Major Addresses by
The primarypurpose of the conference is to explore the public presence of theOrthodox Church in a pluralistic world. By "public presence" we referto those aspects of the Orthodox Church's life that can be seen andheard by everybody, having the widest possible publicity and,furthermore, whatever we understand to be the world, which is common toall and is distinguished from our own private place in it. A secondarypurpose is to examine ways in which Orthodox Churches have in the past,and can continue in the present and the future, contribute to thereconciliation of communities, which for religious, ethnic, politicaland other reasons find themselves in opposition to one another. Here,the obvious regional areas of Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Middle East whereOrthodox Christians are in conflict with others can server as casestudies of Orthodoxy's contribution to reconciliation.
Because ofthe Orthodox understanding of creation, the human person, community andthe universality of the Christian gospel, Orthodoxy must be in constantdialogue with the society in which it lives. The effectiveness of suchactive presence depends not only on what Orthodoxy has to offer to themodern world, but also from how the Orthodox churches interact andconverse with the world. For this reason, the conference will beinterdisciplinary, brining together theologians, church hierarchs,government officials and social scientists in an effort to learn fromeach other how the place and the witness of the Orthodox church remainsin dialogue with the modern pluralistic world.
Location: The Maliotis Cultural Center on the campus of Holy Cross
Greek Orthodox School of Theology, 50 Goddard Avenue, Brookline, MA USA
