Our nine part conversation ranges over a number of issues: the Church in the public sphere; the course of human life; poverty, wealth, and civil justice; war, peace, and violence; ecumenical relations and relations with other faiths; orthodoxy and human rights; science, technology, and the natural world; concluding with Andrew and David reflecting on the document and how it is heard and received and why it should be a staple, not only for Orthodox Christians but for all who care about the life of the world.

April 18 - For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church

“Let us the faithful rejoice, having this anchor of hope.”

We have come to the concluding session of thinking together “For the Life of the World, Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church.” We invite you to speak about what you have taken from our study and thinking together.

April 11 - For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church

The twenty-first century is likely to be called, “the age of biology.” Science, and certainly the new breakthroughs in genetic, brain, and ecological sciences, offer the most striking gifts as well as the deepest capacity for making “our common home” no longer a human habitation.

April 4 - For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church

The language, policy, and law of human rights, deeply rooted in the Jewish and Christian traditions of the absolute dignity of the human person, is a singular social advancement of the twentieth century.

March 28 - For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church

At no time in human history are the issues of ecumenical and interfaith relations more important than now. What is the stance of the Church? What does it call us to do and be in our relationship to the great variety of Christian churches? What does it invite us to do in relationship to the women and men of other faiths and to what end?

March 21 - For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church

The beauty of creation is disfigured by all forms of violence, physical, psychological, fiscal and social. While those who perpetrate violence harm others, they also shrink their own soul. Their very being suffers a moral injury.

March 14 - For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church

“When the eternal Son became human, divesting himself of his divine glory and exchanging the “form of God” for the form of a servant, he elected thereby to identify himself with the most marginal, politically powerless, and socially disadvantaged persons of his age.”

March 7 - For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church

In the course of human life, from conception through childhood, adulthood, and the final stages of life there are significant moral and spiritual questions that arise. Those who marry, monastics, and single persons all face challenges and make decisions with implications both personal and which shape and reshape our common social life.

February 28 - For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church

Work on issues and themes of religion and public life over many years it has been obvious that when religion and public life cross paths there is often an accident. The tragedy is this accident usually leads to public rhetoric which gives us the worst of religious and civil thinking when we need the best.

David GoaFebruary 24, 2021David Goa, Florin-Toader Tomoioaga, Andrew Bingham, The Church in the Public Square

February 21 - For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church

Our first discussion will frame the theological background of the document and speak to the difficult and demanding challenges we face in this moment in history and the gifts, at the heart of the Orthodox ethos, to speak a healing word far beyond the confines of the church. It is a word many in our word are hungry to hear.

David GoaFebruary 18, 2021David Goa, Florin-Toader Tomoioaga, Oradea, Andrew Bingham

For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church

You are invited to join a series of reflections and conversations with Andrew Bingham and David Goa on For the Life of the World, Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church.

David GoaFebruary 1, 2021David Goa, Florin-Toader Tomoioaga, Oradea, Andrew Bingham