Page 29 - AECA.org.uk ¦ Koinonia 70

Anglican–Oriental Orthodox International
Commission Agreed Statement 2017 1

The Procession and Work of the Holy Spirit

Introduction
The Anglican–Oriental Orthodox International Commission (AOOIC) re-
sumed its work in 2013 and completed its Agreed Statement on Christology in
2014, which was submitted to the responsible authorities of the Oriental Or-
thodox Churches and the Anglican Communion for their consideration and
action. Following the agreed agenda of our dialogue and addressing matters
rooted in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, the AOOIC began its work at
the same time on the theological understanding of the Holy Spirit, in Woking,
England, in 2013. At its 2014 meeting at the St Mark Centre in Cairo, Egypt,
the Commission completed a preliminary statement on the Holy Spirit: Part A,
‘The Procession of the Holy Spirit’. This was further amended and completed
at its October 2015 meeting at Gladstone’s Library at Hawarden, Wales. Work
on Part B, ‘The Sending of the Holy Spirit in Time’, was started there and
completed at the October 2016 meeting of the Commission at the Armenian
Catholicosate of Cilicia in Antelias, Lebanon. These two texts (Parts A and B)
were put together by the Commission meeting in Dublin, Ireland, in October
2017, to make a continuous whole.
The agreed foundation of this work is an understanding of the Holy
Spirit as an eternal person of the Holy Trinity who is active in the world and in
time, sanctifying the lives of believers.

Part A: The Procession of the Holy Spirit

1. We recognize that the original text of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed
of 381 does not include the clause referring to the procession of the Holy Spirit,
as from the Father and the Son (Filioque), but only from the Father. We ac-
knowledge that the insertion of this clause was done unilaterally by the Church
in the Latin West, without the authority of an Ecumenical Council, and inher-
ited by the Anglican Tradition.

1 Signed in Dublin, 26 October 2017, The Rt Revd Gregory Cameron, Anglican Co-Chairman, and
His Eminence Metropolitan Bishoy, Oriental Orthodox Co-Chairman.

$27