Métropolite Mélétios

This article brings together three addresses delivered at an Orthodox congress held in Dijon, organized by the Coordinating Committee of Orthodox Youth in France. These are opening and closing speeches, belonging to the genre of ecclesial address. The main idea concerns the vocation of Orthodoxy in Western Europe: to gather faithful of diverse origins around a common faith, to deepen the Orthodox Tradition, and to bear Christian witness at the heart of Western modernity. From a theological and historical standpoint, these texts document a significant stage in the structuring of the Orthodox presence in Western Europe, marked by episcopal concelebration and cooperation between several jurisdictions, illustrating the challenges of Orthodox unity, the transmission of the faith, and dialogue with contemporary culture.

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.