Posted by George Patsourakos
on 7/20/2009, 6:15 pm
In a July 19,2009 address to the Conference of European Churches (CEC) in Lyon, France, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew called upon the Roman Catholic Church to join the CEC, alongside Anglicans, Orthodox, and Protestants, according to the Ecumenical News International website.
"It is only by engaging a dialogue and by closely cooperating that the churches will prove capable of proclaiming the Gospel of Christ to the world in a convincing and effective way," the Orthodox leader said at the 50th anniversary of the founding of the CEC.
The Patriarch added, "I am convinced that a conference of all European churches, working in harmony will be able to respond better to the sacred command to re-establish communion between the churches and to serve our contemporaries confronted as they are with so many complex problems."
Patriarch Bartholomew asked Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon, who was present in the audience, to transmit the proposal to the Vatican.
The history of the CEC dates back to January, 1959, when representatives from 45 Protestant and Orthodox churches in 20 European countries met in Nyborg, Denmark.
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