Basile Krivochéine

This article by Bishop Basil Krivocheine examines the liturgical particularities specific to the Greek and Russian traditions, drawing on a series of concrete examples taken from the Divine Liturgy, the Lenten offices and Holy Week. Of a comparative and critical nature, the text analyses divergences such as the commemoration of angels at the prothesis, interpolations in the anaphora of Saint Basil, the theological status of the eucharistic wine in the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, and the differences in popular piety surrounding the Cherubikon and the prayer of Saint Ephrem. The author distinguishes local liturgical creations of genuine spiritual richness from textual deviations which he considers necessary to correct. His principal contribution is to show that these particularities, far from setting the Churches against one another, bear witness to the profound unity of the Orthodox faith, while calling for a critical and serene reassessment of practices in the light of the great Tradition, without liturgical fundamentalism.

This article by Archbishop Basil Krivocheine constitutes a tribute to Vladimir Lossky, twenty years after his death, in the form of a commemorative meditation of a theological nature. The author takes stock of Lossky's growing influence in Catholic, Anglican, Greek and Russian circles, while highlighting the controversies that his work continues to generate, particularly regarding his interpretation of Saint Maximus the Confessor and Palamism. The central idea is that Lossky's absence is felt with particular acuteness in the post-Vatican II context, where the ecumenical dialogue between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism demands precisely the patristic rigour, subtlety and doctrinal firmness that characterised him. The contribution of the article is to define, through this portrait, an ideal of the Orthodox theologian combining piety, intelligence and rootedness in Tradition.

This article brings together episcopal addresses delivered at an Orthodox congress in France, following a Sunday Eucharistic liturgy concelebrated by several bishops from different jurisdictions. It comprises a set of five complementary pastoral and theological contributions. Metropolitan Meletios develops a Eucharistic ecclesiology centred on Trinitarian unity, while Bishop Krivocheine offers a lucid critique of Orthodox triumphalism and advocates for humility and theological rigour. Bishop van der Mensbrugghe questions the genuine understanding of liturgy and doctrine, Bishop Semenoff-Tian-Chansky addresses the interior life and individual vocation, and Bishop Wagner articulates pneumatology and fidelity to the historical Tradition of the Church. The value of these texts lies in their collective diagnosis of the challenges specific to Orthodoxy in Western Europe: jurisdictional unity, theological formation, liturgical rootedness and missionary witness.