Gospel in hard places

The second day of the Lausanne-Orthodox Initiative has been wrestling with ‘What is the Gospel?’. This is a particularly challenging question in the ‘hard places’ of our contemporary world. During the afternoon participants heard from Salim S. (name withheld) from Allepo, Syria, who joined the consultation by Skype because he had been unable to obtain a visa to…

Consultation opens in Helsinki

On the first day of the Orthodox ecclesiastical year, 63 Orthodox and Evangelical leaders are gathered at Sofia Cultural Centre just outside Helsinki, Finland, to consider “The Gospel as Good News”. Gathered from around the world the participants were welcomed by His Eminence Metropolitan Ambrosius on behalf of the local Orthodox Community.  Bishop Tapio Luoma, of the Diocese…

Romanian edition of “Three views” published

We are pleased to be able to announce the recent publication of a brand new (2nd.) Romanian edition of the classic text “Three views on Orthodoxy and Evanelicalism” edited by Bradley Nassif, Michael Horton, Vladimir Berzonsky, George Hancock-Stefan and Edward Rommen. This Romanian edition carries new forwards by two of our LOI participants, Prof. Stelian Tofana…

Consultation begins in Helsinki this week

As the third international Lausanne-Orthodox Initiative consultation begins in Helsinki, Finland on Tuesday this week, the Steering Committee request pray for all those attending.  The theme of this year’s consultation is “The Gospel as Good News“.  The sixty three Evangelical and Orthodox participants will be gathering from countries as far apart as Ghana, Syria, USA,…

New book : Orthodox Perspectives on mission

Following the publication earlier this month of LOI’s own book “The Mission of God: Studies in Orthodox and Evangelical Mission” one of our LOI participants from Bulgaria (and the UK), Dr. Valentin Kozhuharov, has also published his own book on this topic. Bringing together several journal articles and new material “Orthodox and Inter-Christian Perspectives in…

Anglican Church delegation meets with Russian Orthodox Church

This week Archbishop Foley Beach led a delegation from the Anglican Church in North America for formal ecumenical discussions with the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church. They were received in Moscow by HE Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, Head of the Department of External Church Relations.  The Anglican Church in North America is the conservative church…

LOI 2015 Venue

At the invitation of His Eminence Archbishop Leo and Metropolitan Ambrosius, we will be meeting in the wonderful setting of Sofia Cultural Centre at Lähdeniemi Källviksudden. This is on a small sea peninsular north east of Helsinki and only a short distance from the airport. Sophia is also the residence of Metropolitan Ambrosius as metropolitan bishop of Helsinki. Participants will be…

A Future and a Hope – a review

LOI Steering Committee member, Dr. Tim Grass, offers us this review of  A Future and a Hope: Mission, Theological Education, and the Transformation of Post-Soviet Society, by Joshua Searle and Mykhailo T. Cherenkov   (Published by Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014. ISBN 978-1-4982-0252-7). If relationships between Orthodox and Evangelicals are to move forward, especially in…