Dialogue of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Bishops of Canada

An annual meeting - dialogue between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic bishops of Canada has been established by mutual agreement for several years.

This year the meeting was hosted by St. Augustine Roman Catholic Seminary in Toronto on June 6th and 7th.

The meeting was attended on the Orthodox side by Archbishop Sotirios Athanasoulas (Greek Archdiocese of Canada), Bishop Ioan Casian (Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada) and Bishop Andriy Peshko (Ukrainian Diocese for Eastern Canada) and on the Roman Catholic side by Archbishop Michael Mulhall (Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kingston), Bishop Thomas Dowd (Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie), Vicar-Bishop Yvan Mathieu (Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall) and Metropolitan Lawrence (Ukrainian Catholic Archdiocese of Winnipeg). The secretaries of the meeting were Rev. Peter Avgeropoulos and subdeacon Brian Butcher.

The meeting was opened on the afternoon of Tuesday June 6 with the prayer followed by the setting of the agenda. Then each of the bishops were invited to present the news from the life of the diocese and those from their personal life.

A text from St. Cyril of Jerusalem about the work of the Holy Spirit was read and Vicar-bishop Yvan Mathieu held a short meditation in reference to it and the other bishops added other comments on the same note.

The meeting continued in several sessions. Several topics were discussed: the situation of the Churches during the pandemic and its consequences, the situation of the dialogue regarding the unity of the Churches, the visit of Pope Francis to Canada, the situation of residential schools and indigenous peoples and the way in which these were reflected in the media, the issue of priestly vocations, the religious situation in Ukraine and the war, the situation of the Coptic martyrs who died professing the Christian faith.

The Orthodox Vespers was performed in which all those present participated.

The evening ended with an informal meeting where members of the group of dialogue could share thoughts and opinions around certain current societal issues.

The meeting continued the morning of June 7 with the following sessions of the meeting. It was discussed the situation of North American Orthodox - Roman Catholic dialogue and the new more effective possibilities for meeting and exchange, the pastoral care of the Churches for their believers in the context of mixed marriages and the spiritual formation of the children resulting from them, the synodality and its nature, the situation of new ethical and gender trends, the situation of education in general and religious education in particular, the situation of Christians in the world and about the attitude of Islam towards Christianity, about euthanasia and abortion, and about artificial intelligence - origins, evolution and possible consequences, etc.

The meeting ended with the final prayer and the greetings of those present.