The annual dialogue of the Orthodox and

Catholic bishops from Canada

Toronto April 9-10, 2024

The annual meeting of the representatives of the Canadian Conference of Orthodox Bishops and the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Canada took place on April 9-10, 2024. The meeting was hosted by the Catholic Seminary St. Augustine of Scarborough/Toronto.

The meeting was attended on behalf of the Canadian Conference of Orthodox Bishops of Canada by His Eminence Archbishop Sotirios (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada), His Grace Bishop Andriy (Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada), His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian (Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada) and Father Peter Avgeropoulos - assistant (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada). On behalf of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Canada, the meeting was attended by Archbishop Michael Mulhall (Catholic Archdiocese of Kingston), Metropolitan Lawrence Huculak (Ukrainian Church in Canada), Bishop Yvan Mathieu, auxiliary-bishop (Archdiocese of Ottawa – Cornwall), Bishop Daniel Miehm (Catholic Diocese of Peterborough) and Subdeacon Brian Butcher – assistant.

During the two days, the participants were able to attend the Vespers service in the Catholic rite and the Matins service according to the order of the Orthodox Church.

During the meeting-dialogue, current topics of religious life in the two Churches were addressed and current social and political events that affect the life of society and the Church in general were discussed.

There were discussed the various aspects of the most recent declarations of the Roman Catholic Church regarding family or couple life and the attitude of the Catholic Church towards them, the way in which modern models of family and identity can affect human dignity based on the reality of man created according to the image and likeness of God, the difficulties related to the two military conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, the financial instrumentalization of surrogate mothers, the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council (325) in 2025 and the calculation of the date of Easter, the various problems related to artificial intelligence and the influence and its place in contemporary society, the situation of the Churches in the post-covid period, the influence of modern technology on young people and its negative consequences on their relationship with those around them, modern individualistic spiritual trends that tend to neglect the Church life taken as a harmonious whole, the decline of Christianity in Western societies and the spread of Islam and radical Hinduism, the situation of Christianity in African countries, the new spiritual-ascetic trends within Catholicism in Canada, synod and synodality, etc.

Also it was discussed the concerns related to the possibility of legislative limitation of religious freedom and the need to create a set of Christian values or principles common to different Christian denominations that would allow a common approach to some religious and social issues in society that would be effective and useful to Christian communities and give them a greater religious and social relevance and visibility with a more significant impact in contemporary society.

Each participant was able to express his opinion and concerns related to the situations discussed.

The participants parted with the desire to return next year at a date to be decided later to continue this dialogue.