The Society of St John Chrysostom promotes greater appreciation of the spiritual, theological and liturgical traditions of Eastern Christendom, works and prays for the unity of the Churches of East and West, and encourages support for the Eastern Churches:

• the Byzantine and Oriental Catholic Churches in communion with the Apostolic See of Rome (especially in their contemporary calling to promote reconciliation and the recovery of union between Catholics and Orthodox)
• the Orthodox Church
• the Oriental Orthodox Churches and
• the Apostolic Church of the East.

In the United Kingdom and Europe the Society, founded in 1926, is a group of Catholics of the Latin and Eastern Churches, along with our friends in other traditions, promoting awareness and friendship in the Christian West for our fellow Christians of the East – through prayer and liturgy, conferences and lectures, pilgrimage and ecumenical encounters.

In 1998 the Society was also founded in the United States, where it runs the annual North American and international Orientale Lumen conferences.

And in 2000, a new chapter of the Society was established for Australasia, based at the Center for Early Christian Studies at the Catholic University of Australia.