According to orthodoxero.eu., from 28 June – 01 July 2011, the Representation of the Romanian Patriarchate at the institutions of the European Union organised in Brussels the symposium with the theme “Sacramental Mission of the Orthodox Church in European Context”, in collaboration with the European Parliament, and the participation of theology professors from Romania and Belgium.

Following the presentations and debates within the symposium, the participants reached the following conclusions:


1. The Mission of the Church, in its sacramental expression, is a permanent responsibility assumed and expressed in the present European context.

2. In this sense, the main challenges facing the sacredness of the Church in its specific expression in the new European context were tackled and analysed from dogmatic and canonical perspective, the debates focusing especially on the Sacraments of Baptism and Wedding, on the problematic of the sacramental iconomy, as well as on the pan-Orthodox dialogue.

3. The degradation of the ecclesiastic conscience and the relativisation of the Christian family bring about the deterioration of the relationship between husband and wife, parents and children, family and society. The Church has the vocation to answer this phenomenon through a permanent dynamic affirmation of the Christian Orthodox ethos, through the dynamic contextualisation of the Evangelical and patristic message with special stress on the human person in distress and in spiritual confusion and implicitly existential. The discussions and analysis of these themes were considered especially from pastoral-missionary perspective, with inter-confessional and inter-religious implications. Also invoked were various complex situations and practices from a dogmatic and canonical point of view concerning mixed marriages and the Sacrament of Baptism, in the new context of secularisation and globalisation of the human society, in general, and of the European space in particular.

4. The participants emphasised the importance and efficiency of such complex challenges the Church is faced with and of the concrete solutions based on her dogmatic canonical tradition.

5. The International Symposium that the Representation of the Romanian Patriarchate in Brussels organised was a premiere in the Romanian academic theology and enjoyed the great appreciation of the participants, opening the way to new inter-disciplinary collaboration with direct implications in the church mission.