As representatives from across the Eastern Orthodox world gathered in Greece last week for the Mega-Conference of the International Orthodox Theological Association, Russian’s invasion of Ukraine last spring dominated the agenda – directly and indirectly.
This was the second-ever Mega-Conference of the IOTA, and more than 300 theologians from most of the Churches in the Eastern Orthodox communion attended the four-day gathering in Volos. The first conference was held in 2019 in Romania.
The keynote speaker, Metropolitan Ambrosios (Zografos) of Korea and Exarch of Japan, used the war as a springboard to address to topic of ethno-phyletism – the practice of identifying churches with a culture or ethnic group, as opposed to a geographic region. Ambosios argued that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a manifestation of ethno-phyletism, in which the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine has been widely condemned by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill of the Moscow Patriarchate on the grounds that it violates Russia’s sphere of influence.
(Ethno-phyletism was formally condemned as heresy at the 1872 Eastern Orthodox Council of Constantinople.)
Read the coverage from the Religion News Service article at Christianity Today.
Learn more about the conference and the topics discussed at the IOTA website.