East-West Monastic Meeting IV, Minster Abbey, Autumn 2002

The Fourth East-West Monastic Meeting arranged by the Benedictine nuns at Minster Abbey to take forward the ecumenical initiative of Pope John Paul II outlined in his Letter, Orientale Lumen, took place in autumn 2002 at Minster.

The principal addresses were:

• The Ethiopian Church and its Monastic Tradition, Fr Colin Battell OSB, Ampleforth Abbey
• The Monastery of St Anthony in Egypt, Fr Angaelos Alantony, Coptic Orthodox Church
• Ecumenical Relations in Aleppo, Syria, Archbishop Paul Yazigi, Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch

An open day for outside participants took the theme, Mary, the Mother of God: East and West. The principal addresses on this theme were:

• Mary, Mother of God in the Orthodox Tradition, Mother Sarah, Orthodox Community of St John the Baptist, Tolleshunt Knights
• Mary, Mother of God in the Anglican Tradition, Mother Mary John OSB, Abbess of Malling
• Mary, Mother of God in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tradition, Fr Colin Battell OSB, Ampleforth Abbey
• Mary, Mother of God in the Roman Catholic Tradition, Dr Greta McHugh, Franciscan Study Centre, Canterbury Kent.

40 guests also attended a Dialogue Day within the Meeting as a whole, to hear of specific progress on some of the current dialogues between traditions. Contributions included:

• Pro Oriente Dialogue between the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, Archbishop Youhanna Ibrahim
• The involvement of the Catholic Bishops' Conference in England and Wales in Ecumenical Dialogue, Mgr Bernard Longley, General Secretary
• Orthodox Engagement in Ecumenical Dialogue and Contacts, Fr Stephen Platt (Russian Orthodox Diocese of Sourozh) and Fr Alexander Haig (Patriarchate of Antioch)
  

The papers from the Meeting were privately published by Minster Abbey and are available from Sister Benedict Gaughan OSB, Minster Abbey, Minster, Ramsgate, Kent CT12 4HF.

A short account of the Meeting was subsequently given by Sister Benedict Gaughan OSB in One in Christ, volume 40, no. 3, April 2005.