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Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of
the Christian World

1. The Orthodox Church, as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, in
her profound ecclesiastical self-consciousness, believes unflinchingly that she
occupies a central place in the matter of the promotion of Christian unity in
the world today.
2. The Orthodox Church founds the unity of the Church on the fact of her
establishment by our Lord Jesus Christ, and on the communion in the Holy
Trinity and in the sacraments. This unity is expressed through the apostolic
succession and the patristic tradition and is lived out in the Church up to the
present day. The Orthodox Church has the mission and duty to transmit and
preach all the truth contained in Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, which also
bestows upon the Church her catholic character.
3. The responsibility of the Orthodox Church for unity as well as her
ecumenical mission were articulated by the Ecumenical Councils. These
stressed most especially the indissoluble bond between true faith and
sacramental communion.
4. The Orthodox Church, which prays unceasingly “for the union of all,” has
always cultivated dialogue with those estranged from her, those both far and
near. In particular, she has played a leading role in the contemporary search for
ways and means to restore the unity of those who believe in Christ, and she has
participated in the Ecumenical Movement from its outset, and has contributed
to its formation and further development. Moreover, the Orthodox Church,
thanks to the ecumenical and loving spirit which distinguishes her, praying as
divinely commanded that al men may be saved and come to the knowledge of the
truth (1 Tim 2:4), has always worked for the restoration of Christian unity.
Hence, Orthodox participation in the movement to restore unity with other
Christians in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church is in no way
foreign to the nature and history of the Orthodox Church, but rather
represents a consistent expression of the apostolic faith and tradition in a new
historical circumstances.
5. The contemporary bilateral theological dialogues of the Orthodox Church
and her participation in the Ecumenical Movement rest on this
self-consciousness of Orthodoxy and her ecumenical spirit, with the aim of

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