MIXED COORDINATING COMMITTEE OF THE
JOINT INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION
FOR THEOLOGICAL DIALOGUE BETWEEN
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
Moscow, 1-8 February 1990
From the 1st to the 8th February 1990, the Mixed Coordinating Committee of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, met at Saint Daniel Monastery, Moscow.
This Committee is made up of members of the International Commission and is presided over by the two co-presidents of the Commission, the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Australia, H.E. Monsignor Stylianos and the President Archbishop of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, H.E. Monsignor Edward Idris Cassidy.
The task of this Committee is the immediate preparation for the plenary meeting of the Commission which will take place from the 6th to the 15th June 1990 in Munich (see below p. 52). The last meeting of the Commission, which occurred in Valamo (Finland) in 1988, determined the theme of the Munich gathering: "Ecclesiologica! and Canonical Consequences of the Sacramental Nature of the Church. Conciliarity and Authority in the Church ” During the course of 1989, three sub-commissions set to work and each produced a study on this theme. The Coordinating Committee examined the three studies and elaborated the text which will serve as a basis for the Commission’s work in Munich during the month of next June.
In addition, the Mixed Coordinating Committee has been given a study drawn up by the sub-commission which met in Vienna from the 26th to the 31st January 1990, to discuss the matter of the Byzantine Churches united with Rome and related problems. It was decided to submit this study to the next assembly of the Commission in June 1990, at Munich.
The members of the Mixed Coordinating Committee received the generous hospitality of the Patriarchate of Moscow; their participation in Solemn Vespers at the monastery on the evening of Saturday 3rd February, in the Eucharistic liturgy of the morning of Sunday 4th February in the cathedral of the Epiphany, during which a new bishop was consecrated, their presence at the inauguration of a display of various plans that have been developed for the construction of the memorial church of the millennium of the Baptism of the Rus’, the atmosphere of warm fraternal charity which they experienced from all parties everywhere, all of this ensured that their endeavours all took place within the life of the Patriarchate of Moscow supported by the prayers of his faithful.
(Communiqué, February 8, 1990)
French original, translation IS
[Information Service 73 (1990/II) 34-35]