Source: International Orthodox Theological Association (IOTA)
The video recordings of select conference presentations are being edited and uploaded to the IOTA YouTube Channel. Approximately 1-2 new videos will be published each week.
Currently available videos include the Keynote Address and Florovsky Lecture by Metropolitan Ambrosios of Korea, and the Presidential Address by Dr. Paul Gavrilyuk.
Excerpt from Metropolitan Ambrosios’s Keynote Address, January 11, 2023:
“[O]n February 24, 2022, the abominable war in Ukraine escalated on a massive scale. I immediately knew that I had to change the subject and nature of my speech, because I believe it is unacceptable for a meeting of Orthodox theologians to simply converse about ‘theories’ at a time when worldwide Orthodoxy is being presented and judged externally by global public opinion based on concrete facts, based on bombs and body counts; and at a time when worldwide Orthodoxy is also being tested internally, by the shocking and convicting reality of one predominantly Orthodox country invading and violently attacking another predominantly Orthodox country. In good conscience, what inspiring words can we possibly speak about ‘Orthodox witness to the nations’ within this current historical reality?
Furthermore, it is an unspeakable travesty not only that this war is Orthodoxy’s current ‘witness to the world,’ but that most Orthodox leaders worldwide have failed to condemn this diabolical war unequivocally. We cannot even say, ‘well this is a war driven by politicians, our Churches are against it,’ because so few of our Church leaders have actually taken a public anti-war stance. Having said this, I do want to commend IOTA for publishing a clear and immediate anti-war statement on your website.
Since this is a gathering of theologians, focusing on the theme of Orthodox witness, in the midst of the current war, its keynote speech should examine the missiological heresy which lies at the root of the war: the great heresy of ethnophyletism. According to His Eminence Metropolitan Ioannis (Zizioulas) of Pergamon, ethnophyletism is nothing less than: ‘The greatest danger to the unity of the Orthodox Church.’ It is important to emphasize, right from the start, that whoever claims to work for the Church and at the same time serves ethnophyletism, betrays in practice the very nature of the Church.”
Dr. Paul Gavrilyuk’s Presidential Address discusses IOTA’s mission, its growth over the years, and its commitment to healing the divisions in contemporary global Orthodoxy and to engaging the most challenging questions of our time, such as the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The text of the address is available at this link.
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