An Extraordinary Statement From the World’s Orthodox Leaders, by Phil Lawler 

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, Oct 03, 2024

Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org.

Yesterday’s CWN headlines included a news story that our readers might have passed over lightly. In case they did, let me explain why it was worthy of notice.

Representatives of the Orthodox churches and the Oriental Orthodox churches met to discuss the cause of Christian unity. A causal reader might ask: So what? At first glance this looks like one more story about a meeting of ecumenical “experts,” a meeting likely to end in a statement that will express laudable goals but produce no concrete results. And since this was a “preparatory” meeting, intended to spur further ecumenical talks, I can easily understand skepticism about its immediate news value. But bear with me, while I explain the significance of the story.

• • This meeting in Egypt was the first formal gathering of representatives of the Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches in 34 years. The rarity of the occasion in itself makes it noteworthy.

    (The Oriental Orthodox churches are those that rejected the Council of Chalcedon, and broke away beginning in the 5th century. They include the Coptic Orthodox Church, which hosted this meeting, and the Syriac, Armenian, and Malankara churches. The Orthodox churches are those that split with Rome in the Great Schism, including the Russian, Ukrainian, Greek, Romanian, and other national churches, whose faithful traditionally recognize the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as the “first among equals” in the Orthodox world.) …

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