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	Catholic, Orthodox Bishops Discuss Primacy at Annual Meeting
			  By Catholic News Service

CHICAGO (CNS) -- Orthodox and Catholic bishops discussing primacy in the
church looked at a 1999 Anglican-Catholic document on authority at a recent
meeting in Chicago.

The Joint Committee of Orthodox and Catholic Bishops held its 19th meeting
Oct. 8-10 under the auspices of the Standing Conference of Canonical
Orthodox Bishops of America. It was chaired jointly by Metropolitan Maximos
of Pittsburgh and Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb of Mobile, Ala.

Sister Sara Butler, a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International
Commission, presented the ARCIC document titled "The Gift of Authority" and
commented on its treatment of the theological concept of primacy and the
authority of the episcopate in the church. A Missionary Servant of the Most
Blessed Trinity, Sister Butler is an assistant professor of systematic
theology at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Ill.

Metropolitan Maximos presented his own paper on "Primacies of Honor:
Development of Primacies in the Life of the Church." He concluded that
while primacy developed differently in the East and the West, a solution
could be found in the decision of the Council of Constantinople of 879-880
to recognize the primacy of Old Rome and New Rome, each within its own
territory.

Father Alexander Golitzin, an associate professor of theology at Marquette
University in Milwaukee and an Orthodox member of the North American
Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation, discussed the consultation's
1999 document on baptism and its current work toward a joint statement on
the "filioque" question, long a dividing point between Catholic and
Orthodox.

Orthodox Bishop Seraphim of Ottawa and Catholic Bishop Dale J. Melczek of
Gary, Ind., presented an examination of the continuing education programs
provided for clergy in their respective churches.

Other sessions focused on the Catholic bishops' recent documents on clergy
sex abuse and several recent events in the life of the Orthodox Church,
including Pope John Paul II's visits to Armenia and Bulgaria, the creation
of Catholic dioceses in Russia, the nonrecognition of Patriarch Irineos of
Jerusalem by the Israeli government; and the joint declaration on
environmental ethics signed by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the
Pope.

Members of the joint committee attended a vespers service Oct. 9 at Holy
Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago.

The committee's next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 7-9, 2003, under the
auspices of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

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