Representatives from St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Sankt Ignatios Theological Academy, (Stockholm, Sweden), Saint Athanasius College (SAC, Melbourne, Australia), and the Amsterdam Centre for Orthodox Theology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (ACOT at VU; Amsterdam, The Netherlands), met in Amsterdam on March 27–28, 2017, to discuss areas of mutual concern and possible areas of cooperation.
Partipants included His Grace Suriel, bishop of Melbourne and chancellor and dean of St. Athanasius College; the Very Reverend Dr. John Behr, dean of St. Vladimir's Seminary and the Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) Chair in Orthodox Theology at VU; the Reverend Dr. Ioan Lena, lecturer at ACOT; Fr. Michael Bakker, director of ACOT; and Olle Westberg, chancellor of Sankt Ignatios Theological Academy and Michael Hjälm, dean of Sankt Ignatios Theological Academy.
"Our meeting was unique in that all four of our respective institutions include Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christians in their student bodies, faculty and/or governance structures," noted Fr. John Behr. "I would hope that this commonality among us will allow us to develop academic resources that will continue to highlight the source of the historic divide between Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Christians, and to add to the knowledge of it."
