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be included in this Creed.’ The Lambeth Conference of 1978 adopted this
proposal. 3
4. In our theological discourse, we distinguish between two levels: Theologia
(θεολογία), which refer to the ineffable essence (οὐσία) of God and the
intra-Trinitarian relationships; and Economia (οἰκονομία), which refer to the
energies or activities (ἐνέργεια) of God and His relation to the world.
Consequently, we distinguish the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit from the
Father alone, and the sending of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, from
the Father, through the Son.

5. We agree that while the Holy Fathers speak of a relationship of the Holy
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Spirit to the Father through the Son, they never hold that the Spirit proceeds
from or through the Son: ‘The Spirit was and is the Son’s as He was and is the
Father’s; for though He proceeds from the Father, yet He is not alien from the
Son; for the Son has all things in common with the Father, as the Lord has
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himself taught us.’ When the Holy Fathers proclaim that the Spirit is ‘from
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the Father and the Son’, or that He progresses (πρόεισι) or flows forth
(προκεῖται) from both, they mean the temporal mission of the Holy Spirit. In
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Economia, the Holy Spirit is sent from the Father and receives manifestation
from the Son. ‘He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare
it to you’ (Jn 16.14). ‘He shines forth (ἐκλάμπει) and is sent and given by the

2 Anglican–Orthodox Dialogue: The Moscow Agreed Statement (London: SPCK, 1977), 87-8.
3 Lambeth Conference 1978 Resolution 35.3 ‘requests that all member Churches of the Anglican
Communion should consider omitting the Filioque from the Nicene Creed, and that the Anglican–
Orthodox Joint Doctrinal Commission through the Anglican Consultative Council should assist
them in presenting the theological issues to their appropriate synodical bodies and should be
responsible for any necessary consultation with other Churches of the Western tradition.’
4 ‘Through the Son, He (i.e., the Holy Spirit), is joined to the Father’ (Basil of Caesarea, De Spiritu
Sancta 18.45; Eng. trans. in Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, trans. David Anderson, Crestwood,
NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001, 72). ‘The one (i.e., the Son) is directly from the First and
the other (i.e. the Spirit) is through the one who is directly from the First’ (Gregory of Nyssa, Ad
Ablabium, in Gregorii Nysseni opera, iii.1: Gregom Nysseni opera dogmatica minora, ed. Fridericus Mueller,
Leiden: Brill, 1958, 56). ‘[The Holy Spirit] is the Spirit of God the Father as well as of the Son, and
comes forth substantially from both, that is from the Father through the Son’ (Cyril of Alexandria,
De adoratione in spiritu et veritate 1, Patrologia Graeca, 68, p. 148).
5 Cyril of Alexandria, Apologia XII anathematismorum contra Theodoretum, Patrologia Graeca, 76, p.
433.
6 Epiphanius, Ancoratus 9, Patrologia Graeca 43, p. 32.
7 Cyril of Alexandria, Thesaurus de sancta et consubstantiali Trinitate 34, Patrologia Graeca, 75, p. 585;
De fide sanctae et individuae Trinitatis, Patrologia Graeca, 77, pp. 105-22.

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