A seminar on Sources of Authority in the Church held at the 10th WCC Assembly

A seminar on the Sources of Authority in the Church took place as part of the discussion program of the 10^th Assembly of the World Council of Churches held from October 30 to November 8, 2013, in Busan, South Korea.

The WCC Faith and Order Commission presented a study project on “The Tradition and traditions: sources of authority in the Church”. This project has been initiated by the chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk. Its main point is the Orthodox witness to the exclusive role and significance of holy fathers in the Church. There were two consultations as part of the project, one 2008 in Cambridge, Great Britain, and another in 2011 in Moscow.

Archpriest Vladimir Shmaliy presented the history and interim results of the study project, particularly, a collection of papers from the Cambridge consultation published by the WCC. Archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov) set forth the principle affirmations of the Metropolitan Hilarion’s paper on “Church Hierarchy as a Source of Authority in the Church”.

During the discussion, participants in the seminar pointed to the importance of the subject treated in the study project and made a number of constructive proposals for its further development.

 

DECR Communication Service