The LOI Steering Group will meet at the Coptic Centre in Stevenage, UK, from 19 -21 January 2015. The two major issues before them will be the future work of LOI after 2015 and the planning of the 2015 consultation in Finland. The first of these topics is particularly critical at this time. It was never envisioned…
The Bible Society of Russia has announced the completion of a ten year project to translate the Bashkir Bible – project jointly undertaken by Orthodox and Evangelical Christians. The Bashkirs are descendants of the tribes that used to lead nomadic life in the southern Urals and were established as a nation in the 9th century….
The Orthodox Mission Network met in Greece at the start of December. The meeting was attended by 18 Orthodox leaders from Nigeria, Cameroon, Mozambique, Bulgaria, Russia, Belarus and Greece. The network, which has been active for several years, last met in Albania in September 2013, immediately after the LOI meeting that year, providing an opportunity…
“The Lausanne-Orthodox Initiative continues to be an inspiring and unique ecumenical dialogue” say joint report authors Dr James Stamoolis and Fr Eric Tosi. They go on to say, “the impact is on a personal level; person to person, community to community, two different Christian traditions reconciling with each other after years of mistrust and misunderstanding….
Writing in the November 2014 edition of the International Review of Mission (the WCC journal on mission) Prof. Dimitra Koukoura says, “Christ’s commandment for the evangelization of the nations, which also clearly applies to re-evangelization, reveals two aims: catechesis and baptism (Matt. 18:19). The first is the departure of the faithful from the community to…
During our LOI consultations in Albania we have been very much aware that in order to relate positively to another Christian tradition you need to understand their, and your own, history. We are all products of history. In this connection one of our Steering Committee members, Dr. Tim Grass, writes: Dear friends, I would like to…
The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) reports that, “Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, Secretary General of the WEA recently met with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, in Istanbul, Turkey. Together they discussed the current crisis and the plight of Christians in Syria, Iraq and the Middle East region. A specific emphasis of the conversation was on…
We have just uploaded onto our website, as a resource, a link to a lecture given by Dr. Tim Grass, a member of our LOI Steering Committee, delivered recently at Spurgeon’s College, UK. The lecture on Evangelicals and Eastern Christianity starts with an historical overview of contacts between the two communities and moves on to look at…
The World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland is inviting applications for its academic programmes in ecumenical studies, 2015-2016. This highly regarded institute offers a Complementary Certificate in Ecumenical Studies; a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Ecumenical Studies; and a Master of Advanced Studies in Ecumenical Studies. Ecumenical learning at the Institute…
The LOI Steering Committee is pleased to be able to announce that its 2015 Consultation will be held in Finland at the invitation of the Orthodox Church of Finland and with the warm support of the Evangelical Alliance. Finland has the rare distinction of having two ‘state Churches’, Lutheran and Orthodox, and makes an ideal…