Meeting of the Saint Ireneus group in Thessalonica

The Group’s work was held in a climate of listening to one another and in prayer in the Academy church. Metropolitan Elpidophoros of Prusa  transmitted the blessing of patriarch Bartholomeos, and metropolitan Anthimos of Thessalonica and archimandrite Stephanos Tolios, its chancellor, transmitted their greetings. The members of the Group are grateful especially to the rector of the Academy and to father Nikolaos Loudovikos for their warm hospitality and financial assistance for the session.

The official communiqué at the end of the meeting states that “truth can be approached only by listening to the Gospel and to other Christian traditions. Thus, two ecclesiological tendencies may be noted — a conciliar in the East and a primatial in the West, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but can coexist in corrective tension that leaves room for legitimate diversity”. As Niels Bohr, quoted by Congar, said: “The opposite of a false proposition is a true proposition. But the opposite of a profound truth is another profound truth.”