Evaluations — I believe in the one Church

This article reports on the 11th Orthodox Congress in Western Europe, held at Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre in November 2002, under the theme "I believe in the one Church." Written in the form of a personal account by a Swiss participant, it describes the proceedings of the congress — plenary lectures, workshops, liturgical celebrations — and conveys its ecclesial stakes. The central idea concerns the question of the unity of the Orthodox Church in the Western diaspora, a recurring problem since the earliest meetings of the Brotherhood, compounded by the coexistence of several jurisdictions. The article highlights the tension between the vitality of local communities and the institutional obstacles posed by the mother Churches, while emphasizing the Trinitarian roots of Orthodox ecclesiology. It constitutes a first-hand document on the state of Orthodoxy in Western Europe in the early 2000s.