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Archpriests John Jillions and Eric G. Tosi, Chancellor and Secretary of the Orthodox Church in America respectively, were among those who represented the OCA at an international consultation held at Selwyn College, Cambridge, UK September 5-8, 2017.
The consultation—the fifth sponsored by the Lausanne-Orthodox Initiative [LOI]—brought together some 70 Evangelical and Eastern and Oriental Orthodox theological educators who explored the theme, “Theological Formation for Mission.”
Father John offered the Orthodox response to the keynote address, delivered by the noted New Testament scholar, Bishop N. T. Wright. Other speakers, in addition to Father Eric, included Archpriest David Rucker and Dr. William Black, Orthodox Christian Mission Center missionaries to Alaska and Kenya respectively, and Ancient Faith Ministries’ John Maddex. Priest John Parker, chair of the OCA’s Department of Evangelization, also participated.
Local speakers from the UK included Bishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church, a LOI founder, and Father Dragos Herescu, Principal of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge. Dr. Tim Grass, an Evangelical scholar based in the UK, served as facilitator for the consultation.
“LOI was established in 2010 in Cape Town, South Africa as an informal vehicle for Orthodox Christians and Evangelicals to work towards a better understanding of each other and to find common projects in which to cooperate in various countries,” explained Father Eric. Previously, the OCA had been represented at LOI’s 2015 consultation near Helsinki, Finland.
