His Grace Bishop Maxim of Western America attended the 2008 Diocesan Parish Life Conference

BISHOP MAXIM KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT PARISH LIFE CONFERENCE OF THE ANTIOCHIAN DIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES AND THE WEST

Los Angeles, Ca - Per invitation of His Grace Bishop Joseph, Bishop of Los Angeles and the West of the Antiochian Archdiocese, His Grace Bishop Maxim of Western America attended the 2008 Diocesan Parish Life Conference held in Los Angeles from July 2-6, 2008. Bishop Maxim served as keynote speaker for the diocesan conference, delivering a lecture during the course of three days. On the first day the bishop's talk was entitled - "Martyrdom: An Orthodox View of Marriage".

In the bishop's talk on the second and third day, entitled "Communion and Otherness in Marriage" he attempted to see how otherness and communion relate to marriage. He eloquently showed how and why marriage is a sort of communion where respective differences (uniqueness and personality) are affirmed through a relationship. That is, instead of considering marriage as a threat to otherness, he examined how it generates otherness. The various sections of this presentation tackle the subject of male and female in different ways. In the first sections bishop Maxim looked at the Biblical background and the Gospel perspective of marriage as a mystery of encountering two 'others' (male and female). This should be seen within a theological perspective, which entails an ecclesial and Eucharistic view of the subject. The Orthodox Church has a strong 'personalistic' perspective, which was developed in the Patristic period. With the help of the Trinitarian theology of the Greek Fathers (particularly the Cappadocians) and their ontological perspective, he gained a clearer theological perspective of the Biblical and Gospel perspectives on marriage and otherness.

BISHOP MAXIM VISITS ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST MISSION PARISH, RENO, NEVADA

19th Annual Sumer Folkfest

A talk by His Grace Bishop Teodosije of Lipljan

WCC Faith & Order standing commission meets in Cairo

Hosted by the Coptic Orthodox Church the WCC Faith & Order Standing Commission met at St Mark¹s Conference Centre in Cairo (16 -22 June). Commissioners heard the reports on bilateral dialogues, uniting and united, BEM, one baptism, ecclesiology, common witness and other related activities reports. They discussed these reports in working groups, and focused on project on moral discernment. The WCC General Secretary greeted the meeting with words of encouragements. The WCC General Secretary, the MECC General Secretary and the Commissioners were received by Patriarch Theodoros II of the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria and All Africa. Patriarch Theodoros II bestowed on Kobia the Cross of the Patriarchate and congratulated him upon his contribution to the WCC.

Participation of Orthodox Women in the Ecumenical Movement

An inter-orthodox consultation was held at the Volos Academy for Theological Studies in Greece from June 8-12, under the title "Participation of Orthodox Women in the Ecumenical Movement: Past, Present, Future...And many were there...(Mt.27:55)".