Photos 7 September 2016

XXIV International Ecumenical Conference of Orthodox Spirituality

MARTYRDOM AND COMMUNION

Bose, 7–10 September 2016
in collaboration with the Orthodox Churches

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"Martyrdom and communion", the XXIV International Ecumenical Conference on Orthodox Spirituality, opened today with the introduction of Enzo Bianchi, prior of the community of Bose. Thanks to the Lord", who wanted us to gather here again, Christians of East and West. We want to reflect on the words of the Gospel which is the final announcement of the Kingdom of God, the Word of the cross". Then the messages sent by the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, by the Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, of the Metropolitan of Kiev Onufrij and of Monsignor Pietro Parolin, Secretary of Pope Francis were read. The first conference, "The blood of the martyrs, seeds of communion", written by Youhanna X and read by his representative, expressed words of suffering, but never of loosing hope. There were words that touched the heart because they come from people living a very harsh reality of violence and persecution. After the second paper, "The witness and the communion of the Ecumenical Patriarchate" by Job Telmessos, it was possible to spend twenty minutes to debate.

The afternoon session opened with the reading of the message of Anastasios, Archbishop of Tirana and Albania, by Bylis Asti, a bishop of the Orthodox Church of Albania, which for the first time sent a representative to our meeting. Then Panteleimon Manoussakis spoke of the Spirit as  the only source and support of the Christian testimony [READ THE PAPER], that of God through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Ekaterini Tsalampouni, in her paper, has considered the sayings of Jesus on persecution, beginning from the passage in the Gospel of Matthew 5:11: "Blessed are you when they persecute you for my sake". Finally Georgiy Zakharov has analyzed the theme of martyrdom and of the unity of the Church in St. Ambrose and the Latin fathers of the fourth century, starting from the expression "Omnes unum sumus in Christo".