(ZENIT News / Rome, 11.28.2023).- From 22 to 24 November 2023, the 15th plenary session of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East was held at the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity (DPCU) in Rome.
After the adoption in 2022 of a new document, entitled «Images of the Church in the Syriac and Latin Patristic Traditions», the Commission launched a new phase of dialogue on the theme «Liturgy in the Life of the Church: A Comparative Study of the Latin and Church of the East’s Liturgical Traditions».
On Wednesday 22 November, Cardinal Kurt Koch, Prefect of the DPCU, welcomed the members of the Commission and expressed his best wishes for this new phase of dialogue, stating that: «the liturgy is an essential ‘locus theologicus’ in the life of our Churches, a privileged area for the mutual exchange of gifts, and thus an ecumenical field par excellence».
In the absence of His Beatitude Mar Meelis Zaia and H.E. Bishop Johan Bonny, Mar Awgin Kuriakose and Revd Fr Hyacinthe Destivelle acted as co-chairs for this plenary session.
As stated in the communiqué, the study and discussion on this topic will continue at the next meeting, which will be held in Rome from 6 to 8 November 2024. This upcoming meeting will mark the 30th anniversary of the Joint Christological Declaration between St John Paul II and Mar Dinkha IV, and the establishment of this commission.
Established in 1994, the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East has published two documents: the first in 2017 entitled Common Statement on the ‘Sacramental Life’, and the second in 2022 entitled ‘The Images of the Church in the Syriac and Latin Patristic Traditions’.
The last meeting of the commission took place on 16-19 November 2022 in Rome.
