for Mission’. Coming from places as diverse as Alaska, South Africa, and South Korea, they were able to form […]

LOI’s 2017 consultation begins tomorrow, 5 September. For the programme, go to: https://www.loimission.net/loi-2017/. We eagerly anticipate a feast of good things, but we also want it to issue in practical action. We hope to make some of the papers available after the consultation, and will also post a full report. Please remember us in your prayers. […]

Recently published in a series of monographs from Langham Partnership is Vladimir Ubeivolc’s Rethinking Missio Dei among Evangelical Churches in an Eastern European Orthodox Context (ISBN 978-1-78368-104-4). The context is Moldova, and the author argues that the concept of Missio Dei offers a key place where the Evangelical and Orthodox traditions can not only dialogue […]

A report recently released by the Pew Research Trust offers thought-provoking reading concerning the relationship between religious allegiance and national identity. The report, which sheds light on the issue of nominalism exercising Christians of all traditions, may be found at: http://www.pewforum.org/2017/05/10/religious-belief-and-national-belonging-in-central-and-eastern-europe/.