Two from the Byzantine Rambler

The Melkite Greek Catholic priest who blogs at Byzantine Ramblings has an interesting response to an Orthodox parish priest’s take (in the pages of a local newspaper) on “church leadership”. Westall’s article on Canon 28 of Chalcedon, which I posted yesterday, is referenced.
And also, via the Rambler, the latest in the saga of Metropolitan Nicolae of Banat.

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“The Fathers Gave Rome the Primacy”

A. St. Leger Westall, “The Fathers Gave Rome the Primacy”, The Dublin Review, CXXXII (January-April 1903), pp. 101-114.
The famous xxviii. Canon of Chalcedon has been for many centuries a favourite authority among all those who, whether in the East or in England, are anxious to find support in primitive times for their rejection of the Petrine [...]

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Canon 28 redux

I have just begun listening to Bishop Hilarion’s talk at the recent SVS conference. He makes reference to the (in)famous Canon 28 of Chalcedon, and gives the standard Orthodox (and generally non-/anti-Roman) interpretation of it: that it ascribes the origin of Old Rome’s primacy not to the will of Christ or succession from the Apostle [...]

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“Rome, Constantinople and Canterbury”

Ancient Faith Radio has audio from the recent Fellowship of Ss. Alban and Sergius conference “Rome, Constantinople and Canterbury, Mother Churches”, held at St Vladimir’s Seminary, June 4-8, 2008. I have only listened to the first two lectures, by Metropolitan Philip of the Antiochian Archdiocese and Bishop Keith Ackerman of the Episcopal Diocese of Quincy, [...]

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Moscow: “No” to Ravenna

Josephus at Byzantine, TX has the story. This is not at all surprising. What Catholics need to understand is that this all has to do with old intra-Orthodox squabbles and major tensions within Orthodox ecclesiology. Which, I suppose, means that Orthodoxy should get on to the same ecclesiological page before adding Rome’s particular ecclesiological vision [...]

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Gregorios III to Benedict XVI

The other aspect of the ad extra mission of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church is its role in the ecumenical journey towards Christian unity.
Our Church has always been conscious of this role. The history of our Melkite Greek Catholic Church of Antioch, in full communion for close on three hundred years with the Church of [...]

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Archbishop Elias Zoghby’s Vision of Christian Unity

By Father James K. Graham
From Sophia (Journal of the Melkite Catholic Eparchy of Newton), Winter 2008 (pp. 26-28).
[Emphasis added]
The works of the recently-reposed Archbishop Elias Zoghby, former Patriarchal Vicar in Egupt and Sudan, and retired Metropolitan of Baalbek, especially the essays collected in A Voice from the Byzantine East and Tous Schismatiques?, provide a vision [...]

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Two from Bishop Hilarion

Here are two very interesting articles from His Grace, Bishop Hilarion (Alfeyev), Russian Orthodox Bishop of Vienna and representative to the European Institutions.
The first piece is a fantastic address on “liberal Christianity”, given by His Grace to the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, on February 13. I couldn’t agree more [...]

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The Ravenna “Breakthrough”

Cardinal Kasper Looks Ahead
ROME, FEB. 18, 2008 (Zenit.org). – The so-called Ravenna Document is a real breakthrough in Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, says the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
In an interview with Gerard O’Connell for Our Sunday Visitor, Cardinal Walter Kasper explained what made the breakthrough possible, and what’s left in the process [...]

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The Final Ravenna Document

RAVENNA, Italy, NOV. 15, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is the final document of the plenary assembly of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, held Oct. 8-14 in Ravenna. The statement, which was released today, is titled “Ecclesiological and Canonical Consequences of the Sacramental Nature of the Church: [...]

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