Resolutions from 1930

Resolution 33

The Unity of the Church - The Eastern Orthodox Church

The Conference heartily thanks the Oecumenical Patriarch for arranging in co-operation with the other patriarchs and the autocephalous Churches for the sending of an important delegation of the Eastern Orthodox Church under the leadership of the Patriarch of Alexandria, and expresses its grateful appreciation of the help given to its Committee by the delegation, as well as its sense of the value of the advance made through the joint meetings in the relations of the Orthodox Church with the Anglican Communion.

The Conference requests the Archbishop of Canterbury to appoint representatives of the Anglican Communion and to invite the Oecumenical Patriarch to appoint representatives of the patriarchates and autocephalous Churches of the East to be a doctrinal commission, which may, in correspondence and in consultation, prepare a joint statement on the theological points about which there is difference and agreement between the Anglican and the Eastern Churches.

The Conference, not having been summoned as a synod to issue any statement professing to define doctrine, is therefore unable to issue such a formal statement on the subjects referred to in the Resume* of the discussions between the Patriarch of Alexandria with the other Orthodox representatives and bishops of the Anglican Communion, but records its acceptance of the statements of the Anglican bishops contained therein as a sufficient account of the teaching and practice of the Church of England and of the Churches in communion with it, in relation to those subjects.

* See Report of the Lambeth Conference 1930, p.138.

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