Building an Alliance of Grace: The Work of Ecumenism in an Age of Anxiety

The 2024 Economos Orthodoxy in America Lecture, presented by Joseph M. McShane, SJ, President Emeritus of Fordham University
1964 was a turning point in the relationship between the Eastern and Western churches. That’s when His All Holiness Patriarch Athenagoras and His Holiness Pope Paul VI committed themselves to the Lord’s mandated work of reconciliation. While progress toward reunification has been slower than we might have hoped, the two churches have never abandoned the dream that Athenagoras and Paul shared.
The work of ecumenical dialogue became more urgent with the elections of Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Francis. Through their shared sense of the Christian mission, they have found greater and greater unity in and through service to the world, especially the most vulnerable among God’s children. In the process, they have formed “an alliance of grace.” The challenge is to keep that alliance alive in the world today.
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