wfn.org | [SCOBA] Orthodox-Catholic Bishop Examine Naming of Bishops, Campus Ministry at Alabama Meeting

[Communications Department <Communications@GOARCH.ORG>]

SCOBA
The Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas
8 East 79th Street, New York, NY 10075-0106



Press Release
October 9, 2008


ORTHODOX-CATHOLIC BISHOPS EXAMINE NAMING OF BISHOPS, CAMPUS MINISTRY AT 
ALABAMA MEETING

NEW YORK — The naming of bishops and the work of campus ministry led 
topics at the Joint Committee of Orthodox and Catholic Bishops’ 24th 
meeting in Daphne, near Mobile, Alabama, October 1-3. Archbishop Oscar 
Lipscomb, retired archbishop of Mobile, Alabama, hosted the meeting. 
Archbishop Lipscomb and Archbishop Seraphim of Ottawa and Canada, 
currently serving as Administrator of the Orthodox Church in America, 
co-chaired the meeting.

Participants reviewed how bishops are named in their churches. Archbishop 
Lipscomb presented for the Catholic side, citing The Code of Canon Law. 
The Orthodox bishops described the process in their jurisdictions, which 
varies from church to church. 

Bishop Tod D. Brown of Orange, California, reviewed the 1985 Pastoral 
Letter on Campus Ministry of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. 
Father Mark Arey, the General Secretary of the Standing Conference of the 
Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA), described how Orthodox 
Christian Fellowship promotes an Orthodox presence on college campuses. 

Evening discussions centered on recent events, including the visit of Pope 
Benedict XVI to the United States last April, the withdrawal of the 
Jerusalem Patriarchate from North America, the upcoming visit of the Greek 
Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch to the United States, the “Forming 
Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” document of the United States 
Conference of Catholic Bishops, the inclusion of the Moscow Patriarchate 
in SCOBA, the election of a new primate of the Orthodox Church in America, 
recent plenary meetings of the USCCB, and relations between the two 
Romanian Orthodox jurisdictions in North America.

On October 2, members examined the recent agreed text of the international 
Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, “The Ecclesiological and Canonical 
Consequences of the Sacramental Nature of the Church:  Ecclesial 
Communion, Conciliarity and Authority.”  Also known as “The Ravenna 
Document,” the text was adopted by the international dialogue in Ravenna, 
Italy, October 13, 2007.  Bishops viewed DVD recordings of talks on the 
document by two members of the international commission, Father Paul 
McPartlan, of the Catholic University of America, and Metropolitan 
Kallistos Ware, assistant bishop in the Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira 
and Great Britain.  They also heard a presentation of the 1997 USCCB 
document, “Reflections on the Body, Cremation and Catholic Funeral Rites” 
by Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk and comments by Archbishop Seraphim and 
Metropolitan Christopher of the Serbian Orthodox Church.  Father Mark Arey 
and Paulist Father Ronald Roberson of the USCCB’s Secretariat for 
Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs then reviewed the relationship of 
the Catholic and Orthodox churches to the Oriental Orthodox Churches.

The next meeting is expected to be in October 2009, in Syria, hosted by 
the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate. The committee was established in 
1981, and is sponsored jointly by the Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical 
and Interreligious Affairs of the USCCB and SCOBA.

Catholic members of the Committee include Archbishop Lipscomb, Cardinal 
William Keeler of Baltimore; Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati; 
Bishop Brown; Bishop Dale J. Melczek of Gary, Indiana; Bishop Thomas J. 
Olmsted of Phoenix, Bishop Nicholas Samra, Titular Bishop of Gerasa; 
Bishop Richard Sklba, Auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, 
Wisconsin; and Father Roberson, staff.

Orthodox members are Bishop Seraphim, Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver (Greek 
Orthodox Archdiocese), Metropolitan Christopher (Serbian Orthodox Church), 
Metropolitan Nicholas of Amissos (Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese), 
Archbishop Nicolae (Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in America and Canada), 
Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese), and 
Father Arey, staff.

Earlier press releases and Agreed Statements of the Joint Committee are 
posted on the SCOBA website at 
http://www.scoba.us/resources/orthodox-catholic-bishops.html   and on the 
USCCB website at http://www.usccb.org/seia/orthodox_index.shtml  


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