The Very Rev. Dr. John Behr, dean and professor of Patristics of St. Vladimir’s Seminary, journeyed to the Monastero di Bose in the province of Biella, Italy, to participate in the XXII International Ecumenical Conference on Orthodox Spirituality. Billed as scholarly, cultural, and ecclesiastical exchange, this year’s conference focused on the timely topic, “Blessed are the Peacemakers.”
“In my talk ‘Peace among the Churches: Irenaeus of Lyon,’” explains Fr. John, "I returned to the writings of a saint with whom I have become well acquainted since my earliest years of academic life. My paper examined how in Irenaeus we see, for the first time, an explicit and self-conscious exposition of Orthodoxy, yet in a manner open to the polyphony of God's symphony of salvation. Irenaeus brought peace to the conflicts between fledgling Christian communities by urging that differences in practice should rather be seen as evidence of unity in faith."
In addition to participating in a full daily schedule of lectures, panel discussions, and prayer, the St. Vladimir’s dean also spent many valuable hours in discussion with scholarly and ecclesial colleagues from Moscow, Thessaloniki, Kiev, Beirut, Oxford, and the United States. Two hierarchs from the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) also attended: The Most Rev. Melchisedek, archbishop of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, and The Right Rev. Alexander, bishop of Toledo and the Bulgarian Diocese.
The monastery at Bose is a traditional community founded in the mid-1960's, and is composed of about eighty men and women from all major Christian traditions. The Orthodox Spirituality conferences have been hosted at Bose since the early 1990's, and have featured a variety of themes from missions to Holy Scripture.
