Perspectief 2014-26

Perspectief 6 Catholicity under Pressure: Catholicity under Pressure: the ambiguous relationship between Diversity and Unity The 18th Academic Consultation of the Societas Oecumenica Budapest, 21-26 August 2014 Norbert Nagy At the Belfast-Congress in 2012, the members of the Societas Oecumenica were happy to accept the invitation of the Ecumenical Study Centre of the Lutheran Theological Faculty, represented by Prof. Péter Szentpétery, and that of the Ut Unum Sint Ecumenical Institute of the Theological Faculty of Pázmány Péter Catholic University, represented by Prof. Mihály Kránitz to organise the next consultation in Budapest, Hungary. In the following months the Standing Committee was intensively working on selecting a subject for the next conference, according to the proposals made in Belfast. Soon the title for the next gathering was set and forwarded to all members and recipients of the Signalia , the newsletter of the Societas : “Catholicity under Pressure: The Ambiguous relationship between Diversity and Unity”. Hotel Ében was chosen as the venue of the forthcoming consultation. The conference begun with a moment of prayer at the Zugló Lutheran Church, where the participants - eighty Ecumenists from Iceland to Crete- were also greeted by representatives of the churches in Hungary: Presiding Bishop Péter Gáncs (Lutheran Church), Vilmos Fischl (General Secretary of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Hungary), and Archbishop Balázs Bábel (Roman Catholic Church). They were followed by the president of the Societas, Prof. Dagmar Heller, who held the opening address of the consultation, enlightening the most important theological aspects and challenges of the concept catholicity along with its philological, historical, and ecumenical aspects. This first