Father Ambrose:

Father bless!!

As part of my avocation, I have endeavored to study the various communities and Churches that exist within the overall title "Christian." Unlike some, I've tried to enter the understanding each has of itself, its understanding of its relationship (or not) to other such bodies, and to do so with as little of my own prism through which to view them as possible. It has been no easy task. Sometimes it feels like an out-of-body experience to see the world as others do, without judging them from my own standpoint. It seems to me that this is the way OL Jesus Christ does and would have me do.

The greater difficulty then becomes trying to communicate this understanding to others of my own persuasion--who often react as if I had lost my senses (maybe so). But it seems to me that to get "from point 'A' to point 'B' one must thoroughly understand point 'A.'

Asking for your blessing and continued holy prayers,

BOB

Russian Orthodox reject Ravenna and have doubts about Cyprus
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03 November 2009, 10:01

Next session of Orthodox-Catholic Theological Commission to be held in Vienna in September 2010

http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=6606

Belgrade, November 3, Interfax - Next session of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church will be held in September 2010.

Participants in the Commission previous session in October 2009 discussed the document on "the role of the Pope of Rome in the first millennium," head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk said in his interview to the Ras-Prizren Diocese website, Kosovo.

"This text hasn't been published, we studied only a part of it, and thus I can't assess it. I can only say that we have lots of critical remarks and I'm not sure all Orthodox Churches will be happy about the text," Archbishop Hilarion said.

According to him, "it will clear out at the Commission's next session" in September 2010 in Vienna.

The Archbishop also reminded that the Russian Orthodox Church did not participate in the Ravenna Document summing up the decisions of the Joint Commission in October 2007 in Ravenna dedicated to the nature of authority in the Ecumenical Church. Then the Moscow Patriarchate representatives accused Vatican of lobbying a Catholic model of papal administration on Orthodox world.

"The Ravenna document is the text adopted without participation of the Russian Orthodox Church, we didn't approve of it, we didn't sign and never will," Archbishop Hilarion said.