{"id":290920,"date":"2004-11-26T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-11-26T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/many-traditions-one-people\/"},"modified":"2024-05-13T20:37:28","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T18:37:28","slug":"many-traditions-one-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/many-traditions-one-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Many traditions \u2013 one people"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u201cWhere two or more are united in my name …\u201d <\/strong><\/em> Many traditions \u2013 one people<\/strong> Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I opened the 23rd Ecumenical Congress entitled: \u201cWhere two or more are united in my name … many traditions – one people\u201d. <\/em>Over 50 Bishops were present at the Congress held in Istanbul; they represented various Eastern and Western Churches: Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Apostolic Armenians, Anglicans, Evangelical Lutherans and Catholics of various rites. Highlights of the Congress<\/strong> After the opening of the Congress by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, there were dialogue encounters with Card. Walter Kasper<\/strong><\/em> (President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity), with Apostolic Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, Mesrob II, and with the Patriarchal Vicar of the Syrian Orthodox Church of Turkey, Fil\u00fcksinos Yusuf \u00c7etin.<\/strong><\/em><\/strong> At the heart of the spirituality of unity: the presence of the Risen Lord promised to \u201ctwo or more united in His name\u201d Chiara Lubich,<\/em><\/strong> foundress of the Focolare, had entrusted her closest collaborators with delivering her addresses on the theme of the Congress and on the ecumenical experience of the Movement. These talks testified to the consonance between the spirituality of unity typical of the Focolare and the ecumenical spirituality strongly endorsed by the Pope lately when, on November 13, he invited Christians once again to accomplish that \u201cfullness of communion\u201d which \u201cdoes not mean abstract uniformity but rather, richness of the legitimate diversity of gifts, shared and acknowledged by all…\u201d <\/em>(Homily of Pope John Paul II on the 40th anniversary of the Conciliar decree \u2018Unitatis Redintegratio\u2019). Congress begins with an ecumenical celebration at St. Anthony’s Church<\/strong> The Bishops\u2019 Congress started with an ecumenical celebration at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church,<\/strong><\/em><\/strong> attended by the leaders and members of the different Christian communities present in Istanbul. Visit to Nicea, seat of two of the early ecumenical Councils<\/strong> During their stay, the Bishops visited Nicea<\/strong><\/em><\/strong> and the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity at Halki, the illustrious center of studies of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The bishops were also received by Patriarch Mesrob II<\/strong><\/em><\/strong> at the seat of the Apostolic Armenian Patriarchate, as well as by Metropolitan Fil\u00fcksinos Yusuf \u00c7etin<\/strong><\/em><\/strong> at the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchal Vicariate. The welcoming of the relics of the Fathers of the Church, John Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzen<\/strong> The bishops also attended the ceremony to welcome return of the relics of the Fathers of the undivided Church, St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory Nazianzen, archbishops of Constantinople during the 4th-5th centuries. The relics had been consigned by Pope John Paul II to Patriarch Bartholomew in Rome \u2013 indeed a happy coincidence, on Saturday 27th November. The Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle at the Fanar<\/strong> On 29th-30th November, at the Fanar, seat of the ecumenical Patriarchate, the Bishops attended the solemn commemoration of St. Andrew the Apostle, founder and patron of the Patriarchate of Costantinople. The ceremony was presided over by Patriarch Bartholomew I. The delegation of the Holy See, led by Card. Walter Kasper, also attended the celebration. Previous Meetings<\/strong> The ecumenical congresses of Bishops, Friends of the Focolare Movement, from various Churches are held yearly, each time at a different place: Constantinople (1984), London (1986 and 1996), Ottmaring\/Augsburg (Germany) (1988 and 1998), Trent (Italy) (1995), Amman (Jordan) \/ Jerusalem (Holy Land) (1999), Zurich (Switzerland) (2001), Geneve (Switzerland) (2002), and Rome (several times). The conferences had always enjoyed the blessing of the heads of the different Churches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

23rd Ecumenical Congress of Bishops of different Churches – Istanbul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}