ON THE WAY TO DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH AND THE ORIENTAL EASTERN CHURCHES IN THE 60S — EARLY 70S OF THE XX CENTURY

Sergey Leonidovich Zvonarev

Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Church-wide postgraduate and doctoral studies named after Saints Equal to the Apostles Cyril and Methodius, Moscow, Russia

Email: zvonariov@rambler.ru

ORCID: 0009–0008–6785–4090

Issue: № 2 (30), 2025

Pages: 96–106

Annotation

The article offered to the reader is devoted to the little-s tudied topic in Russian historiography of the relationship between the Local Orthodox Churches and the Oriental Orthodox Churches in the 1960s – early 1970s, when the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations was the outstanding hierarch of the Russian Church, Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov). The issue of finding ways to achieve Church unity with the Ancient Eastern Churches was included on the agenda of the Rhodian pan- Orthodox meetings and formed the basis of the road map developed by the Phanar. The desire for rapprochement with the Orthodox Church was also expressed by the Oriental churches. An important role in achieving possible church unity belonged to theological dialogue, since the division of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches was based on the Christological dogma of the IV Ecumenical Council. A contribution to such a dialogue was the informal consultations that took place between Orthodox and Oriental theologians at the World Council of Churches in 1964–1970. On the initiative of Metropolitan Nikodim, the Orthodox side established the Inter-O rthodox Theological Commission for Dialogue with the Oriental Orthodox Churches. Based on the study of historical material, the author of the article comes to the conclusion that disagreements between the parties in the field of Christology remained an unresolved theological problem. The proposal of the Ancient Eastern Churches to seek a new Christology, capable of uniting the Orthodox and Oriental traditions, was unacceptable for the Orthodox side, since it meant a revision of the dogmas of the Council of Chalcedon.

Keywords

Oriental Orthodox Churches, Department for External Church Relations, Phanar, theological dialogue, IV Ecumenical Council, Christology, Church unity, Metropolitan Nicodim, Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie I, Abuna Theophilos

For citation

Zvonarev S. L., archpriest. On the way to dialogue between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Oriental Eastern Churches in the 60s – early 70s of the XX century // Ipatievsky Vestnik. 2025. № 2. P. 96–106 (In Russian). https://doi.org/10.24412/2309– 5164–2025–2–96–106