GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA 8-10 East 79th St. New York, NY 10075-0106 Tel: (212) 570-3530 Fax: (212) 774-0215 Web: http://www.goarch.org Email: communications@goarch.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 2, 2007
Contact: Nikki Stephanopoulos Tel.: (212) 774-0244
PAPER ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE PRESENTED AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY
Oxford, UK ? The Rev.. Dr. Frank Marangos, Executive Director of Communications for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, presented a paper entitled "Resolving the Religious Freedom Issue of the Ecumenical Patriarchate" at Oxford University on July 23, 2007. The presentation was one of several topics discussed among 35 theologians and political scholars from the United States invited to participate in the Oxford Round Table held at Oxford University from July 22-27 on the topic of "Separation of Church and State: The Decline and Fall?"
The Oxford Round Table is a unique forum, not a conference in the conventional sense, but an opportunity to discuss important policy questions over a five-day period in a collegial, think-tank atmosphere that affect nations and states worldwide.
Father Marangos in his paper detailed the basic issues affecting the rights of religious freedom of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and emphasized that the Oxford Round Table "is a valuable international opportunity to discuss these issues and to clarify the historic importance of the Ecumenical Patriarchate as an international and diachronic Christian institution."
Father Marangos' paper will be published in the Oxford Round Table Journal. In addition to his paper, he moderated a panel on "The Limitation of Conscience", and he distributed to the participants a newly developed CD-ROM, funded by the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, that focuses on the recent visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the issue of religious freedom.