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• The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the revealed Word
of God.
• The Nicene Creed as the sufficient statement of the Christian Faith.

• The two Sacraments – Baptism and the Supper of the Lord – ministered
with unfailing use of Christ's words of institution and of the elements ordained
by Him.
• The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its
administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God
into the unity of His Church. 12

As you know, these principles have been brought to bear in attempting to
resolve contemporary disputes within the Anglican Communion. I need not go
into detail as to what the presenting issues are between Anglicans in 2015, but
they would include the ordination of women to the diaconate, priesthood, and
episcopate, the nature and status of same-sex relationships, as well as some
liturgical and theological differences generically grouped around different
understandings of Scripture and Tradition. Whatever they are, they represent
the ongoing tension between the centrifugal and centripetal tendencies which
are found within all churches and indeed, within all organized religions and
faith groups. They are also found, to a lesser degree, within the Churches of the
Orthodox tradition, with their traditions of autocephaly. This means that as
Anglicans and Orthodox, we are well placed not only to learn from each other,
but also to share each other’s burdens.

Conclusion

To sum up. I have spoken of the Missio Dei of the contemporary church in a
globalised world as being “from everywhere to everywhere.” I have described
the theological context of the Missio Dei as including respect for, and
protection of, the natural world and the environment, in which we are fellow
creatures, not exploiting masters. This understanding of creation has been a
gift of Orthodoxy, and especially Patriarch Bartholomew, to the oikoumene in
recent years. In terms of the life of our churches as Anglicans and Orthodox, I
have rooted the practice of dispersed authority as the reality of the ancient
Pentarchy and the Church in the age of the Ecumenical Councils, common to

12 Anglicanism and the Lambeth Conferences, Alan M. G. Stephenson, SPCK, 1978, pp.84-85.

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