Online lecture
Stylianos Tsompanidis
“THE CHURCH DOES NOT LIVE FOR ITSELF”:
THE INCARNATE FUNCTION OF THE COMMUNITY BEFORE AND AFTER THE LITURGY
Thursday, March 20, 2025, 7 p.m. Paris time (CET)
The next lecture in the series of events “Time for Action”, organized by the Volos Academy for Theological Studies, will take place on Thursday, March 20, 2025, at 7 p.m. Paris time (CET). The speaker will be Stylianos Tsombanidis, Professor of Theology of the Faculty of Theology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The lecture will have the title “‘The Church does not live for itself’: the incarnate function of the community before and after the Liturgy”. The lecture is also part of the “Liturgy after the Liturgy” series, organized by the Holy Metropolis of France and the Vicariate of French-Speaking Parishes (Vicariate Sainte Marie de Paris et Saint Alexis d’Ugine, Ecumenical Patriarchate), in collaboration with the Volos Academy. The event will be accessible online, either via Zoom (at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84913433453) or via the Vicariate's YouTube channel, at https://www.youtube.com/c/lalettreduvicariat. The event will be moderated by Fr. Amfilochios Miltos, PhD in Theology (Sorbonne University), Archimandrite of the Holy Metropolis of Demetrias and Research Associate of Volos Academy; it will be in Greek and there will be simultaneous translation into French.
The certainty that “the Church does not live for herself” was the foundation of the theological discourse of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church (2016), which emphasized that “the liturgy after the Divine Liturgy” must continue in everyday life. This argument of the Council summarizes the yearlong efforts of many Orthodox theologians, who approach seriously the challenges that arise in the global Christian community and in all humanity, to emphasize the ecclesiological character of the Eucharist and to exalt its social dimension. According to this Eucharistic vision, neither ethics is autonomous, nor is the world ignored as a calling and mission. The credibility of the faith and witness of the Church is judged by the incarnation of the truth of the Eucharist both in the community itself and in the wider society. This approach was not an unforeseen invention of the Orthodox in recent years. The Church, since its very beginning, was not limited to a disembodied spirituality, but inextricably linked prayer and the sacraments with social concern for peace and justice.
Stylianos Tsompanidis is Professor of “Ecumenical Movement: History - Theological Dialogues” in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He teaches and he is specialized in ecumenical ecclesiology and ecumenical social ethics. He studied theology at the Universities of Thessaloniki and Heidelberg. In 1996 he was awarded a PhD from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Theology for his Thesis (topic): “Liturgy after the Liturgy. The contribution of the Orthodox Church and Theology in the common witness of Christians for justice, peace and the integrity of creation” . He is a deputy member of the Synodical Committee on Inter-Orthodox and Inter-Christian Relations of the Church of Greece. He has participated in various conferences on ecumenical theological reflection and ecumenical social thought and action. He participated as a member of the delegation of the Church of Greece in the 10 th General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Busan, South Korea (2013), as well as in the 11 th General Assembly of the World Council in Karlsruhe, Germany (2022). His most noteworthy publications include the following monographs: Orthodoxie und Ökumene (Münster, 1999); Ecclesiology and Globalization (Thessaloniki 2008); Church and Churches (Athens 2013); “For the sake of the World”: studies on the Ecumenical Movement and the mission of the Church in today's world (Thessaloniki 2014); Church of Exodus: Ecumenism, Society, Person. Themes of Ecumenical Reflection (Thessaloniki, 2018).
