Romanian Orthodox Theologians as Pioneers of the Ecumenical Dialogue Between East and West: The Relevance and Topicality of Their Position in Uniting Europe

Abstract

During the first half of the 20th century, the Romanian Orthodox Church had intensely activated in the ecumenical movement. It had been present at almost all its manifestations until 1948, having an important role in settling some of its principles. It organized ecumenical congresses and it published numerous pages, in the Romanian church publications regarding the ecumenical movement. World War II, begun on 1 September 1939, made harder the ecumenical activity of the churches, resumed again only after the end of the war. But the year 1948 brought about a forced change of attitude, imposed during the Orthodox Conference in Moscow (9–18 July 1948), when all the Orthodox churches present there were asked by the Patriarchate in Moscow not to participate as members to the Conference of the ecumenical Council of Churches in Amsterdam, thus trying to break all the church relationships with the Western churches.