010097 SE Different models under one (Catholic) umbrella? Structures of co-responsibility in East and West. (2024W)

This joint seminar of the Department of Theology and History of the Christian East and the Institute for Canon Law and Law on Religion examines the nature and form of synodality, which has become the focus of attention in the Catholic Church as a result of the German "Synodaler Weg" and the "Synodal Process". It is often pointed out that in many areas the Eastern churches have preserved the synodality rooted in the ancient Church to a greater extent than the Latin Church. At the same time, Orthodoxy today is confronted with a deadlock in the cooperation between the autocephalous churches, which blocks joint conflict resolution. It is not only in the Latin Church that the question of synodality is linked to the question of the participation and co-responsibility of all the baptized in the church's mission. With their collegial bodies, Eastern Catholic churches already offer alternative models of synodal cooperation within the Catholic Church. The recent document "The Bishop of Rome" also encourages the sharing of cross-denominational participatory experiences in the pursuit of full church communion. Against this background, the seminar will present and develop forms of Eastern Church synodality and participation and relate them to the structures and development possibilities in the Latin Church.